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Webmonkey's Garage Kits,...


Webmonkey

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And, much to my personal joy, I have invested in an airbrush. It only cost $75, and is adjustable from about a pencil line width, all the way up to about 2 1/2 inches. Should suit my needs fairly well. Only down side,.. I'll have to run it off of the cans of compressed air, (like the one you see in the box in the picture), for a bit until I can get a compressor for it. Luckily, this model is capable of being run off of either type of air source. Sadly though, I'll have to wait another couple of weeks to build up the cash before I can upgrade though.

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Oh, and I've learned a new trick,.. pastel shading. It produces some really fine color gradients and shadows. I'll be attempting to learn both things on this model,.. learning the airbrush, and learning the pastel shading. Hopefully this improves my skill set,.. especially since I otherwise feel that I've reached a sort of "plateau" with my brush skills.

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Well,.. here's the first go with the airbrush. Mostly just the silver metal bits. The black handle and the gold bits were done by hand. I may have to go over it once more though. The black-washing process seems to have left some brush marks. But a small bit of blackwash over-spray through the airbrush may help fix that.

Also, the head of the axe seems a bit bland,.. I may drill out the circle in the center and fix a jewel in it's place. And perhaps some gloss for the black of the handle.

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So then,.. on to the next bit. I think I'll start with the waist section first. This part actually came in two separate sections. I should probably have taken a picture of both before I assembled them, but I didn't.

The back section had a bit of a gap, hence the greenstuff. After a quick sanding and smoothing, It'll be off for a quick primer session,.. and then, a double check for any other issues. If none are found, then it's off to paint!!

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Edited by Webmonkey
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Ran into a bit of problem this morning. The humidity was wrong, and the primer went all "fuzzy". Finally, 5 primer and sand sessions later, I managed to get it smoothed out and the majority of flaws sanded away.

Next, it was onto paint. A few hours and several coats later,.. (plus a trip to the store because my can of compressed air ran out) *side note- I really got get invested in a compressor. These cans don't hold crap, and run out WAY too fast.

Anyways,.. here's the current results. I at least ended up with something resembling a believable flesh tone for the basecoat.

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ack!! the picture didn't rotate,.. but still, you get the point,...

---------- Post added at 05:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:13 PM ----------

next up,.. need to make a decision on what color to paint the uniform for this model. My first thought was black on purple,.. but I'm also considering a medium grey with various white and black trim. This is going to determine what color the underwear need to be of this piece.

Hrmm,... decisions, decisions,....

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It's a badger 200, bottom feed style, internal mix, single action button. (I'd prefer a dual action, but those start to get expensive fast) This gun only cost me $75. Another $120 and I can get the compressor.

As for the flesh, it's less about the gun, and more about the technique.

1) Base coat in the lightest skin tone you have. (since the base coat is actually going to be the highlight color.) Do this in several layers, basically just "misting" it on. Don't forget to let each layer dry before doing the next, otherwise it'll start to "puddle" on you and you'll get "runs/drips" in the paint.

2) Once you are happy with the base coat, and a few drops of red or brown (a chestnut type color works best in my opinion) to the leftover fleshtone that's still in the bottle. Mix well. This will turn your flesh color a little on the orange-brown side. Use this colors for the shadows. Dial your gun down to a fine line, and put your shadow color in all the "valleys" on the model. In the case of my model in the above pictures, this means placing it in the butt crack, a bit under each cheek, and a bit on the inner thigh where the shadows would naturally fall.

On the front side, also the inner thigh, the creases where the thigh bends at the hip bone, lightly under the stomach, and the slight valleys on either side of the stomach, and a bit in the belly-button. Then a light trace around the underwear line, (front and back).

3) At this point you'll be looking at your model thinking that the contrast is too much. But that's ok. We solve this by pulling our brush a bit further away from the piece, and "misting" it lightly with the shadow color. This helps blend and even out the skin tones.

4) Pastel shading. This is where the magic happens. This is an extra step that you don't have to do but I find that it's really helping me get those smooth gradients between the colors. The sticks are cheap. The set in the picture below cost me about $5.

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Note: You should clear coat your model both before and after the pastel step.

Like you see in the image above, you simply take a stick out (in the case of flesh tones, burnt sienna or some shade of red will best match your shadows and helps add a bit of warmth to the flesh) and use an x-acto knife to scrape the surface and create a powder. You won't need a very big pile, as a little bit goes a long way.

Now that you have your pile of your chosen color, get out two brushes. Use the first one to pick up a little of the powder and place it on the model. The use the second brush to "feather" it into the flesh. Basically, you want to follow your shadow pattern all over again. (i.e; put a small bit of powder in the butt crack, and use the second brush to rub it in and smooth it out, feathering it out over onto the butt cheek. In the crease under the cheeks, and a bit on the inside thigh,.. again,.. always feathering in out into the larger patches of lighter skin.) Keep doing this until the shadows seem natural to you.

End result,.. should get you something like this,..

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My camera has a tendency to white wash the images a bit. In real life they are a bit warmer then perhaps you see here. But when you do your own, you'll see what I mean.

Well,.. I certainly didn't start out to write a tutorial,.. but it seems I did anyways *grin* If you follow this step by step, you should achieve similar results really quickly. I'm by no means an airbrush wizard though. Hell, I've only had the thing about a week. But I seem to be picking it up rather quickly.

Anyways, I hope this helped. And good luck with your own projects!!!

Edited by Webmonkey
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well,.. I started on the dress and the slip for the waist-down portion of the model. But they are currently drying from their first coat. Probably should have taken a picture of the pieces before I started, but the process is the same. They start out as plain resin pieces,.. get primered, checked for flaws, sanded (I use 400 grit just fyi),.. primered again to check for any remaining flaws, if so, then this process repeats until I'm happy with it. At the end, it gets one final coat of primer for the paint to stick to.

But for the time being, I've also started on one of the legs. This has just a basic flesh tone on it. I'm not going to bother with the shading portion of paint, since the leg is going to end up having a stocking on it. I considered doing a solid legging, but I think a sheer stocking will be more dynamic. Especially when set against the raw skin of the waist section.

Anyways,.. here it is so far,...

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If you're going for sheer, I recommend doing the shading and just putting a really thin, translucent coat of the stocking colour over it. Might be easier than trying to shade the stocking with flesh tones combined with the stocking shade.

Though if you're using pastels for the whole stocking, it could work better that way round.

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The reason for not doing the skin shading is that the valleys are going to be "heavily misted" with black, which is going to obscure the skin shadow anyways. This would represent the area where the stocking has pulled away a bit from the skin and therefore be a bit darker. Where-as a light misting of black over the top of it will let the basic flesh tone show through in the areas like the calf muscle, where the stocking would be pulled tighter against the flesh and let more skin show through.

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Looks pretty damn sweet to me, web! You were totally right on not needing that extra skin shading.

I'd be careful where the stocking meets the shoe, it looks a little paler there, which doesn't seem to fit. Other than that tiny niggle though, it'll look spot on when you get the details done. Nice one!

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Got the shoe added. I think you're right,.. it's a bit light at the inside edge where the stocking meets the shoe. I'll have to go in and do a bit more misting in those places. Once that's done, I'll have to do the silver buckles on the straps on the other side. I'm thinking a patent leather look. The shoes will end up shiny, but I think it'll pop as a nice contrast to the flat stockings. Once that's done, just have to work on the upper frill,.. and then this leg will be done.

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A quick picture from the other side so you can see the buckles. And I've done the purple on the frill. It's a bit dark, but I'm hoping it'll show up better once I do some highlights to lighten it. Otherwise, I may have to rethink the color choice and go with something that contrasts a bit more. Screamer pink maybe?? (used to be warlock purple before GW changed the paint line.)

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