Konrad Popławski Posted June 20, 2021 Share Posted June 20, 2021 Hello It is my second project at Britmodeler forum. I would still work on my Millennium Falcon, Its very demanding project, as I want to heavy modify the vanilla Bandai kit. This miniature seems to fit a bit more to my usual working environment. Here I plan to focus on painting since the very beginning. The miniature is 90 mm (1/18 scale) and is distributed by Aradia miniatures: https://aradiaminiatures.com/index.php?id_product=49&controller=product There were 2 significant problems that were preventing me for painting this miniature earlier. First was money. It does cost a little fortune (75 € + shipment). This one could be somehow overcamed as I really want to paint it. The second was avability and this one totally destroyed my plans. They offered the miniature in a limited edition – only 190 units. To add the spice I will stress that all of them were sold in just 44 hours. A couple of weeks ago when I was scrolling aliexpress I saw this miniature and was quite shocked. The Chinese wanted only 25% of the original product and were selling it with free worldwide shipping. The miniature seems to look pretty much the same as the original Aradia product. Even though I was quite sceptic, but the pictures taken by a real buyers convinced me to give it a shot. When I opened the package, I know (just from a fist glance) it will be a good product. Ofcorse there were many bad mold lines and other mold errors but after all, it was not as bad as I was previously expecting it to be. Probably those lucky sweethearts who bought the original product could benefit from a perfect casting. I simply had no choice and got down to work. Here You have some photos of the product before cleaning process: To sum up I would like to point that there were obviously some features of this bold that help the caster achieve a good result. · There aren’t many complex shapes. · The miniature is quite big –so details are asier to copy. · It was deviated in many pieces. Soon I will show You wchat i have managed to do after mold cleaning process. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Konrad Popławski Posted June 22, 2021 Author Share Posted June 22, 2021 Ok I am after the mold line cleaning. The actual pile of waste resine was probably much bigger since i was sandind and scrybing a lot. After couple of hours I recived this: Very soon after this, I started to glue the parts with epoxy glue. I found that it’s good to add a bit of paint to the epoxy. This way You can actually see it and don’t miss any unwanted spot. It is simply much easier to control it. Any epoxy excess can be easily removed with isopropyl alcohol. I used this epoxy-paint mix to fill up all the mold cavities. I think that it’s a good solution since the epoxy dries super smooth and rock solid. I have pinned almost all parts: The process of gluing was quite complicated, very time consuming since my epoxy dries in 12H, and I cannot speed up the process with backing In next post I will show You the fairly 100% glues and ready for priming. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Konrad Popławski Posted June 23, 2021 Author Share Posted June 23, 2021 (edited) Ok the fairy has been assembled. You can spot some filthy spots. It’s the residue of a little painting – I would like to check some of the uncertain areas before real painting, It will be easly fixed before priming. This step is crucial if You want to have good resoult in the end. There is nothing worse to spot a gap or some kind of uneven area after hours on painting. It is much better to do it at the beginning – now its only a little cost I have added a small ring made with solder wire on her left hand finger. So one again I did some fine sanding on spots that required it and I wasn’t able to detect them earlier. After that the fairy toke a bath – an ultrasonic bath 😜 Next spet is obvious - priming. Edited July 17, 2021 by Konrad Popławski 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Konrad Popławski Posted June 23, 2021 Author Share Posted June 23, 2021 Priming is done. First black cote was done with Citadel black can primer. I do believe it’s the best primer on a market - it really does the job. Besides of that it was the final chance to spot any surface problems. Next, I added grey tones and lights to determine the master light sources. This will help me in the future to better control lights and shadows In the IKEA I have spotted a nice glass dome - I believed I will use it in this project. Unfortunately its too small. I barely holds only fairy not mentioning about the flower. Yet I will use it as an anti-dust shield between the painting sessions. The dome looks wet – sorry for that it is from exterior side. I wanted to clean it a bit but it was not fully dry before I took this picture. A picture of primers and paints used: To finish this step I used some cotton swabs to smooth the surface – I do think it’s crucial for a good result later. As I said before the primers are very good and I was not afraid to use some force here. The colors of the primers do not need to be sprayed super solid. The little micro black dots You can see (here and there) will even be beneficial later. The skin tone never is homogenic. I will surely often get back to these pictures later. Next task - some base colors on the wings. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Rose Posted June 24, 2021 Share Posted June 24, 2021 Looking good, like how you've shown the direction of the lighting at this stage. And it's funny I bought that exact dome from IKEA years ago and every time I think of a model to put in it its always a bit too big to fit inside! So it's still sitting in a cupboard 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Konrad Popławski Posted June 25, 2021 Author Share Posted June 25, 2021 Thank You! Some reference photos - my inspiration: As promised, I have started the wings. I will post below some pictures. I used aero and placed some base tones. It should give You the general idea where I am and where I’m going to. I definitely need to push the contrast more - especially top lights and deepest shadows. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_W Posted June 27, 2021 Share Posted June 27, 2021 Nice. Have you considered pearlescent car paint? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Konrad Popławski Posted July 10, 2021 Author Share Posted July 10, 2021 (edited) Hi, Quote Nice. Have you considered pearlescent car paint? I do believe that this type of paint, although very cool, doesn’t fit to this fable theme. I do believe it will be nice in some cyberpunk character but not here. The main objective of least panting session was to push the contrast higher and add this real pain in my bottom back wing borders. I have spent on them some really long hours and probably will spent more later. As I see the miniature in reality its ok, but here on some big resolution photos there are some nasty grains that needs attention. In other hand, there is not much to worry; I know how to fix it easily. When they fully dry I will sand them a bit. Any way here are some progress photos: Generally, I would consider this wing as a good base for nest step – oils. They are surely some areas that need fixes before that– especially those close to the back of the fairy. I am still not satisfied with lights. Probable will push them a bit more with some subtle yellow tint later – with oils. The black borders need highlighting as well – but not too much. Edited July 10, 2021 by Konrad Popławski 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted July 20, 2021 Share Posted July 20, 2021 Some really nice work going into this, the wings are looking very nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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