Closely related to elbow grease
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I’ve been working on a project at quite good timing to go with @VictorViper. This is my test Gunpla. There’s been mess ups with products but I think some lessons have been learnt. Next stage will be chipping and weathering.
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Okay, my Ewoks are done. Long pause in the middle due to Life.
I am now working on a commission… basically the entire Clone Wars starter box plus Commander Cody and a unit of B2s.
I am terrified. First official commission, and although I am charging slightly less than market rates… I hope he likes them. They look better than my own, but is that good enough?
I guess we will find out. I am finishing up the Phase 1s today, so pictures tonight, and then Cody and Obiwan and the BARC Speeder. Then on to the B1s and B2s. Want to finish by this weekend, get a good idea for how long this kinda project will take me so I get better estimate my time and costs.
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How have you enjoyed it? At this point I’ve built something from each of the main grades (high/real/master/perfect) and I think I’m pretty well done with the Bandai kits.
It’s not that I haven’t enjoyed myself, but that they confound me as a hobbyist. The big weird looking guy I posted needed paint because he’s so damn cute, but you better believe he’s all bare and riddled with seam lines and nub marks under that armour. The idea of painting these comprehensively is so daunting!
Anyway I’m going to really need to love a kit to dive back into the true Gunpla stuff, but thankfully I’m well covered with Hasegawa and Wave kits. Those seem to really scratch the itch for me.
[EDIT] Bonus shot:
This is the Demi Trainer and stands as a pretty good example of a kit I truly fell for. Dirt cheap and 100% HIPS, too. Got a lucky last spray in before winter.
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Friends and enemies, this is $112 worth of Phase 1 Clones.
I hope it’s enough. They look pretty good, right? It’s enough.
I hope it’s enough.
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Sort of. The building took longer than I usually like but was fun being a different challenge and the kits are pretty great. It was mainly meant to be a way to test out some military modelling techniques without the weight of historical colour schemes. However I’ve used a lot of new paints which have been challenging. Vallejo mecha colour are too tough to use the hairspray technique with which was a main aim. I’m somewhat unconvinced by mission models paints so this mini now has an uneven blue I can’t get through and overly weathered shoulders compared to the rest of itself. Right now it’s a right off and I’m trying to work up the will to press on with the oil rendering as practice. However it’s maybe more a paint issue rather than a gunpla issue. I have 2 more but as things stand I won’t be buying a 4th.
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B1 Battle Droids all done.
This just leaves the 6 B2 Super Battle Droids, Grievous, Obi-wan, 4 Droidekas, and a BARC Speeder.
Woo.
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Did you sit and do the voice and use the phrases from the cartoons while painting these? I’ll be a little disappointed if not
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Looking good. Roger, Roger.
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“Look! It’s the Jedi!”
“Oh no.”
“We outnumber them!”
“It won’t matter…”
I do legit feel sorry for the bots in the SW universe. But yes, I do make the voices.
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Finished up with the commission job. I hope the customer will be happy with them.
I think I did a pretty good, albeit not great, job with the OSL on Obiwan and Grievous.
Anyway. Next up, 32 Car War models. Less money, but hopefully faster!
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Got 2 more off the production line for my Haqqislam force. These are interesting to me for assimilating some of the info from the painting course in to an army painting standard. It’s not too effective just yet but I think I see seeds of in the long run helping up the level a bit and speed the process up a touch as I get practiced with it.
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A few Dark Age British, excellent 18mm sculpts from Wiglaf Miniatures. I also had a book of landscape backdrops from a recent KS by Handiwork Games arrive, with these chaps giving me a nice set of models to test out the backdrops.
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PHOTO DUMP!!
(I imagine airhorns going off)
There are more, but I have spammed enough into the thread. A commission for 32 Car Wars vehicles for $250. At first I was okay with the fee because I didn’t have to assemble anything… but man, doing 32 unique colour schemes is a pain in the butt!
Ah well.
Next commission is for 60 SW Legion models (501st and Kraken’s Droids). Should be a little easier from a painting perspective, but he wants Umbara basing. That will be tricky.
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Very Hot Wheels kind of feel on the paint jobs, which to me feels exactly right.
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I really like what you did with the windows, as if reflecting the surrounding environment. Looks great!
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Something I’ve dabbed on the last couple of months, very amateurish, still a lot of work to do with faces. And probably not the best lighting. The pics make them way more shiny than the figures are in real.
I bought a few cheap minis from a local 3D printer for 10 bucks and this is the result. They look good on the table, but they show off how amateur I am when you look closely. Which I don’t mind. Too much. Yet.
I have tried eyes on other minis and they look atrocious. So I have left these three with the shades from the flesh colour and some shadow.
I must say, any tips are very welcome from you pros 
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Overall, they look pretty good! Some general suggestions:
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Thin your paints. The photos make it look like there are some areas of thick application, but this could also be as a result of low resolution sculpts. More detailed miniatures look better when painted, and bad minis (cough Gloomhaven cough) will never look good even by professional painters.
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There’s something weird going on with the orange-ish cloak (third from the left). The bottom is lighter, and the back is… bubbly? That’s unusual. The other three look pretty good, but maybe too much black/brown wash on that third one?
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Totally optional (like the rest of the advice!), but if you want the models to look better fast, try a few edge highlights. Just add some white to whatever colour you used for the armour, weapons, or hood/hat, and then draw a thin line around the brim/top edge. Don’t go pure white, but err on the side of lighter. A few points (sword, spear, staff, top of hat) and your models will… ugh I STILL HATE THIS TERM BUT IT WORKS… “pop.”
For more detailed suggestions…
Agree with Marx on the thinning the paint out. They just look a touch thick. Ideally, if you have time, the best results come from multiple thin layers of color. But, if you’re like me, you don’t have the time or patience for that, so just a couple of slightly thinned layers suffice.
Also, I know you said they don’t look so glossy in person, but I’m curious if these have been sealed, and if so did you use matte or gloss sealant? Personally, I always lean towards a matte finish, as from what I’ve seen, gloss finishes always seems to blur the colors a bit, making them look a little messier than they were.
All that said, they look good to me for beginning levels of painting.
1 Like