In-Progress : 1/24 Tachikoma
16-06-07 : Moving away from Gundam for a moment ...
I've decided to move away from Gundam for a little while and make a start on the 1/24 scale Tachikoma from Ghost in the Shell : Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig that was recently released by Wave. Here is the test fit pictures as usual :
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So far the plan is to do an ultra shiny version more as a test bed for using Alclad II paints which I recently managed to get a hold of (I can't but them where I live) at the recent Model Expo in Melbourne. Whether or not I stick with the standard blue of the Tachikomas or do something different like green or red, I haven't decided yet.
As for the base, I have an idea involving perspex and LEDs but I will need to do some testing before I reveal these plans.
19-06-07 : Getting ready for priming...
Here is a quick picture of the parts just before I primed them :
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Since then, I have primed the parts and sanded back any imperfections that the primer has made (such as pooling by the edges and little tiny air bubbles). Hopefully, I should be able to start painting the Alclad II layer on in the next day or two.
23-06-07: First time with Alclad II....
Started painting today. First up, everything was given two coats of Black for a base coat (well, everything but the white parts like the eyes and such) which will help bring out the shine some more when I polish it up.
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After the Black dried, I started on the Chrome Alclad II. I must say that for the first time I have ever used this type of paint (being laquer based), I had no problems whatever. There were a couple of tense moments though when the old airbrush I used to apply the Alclad decided to start spitting out water. I used my older air brush because I didn't know how well the Alclad would clean up and I didn't want to ruin my main airbrush.
Two coats of the Alclad II was applied. Now I just have to wait for the paint to cure and the Micromesh polishing materials to arrive that I purchased on eBay the other day.
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24-06-07: Clear colors...
Painted the clear Blue on today. Decided against polishing because, as it turns out, I made a boo-boo and should've used a gloss black for the base coat. Oh well, at least I know for next time. The blue went on well and looks more like a lighter blue than the dark blue I was aiming for. Either way, it still looks good (and different) so I'm not complaining too much. Started re-assembling it too but, once again, I realised that it's not good to touch the painted parts with glue on the fingers. For that reason alone, I have to repaint the top part of the 'head' and the eyes which were scratched when I removed them from their sockets. D'oh! I plan on finishing the painting of the Tachikoma in the next few days and from there, I'll move onto the Motoko Kusanagi figure and then the base. |
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29-06-07: Finished the Tachikoma....
Here it is folks, the (almost) finished Tachikoma :
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There is a little sloppy work on the panel lines much to my frustration and the slight color difference in some of the pieces but apart from that, it's finally starting to come together somewhat.
Next up is the figure of Kusanagi and then the base.
19-07-07 : Worked out I'm not a fan of hand painting....
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Did most of the hand painting of the Motoko Kusanagi figure last weekend. Being that I'm not very good with hand brushing (haven't got the steadiest hand when it comes to fine work) and it's the first time I've worked on a figure this small, it came out not to bad. I had trouble with the eyes mostly. Putting the black highlights around the eyes was a problem due to the fact I don't have anything small enough to do it accurately. I need to work on the eyes a little more as the way I have them now they look, well, monged. I also did a little 'dirtying' with some pastels to highlight the creases in the pants and such. All that is left for the figure is to put some sort of darker wash into the lines in the top and around the belt line, then a flat coat to get rid of that damn shine.
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02-08-07 : Found some motivation to start the base...
Began the base a few days ago. So far, I've taken a small picture frame that I got for cheap from a local discount store and removed the glass and backing board. I then got some clear perspex and cut it to slightly smaller than the inner frame size and covered it in mesh. I was planning on cutting a SAC 2nd GIG logo into the perspex but I don't think I'll be able to pull off what I envisaged so I might settle for a printed or painted on logo light up from behind with some LEDs (either red or blue, maybe red to offset the blue of the Tachi).
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05-08-07 : More work on the base ...
I had thought of all these difficult things to do to the base (including LEDs on the sides, perspex logos, and fibre optics) but ended up doing a pretty simple thing. I got hold of the official logo of the SAC 2nd Gig series and resized it up to the same size as the perspex under the mesh using Photoshop. I printed it out and stuck it to the perspex with double-sided tape. I recently changed the gear changers on my mountain bike and I kept the cables thinking that they could be used one day to use with a crane or make power lines or something similar. I ended up using some of this cable to hide the edges of the mesh. Problem was that when I added the glue to the cable so it would adhere to the mesh, I ended up with the cloudy look that usually happens when super glue dries. To combat this, I got out the pastel set and brushed the entire mesh with Soot. There are a couple of spots that are still obvious - I'll have to try and fix them up later. Here's where I am at :
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