Lost Odyssey

I've been reading the coverage of Wonder Festival in between playing Lost Odyssey on the 360. I'm playing it with the japanese audio and english subtitles and omg, some of the translations are hilarious.. there are plenty of places where there is dialog and no subtitles at all, but I can follow enough of it to make sense of what they are saying.

I'm quite fond of the character designs in this game and would love to see figure kits of the immortals, Ming especially, but it is probably not popular enough to happen. I do like some of the new anime kits coming out from the WF coverage, but think I am favoring the smaller eyed, more naturally proportioned and somewhat dressed character designs. Maybe it's time to try learning to sculpt! =:O

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Airbrushes and Paints

Someone asked me what kind of airbrush and paint I used, so I thought I would write a post about it.

For paints, I only use non-toxic water-based acrylics, which also do not have any strong odors/fumes. I have used two brands so far - PolyScale floquil and Delta ceramcoat. The PolyScale is good for detail and shading and the Delta is good for base coating (it is an inexpensive craft acrylic found at Walmart or Michaels). I have intermixed them for custom colors with no problems - in fact, I have very few colors of each and just mix the proper color when needed.

For airbrushes, I started with a MAS G44 (ABD-180) found at tcpglobal.com. I think this is a near perfect brush for painting kits of this size. I'm told it is a .2mm clone of the Iwata CMC-plus, but for these kits, you don't really need the pro precision at 6x the cost. On recommendation, I recently bought the Iwata Eclipse as a second brush. A bit more expensive than the G44, the Iwata is clearly a better made instrument - the chrome surface is impeccable versus a few nicks on the G44. That said, I think the G44 actually sprays better for kit building.

I'd been asked how I get the painted surface so smooth on my figures. I don't really have an answer, since I don't really do anything special when painting. However, I've been trying to paint my current kit with the Eclipse, but each time I end up stripping it and going back to the G44. Using the same thinned paint, I will say the G44 atomizes much finer. It takes longer since I have to paint in more layers, but the finished part looks much better to me and in the end that's all that matters.

One nice thing is, I've found the needle cap from the Eclipse will fit the G44, instead of using the crown cap, which makes backflowing possible. It's easier to clean this way, and can also be used to mix the paint, though I usually paint without any cap on - just be extra careful with the tip.

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[figure] Haruhi Suzumiya

This is the first resin kit that I built back in December 2007. I bought a whole bunch of stuff needed to build kits, including building a spray booth, and learned how to airbrush just to put this kit together. I had recently watched Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu and this BUBBA sculpt of Haruhi with guitar from the Live A Live episode just struck me as something I wanted to try making.

It wasn't clear at the time if I would enjoy doing this hobby, and sometimes it actually felt more frustrating than not. But when it was done and I could see the results of the hard work, it made me want to pick up another kit and go. I see a lot of the premade figure collections on the web, but to me owning the figure is nothing compared to actually making one. I would highly recommend giving it a try to anyone.

You can follow the work in progress for building the guitar as well as how I did the stockings.

Medium: airbrushed acrylics on resin. Scale: 1/7 @ 27cm. 18 photos in this set.

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[figure] Mina Tsukishiro

This is the second garage kit that I built, finished in January 2008. The figure is originally from the j-drama Densha Otoko, but later made into the anime Getsumen To Heiki Miina. I liked the j-drama mascot figure and painted her in similar colors - the anime colors are totally different.

Medium: airbrushed acrylics on resin. Scale: 1/8 @ 23cm. 17 photos in this set.

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[figure] Pinky Saber

Here's a garage kit I just completed today - Saber from Fate/Stay Night anime series in a pinky style. The "super-deformed" style results in a big head on a small body and often used to enhance the cuteness of a character. Have a look through misaki's blog for the original sculpt and more amazing work - I love the cosplay Rin pinky!

This figure has a slightly modified pose, taken from the opening animation. Resin is fairly easy to work with and can be bent when heat is applied, which was used to bend the right arm and elbow forward, then the sword attached pointed down.

Medium: airbrushed acrylics on resin. Scale: non @ 10cm. 14 photos in this set.

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Happy Year of the Rat

A new year has arrived and I decided to start a blog as a place to post random thoughts and photos.

To begin with, I had started a new hobby building and painting resin figure kits a few months ago. I will be using this blog to post the finished figures here. It's a fascinating hobby, allowing me to express some creativity, which I don't get in my day job at all.

The kits that interest me are typically figures from anime, video games and the occasional sci fi flick.

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