1/7 (Kotobukiya recast) Kinoshita Takako (Chinese Dress ver)

[Tidalwave]

Hi all,

Longtime lurker here.  Found out about the "31 days" competition on Feb 19th, so didn't have much time to consider joining or not.  In the end, it was more of a "why not?".  I was going to post this thread on Saturday, but I've been "internet-less" at home since last Thursday...

I'll be buiding a (cheap) recast of Kotobukiya's 1/7 Kinoshita Takako (Chinese Dress ver).  I bought this kit on eBay several years ago (along with one other kit) before I knew anything about crappy recasts; and it's been sitting in the box since then.  It's one of the only two non-Gundam kits I have on-hand, so I don't have much selection to work with.

I hope I'm not way over my head with this project, because:
- though I've built plenty of Gundams and kitbashed a lot of Transformers, I've never built a resin kit before
- I'll be "breaking-in" my new airbrush with this kit (an Iwata Eclipse HP-SBS my girlfriend bought me for my birthday)
Let's hope I don't make too much of a mess.

And my proof: my sales receipt from Toys R Us!

1/7 (Kotobukiya recast) Kinoshita Takako (Chinese Dress ver)

[FilmMkr]

Ya gotta start somewhere!!  Rock and roll . . .

[Tidalwave]

Small-ish update, considering that it's been 6-7 days into the contest...

Major parts roughly pinned together, with most gaps, pinholes, gashes, and whatever else filled.  Large gaps were filled with Aves Apoxie Sculpt, smaller defects were patched up with Tamiya Basic Putty.  Man this cheap recast sucks.  Nothing fits together nicely!  Fortunately, that can always be fixed.

1/7 (Kotobukiya recast) Kinoshita Takako (Chinese Dress ver)

My two problematic areas were her right arm and right leg.  The right arm was annoying because not only should her shoulder fit into the socket (obviously), her upper arm is pressed onto her side.  The right leg was annoying because it should (obviously) not only fit into her hip, but it also pressed against her left leg.  And the tip of her right-shoulder-part of her dress was chipped, so I had to reconstruct that.

1/7 (Kotobukiya recast) Kinoshita Takako (Chinese Dress ver)

1/7 (Kotobukiya recast) Kinoshita Takako (Chinese Dress ver)

I wanted to prime her yesterday evening, but the weather was not permitting...

[Tidalwave]

Updates have been slow this week.  Toss up between other priorities in life, and the fact that I kept finding pinholes and scratches/gashes after several runs of puttying/sanding/priming...

Anyhow, here's the final test-fit of the major parts before painting.  My base will be the scratchbuilt simple circular "table" she's on right now; I'm going to put a white cloth over it, along with some mini plates with "food" on it made with Apoxie Sculpt, to make it a sort of dim-sum style table.

1/7 (Kotobukiya recast) Kinoshita Takako (Chinese Dress ver)

Here's a close up of the head/face/body.  I know I use a really dark primer, but it's better (in terms of smoothness and spray consistency) when compared to the lighter primers I can find easily around here.

1/7 (Kotobukiya recast) Kinoshita Takako (Chinese Dress ver)

This actually marks another milestone for me; I've never tried using wood-related products/parts in my model-building before.

Oh, and I do realize that there appears to be a small gap between her right leg and her hip in the above pictures.  It turns out that, after "fixing" the gaps at her right shoulder and right hip, her right palm and her right thigh no longer lie on the same "flat plane" surface.  I'm really not feeling up to cutting up the kit at this point, so I'll adjust the tabletop to accomodate the screw-up.

[Tidalwave]

A bit bigger of an update...

Finished rigging up my new spray booth Saturday (March 7th) morning, but was busy all day.
Sunday, I got the base coats for the skin and the hair done.  The skin's a little darker than what I had hoped, but I'll leave it like that.  The hair came out nicely, though, I think.  No pics, unfortunately.

Monday night's update: got the bulk of the shading and highlighting done on the skin and hair.  The contrast is not very apparent; the shadows and highlights are pretty subtle.  Though I've been told that artificial lights do that, and the contrast is better seen in natural light?  I work under fluorescent tubing, so that might be the issue...

Shaded and highlighted!  Though it's not very obvious in the pics below either way...

1/7 (Kotobukiya recast) Kinoshita Takako (Chinese Dress ver)

1/7 (Kotobukiya recast) Kinoshita Takako (Chinese Dress ver)

I'm still somewhat open with what colors to paint her clothes, but I have rough idea of what I want, I think.
I was thinking of sticking with the default white dress and stockings, and making her shoes a light pink.  The trim on the dress is going to be red, I gotta figure something out for those patterned decals on her dress.  Seeing as how her dress is incredibly tight (tight enough to contour her breasts, and reveal her navel and nipples), I'm thinking of turning her a tad sexier by making the dress a little sheer...  but, we'll see how that goes.

[blackito]

For your first resin kit you are doing an amazing job man keep it up. I bought like 2-3 resin kits and then realized that I need some major skills to paint them and like an idiot I bought 2 more last week. I am too scared to paint them. I need to get a cheap one to practice
Anyways I like the blue for the hair. Looks even and smooth. Looking forward to the food you gonna make. Also for the dress are you going to paint little flowers on it or keep it plain?

[Tidalwave]

For your first resin kit you are doing an amazing job man keep it up. I bought like 2-3 resin kits and then realized that I need some major skills to paint them and like an idiot I bought 2 more last week. I am too scared to paint them. I need to get a cheap one to practice
Anyways I like the blue for the hair. Looks even and smooth. Looking forward to the food you gonna make. Also for the dress are you going to paint little flowers on it or keep it plain?

Thanks for the compliments and encouragement.  I'm just taking this kit slowly and all, since building one of these is drastically different than building a Gundam...  Though, I have had many years of experience working with CG-ing anime girls through Photoshop, so I suppose that helps a bit... albeit without the practical availability of CTRL-Z at any time.   

For the dress: I'm looking to see how to use some of that Testors decal paper.  Gonna experiment with that this coming week, I guess.  I'm not sure if I'm going to try to replicate the designs that are there by default, or to try to make up my own designs.  Gonna do a bit of research on different cheongsam to see if I find anything inspiring.

[Tidalwave]

Yay, another update.

Hair was shaded/highlighted before, and is now clear-coated in a semi-gloss (I think pretty girls should always have somewhat shiny hair).

Legs are almost done; everything has been shaded/highlighted: thighs in flat, stockings in a light purple satin, shoes in pink gloss.  The only part that is currently unpainted are the two garters; gonna take care of those tomorrow.

Arms have been masked off the paint the gloves; those have been painted and shaded in a light pink (same as the shoes), but still need to add the trim to it.

Facial details have been mostly painted; still need to add the eye's iris and highlights, paint her lip and add the anime-style "blush".

Head has been masked off the paint the dress; the dress will be the same pink as the gloves and shoes.  Seeing as how the dress is so tight and form-fitting, most of the dress will be halfway between skin-colored and pink-like-the-gloves-colored.  Ridges, folds and whatnot that isn't directly touching the skin will be pure pink.  I guess I'm trying to go for a semi-sheer kind of look.

1/7 (Kotobukiya recast) Kinoshita Takako (Chinese Dress ver)

As for the pattern on the dress, I've decided not to follow the "default" chinese characters and roses like it's on the package.  As per my girlfriend's suggestion, I'm going to print some butterfly waterslide decals and put those on.  They're going to be like this; there's going to be 5-6 of them on her dress in total, each about 3/4 inch across:

1/7 (Kotobukiya recast) Kinoshita Takako (Chinese Dress ver)

I'm going to keep the gradient effect on the butterflies, but I'm not sure if I should make each of them a different color, or if they should all have the same colors...  What do you guys think?

[chaos_theory]

be careful of gradients, they sometimes print very pixelated. Nice job so far on the paint. Good color choices.

[Tidalwave]

More updates!

Man, I feel so behind, seeing as how some people have already finished, and I'm nowhere near there yet.  Still, I should be alright for the March 23rd deadline...

Anyhow.  Legs have been completed since last update; all that was needed were the garters.  Arms are getting there, just need to clearcoat since I just painted on the red trim.  Hair ribbon and waist "badge-thinggie" need a couple of touch-ups and those will be fine too.  The dim-sum container (I have no idea what that's called in English) is done as well.

Onto the body, which is really the most tedious part. 

1/7 (Kotobukiya recast) Kinoshita Takako (Chinese Dress ver)

Decalled and waiting to be clearcoated once before I paint on the red trim.  I ended up opting for the same color butterflies all over; a purple/pink gradient.  I originally started out with 5 butterflies, but I wrecked up one of them (hey, it's my first time actually using decals, let alone making my own).  So I ended up with just 4.  Oh well.
I also realized I forgot to paint her pantsu, so I'll get to that later.  Face has been completed as well, as seen below.

Close up of the face.

1/7 (Kotobukiya recast) Kinoshita Takako (Chinese Dress ver)

Yes, she's wearing a masking-tape neck-brace for the time being until I finish up her dress.
I had actually screwed up the face twice.  First time, I had gotten the eyeball painted, and was trying to paint the iris.  Screwed up a little bit there, tried to clean it up, and ended up smearing her eyelashes.  Talk about runny makeup.  The second time, I had done the eye properly, and was trying to get the anime-style blush streak.  Messed up the blush when my finger twitched, and again, tried to clean it up and ended up removing more paint than necessary.  Third time's a charm, I guess.

Boob-shot!

1/7 (Kotobukiya recast) Kinoshita Takako (Chinese Dress ver)

I wasn't completely satisfied with what I hoped looked like a semi-transparent dress where you could see her nipples underneath.  There was still a tad too much contrast between the dress and the nipple, and I didn't want it to attract as much attention.  So I misted more pink over it, and placed the butterfly decals so that one of her nipples were just poking out of the side of the pattern.

[blackito]

You really are doing well bro. Keep working at it am sure you will be fine for the deadline. I can't wait to see this one done. By the way for the decals you just printed them on decal paper with a normal printer?

[Tidalwave]

You really are doing well bro. Keep working at it am sure you will be fine for the deadline. I can't wait to see this one done. By the way for the decals you just printed them on decal paper with a normal printer?

Thanks for the encouragement.  :)

Yep, the decals were printed from my inkjet printer (an Epson CX4400) onto Testors Clear Decal Paper.  The clear decal paper makes the whole decal semi-clear, even the printed parts.  Which was fine for me on this one since the purple and pink blends kinda nicely, I find.  It's my first time using this Testors Decal Paper, and I do have some questions/concerns about it, but I'll save that for the Model Help section of the forums instead.

Anyhow, minor update: everything on the figure itself has been painted and clear-coated.  The eye I opted to put a heavy gloss layer on; 'cause, I mean, who wants an eyeball that's not nice and shiny?  Assembly will be tomorrow.  I still haven't really touched the display base much; I only have a couple of days for that.  Fortunately, I'm not going for anything uber-elaborate, so I should be okay to be 100% done by Sunday so that I can take my pictures then.  No pictures for this update; the figure is close enough to completion that it's not really worthwhile at this point.