Psylocke

[Bengalensis]

I need to get working on another figure again, and from the stash I picked Psylocke, another charming character. I fell for this kit immediately when I first saw it was coming just because of her pose. I think the character comes from some sort of game, but that's not too important to me, as usual I just love the overall look and attitude.

Here's the complete kit, as usual the resin casting looks very well done. I'm not sure I will use the supplied base; I'll decide when she's coming together a bit. Her outfit will probably be blue with a red sash as is often seen, with dark purple hair and the red flash painted over her left eye. A Google picture search on Psylocke provides plenty of references when needed, well worth a look.

First is cleaning up and dry fitting all parts, I'm starting with the torso and legs.

There are few air bubbles that needs filling.

The leg parts where quickly cleaned up and I could do some loose dry fitting. Here on the supplied base.

Ever since I first saw the kit I've had the idea to use a plain base as most of my other figures have, but positioning her on the edge as if she's throwing herself off the base to attack the viewer. Maybe even use a size larger base than this? Any thoughts are of course welcome.

[nimrod54]

I'm looking forward to watching your progress Jorgen.

[Col.]

An interesting start Jorgen. I think the base you are proposing will add extra life and a sense of movement to this one.

[Billydick]

Interesting Jorgen - she's another E2046 figure I guess? The quality of the sculpting and moulding is just amazing on these figures. I'm looking forward to your progress with her ......

I think the plain black circular base is the better of the two. It's more subtle and will have more impact on the viewer.

BillyD

[Bengalensis]

Thanks guys, I will continue my plan to place her on the edge of a plain base, will try sizes later. Yes, I got this one too from E2046.

Her arms were cleaned up and test fitted.

Then I removed the large lug for the original base, I will probably have to do some adjustments later when she's assembled.

The sword was slightly warped, and as I was starting to straighten it with heat from the hair dryer it snapped off at the handle.

I drilled out both ends and glued them together with a thin piece of metal rod for strength and finished the straightening.

[Bengalensis]

I glued all her main body parts which was an easy job. Epoxy at the core for strength and CA on the edges for immediate setting and sealing the joints.

But changing the base isn't as easy as I thought it would be. It turns out the original base is in two levels with her left hand supporting her at a 4-5 mm lower level.

That means that I would have to shorten her arm 4-5 mm if her hand is going to be on the base like this. Changing the legs and feet is a much more problematic option I don't want to get into. Shortening the arm is easy, but I fear it would be visible that something is not right, it almost look short as it is. Making it longer to put the hand outside the base would make the arm too long.

Another option might be to cut up the hand somewhat to change its angle and adapt the fingers so it grips around the edge of the base.

That would enable this pose on the base, but the job on the hand seems tricky to get right. I do think it would look much better than the other way though, so perhaps it's worth considering. As always any thoughts are most welcome.

[Anthony Kesterton]

Having the hand hold the base sounds like a great idea, or a slanted base. You might also consider a simpler base (a block rather than the one you have now).

[Bonehammer]

I didn't know this existed! Nice figure and cool pose. Certainly better than my still unfinished attempt:

Psylocke is a long established character in the X-Men comics. Despite the Asian appearance, she's as Brit as fish and chips.

You can omit the red flash as it's linked to a minor episode in her story and its appearance was short-lived.

Her katanas are not real (she doesn't carry a sheath), as they're a manifestation of her mental powers, and in the comics are rendered as fuchsia and translucent; you could make the blades out of a coloured CD case if you wish.

All this is of course FYI, to be used or discarded at will.

I see the problem you're having with the base. Chopping off the hand at the wrist, where the creases are, and rotating it downwards so that she 'grabs' the edge of the base seems the easiest way to solve it. The fingers seem thin enough that they can be repositioned after a dip in hot water or a few minutes with a hairdryer.

Edited September 20, 2014 by Bonehammer

[Bengalensis]

Wow, that's a real project Bonehammer, would be nice to see her finished one day. Interesting facts on Psylocke, I haven't read about her but from pictures and some cosplayers interpretation of her I guessed a real sword isn't quite right. I like the idea of a mental sword in coloured transparent plastic and deleting the sheath, I'll definitely look into that. The red flash over her eye will definitely be there as I like the look.

I gave different bases that would accommodate her pose without any modifications a thought yesterday, but I would like to keep the one I'm playing with now. Mainly I think because it's the same as my other figures in this "genre", keeping the collection together. Not sure how important it is though, one day that argument will be broken anyway.

I finished the parts for her sash which will look like this.

I also finished all the hair pieces. The fit is not perfect but I think it will work if tied together while the glue cures. I could only get down from six to three main pieces before paint and assembly. I like as few as possible but I won't get it on her head otherwise.

[nimrod54]

Excellent work Jorgen. I'm amazed at how quickly you get these parts refined and ready for fitting. I guess that having done a few of these figures helps you to understand the best way of assembling and painting them.

Keep up the good work.

[JackG]

ohhh, you got this one on the bench, nice!

I too had this one on pre-order as soon as I saw it, not knowing who she was at the time - just too beautiful a sculpt to pass up. I think the painted version had her hair sculpted in clear plastic, as it had some pretty keen colour effects on the ends of her locks. Too bad the ones we received are all resin, oh well.

Very good start on her, and looking forward to more.

regards,

Jack

[Bengalensis]

Thanks guys. I also pre-ordered her first thing when I saw her in the news mail, couldn't pass on such a pose.

I have decided to delete the sword sheath and redo the sash at her back. Not sure if I will make a new sword from clear plastic or try some painting to make the resin sword including the handle to represent a mental sword.

[Bengalensis]

Some filler applied to her back to smooth the sash, now that the sword sheath is out of the equation.

[Bengalensis]

I think this work on the sash will do. We'll see after some primer how it looks.

[nimrod54]

Lovely job Jorgen you have got it to blend in nicely. What did you use as filler?

[Bengalensis]

Thanks a lot. I use PP100 2-part filler for things like this.

[giemme]

Hello Jörgen, I can foresee another excellent build here

If it's not too late, I'd like to share my opinion about the base: I would go as per the last two pics, with her hand holding or leaning on the base border. Looks more dynamic to me

Ciao

[Chango]

I've got this kit too... I'm excited to see how she turns out!

[Knikki]

Hi Jogen I really do like the figure work you have done.

Out of interest what do you use to paint on the resin?

Oils,

Airbrush

Acrylics

Or mix of things?

Would love to do a kit like this (plus the other figure kits I have yet to do ) just never worked up the courage to get one.

[heloman1]

An interesting project Jorgen, she looks like a combatant floor gymnast or ninja. Maybe a flagstone under her knee would be appropriate and stil use the circular base. A simple square stone with some slight contour/detail?

I do like your choice of subject, it has me fasinated.

Colin

[Bengalensis]

Thanks a lot for the encouragements. If you are tempted to try doing some figures, I can really recommend going for it. To me it opened up a new modeling genre and all my other model building/painting benefited from that.

I'm not sure I'm very qualified to talk about what to use for figure painting as I'm very much in a learning and experimentation curve myself, every new one I do is a bit of a trial... I think the best advice is to use what you are generally comfortable with and be prepared to try and redo if it didn't work.

I paint my large figures with a mix of products. For most of them I have used Vallejo white acrylic primer, mostly as I haven't got much need to sand the primer. However, as time goes by I tend to use Alclad white primer instead as it sands nicely and I like it much better. All airbrushed. Tamiya white spray can primer is also great if you prefer that.

For the skin tones I use the set from Lifecolor which also contains shadows and highlights. I usually airbrush for this kind of figures that are relatively large, like 1/6 or 1/8 scale. The smaller they get the more brush painting I do. Psylocke is quite muscular and I may be brush painting more shadows and highlights on her.

The rest of the painting is very much a mix, with an overweight for enamels and oils for washing/dry brushing, mainly I think as I'm used to how they work compared to acrylics. Sometimes I use Citadel's range. Psylocke's dress here will be blue and I don't think I have any suitable blue paints, so I will probably try some Citadel cans of blue shades. For swords blades and the like I often airbrush Alclad. For clear coats I use acrylics, be they gloss or flat.,

And the base; it will be the smaller round one and I will modify her hand to grip around the edge. I'll start with that and then see if any more additions/work is needed.

[Will Vale]

Always nice to see your figures in progress, I think the car modelling must give you a very clean approach and it suits the anime subjects very well.

Will

[Bengalensis]

Thanks Will. I think you may have a point there as I find it much easier to adapt to building and painting these figures than I have to the tank I'm trying to build in the WW1 GB, not to mention how scary some "real" human figures like soldiers/warriors look...

[Will Vale]

Whereas I'm much happier if there's some grot or dirt or something that I can hide behind

[Sgt.Squarehead]

I'm with Will.....Mud spatters can hide many sins!

Really looking forward to watching this build progress and especially to seeing how you paint the figure.....I've recently invested in some more (and better quality) oils for figure painting and I have a couple of large scale figures to experiment with.