{"id":385,"date":"2008-10-24T16:48:59","date_gmt":"2008-10-25T00:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fichtenfoo.net\/blog\/?p=385"},"modified":"2009-10-09T16:35:34","modified_gmt":"2009-10-09T21:35:34","slug":"completed-%c2%bb-astraea-type-f","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fichtenfoo.net\/blog\/completed-%c2%bb-astraea-type-f\/","title":{"rendered":"Completed \u00c2\u00bb Astraea Type F"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"fichtenfoo-astraeaf-20\"<\/a><\/p>\n

About The Build \u00c2\u00bb<\/p>\n

I’ve been wanting to paint something in pink
\nfor a while now, but aside from perhaps the Infinite Justice,
\nI couldn’t decide what else might look good. Then I picked
\nup the Astraea Type F and it looked perfect for a pink-build!<\/p>\n

The kit itself was very easy to put together.
\nNot a whole lot of seams or masking involved when painting.
\nThe parts fit is perfect as usual with Bandai kits. This kit
\ncomes with all the things that the other Astraea comes with,
\nbut has extra parts for the “mask”.<\/p>\n

The worst part of the kit was the rubber parts
\nfor the panels in the arms, legs, and “kidneys”.
\nI replaced those with ribbed styrene sheet.<\/p>\n

Ironically the most difficult part of this kit
\nwas getting a good pink color. I prefer Tamiya Acrylics and
\nthere was just no mixes that I could find that came out vivid
\nenough. So I decided to seek out some Magenta Pigment in order
\nto tint some flat white to the shade I need. Well, apparently
\nMagenta Pigment isn’t cheap so I went to Michaels to have
\na look around.<\/p>\n

I found some PearlEx pigment sets, and Series
\n2 had just the color I wanted. Unfortunately (or so I thought)
\nit had a pearescent sheen to it. I decided to get it anyway
\nand work with it. It ended up working perfectly and the pearl
\nsheen was really minimized when mixed with the flat white.
\nI mixed enough pigment with my white to get the desired color
\nand did a test spray. It went on a little thick and lumpy,
\nbut thinning it much more fixed that. The end result was the
\nperfect color. In fact, I also have a pearl cyan and yellow
\nthat I could potentially use to make any color I want via
\nCMYK values.<\/p>\n

Another benefit of the pearl powders was in
\ndoing a color-shift GN-Particle effect to the clear parts
\nand lenses. To achieve this I sprayed the back of the clear
\nparts with Future + Green PearlEx, then I added blue pearlEx
\nto that and sprayed the back-side again, finally I added clear
\ngreen Tamiya to that and gave it a final spray. Then dip it
\nin future to give it a nice gloss and place it over Alclad
\nChrome painted internals for the full effect. The end result
\nis fantastic and unfortunately much better looking in person.
\nAlmost gem-like.<\/p>\n\n\t\t