1/6 Queens Blade Mercenary Echidna

[clee-cm]

Hi All, I am going to build the 1/6 Mercenary Echidna figure for this contest, I ordered her a while back. I got both Echidna and several other kits at the same time, so I have not had the chance to build her until now. I will have to start thinking of how I am going to buid the base for the model.

[clee-cm]

Ok, here is my proof... 

screen proof

I went a head and took a photo of the parts laid out in front of the local newspaper as well. You can see the sad state of affairs in California, the state is falling apart left and right.   

     figure proof      figure proof

[clee-cm]

Now that I have completed the test build of my Hazel, it is time to focus on this project. Today, I started removing the nubs, sanding down the seams and removing the flashes. Over all, the casting is very good, but the fingers have lots of flashes on them, but it is not as bad as Heat-Blade's hands.

So far, I have removed all of the nubs, and I have progress far enough to do a test build.

     
Nubs cut off                                        Test fit...

[clee-cm]

Tonight, I finished pinning and sanding all of the parts for the figure, I performed a test fit and most of the parts fit. Except for the chest armor plates, I had to use some hot water to soften up the parts and reshape the pieces.

          Test fit                             shield                    shoulder armor

[FichtenFoo]

It was hard to tell before but some of those shield and face details are pretty nice. Are they supposed to be a tarnished copper? You might want to try the "Sophisticated Finishes" copper patina set. Michaels has it. Like their resu antiquing set it creates a perfect copper-green patina.

[clee-cm]

Thanks for the idea, I was thinking about the same thing. I was tossing around a few ideas on what to do with the detail on all of the parts.

[clee-cm]

I have no new photos to put up today, I have finished drilling and gluing rods to all of the parts. Now I have scrubbed and cleaned all of the pieces of the model. The next step for me is to paint all of the pieces with primer.

[clee-cm]

After I finished cleaning all of the parts I primed everything this morning. Using sandable primer, I coated all of the parts and let the paint dry for a bit, then I painted the other side of the parts.

Priming parts

Priming the parts the easiest part or the whole process, it is the clean up that I hate. Here is a close up of the sword after it has been primed.

Queen's blade - sword

Later in the day I went to Michaels and bought the base plus other supplies for the base. But I did not buy any type of paint of metalic surfacer like Patina, I am going to hold off and wait a little while before I start anything like that, I have not decided what color I am going to paint the metallic colored parts of the model.

Later in the day, I sanded the base and coated it with some polyurethane.

base

[clee-cm]

On Sunday, I sanded down the foam block to shape and later applied modeling paste to the foam block. I was not sure what I am going to with the block of foam tha I bought, so after doing some thinking, I decided to make it look like she was standing on the remnant of a man made structure of some sort. I used a hand saw to cut the basic circular shape of the base, then I used a piece of sand paper wrapped around a bottle to sand the circular indentations in the foam.

            Base basic shape                     Base indentations cut

Once the sanding is completed, I used a palette knife to apply the modeling paste to the surface of the foam, I did not try to make the modeling paste's surface perfectly smooth. If the surface is going to be stone like, then it will have to be course and rough. It took 24 hours for the modeling paste to dry and set completely. My idea is that she is standing on what is left of a giant column. I am not going to create a entire section of a stone column, instead I wanted to give the impression that she was standing on the remnant of column.

     Base - sanded                     Base - sanded

Now, I have to find some rocks and stones to simulate rubble...

[nico]

Eh eh that's nice.

[clee-cm]

Yep... Nothing daring or exciting...    just another progress post... 

[clee-cm]

I did another test build of the primed parts for the figure to night, all of the pieces fit together, more or less. I did find a few places that I will have to sand down again, but otherwise I am very close to painting the figure.

sword and figure              closeup rear            close up front                Rear                      Front         

The test build went fairly smoothly, one of the Pauldrons fell off of the shoulders as I took the photos. The other annoying thing is that the pieces of armor breast plates are still not lining up like I hope the would, I am on my 3rd round of softening the pieces in hot water and bending them.

[clee-cm]

I have started to paint all of the parts, I applied the base undercolor for the armor and clothing, plus the skin color of Echidna. I am using Dark Grey for the armor and light grey for the clothing, the clothing will be a off-white color with the grey color showing through. I am going to make the thigh high stockings semi-translucient, I am not sure what color yet. I still have not decided on what color to paint the armor, I am playing around with a few different ideas in my head right now. The hair color is going to be a grey with a greenish tint to it.

          Queen's blade - armor              Queen's blade - pieces

[clee-cm]

I have been busy painting the all of the parts for Echidna, after allowing the base colors to dry and set properly. I painted the flesh tones, the armor and boots. For the boots and breast plate, I painted white over the primer coat, then use Tamiya Aluminum to coat the white paint. I am trying to achieve a speckled silver color on the boots and clothing, these parts are going to be lighter in color than the pauldrons and shield, which were painted with Tamiya German Grey and misted with Metallic Grey.

      Painted - Legs                    Painted - Armor                  Painted - Sword


   Painted - Armor 2      Painted - Parts

[clee-cm]

Like everyone else, I have run into my share of snags in my project...

So far, I am making good progress on the model, but the most nagging issue are the seams from the casting process. Many of them are very fine and not very noticeable until I started paint the parts. After I painted the flesh and grey shades onto the figure,  I noticed that there were some fine seams on some of the parts. I had to go back and sand down the seam lines that I could find, the biggest annoyance is that I am still finding them. 

Most of the painting is finished at this point in time, I am busy inking and detailing all of the parts...

Sorry, no test assemble has been done yet. I should be finished with the base this weekend...

[clee-cm]

I spent most of the time between updates inking the parts of the figure, and painting in the detail like the eyes, lips, stockings, and other related parts of the model. I used what is left of my Tamiya Aluminum to dry brush the detail on the armor and shield, I think everything turned out rather nicely.

inked detail

I assembled all of the pieces for Echidna herself, except the sword, I still have to paint the red tip in the blade. Otherwise I am finished with the model.

Echidna 1           Echidna 2          Echidna 3

This weekend I will paint the base and the I should be done with the entire project.