Friday, May 11, 2012

Archer Rain Mikamura GK - Complete

Finished 1-2012

Made for a GK Contest. My Rain Mikamura, with a small mod. Her breasts were separate and looked unnatural to me because, in the anime, there is a system that coats the body in a form-fitting fabric…but it shouldn't suction-cup around each breast, it should stretch across them. So, I puttied in-between the breasts to simulate stretched clothing. Also, the bow came with a thin piece of resin as the string…but I didn't like the look of it, so I removed it and glued a piece of clear fishing wire in its place. The base is made from the lid of a can of Fix-a-Flat XD She still tries to topple a tad if pushed, so I'm looking into a way to weight down the one side a bit more.

I was going for a very pearly, glossy look to her costume, like this picture: http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs15/f/2007/ ... emeGod.jpg

The black parts came out more purple than I would have liked, but it still looks okay and I didn't want to spray transparent black over it to darken it for fear of losing the consistent pearly luster. The pictures from the anime show the bow and spiral resin base being pink, but I thought it looked strange, so I opted for white with lavender/violet gradient.  *As always, click for larger images.

Please enjoy my third completed kit, Rain Mikamura.

























Thursday, May 10, 2012

Touka Izayoi GK - Complete

Completed 5-2012

My fourth completed GK.  Prep was wonderful, she has great keys and fit wonderfully; only very minimal putty work.  I'm unfamiliar with the character, so I painted her differently.  Taking photos gave me the biggest headache because purples do not like to photograph properly >_<  The pictures I'm posting have two versions; one is a very crisp photo with a beautiful white balance that shows all the colors true except the purples, the second is a toned white balance that makes the other colors look a little different but shows the purple more accurately.   The sheer black fabric looks nice in person but it doesn't photopgraph well.  It also came out a bit glossier than I'd wanted but I left it because I thought it broke up some of the matteness.  Everything is airbrushed except eyes, nails and sword detailing.  My first real attempt at highlighting and most of it in the hair is lost because of the camera issues, but you can see it alright on her ponytail.  The gray highlights looked nice while the paint was wet but dulled down once it dried, after I'd already torn off the masking so I just said screw it.  Shading done with chalk pastel; Tamiya and Vallejo paints.  Skin is clear Tamiya paints, done like lacquer clear skin methods.

The base was made of two small plywood ovals from a craft store, that I glued together and puttied the edges to make it smooth.  I cut out a sheet of scrapbook paper and used Mod Podge for the adhesive and top coats.  Wetsanded and then matte varnish to complete it, very simple.  I also made a small charm that hangs from the handle of her sword. White ribbon has a very light mist of Jaquard Pearl Pigments on it to give it some flair. I discovered that I'm much better at highlighting and general painting with an airbrush than I am shading o_O  So I shaded with a brush and chalk pastels again.  *As always, click for larger images.

Anyways, please enjoy my fourth completed GK, Touka Izayoi.




























Just playing with some exposure.


The purples look more like this irl, oh well XD