Moving right along I got a lot further tonight than I thought I would. Not bad for 3 hours of work! First after priming in white I sprayed the flesh with a Tamiya “Sky” like color. Then I airbrushed on faint lines of a slightly more saturated green which isn’t visible in the pics. I then masked off the “red ears” with sticky-tack and airbrushed on the red. After I sprayed the chest and back with a medium brown color. The front was then highlighted with a desert yellow mix. The same mix was applied to the back to make the shell pattern. Then Khaki Drab was sprayed on the back shellover the brown color deepening the look. The same drab color was applied to the chest for the pattern.

At this point I used Mig Productions Liquid Mask and masked off the chest and rear shell. I also masked off the stripes with the liquid mask so that Leo will have the light stripes like real Red Eared Slider turtles. Once the mask was dry I spattered Leo with more liquid mask from a toothbrush to get some light specks on his skin later. Next I used Khaki Drab and shaded all the shadowy recesses around the muscles. Then I used Tamiya Field Gray (military green) and lightly oversprayed all the skin. The mask was rubbed off and darker stripes were hand painted on with JGSDF Drab Green. Lastly the more thin paint was spattered on and blueish veins were applied with oils.

Next I’ll start painting the flesh with a thin glaze of oil paint to further highlight and shadow the figure as well as apply detail to the chest and toe nails. The straps and mask will be painted after all the skin and shell is done.

Back when we were doing the 31 days contest on the forum, FilmMkr showed me this awesome Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figure he was working on. I managed to snag an original from the sculptor, but I think mine was from a later if not last pour from the mold. In fact the mold probably should have been pitched BEFORE mine as it made for some unfortunate monkeywork. Nothing major and I’m not posting this to knock the sculptor at all. In fact this kit is AMAZING! But it’s worth showing those wondering what happens when a rubber mold has outlived it’s prime.

As seen in the above image, after so many uses (around 15-25 depending on the complexity of the mold) the mold starts to tear and deteriorate resulting in buldges and blobs eminating from undercuts mostly.  The largest blob is seen above on the left shoulder where ther eis a big undercut between the body and shell. On this kit they were relatively easy to fix given the detail of the sculpt. Just dremmel out the buldges and refil the detail with Aves Apoxy Sculpt and add whatever textures are necessary. Here’s the result:

Notice that I removed the buldge and matched the surface texture of the surrounding areas. Not a huge fix, but worth noting for anyone else with similar issues on any type of resin kit. I replaced the resin sword hilt guards with resculpted ones I made from Sculpey as the originals were not nice. I also replaced the brass sword blades (just strips of brass supplied) with once I cut and sharpened from aluminum sheet.

Here’s the full kit ready for primer. I’ve since primed him with Mr. Base White. Later I’ll start painting him. I found out that the TMNTurtles were “Red Eared Sliders” and plan to base my skin texture on them. I’ll be giving him the “red ears” as well as some faint striping to his skin to make him look more like his pet-store brethren.

Here’s my completed Pumpkin Girl fig for the 31 Days contest. I finished her with a few days to spare which was nice. I could had completed her quicker, but I realized that I don’t really care for painting these anime girl figures. Deunan and Gally were fun since I really like the characters and they didn’t have to be so clean.  This one though… meh… It was a struggle to pay attention to it and not shelf it throughout the whole build. But it’s done and now I can focus on bigger and better things.

The base is a simple wooden box from Michaels filled with plaster for weight. The soil is made from celluclay covered in sand then painted with Raw Umber for the soil. Thread-wrapped wire and thin wire was used for the pumpkin vines. The leaves were cut-out by hand and then airbrushed along with the vines.

The painting continues. Below you’ll find the flesh painted so dar. I need to do the eye and mouth detail on the face still as well as the black clothing/gold-top which will be next.

One thing I forgot to mention is that I’ve up to this point only used the 502 Abteilung oils from Mig Production to paint her. Actually I’m pleasantly surprised at how good they’ve been here. At first I thought they’d just be useful for weathering steps like discoloration and washes but the vivid colors I’m getting and smoothness is really great. They seem to be drying a little quicker than my cheapie “Winton” oils from Michaels. Last night I used a vivid purple “Winton” but that’s only because Mig doesn’t have that color.

The wings were painted with just mixes of Black and Primer Red. The flesh tone is mixes of light rust brown + white + a little orange (not photo’d yet aside from my tamiya flesh base coat). The pumpkin is orange (faded dark yellow they call it, but it’s pumpkin orange I tells ya!), Luftwaffe yellow, and light rust brown and dark rust brown. I really like the quality of the oils as opposed to the cheap ones I usually use. I have the rest of their line on the way. They can be seen and purchased here.

Here’s the latest pics. The first shows the initial flesh painting over the tamiya flesh basecoat. It was highlighted and shaded by adding white or light rust brown to the flesh mix. Then when it was dry I took some of my saved flesh mix, added some light rust brown and added additional shading. The bow was painted using 502 snow white and Winton purple.

While working on the Dagobah Diorama I am also plugging away at the paint for this kit. Oils take a long time to dry, even with my drying box. (wooden box with a lightbulb for heat) At least a day and a half for each coat so it’s a slow process. Even so I’ve managed to paint the pumpkin skin, hair, and wings. I also painted the base-coats for everything. You can see in the pics below the base coats for the gold and flesh-tone on the main body.

I’m enjoying the process of painting with oils. My main fear was that I wouldn’t get vibrant colors for the hair and pumpkin but that’s not the case. Priming in white then base-coating in the color you want helps a lot. Here’s the pics.