Saturday, December 4, 2010

1/20 Brutishdog finished

After 2 months of heavy work, this Brutishdog model is finally done. No modifications on the model itself, only a simple paint job fun.

Base paints: (GSI Mr. Color)
Dark red - C68 Monza red 50% + C108 character red 50% and few drops of C13 neutral grey, C2 gross black

Beige(dark) - C51 flesh 90% + C107 character white 10% + few drops of C33 flat black

paint overs:
Pink - C68 30% + C62 flat white 70% + few drops of C11 light grey
Beige - the darker beige color mix + 2 drops C4 yellow + a lot more of C107

This is to mimic pink spray over a red lead anti-rust paint like what people do to those comabt machines. To do this, I used salt weathering to 2-3 layers of paints. The third layer is just the paint mixes plus more white to highlight the front and top surfaces. As you can see, it gives a more realistic appearance and set up a good tone guiding all the other weathering works that followed.

I have done salt weathering a few years back on a 1/35 Dragon Kampftpanzer III Ausf. H, a gift from a friend. That was a total disaster since I used a wrong approach on the salt. I am not going to add a salt weathering tutorial here but I need to explain what was wrong.
As you all know, there are 2 ways to apply salt to the model surface:
1) mix salt with few drops of water and dip the paste onto the area;
2) spray or dip water onto the area and sprinkle salt over it.
The first way gives a larger weathering area and you can adjust it by spreading the paste with your brush to control the effect's randomness. Whereas the second one is less demanding but there is no guarantee on the amount of salt that can be successfully sticked to the area. You may need to do it several times to achieve a desirable effect. When I was doing the tank, I sprayed too much water on a second try and that dissolved the salt. I ignored that and waited until it dried up. I thought that would be "OK" since the salt crystals should be coming back and would gave the same effect to the spray - that was the silliest idea of the century. The salt crystals did come back but mold-like rings appeared around them. I sprayed paints as planned and when I washed off the salt, those mold-like rings was not washed away and was stuck between the paint layers. Damn it...

This time, I used both techniques and with 2 type of salts. Coarse salt was dipped onto the plain surfaces(the bigger spots) and regular table salt was sprinkled onto the corners which were dampened using a brush. Patience is the key.
After all spray works, I applied decals and then tried all the painting effects that I know.

Washing with Tamiya acrylic paint X-1 black and GSI Mr. Hobby Colour H37 wood brown.
Some parts with H344 rust(discontinued product).
Dry brushing (Winsor & Newton acrylic colors): pink, white
Rust effects:
1) dry brushing with yellow, burnt seinna(on edges);
2) dipping with yellow orchre, orange and raw umber;
3) dry brushing with arcylic black.
Using an old toothbrush to to do a nice splattering of very dilute acrylic colour spray, a simple way to add muddy dirt to the down-pins on the shoes.

Other parts:
Brown: C41 red brwon + C33 flat black. Washing with X-1.
Silver: GSI Super Metallic Color SM04 super stainless over C2 gross black
For the galting guns on right arm, sprayed some flat black at the pipe tips. The cutter part was dry brushed with acrylic black.
Inner frame: C71 midnight blue + C33 flat black. Dry brushed with blue & grey arcylic colour mix. Dipped some X19 smoke onto the joints to make it looked like grease dirt.
Interior: C13 + C33
Pilot Fyanna:
Hand painted. C47 clear red on the helmet glass.

For the scope lenses, I copied the treatment from the cover of Degenki Hobby Speical 3D Works Votoms Models MOOK(2008):
1) painted the inner side of the scope cylinder black;
2) painted C138 clear green on the back side of the lens cover.
3) used B3 pencil to mark some scratches on the rail.



These photos are just snaps at my workshop. Maybe I take more photos and post here later...if I have time for this. Still busy on my freelance work this week and I hope to start building another model before christmas.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Bandai HGUC Stark Jegan

I bought this kit about 3 weeks ago and spent 2 nights building it. It's good both in shape and in terms of its content, well, for a 2100 yen box which has re-cycled a lot of parts from the older HGUC Jegan kit released few months before.
The Katoki design re-arrangement is slim and smart as usual but personally I prefer the old Mika Akitaka original CCA-MSV illustration back in 1988 from the very first issue of "MS Encyclopedia" by B-Club. But nowadays almost all Gundam mech designers had fade out except the old-school Kunio Okawara and money-maker Katoki. (I consider Kanetake Ebikawa from "Gundam 00" a sub-style since his style is so much influenced by Katoki although most fans would disagree with it.) To most Mika Akitaka is so yesterday and people nearly forgot where this armored Jegan came from.

The armor and missle box are firmly mounted on the legs and on both shoulders unlike the "Chobham Armor" of HGUC Gundam NT-1 which I decided to abandon it at very early stage of assembling.

The waist front armor is fused into one part. Emmm...we can't be so demanding for a 1/144 kit like this.
There is a good hint for the upcoming HGUC line-up: a AEUG/Titans style GMII beam gun is included in this Stark Jegan box. Will Bandai release HGUC Nemo(MSA-003) in the coming winter?



P.S. I got my "Gundam UC" blu-ray disc the week before but never have a chance to watch it. Maybe in the coming easter holidays...But, first thing first, should I go and get the "almighty" SONY PlayStation 3(only as a blu-ray player)? :)