Cowboy: Assembly Part 3, Marcus: Shading Skin

I worked on the cowboy's coat today. I decided I didn't have a lot of confidence in my ability to putty the gaps, pull the lower coat piece off, and keep it all in good shape. So, I've painted the areas that will be difficult to get to dark brown, and then glued the coat in place. I will putty it next time. Then the theory is that the hard to reach areas will be sufficiently in shadow, and I can paint in the rest. Depending on what colors I choose for the coat and pants I may have to worry about bringing the dark brown down farther so that there will be a consistent undercoat.

I also puttied the gap around the hat and the left arm. I used the Apoxie putty, which was actually a lot easier to work with than the green stuff.

I also continued shading Marcus's skin. I'm going with blue for the shadow color. I need to go back in and soften the transition with some of the first shadow color. I also have some spots to clean up with the base color. It is kind of a mess right now, but don't worry, it will get better.

Cowboy: Assembly Part 2. Marcus: Shading Skin.

Continued the assembly of the cowboy today by using some putty to get fill the joint in the torso and then gluing on his hat and left arm. Next time I will putty those two spots. Probably I will deal with the coat piece after that, and then do his other arm last since it seems most likely to be in the way/get damaged while working on the coat.

I also experimented with Apoxie putty a little bit. I found it is much like the Mulliput I use for basing. It's much less rubbery than green stuff. I will probably try it for the coat and see how it goes. One thing it doesn't seem to do that green stuff does is smooth across a surface; it just breaks apart instead. This could be good or bad. With green stuff, it does let me smooth the green stuff out, but never as much as I want because the green stuff contracts a little as it cures, so after it has cured I often end up with an edge where I had thought I'd gotten everything smooth.

I also got back to Marcus here:

I just did a first round of shading on his skin.

Cowboy: Prep & Assembly

So I've started working on a cowboy figure for my next large scale piece. It's a 70mm figure, and will be the first figure of that size that I've done.

I spent some time cleaning it up and figured I'd wait to post here until I was ready to start painting. Then I realized that I rarely talk about prep here, and I probably should. I don't have pictures of the early phases, but I will talk about them here, and I'll have pictures of the steps going forward.

I started with cleaning up the mold lines and flash from the figure. There was a lot, especially on the bottom piece of the coat. It took a fair bit of effort to get all the extra metal off the coat and smooth out the curves. That being said, it was easier than I expected because the metal is surprisingly soft. That's both a good and bad thing. It did make cleanup easier, but it also means the chances of accidentally obscuring detail or marring a smooth surface is higher, so I will have to be careful with it as I work.

After removing the flash and mold lines, I washed the pieces in warm water and dish soap. A bit of scrubbing with an old toothbrush makes sure that and gunk left from the casting process and any metal dust and bits from cleaning up the flash are removed.

Here are all the pieces as they more or less go together:

The next step is deciding what pieces can be put together now, what has to be put together after it's painted, and what will need putty. I think I can put it all together except the bottom of the cape. That will have to go on after, or I won't be able to paint his right leg.

That will be tricky, as that join is also going to need putty. I plan to try to putty it without leaving the pieces joined. More on that when I get to it.

I went to gluing the head and upper torso piece to the rest of the body. Here's what that looks like put together:

It is going to need putty. I want to make sure the glue has had plenty of time to cure before I start with the putty, so I will wait until tomorrow to continue with that. Which is why this will be a slow process - tomorrow I can putty this join and maybe glue on another piece or two, and then wait, and then putty more the next day.

I could have glued the arms and hat on, but I've had bad luck in the past when trying to putty joins while working around more delicate pieces. It introduces risk of bending or damaging the smaller pieces. These are mostly solid, but there are things like his gun that could be bent out of shape. So, I will take this slow and go one step at a time.

As a side note, here is some evidence that it's not just female figures that sometimes get weird poses:

He is leaning forward, but then bending backward. I'm not sure how you do that without falling over. It's a very anime pose which I don't think actual humans ever do. I'm planning to try to adjust the leaning forward part when I put him on his base.

17: Speed Paint!

Today I did my speed paint of the kneeling assassin. I gave myself 4 hours to complete the figure to the best level I could manage in those 4 hours.

Here's the starting point:

I had previously base coated the skin, but that was a small amount of work.

Here's where things were after the first hour (ish). At this point I'd finished the skin and moved on to base coating the cloak and tunic. I started out just working on the tunic, but found that I had to wait a long while today for the paint to dry, so I started base coating other areas while waiting for the first part to dry. After all, I had limited time.

And after the second hour. Here I'd finished the tunic and pants, and was ready to move on to the cloak. I'd started shading the cloak around the head.

After the third hour. The third hour was where I expected this to really slow down, because I was shading and highlighting the cloak. There was a lot of cloak with a lot of folds.

And, the final:

It actually took me a little less than 4 hours to complete. I could have spent the last half hour cleaning it up and refining it, but my non-painting responsibilities were starting to kick in, so I just called it good enough and stopped. What this does tell me is that next time I do this exercise, I need to pick a more complicated mini, set a shorter time limit, or both.

16!

Finished up Mary today. Yay!

I didn't get to the speed paint today. I'm hoping to do that tomorrow. I did start the cleanup on my next large scale project, but didn't get pictures. Also tomorrow!

Mary: Bits and Bobs

So I did the outstanding jewelry and straps and bits tonight. All that's left is finishing off her pistols, and this project will be done. Yay!

There's a lot that could be smoother, and someday I might regret not doing the pattern on the bodice (though it will still be there, so I could theoretically come back at any time and do it. Don't hold your breath). But for now, I'm just really looking forward to this being done.

My hope for the weekend is to finish her off, speed paint Gerry the Kneeling Assassin, and start clean up on my next large scale project.

Mary: Jewelry Part 2

Finished up the gold jewelry today.

Almost there! I'm definitely looking forward to being done with this piece.