Fiathriel's Resin Blog

Nearly finished!!

2008-09-10T18:52:00.000+10:00

Well it's finally drawing to a close, here's lots of pics of the story so far with and without cloak.

So the cloak has been a NIGHTMARE the whole project and this last few changes/fixes have been NO exception, not to mention all the extra hours sanding for surface imperfections!!!

I completely FORGOT that Shuichi's collar had tags on it, sigh . . . . sculpting some on, they are a bit rough but I got a new clay today that doesn't set and you can't stuff around with it too much or you'll lose details.

Also missing were the tags on the front of the cloak . . . realising you miss things is NOT fun.

Primer

2008-09-03T22:58:00.000+10:00

So I'm not planning to do anymore work to the pieces if I can help it, all that's left to do is to make the microphone and microphone stand . . . . . . I have to order in some Tamiya plastic rods as resin just ends up bending with long pieces anyway . . . .

Well the primered model looks pretty good, plenty of rough surfaces, but seeing it almost all one colour makes me realise I'm closer to finishing him than I realised . . . . . . . but more sanding to be done!

Sculpting from scratch!!! Rickert from Berserk

2008-08-31T19:02:00.000+10:00

This is going to be my first attempt at sculpting a complete figure . . . . . I've been modding so much over the last year I thought I'd at least give it a shot . . . . I'm not sure if I'll be able to do it but I'm going to try and I'm going to learn!!!!

Here's the day's work . . . . a very quick, not so great armature . . . . first attempt though and some basic skeletal work to get a base to work from.

Back to Shuichi

2008-08-31T17:50:00.001+10:00

8 months since the last update and I didn't even expect to get back into him this soon!!! Mainly the collar drove me nuts from previous attempts to finish him because it kept snapping . . . . the putty I was using wasn't very strong. I went to Japan earlier this year and brought back some Mori Mori and the stuff is amazing . . . . it stinks like nothing else, probably toxic, but it sets quick and is very strong . . . so time to rebuild the collar . . . . again!!!

There was quite a large gap of the cloak that was never filled, decided to get that out of the way!!

After scraping the clay out of the new collar and cleaning with acetone I managed to get most of it out, but it broke . . . so on the first draft I mainly filled in the open parts (where the clay was) then joined the top collar to the front collar.

Progress on hair and shoe!!!

2008-08-09T17:13:00.002+10:00

I did recast the hair piece but it created too much work trying to separate the hair from the face so I ended up laying a thin layer of magic sculpt over the clay (glad I didn't clean the clay off!!!). Then I worked with some Bondo style car putty and Mori Mori and extended some pieces and added some pieces in between others, then sanded and sanded until I was happy, still a rough result but I didn't want to get into too much of a final piece because there's the veil to go on yet and I might change the bangs when that's done up. Quick spray of primer and I'm happy with it at this stage, much more modification to be done later though.

The shoes were sanded a little more, had some more gaps filled in and a spray with the primer so I could see how rough they really were and they are rough!! But at this stage I'm keeping everything rough so I can see more of the final result take form, as a mentioned in a previous entry, everything else I've done in sections and refined to the final result and it's hard to keep up the motivation this way.

So overall, I like the basic changes so far, he's definitely looking more boylike with the new hair, I'm not sure if the face will need any modification as it's looking good so far, it's a perfect expression.

I've added some surface putty onto the shoe and shoe cover to try and even out some of the roughness on the surface. I've scrubbed it clean and will give it some primer next to check out if its made much of a difference. Next I'll start on either the veil or the dress.

Starting on hair & recasting foot piece

2008-06-23T21:46:00.001+10:00

-------------------------------
Time: 3 hrs 36 mins
Total Time : 20 hrs 14mins
-------------------------------
I had a few hair front pieces from other kits I was tempted to use but I've been avoiding any serious attempts at sculpting for a long time now so I forced myself to have a go. It took forever but I ended up with a result that I'm comfortable with. I'll make a silicone impression for this and make a resin copy as the Klean Klay used never dries/sets.

The shoe cover piece was also sculpted from Klean Klay so I brushed on two layers of silicone leaving time inbetween them to dry. The silicone is a 1:1 volume ratio and prethickened, making it a lot easier to measure and work with than normal liquid RTV silicone. Also because it's thick you don't need a mould box for small items.

A thicker layer of silicone was added once the first layer cured, no mould release was needed silicone comes off most things quite easily. There is a large gap that needed to be filled otherwise the resin would leak over and I wouldn't be able to cast the piece. I used some polyester putty for this, I tried clay to start with but I couldn't get it to adhere to the silicone. The putty didn't completely seal the open area but it did a good enough job.

I finally cast the piece in resin, which is normally chalk white and very high quality however I was being incredibly lazy and just measured out the 1:1 ratio by eye. I wouldn't do this on a proper model but I was too tired so it ended up coming out this weird clear yellow colour and took forever to set instead of 30 mins. Never mind, still got the result I wanted, a copy of my clay shoe cover in a hard material!!

Further progress on shoe

2008-06-20T22:44:00.001+10:00

-------------------------------
Time: 3 hrs 10 mins
Total Time : 16 hrs 38mins
-------------------------------
I added some more Magic Sculpt to the basic shoe shape to "fill out" the shoe as it was quite skinny. I also added in the 'cuff' if that's what its called, the bit at the top of the shoe that sits against the ankle. Compared to the original, it's a nicer, more realistic shoe shape.

I don't find the Magic Sculpt the best product to sculpt finer details with, probably because I haven't gotten used to it yet and don't leave it sit to harden a little. I find the Klean Klay the best material but it's eternally soft so it makes things difficult as you cant paint or sand, it's just soft clay. I sculpted the piece that fits over the top of the shoe. The yellow part is Mori Mori.

Lastly, I make some more changes to help even out the head, it's really crap when hair is attached to the head, even when you aren't modding anything and just building!!!

Sculpting the shoes

2008-06-14T18:55:00.000+10:00

-------------------------------
Time: 2 hrs 30 mins
Total Time : 13 hrs 28mins
-------------------------------
To start the shoes off I drew one foot on paper while holding the model on the paper, side on. Then I traced the shoe, cut it out and taped it down at an angle next to the other to get a visual idea of the shoes.

Then I mixed up some of the Selley's Plastibond and spread it on the picture trying to keep in the lines. It cures in minutes which is why I use it all the time, once it cured I peeled it off the paper and realised that the impression of the pencil is transferred onto the back, so next time I use it I wont be so particular about getting it in the lines.

Then I mixed up about a 2.5cm diameter ball of magic sculpt an filled in the basic three dimensional shape around the flat putty shoe. The best part about having the putty shoe is that you keep pressing your shape around the outline of the putty part and it keeps the magic sculpt parts conforming to the shape, making sculpting this much easier than by hand.

I have the basic shape now but Bridget's shoes are quite bulky and different to this but I just wanted something simple to start on. I did try playing with the original shoes and sculpting over them but I didn't like the shape of them and couldn't get comfortable with the mod, so decided to get them organised from scratch.

Fixing right leg and uneven thigh joins

2008-06-09T00:19:00.001+10:00

-------------------------------
Time: 2 hrs 24 mins
Total Time : 10 hrs 58mins
-------------------------------
Just a small update on tonight's work. I can't stand when limbs do not sit inside clothing, it looks horrible. So I decided to saw off the right leg, bore out some of the underneath of the skirt and stick the leg back in.

Now the joins left where I removed 2cm off each thigh are very bad, also Bridget being a young male could probably do with thinner thighs anyhow so I fixed up the legs by pinning and supergluing the legs to their new thighs, then sanding a lot of the excess away with a Dremel. My Dremel is broken at the moment, when its on it's full speed and I can't fix it, when I sand (or anything) it's extremely hard to control and I end up making a bigger mess that if it was working correctly, no problem really just means more putty.

Overall the result of shortening the legs is much easier to see now they are evened out at that join. I liked the idea of having one leg behind him, a bit more interested than just having them together, seeing as the torso looks insanely bent (in the original sculpt) I thought I'd give it an anatomical reason for leaning back so far, beforehand with the legs just straight together it looked weird.

Left arm repositioning, hair removal & leg resizing

2008-06-07T00:53:00.000+10:00

-------------------------------
Time: 6 hrs 9 mins
Total Time : 8 hrs 34mins
-------------------------------
This is a huge update, it's been 3 months since I worked on the kits, partially due to being overseas for 6 weeks and the rest is atypical procrastination due to my life being quite hectic and a lot going on!!! I've been working on Bridget over the last week for an hour or so a day. Instead of perfecting each section then moving on (like I was doing with Shuichi) I'll keep everything rough and keep adding more details as I go along.

First, I wanted to reposition the left arm. The arm was cut at the elbow, forearm turned around and pinned back together to be straight. The upper arm is also now facing the other way, as in where the bicep was is now behind and has become the tricep. The arm was positioned to be sitting behind the body as per the reference pic and puttied to close the gap between the top of the arm and the body to form the shoulder.

Next, I wanted to remove that awful hair, I can't stand when hair is sculpted on to a garage kit instead of being a separate piece. This took hours, maybe 3 hours with a Tamiya hobby saw. The dremel cutting wheel wouldn't budge it and the sanding wheel wouldn't reduce it as I hoped to sand it away after the wheel didn't work, so it all ended up being done by handsawing, it was rotten, I had to keep the blade saturated with Vaseline so it would move through the chunks. I've left some bangs there for now but will probably remove them. You can see all the little chunks I removed.

Lastly the legs are far too long, I planned to take 4 cm off each, but after taking 2cm from the thighs I was happy and didn't feel the need to take the rest off. Again using the Tamiya saw but this time it was a breeze, the resin for some reason wasn't as difficult to get through as the resin on the hair.

Next job to do is to fix up the joins on the thighs from the shortening of the legs and to roughly sculpt the shoes.

Fill the gap and resculpt the arm

2008-03-14T20:27:00.003+11:00

-------------------------------
Time: 55 mins
Total Time : 2 hrs 25mins
-------------------------------
There's quite a large gap here and even if there wasn't I would have resculpting the arm anyway, it's just not boyish enough. Alot of the time he's drawn girly, but I don't want him to be too feminine with his actual physique/muscle tone. Using Magic Sculpt it was a learning session even though I've used it so many times in the past that's only really to 'lay' over things, I haven't really sculpted anything with it. This isn't finished, but I'm not going to spend too long on it, I'll probably prime it to have a look at the general arm shape, I'll probably take some off the bottom I think there's too much there because of the position of the original arm, the shape doesn't exactly match what it would look like with the arm raised. We'll see, but so far so good!

Project - Take off!!!

2008-03-12T23:36:00.013+11:00

-------------------------------
Time: 1hr 30mins
Total Time : 1 hr 30mins
-------------------------------
I made the decision last November that I wouldn't work strictly on one mod anymore because it just takes so long and I get sick of looking at the same project, especially considering I don't get to work on my hobby all the time like I wish to.

So today I made a start on Bridget, the reference picture I'm using is drawn by Saigado, all though I most likely wont use his face, just the pose.

So to start I wanted to remove the decoration or whatever it is on the front of the chest. I did it with a hobby knife then sanded.

Next step (seems to be a theme of mine) is to remove the breasts, it's kind of distracting trying to plan out a boy mod when there's boobs staring you in the face >_<

To start I used the cutting wheel in my Dremel set, doesn't make a neat job of things but makes a start.

Then I use the sanding piece and clean up the rough parts. Certainly allows me to see what's going on better and of course alot more needed to come off to give him DFC . . . . (don't ask lol), following on cleanup with 180grit piece of sandpaper (don't use this on kits you are building, it's rough as anything, only for mods!!!) and wet sanded, followed by 320grit for a nice finish, wet sanding always keeps the finish neater.Now the arms need adjusting, they are both in the wrong position, I figured I'd start with the easy one first as the shoulder shape (in an anatomical sense) will barely change with the repositioning. I used the cutting wheel for the most of it but couldn't get under the armpit so used a mini hand hacksaw to cut some more and then snapped it off. Unfortunately it left a massive sharp piece and I cut myself!!! The first injury for the project lol, I always get them. The first cut didn't take enough off so I had to redo it a few times. Then I sanded it slightly and pinned ready for rebuilding the gap. I not only left the surface rough, but even scratched it madly with the hobby knife, this helps the putty to adhere to the surface, with such a big gap if you just filled it with material it's likely to slide off.Lastly I've taken a picture of my setup to help with dust reaction, since doing a bit extra work on the arms after I took the photo I realised you can dip the bits in water and use the dremel pieces on them and dust reduces dramatically. The whole time I'm using a dust mask anyway but this is handy to know.

Cloak redo

2007-12-05T23:07:00.000+11:00

-------------------------------
Time: 6hrs 14mins
Total Time : 94hrs & 41mins
-------------------------------

6 months has passed since the last update. I've been working on him on & off during this time but the whole project was just wearing thin and I wasn't happy with the cloak. I recently started other projects and now that I've had a bit of a break I'm doing some extra bits on the side with Shuichi. He won't be my primary project but I'll continue to at least pick away at him.

Okay, my biggest beef with this entire mod is that his cloak is too thick, I've been pretending I didn't care the whole time but now I'm changing it. I didn't want to create too much work so I decided I'd duplicate it by resting some thinly rolled magic sculpt on the inside of the cloak (as it fits his torso snuggly) and build from there! The inside of the cloak was first coated in Vaseline so I could separate the old from the new. Unfortunately I couldn't copy the whole lot with the armholes otherwise I wouldn't be able to get the new piece out of the old piece.

I had to add a few miscellaneous pieces as the main part I rolled out obviously wasn't the correct shape. I left to cure overnight and with a little persuasion the pieces separated and I love the new thickness!!!

Then to make up some of the gapped areas and the sleeves, I covered the torso in medical opsite, rolled some new pieces over the arms and torso and pressed the recently cured cloak pieces on top of them very firmly. I'll leave this to cure overnight.

Orochimaru - Another new project

2007-11-30T19:21:00.000+11:00

To get a break from Shuichi I'm going to start on Orochimaru. Orochimaru is in my top list of favourite male anime characters and I have more than one model I'd like to mod of him. This particular picture of him has been a favourite of mine for some time.

Orochimaru will be huge compared to Shuichi (who is only 20cm). I'm using a model that is already 38cm high and allowing for the addition of the arms over the head, it should end up about 42cm. He's almost 180cm tall so that makes the model around 1/4. Working on Shuichi at his size is quite frustrating. This will make for a good change.

The model I'm using caught my eye for it's particularly waify appearance (discounting the breasts which are plentiful) and I personally feel it's not very feminine (many would disagree I'm sure). Unfortunately, unlike all my other mods, this is a Thai recast (avoid at all costs) so I'll be recasting some of the main pieces with a better quality resin, also I want to use this model in other mods too so it will be handy to have the molds at hand. The recasting process will probably keep me busy (unfortunately) for a while and I can't actually start on the mod, but I'll get there.

Another new project - Kaworu & Shinji

2007-11-28T19:19:00.000+11:00

I'm not sure how much of this project I'll reveal. I guessing (I'm soooo optimistic) that it's not going to be as involved as all my other projects as there's going to be very little modification needing to be done with the existing models.

They won't be all that large, about 25cm and they'll be standing. I have other projects in mind involving these two, after all it was a long time ago that I watched Evangelion, it aired in Australia before you could purchase the videos as DVDs weren't around then. It impacted on me alot and fueled my current love for anime.

New project

2007-11-28T19:08:00.000+11:00

Although there are a few models available of Bridget, I've still been wanting to mod one for over a year now. There are some gashapons, a new PVC is coming out soon and the resin ones never surfaced. The other reason I wanted to make one is the size, I wanted it big. The PVC coming out soon is 22cm and I don't really go much on the "victim" pose he's in, he looks like he's concerned for his safety, here's a link if you need to see.

He's 157 cm tall and the model I'm using is 40cm so a scale of about 1/4. I really wanted to use this model but she's been on preorder with e2 for 10 months now and shows little likelihood of ever going into production.

So I've ended up purchasing this little magic user as she was in stock at Hobbyfan and reduced significantly as they have a big sale at the moment. She actually has her arms in a much better position that Sakuya and her face is a little more like Bridget than Sakuya. Also she already has those wrist pieces and her arms exposed making for a little less work. Her arms are positioned much better also. The only downside is her hair is attached to her head.

I'm going to be modelling him off a Saigado doujin cover picture for now.

Migration Process

2007-11-25T23:53:00.000+11:00

You may notice new posts appearing that are not dated this year, this is because I'm migrating the old posts over first before I make new ones ^__^

Belt, cloak priming again

2007-07-27T22:42:00.000+10:00

-------------------------------
Time: 1hr 22mins
Total Time : 88hrs & 27mins
-------------------------------
Short session today as I’ve gotten as far as I can with a few things and need to wait until morning to get back into it. First I added some more bands onto the top belt. The bands were added by painting with Mr Dissolved Putty, this stuff dries within a minute or so and I layered probably about 6 times to get this thickness.

Next I primed the coat again, this time used a more expensive spray can, duplicolour and I’m not getting the spitting. Although I’m still only spraying probably four quick passes and the dunking back in the warm water. Warning DO NOT PUT SPRAY CANS INTO HOT WATER only warm. I didn’t take a photo but one of the cans nearly blew up, I was so panicked that I just lobbed it and didn’t want to be anywhere near it!!! I’ll go dig it back out of the garden another day and take a photo o_O. After wet sanding with extrememly high grit sandpaper, 3000 maybe? I’m not sure, it’s Tamiya and it has a furry kind of backing instead of just paper, it doesn’t have the grit on it and it was given to me by a fellow forum member so I can’t remember the grit. It doesn’t take much paint off though and gets the surface nice and smooth. I then finish with a coffee filter, that really brings up the shine. The previous paint didn’t need sanding with sandpaper, only the coffee filter, duplicolour has a rougher surface though so it needed it and it’s a small price to pay as opposed to all that spitting.

Cloak priming & made the belts on the shorts

2007-06-26T22:12:00.000+10:00

-------------------------------
Time: 9hrs 33mins
Total Time : 87hrs & 5mins
-------------------------------

It’s been a whole month since I did anything!!! Argh, got sidetracked with other things like trying to make moulds and then buying a ball jointed doll!!!! I’ve made some good progress with Shuichi and he’s finally looking reasonably like I want him to. I really need to knuckle down and finish this as I have a commission mod to next and I’ll like to get started as soon as I can. First I had to fix this messy cloak, the never ending cloak, after spending many hours sanding (again) and filling the messy bits with putty, Mr Surfacer and Mr Dissolved Putty I was ready to prime to see the real uneven surface under the even gray colour as it’s difficult to see as is.

I’ve had ongoing issues with spray cans and this was no exception, after about 3-4 quick passes my cans spit like crazy thus creating me extra work as I have to sand these spots off and prime again. Anyway I finally developed a technique involving two spray cans and a pot of warm water, after two sprays the can goes in the pot then I use the other can while the first can is warming back up. I alternated with this and left about 20 minutes or so between coats. I didn’t prime the model completely just a bit to get started and identify some problem areas of which there were PLENTY. I didn’t photograph them all but here’s a few circled.

After light sanding to smooth the surface and some puttying and more Mr Surfacer I’m ready to prime again. I like the finish and although I can’t really tell until it’s primed again, it looks smooth and even to me!!

Next I attacked the shorts. I needed to make two belts with the two buckles. I toyed with the idea of making the belts from magic sculpt but was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to get the straight line, I also though some sort of ribbon or leather string would work but they were both hard to work with so I ended up going for masking tape. I used Mr Hobby masking sheets which are precut to 1mm and 2mm, it was perfect for the smaller belt. I then handpainted Mr Surfacer over the masking tape to even out the surface and give it some strength. Then I used quilters tape for the bigger belt. Quilters tape is good because it’s not uneven at all and it’s really thick, it’s thicker than masking tape. I also used Mr Surfacer on it.

Then I lightly sanded the surface and cleaned it up along the edges with a scalpel until it looked pretty smooth.

Then I used some Magic Sculpt to make the top and bottom buckles, this was very tricky. I started out using a curved carving tool to shape and manipulate but the buckles would keep falling off or moving slightly. Then I used a pin to carefully go around the outlines of the pieces and press them on to the belt, then I could manipulate the shape of the pieces, I opted for a rounded buckle in the end instead of a square one. The picture is of the initial bits before they are cleaned up.

I then cleaned up the debris with a dry paintbrush and used the pin to hollow out any corners that had talc in them. You can use Magic sculpt with talc or water, each keeps it smooth but allows for different uses, it’s just a matter of experimenting and getting used to how you prefer to work with it. After clean up I handpainted some Mr Dissolved Putty ( I LOVE THIS STUFF) to even out the surfaces and create some nice rounded edges. If you haven’t used this, get some, it’s like thinning out a high quality putty so that you can paint with it, it’s a bit thicker that Mr Surfacer 500 but with the two products combined you can do so much with them, you’ll see the difference below (keep in mind there’s be NO SANDING on any of these belt pieces as the magic sculpt is still not cured so I can’t sand).

I’ll need to add some more bands on the top belt and maybe sand a little once it’s all set tomorrow to even out the surface as it’s a little rough. Also the curve at the top of the buckle needs a little attention to get it to look right but otherwise it’s taking shape!!

More collar today and started sleeves

2007-05-20T23:39:00.000+10:00

-------------------------------
Time: 7hrs 14mins
Total Time : 77hrs & 32mins
-------------------------------
I used the same process to make the other side front collar but this one wouldn’t sit properly for me to join to pieces together so I put some Klean Klay underneath so I could position them how I wanted ready for joining.

Then I smeared some putty over the join but the join kept breaking. I’m thinking next time I need to join pieces like this I may need to pin & glue.

Then I puttied the join between the back collar and front collar. There’s quite a significant difference in shape and making the result even wasn’t going to be as easy as the other side at all!

Then I changed my mind about the collar and decided to cut it in half after all, even after saying how ugly it’s going to make it too!!! I may even change my mind again down the track and join it back, we’ll see!

The join between this front collar and back collar sanded down to a nice shape which I’m happy with. The piece keeps breaking though and it’s starting to annoy me and I need to fix the collar on the right side so I think I’ll take a cast of it and clean it up after that.

I started work on the sleeve ends and laid down 3 layers of masking tape and then draped some thinly rolled Magic Sculpt.

It’s been a while since I’ve used it and its so painful having to stop work and leave it overnight!! It will need some sanding and shaping next. So all in all I’m making decent progress and he’s starting to look like he did in my mind when I first starting playing!!! Yay!!!

My finger is healing well and it’s safe to show you now (as it’s not so gory!!!)

Shirt collar repair and more new cloak bits

2007-05-13T22:45:00.000+10:00

-------------------------------
Time: 5hrs 41mins
Total Time : 70hrs & 18mins
-------------------------------

Onto the front of the cloak finally as although I had other things I was going to do first I had had enough of looking at those horrible raw edged on the front of the cloak. Shuichi has a standard upper collar and front for most jackets although the upper collar is worn upwards instead of folded down so it covers the neck. I should have used magic sculpt but it really is a pain waiting for it to cure overnight. The putty is a little more fiddley but at least you can glue and sandpaper the piece in the same session as creating it. I thought I’d try a different technique that I saw in this modellers site some time ago (http://homepage2.nifty.com/%7Ezan/nekoban/z_fig34.htm) Basically you draw a shape and put your modeling material on top of it. I don’t know the product he uses though but it looks good!!!

After a few minutes the product starts to heat up and it’s like a rubber consistency and it’s bendable, this is when I placed both pieces along the front of the cloak (at the angle I wanted them) and held for about another minute so they would set curved instead of flat.

I then drew the second part of the collar on one side only and repeated the process. I held the bottom piece on top of the top piece and drew the outline so I wouldn’t forget how they lined up. I then glued them together.

I quite like the curve that the upper collar had on the shoulder so I wrapped the should and upper body up to join the back collar with the new front piece and to fill in the gaps right at the top of the cloak so the collar fitted nice and snug. I had to scrape the putty from the middle of the cloak as I need this gap left permanently so he can be displayed with or without the cloak.

I’m happy with the way it sits, I had some putty left over so put some on the back collar around the other side. In the next session I’ll need to repeat the process for the other side as I only have the bottom triangle done. The collar will come in the one piece that extends down the front seams of the cloak. Whoever is assembling it will be expected to leave this piece separate and add it to the model via magnets along with the cloak pieces. I considered sawing down the middle of the collar and leaving left and right separate like the cloak but I feel this would be an aesthetically ugly design.

Lastly I needed to fix the shirt collar underneath as it broke again. I wasn’t going to use magic sculpt again, one of it’s limitations are if you are joining to an area with superglue it’s not very strong.

Instead of using the plumbers tape this time I decided to try and use something called “OpSite Flexigrid”, it’s a material used for dressing and the surgery used it last Wednesday to waterproof the dressing on my finger. I kept looking at it all day thinking, wow it’s so thin and it has a strong tack. The plumbers tape is good but if you play with the area too much it becomes dislodged easy as it has no tack at all.

As you can see the OpSite conforms very nicely to the shape of the head. It’s a bit of a pain to use because you have to ‘crack’ it in two places before you peel the first layer off (which reveals the sticky part), then you stick it to the object, then you peel the other layer off but if you haven’t cracked it in the right spots beforehand you’ll render the piece useless (already wasted two sheets of it). I then used my good friend the Selley’s putty and resculpted the new piece. It’s been sanded somewhat but still needs to be finished off.

Cloak now fits!!!

2007-05-09T18:41:00.000+10:00

-------------------------------
Time: 3hrs 38mins
Total Time : 64hrs & 37mins
-------------------------------
Got a decent amount done this time back on the cloak. I was so sick of the cloak that doing the hair and face really broken up the monotony of this cloak for me. I decided firstly that it was still a little bulky and secondly it wasn’t sitting on the body well, meaning it was hard to line up (especially balancing the collar on it). I thought I’d test molding it so the inside would be the shape of the body outline. I wrapped up the torso in plumbing tape which is super thin (it was either this or glad wrap/clingfilm) and I’m very happy with how easily it wraps, conforms and stays stuck. I then put some Vaseline on it and blobbed some putty on roughly at the side and pressed the cloak against the body. I only held it in place for a minute or two as this stuff sets fast, about 2-3 minutes if you are lucky before you have to stop working. The result is perfect and smooth!!!

For the rest of the torso the tape was not coated in Vaseline this time and this made the tape move a fair bit when applying the putty. Also when the putty set some of the tape was ‘inside’ the newly set putty making the cloak pieces pretty hard to remove from the body. I left the Vaseline off because I found the putty slushed around and wouldn’t stay put. So it’s a choice between moving tape and moving putty, I’ll go with the initial plan if I do this again.

Again the result is outstanding, the finish is smooth as can be and the fit is so good that the cloak pieces now stay on by themselves. The final plan of this kit is to set magnets inside it so the cloak is removable so this makes it so much easier to work with.

I was then able to clean up the stray edges with a dremel and sandpaper and then further dremelled the cloak until it was more form fitting.

Now the cloak stays in place without being held I could take some full body shots which I haven’t been able to do without putting him in the stand (which really distracts from the pieces). I’m finally feeling like most of the hard work is behind me, hopefully I’m right!!!!

Lots of progress - hair resculpted/shortened, collar started and cloak reshaped slightly!

2007-05-07T12:41:00.000+10:00

-------------------------------
Time: 13hrs 41mins
Total Time : 61hrs & 59mins
-------------------------------
BIG update again, last one was over 12 hrs now I racked up 13 hrs!!! I was getting sick of the cloak so I decided to work on the collar. I made a start on the collar and realised I should leave it until after because the hair was still too long.

The hair was by far the most challenging and most fun!!! I penciled the areas to be removed and did this with a dremel. These areas still required resculpting. For scribing, I made guide lines with a surgical scalpel, then went over with an Olfa scriber, then used 280grit sandpaper, then 600, then 1200 all wet sanded. I love the result!! I also sanded the chin so it was flatter/squarer and rounded the cheeks a little. I will still need to regouge the eyes to make the cavity a little bigger, I’m not game to do this yet and I’m tempted to recast the face part in case I stuff it up!

Here’s some picture overkill so you can see the progression, reference pics and of course the final result!!

One side of the cloak was spray painted because I thought it was pretty smooth so I thought I’d see what the surface was really like. I was also advised by Kumama that instead of Magic Sculpting the rough and different coloured surfaces I could do this so the colours at least weren’t annoying me, thanks Kumama!! I then sanded it because the spray can was spitting and left some small blobs here and there.

Next I felt the armholes were a little bulky so I reshaped them by putting more putty inside and then slowly reshaped with the dremel and very coarse grit sandpaper. I’m much happier with the result however I probably should have done this before priming some of it but I didn’t really notice when it was unpainted. When I paint again I’m guessing I’ll find odd shapes that I don’t like again (but hopefully not).

I used some Klean Klay to form a very rough collar with a plan to place Magic Sculpt over the top.

I coated the whole neck and back area (around the collar) with Vaseline so the resin wouldn’t permanently bond with the model. I then rolled the resin really thin and wrapped it around the inside and outside of the collar. I also made some cuffs out of the left over resin. I’ll likely not use them but I had the resin spare so I just put did them anyway.

After the resin set overnight I removed the collar and as you can see in the photos the clay is left inside the resin piece. I scooped out the clay with a sewing pin from the three pieces to make them hollow (as I planned to fill them).

Magic Sculpt is expensive and you never quite now how much you’ll need. I continually under and overestimate the amount and it’s frustrating. Basically I’m using the repair putty as much as possible as it’s only $12AUS compared to $80AUS for the Magic Sculpt. I wanted to fill the cavities but they are very small and the putty has quite a gooey consistency so it’s not easy to apply. I decided to make a pipette similar to those made for icing to get it in the gaps. I used some baking paper and it worked wonderfully. As usual you have about 1-2 minutes to work with it so I had to move fast!

It’s now going to require some work to shape and I need to decide whether I join the front two pieces to the back collar or leave them separate.

That’s it for now, it’s taken forever to type this update because I cut a little bit off my fingertip (and some of the nail) on Saturday night so I can't use the index finger on my left hand to type properly and I normally type very fast!!! Also it’s been very hard modeling over the last two days as it hurts to put the glove on, I can’t bend the finger AND I had to grip everything with the second and third. I’ve done the whole hair resculpt over today and yesterday with it like this!!! That’s my one and only big whine in all the updates!!!! It’s not as sore now though. I have to leave the dressing on though and at the moment it gets changed every three days (just as well I work in a doctor’s surgery!!!)

More Cloak!

2007-04-30T14:08:00.000+10:00

-------------------------------
Time: 12hrs 30mins
Total Time : 48hrs & 18mins
-------------------------------

Waaaah, I’ve done 12 hrs this time & I don’t really feel I’ve done much! The gap between the right cloak and the middle piece was filled with ‘Quik Steel’ a black tube that has a different colour in the middle of it and is activated when you squash the piece together. It sets in a few minutes and filled the gap nicely.

I then taped this middle piece to the right cloak to hold in place. The left cloak piece was completely the wrong shape (as I initially wasn’t going to use the middle piece otherwise it would have been fine). You can see from the photos that it didn’t fit whatsoever so I marked in pencil the area that would first need to be taken off. I then used a dremel and close a bit far from the line and lined it up to make sure I hadn’t penciled it off to close. I was happy so cut on the line.

I planned to use polyester putty to close the gap but I couldn’t hold the piece at the same time as puttying so I built up the underneath with Klean Klay so I could rest the left cloak on the middle piece.

I then applied the polyester putty quite liberally on the inside and outside join. After a rough sand at 120grit it was starting to shape nicely.

I then did a fair bit of reshaping that you can’t really tell from the photos I took. Basically I felt it was curving out too much so I kept dremeling with a sanding attachment until the left cloak looked a bit flatter towards the outer side. I had to keep adding polyester putty to the inside as most of the original out layer was sanded away. This you can tell from the photos!

I can’t even remember the time it took to sand and shape this, but it was hours. I then repeated the process to join the left cloak to the left torso.

I sanded for so long I gave up trying to get the surface even and ended up with this.

I decided to add thin rolled layer of magic sculpt over the whole piece to even up the surface (and the different colours were really annoying me). I had to do it in two pieces. Basically I just lay them on top of the cloak and then wet the ends with water and pad down otherwise it won’t stick it would just fall off once it dried. Now I have left it to set overnight and will repeat the process for the top part of the cloak and later, the inside.

I'm back into again

2007-04-25T23:17:00.000+10:00

-------------------------------
Time: 5hrs
Total Time : 35hrs & 48mins
-------------------------------

I haven’t been updating the blog much although I have been doing a little work here and there over the last few months. The bulk was taken out of the side of the cloak but it was impossible to do without leaving the big hole!!! It was filled with some resin and sanded to fix it.

I’ve decided that I’ll keep the cloak in two separate pieces to allow easier mold making for when it’s cast and most importantly to allow the final figure to be displayed with or without the cloak. The right side of the cloak was joined (top to bottom) earlier on but it’s still a fairly uneven shape at the back. I marked off the dead centre in pencil so it could be cut off with a dremel.

There's yellow putty here & there, mainly to strengthen some of the weak areas. It’s much cheaper than MS and cures in minutes instead of overnight. The dremel was used to cut the piece off and quickly sanded to clean up the edge. I’ve taped the right side of the cloak and the left side of the top cloak firmly to the model ready for fixing up all the loose pieces.

The middle piece fits nicely next to the right piece but it sits a fair way away from the torso piece and there’s a gap right at the top between the two sides.

Cloak, no longer in four pieces!

2007-01-08T23:18:00.000+11:00

-------------------------------
Time: 1hrs & 40mins Total Time : 30hrs & 48mins
-------------------------------

Bit of a break over the weekend but some more work today. After the superglue set the pieces were more solidly joined than I expected but in order to hide the join and reinforce it I used more resin to cover the join quite liberally inside and out.

A bit of sanding and it’s starting to take a nice shape. Once it was smoothed over it really is looking nice!

I don’t like the shape of where it sits against the hip, I feel it’s too bulky and not flattering whatsoever. I’m unsure whether I can sand this back without losing that area completely, I will try and if I loose it I will sculpt more resin over it and go from there.

Shuichi - Cloak sanding and construction

2007-01-05T18:17:00.000+11:00

-------------------------------
Time: 3hrs & 50mins
Total Time : 29hrs & 8mins
-------------------------------

Another long session today as it was my first day off work for a while (besides the public holidays). I did some sanding on the torso part of the cloak and reshaped a little bit but most of my time spent today was sanding the first part of the cloak that I adjusted.

This took a long time but I finally got it nice and smooth. I also rolled out some Magic Sculpt this morning and draped it over the 2nd piece of the cloak. It had pretty much set by late this afternoon so I pulled out the clay and snapped off the old piece of the cloak, I’ll add some Magic Sculpt inside it tomorrow when it’s fully set. It’s a little thin and delicate compared to the 1st piece so it may need some more resin to strengthen it up.

Lastly, I superglued the 1st cloak piece to the torso piece of the cloak, once it sets overnight I’ll use some more resin to join the pieces so it looks like it should, so far though so good!

Shuichi - More Cloak and Dismemberment :(

2007-01-04T23:20:00.000+11:00

-------------------------------
Time: 3hrs & 20mins
Total Time : 25hrs & 18mins
-------------------------------

As I expected the Klean Klay peeled away from the Magic Sculpt nicely. I cut away the excess old layer with a pair of strong scissors, rough sanded the edges and added some new Magic Sculpt to hide the seam and add a bit of strength to the new layer.

I then covered the torso with Klean Klay, masked the arms ready & added the resin over the body. This is so firstly the cloak wont stick permanently to the torso and secondly so I can create a little bit of detail and the correct shape of the cloak.

I let this sit on the model overnight to cure, it’s very thin, I made it this way so it would pick up the detail and I knew it would be week in parts so I’ve added some extra thin layers of Magic Sculpt and have left it again to cure overnight.

I realised it was impossible to get off the cloak because of the arms and I purposely left a split down the middle of the back with the intention of keeping the cloak in two pieces. However this was still no good and I couldn’t get it off the arms. I’ve decided to separate the arms at the end of the skin tight shirt he’s wearing underneath. I took both arms off tonight and bore into the upper arm with a small round dremel attachment to help attach the arm back on.

Shuichi - Back into it!

2007-01-02T22:03:00.000+11:00

-------------------------------
Time: 58mins
Total Time : 21hrs & 58mins
-------------------------------

Finally back into it, I won’t go into detail as to why I didn’t model for a few months although a lot of you already know the reason. Anyhow it’s back on and I’m determined to make some decent progress on this Shuichi so I can start other projects.

I finally started to work on make the rolls in the cloak less prominent. Firstly though I thought one or two sections of the cloak need to be a different shape. This was my intention from the start but after experimenting with different ways to create the shape I ended up giving in and using that wire. Now I finally have a better idea although being the first try it may not work. Basically I sculpt using Klean Klay, this product NEVER hardens, no matter what you do to it. It’s the main sort of clay used when making silicone moulds because it can be shaped poured over with silicone and reused over and over. Its oil based and a dream to work with.

I’ve made the basic shape of one end of the cloak and have rolled out some fresh Magic Sculpt and laid it over the Klean Klay. As mentioned previously Magic Sculpt will shop up the smallest details when it’s used like this, which is ideal for what I’m after but caused no end of suffering when I used it to mould over and make his shorts, even the masking tape would show up with it, it caused me to waste a lot of time sanding. This time however, that’s what I need it to do.

Hopefully once this cures overnight the Magic Sculpt will NOT stick to the Klean Klay. We’ll see, if it works then I’ll use this mode again because it allows me to sculpt over the model without having any of the clothes stuck permanently to the figure.

Shuichi - Begin the cloak attempt one

2006-08-30T22:14:00.000+10:00

-------------------------------
Time: 6hrs
Total Time : 21hrs
-------------------------------

Finally another update! I’ve taken on a second job and I’m very busy with band work also so my favourite hobby is being neglected!!! Never mind, I thought I’d make up for it by spending all these hours over the last few days. This cloak DROVE ME NUTS, but in the brain department. I started 3 days ago by taping up Shuichi’s torso so I could streamline it so I wouldn’t get all the bumps and seam lines from the crop top and the pants. That was pretty quick, then I played with so many different types of material draping over the torso so I could lay down some magic sculpt for the cloak. This was also to stop the magic sculpt sticking permanently to the figure. Once it dries its bond is really strong depending on the shape of what you have put it on and I don’t want to make the cloak a permanent part of the model.

Foam, aluminum foil, sticky tape and baking paper all failed me, at this point I had lost 4 hours and a few insanity points and decided to give up and think about it. Over the next 2 days I narrowed down the options to either using real PVC or leather as the support for the resin or wires. I went with wires and got into it tonight. I readied my magic sculpt resin, flexible 16” wire, florist wire, wire cutters, 3M tape, talcum powder, cling wrap and Klean Klay (not pictured).

I left Shuichi in the doll stand and put some Klean Klay around the base of the stand and on his feet so he wouldn’t move around. Then some blobs of clay were put around the base in the general shape of how I wanted the cloak to sit. The clay is so easy to work with and it never ever dries out. I then cut some pieces of wire off and because of the shape of the wire roll most of them had an ideal curve for the shape I wanted. I just flattened about ½ an inch on each piece so I could rest it and tape it against the torso. I wanted to have the cloak have very big creases so I placed florist wire in between the larger wire but below each one to create an ‘s’ pattern. Once I started playing with the cling wrap I found I didn’t need them and they were just in the way so I ended up pulling them all out!

I then covered the wire with cling film, this was a little tricky. It was basically a rectangular shape with an ellipse removed in the middle of one of the longer sides so it didn’t gather too much around the waistline. Took a fair bit of pulling to get it to sit how I wanted it. I stuck down the edges to the clay.

I then mixed up two balls of resin just over an inch each in diameter and rolled it out with a rolling pin using LOTS of talcum powder or the ball can be left to cure 20 minutes 1st. I rolled it very thin.

I then draped this piece over the wire frame but it only covered about 2/3 of it. I gently held the piece that rested against Shuichi’s lower back while gently pressing it over the wire frame. The creases formed at exactly the depth I wanted which was great. By the time I had spent a few minutes forming the resin over the frame the top of the resin had bonded very slightly to his lower back and I didn’t need to hold it up anymore. The whole thing, wire frame and resin are made longer than needed; this cloak only needs to come to the top of his boots so I’ll clean up the hem of it later. I rolled out a smaller piece of resin and repeated the process. Now Shuichi is ready for a ballroom dance I think, or maybe he belongs in the civil war with that skirt!!!! I’m hoping it won’t look so girly once I trim the hem.

Shuichi - Crop top

2006-08-03T15:45:00.000+10:00

-------------------------------
Time: 2hr 30mins
Total Time : 15hrs
-------------------------------
Straight back into it today!!! I’m going away for about 4 days so I thought I’d made the most of today and get the top done. The collar and existing crop top is really not good so I decided to remove the collar altogether and also sand down the lines on the existing top. This is because the magic sculpt conforms very well and when I made the shorts the masking tape was showing through the magic sculpt then!

Next I marked with a pacer the guide lines for the clothing, providing the coat lines stay on after I sand the crop top otherwise I’ll need to do them again. These were all measured and marked as accurately as possible with a ruler. The model then gets a once over with some alcohol on a cotton bud to ensure that the magic sculpt doesn’t slide off too much.

This time I did the same as with the shorts, made a series of small pieces of rolled out magic sculpt and blended the overlapping lines together. I didn’t take any mid way pics as it’s the same as before. Some areas needed to be flattened as the material looked a bit thick!! Other areas need extra pieces laid on top. All in all it took two and a half hours but that’s including the collar removed and preparation sanding.

I used lots and lots of talcum powder this time and realised that it has the same effect as smoothing with water but works even better. I can achieve an almost polished look so easily now which will reduce sanding time.

This will cure overnight but no more work is going to be done until next week!! I’m dreading that cloak.

Shuichi - Finally another update!!! Repositioning the right arm

2006-08-02T01:36:00.000+10:00

-------------------------------
Time: 1hr 15mins
Total Time : 12hrs 30mins
-------------------------------

I decided the two outstretched arms just didn’t suit what I was looking for so I thought I’d chop one and bend it upwards, this will be the microphone hand and the other hand will be holding the microphone stand. I was a bit scared about chopping and having to reform the elbow. Next time I do this I’m going to mark where the pieces joined because as soon as I chopped I couldn’t figure out which was the arm went back on once I had it in the new position!!! I used the cutting tool on the dremel to slice the arm, didn’t take very long at all although the cut was a little messy.

I pinned with a sewing pin as the wire I had was a little thick for this piece.

The gap left in the elbow was mammoth so I used some magic sculpt to reshape.

After some rough sanding and polishing the elbow is done! I broke the hands off the sprues so I could see how it all looks together, so far so good, I may have to muck around later to ensure they sit how I want.

Shuichi - Sex change part two and short shorts!!!!

2006-07-16T23:25:00.000+10:00

-------------------------------
Time: 2hrs
TotalTime : 11hrs 15mins
-------------------------------

I used ‘Magic Sculpt’ to make the shorts. You just take equal parts resin and hardener by rolling into little balls and eyeballing it, that’s all, then mix thorough by squeezing the two parts together. It’s good to put a little talcum powder on your fingers beforehand to prevent sticking. If you leave the mixed parts for about 5 minutes before working with it, it looses it stickiness anyway, but I still use talc on my hands, mat and rolling pin like you would flour for pastry. This product rolls out really thin. It conforms so well and is perfect for clothing. I masked off the panty lines and other gaps to even out the surface and the rolled piece STILL showed through these imperfections, I was very surprised.

I put a small blob of the mixture on the pelvic bone before laying out the rolled out piece, I don’t think he needs to have a ‘Ken’ style flat area, not in my opinion anyway! The rolled out piece is cut into two for front and back, it’s no particular shape, just an odd round shape that I trimmed once it was on the model. The piece is rested on top and it conforms by itself in the major areas although underneath the pelvic area needed a little push!!!

The process was then repeated on the back of the model and extra strips were added around the waistline as the shorts were sitting a bit low and some of the shapes of the masking tape underneath were showing through. Also there were some gaps on the inner thigh so more pieces added. You have a few hours working time with this product so it’s nice and easy and no rushing.

The whole lot then needed to be trimmed and smoothed out. I used some florist wire to wrap around the legs to cut the shorts to size, then a hobby knife to make a straight edge because the wire kind of pushes the edge out, used the same process for the waist line. The best part of this product is that you don’t have to bake it like many of the other hobby sculpting materials. It can be placed over anything, sticky tape, foil, cling wrap whatever you want to use. The shorts and crop top will be easy because there isn’t any shaping, but if you are doing skirts or cloaks (like I have to do later) the you can use sticky tape, foil or even material to create the shape of the clothes and then lay the ‘Magic Sculpt’ on top and it will drape naturally.

To smooth and blend all the pieces and seam lines I just used my fingers and toothpicks, the rolling motion of the toothpick is enough to mould but not alter the thickness or shape too much.

Once the shorts were shaped I smoothed the surface with my finger and water. It smoothes out really well and I put extra work in here so I can hopefully eliminate the amount I need to sand afterwards. This was left to cure overnight.

Tonight I sanded the shorts down with rough, fine and extra fine sandpaper. There are some gaps that will need filling that can’t be fixed with sanding. I may prime this area to see how it looks.

Shuichi - Sex change part one, boots also fixed + other minor fixes

2006-07-13T23:10:00.000+10:00

-------------------------------
Time: 45mins
Total Time : 5hrs 15mins
-------------------------------

I leveled off the boots last night with some ‘Magic Sculpt’, this was left overnight to cure. I had some extra time tonight so a fair bit more was achieved than expected! Sanded down the ‘Magic Sculpt’ now the boots are done. I will probably add some wire or something to them later on down the track so I can get those red rings that are around each boot. I’ll check out the hardware store sometime to see what I can find.

The rings on the top of the thighs needed to be removed. Tight bicycle pants are being added to this model so I didn’t want any bumps coming out past the normal curve of the skin. Next the torso was fixed, this is part one of the official sex change!!! I took before and after pics of a few angles.

Tattoo needed to be removed but I only sanded it off on the areas where the final skin will be exposed. The rest will be under the new crop top.

I’ve decided I want to permanently attach the legs to the torso for ease of sculpting the bike pants he’ll be wearing. This pose is so insane, it’s almost impossible to hold the legs together with the torso even with tape. Is this tactical error number one? I don’t know but I’m going with it. I used a pin vice to make the pinholes and cut the tops of some nails for the pinning. I didn’t want to use wire or anything that bends because I the pose places a lot of stress on the pieces. As I’ve yet to finish a normal resin kit, I don’t know which is stronger out of epoxy glue and superglue, so I’m going to use epoxy on the right leg and superglue on the left. I can’t imagine either of them will ever pop out but if they do I’ll be up the creek as I’m sculpting over the top. However, when I finish this project I’m not going to be painting my original, I’ll make a cast and paint that.

Shuichi - Boots sanded and ready for modification

2006-07-12T02:31:00.000+10:00

-------------------------------
Time: 1.5hrs
Total Time : 4.5hrs
-------------------------------

This time the boot only took 1 hour to sand!!! I did remember to take progress photos on how I the excess resin off. First dremel, then hobby knife, then 240 coarse grit sandpaper, then finer and finer sandpaper until it’s done! I spent some more time afterwards on the other boot just with a coarse grit to even out some bits and back up the grits to smooth it out. In future I wont use the higher grits, it's not needed to be that smooth in the end.

Shuichi - Sanding sanding . . . . .

2006-07-11T01:54:00.000+10:00

-------------------------------

Time: 1.5hrs
Total Time : 3.0hrs
-------------------------------

Well I made an official start, I sanded one boot and it took far too long!!! I used a dremel to sand off the bulk of it, then shaved some of the excess with a hobby knife, sanded by hand and polished with my toothbrush sander. Hopefully the second one will be quicker. I still have to level out the rim so it isn't a cowboy boot. If I can sand the other boot quickly enough I'll have a play with the magic sculpt tomorrow.

Garage Kit Build - Shuichi Shindou from Gravitation

2006-07-10T21:19:00.000+10:00

-------------------------------

Time: 1.5hrs
Total Time : 1.5hrs
-------------------------------

After my ongoing protests on various hobby forums about the lack of male kits I thought I’d stop whining and start playing. I’ve decided to start with Shuichi Shindou, the main character of the Gravitation anime/manga created by Maki Murakami. I’ve chosen the anime version as I prefer the character design over the manga for Shuichi in particular. He's not really one of my personal favourite male characters but he should be easier than some of the others I have in mind. I’m a beginner, I haven’t finished building/painting my first model kit but I want to have a go at kit bashing now and build up my skills as much as possible.

I took some pictures of the kit as it is. The pose is good. A lot of the kit bashing will be "adding" to the kit rather than changing it. I have to add to cloak, clothes and accessories.

The clothes will need to be sanded down even though the original model has a crop top and so does Shuichi. It still needs to be created from scratch. The boots are pretty good and will only need some minor adjustments.