Ohmygodiamonfire

You ever think something's gonna be simple to do, only for it to be annoyingly frustrating to deal with along? And that your underlying perfectionism bites you in your ass?

That was painting the legs here. While I painted the teal first in order to actually make it easier to mask, the MASKING somehow always would be faulty at the top of the edges, resulting in paint bleed on the teal when I'd go and paint the black on the legs.

I had to sand it down, and restart again twice before saying fuck it and buying another set of legs to do it from scratch to get a result I liked, and even then it wasn't perfect.

The boots however, were way simpler. SOMEHOW, despite having to work with pla-plate for the first time, and also having to BEND the pla-plate to match the curves of the lower legs. After that it was a measure of painting it, which the gradient painting was actually WAY easier than I thought it would be. I've grown to quite enjoy having to learn how to airbrush for this project.

Which actually brings me to the part I was really happy with, which is the belt which was cobbled together from Kotobukiya option sets. The metallic teal was REAL fun to do, with painting a silver undercoat, then a top coat of clear teal over to result in the final effect.

Anyways the project is now done, and I need to take the final photos today, so wait for that I guess?

So, in an absolute fit of insanity, after coming come from my graveyard shift, instead of going to bed I decided "YEAH I'M GOING TO DO ALL THE MASKING NEEDED FOR LEONA'S LEOTARD BEFORE PAINTING" and spent like, a good hour or so before going to bed.

Then, after sleeping, woke up and imminently went to spray paint the parts. The lines turned out way cleaner than I expected, especially since it was the first time I've done such a complex paint job work on ANY kit or figure. Did need to redo the lower part of the leotard to bring it in line with her design though, which was even more of a pain, but it's come out well enough.

In addition, earlier I finished off her bangs, so that part of the project is also done and dusted. Still need to do topcoat on those parts.

Anyways, on to the limbs next!

Trying to figure out what to do with this site , since it's way more long form than I'm used to with SNS sites. So might as well use it as a more long form way of documenting my current plamo project, which is of my OC Leona.

Base body was decided upon pretty early on with the release of Kotobukiya's Susanowo from the Megami Device line. The highleg leotard look and the chest lined up nearly PERFECTLY with her character design. Course, after that I had to source some third party pieces. Muscuto on twitter is a garage kit seller who sells alternate pieces for megami device kits like hair and body parts, so I source some hair from them, garter strapless thighs and an alternate lower section.

After that, came the hard part, which was modifying the hair to all work together and remodeling it so her bangs actually look like her design. Modifying the hair pieces to work together was surprisingly easy, just involving some drilling and insertion of magnets to keep the parts attached yet removable if I want to change faceplates.

The part I thought would be hard was working with Tamiya Epoxy Putty to do her hair and...it was actually way easier than I thought it would be. Maybe it's because I've did tons of sculpt work back in middle and high school art class that it's one of those things I learned early on and just got ingrained into my body, but it was really, really simple. Of course I messed up by trying to add detail to the hair itself with trying to do hair lines, but that was easily solved after I realized how bad it looked after priming by applying a thin coat of the epoxy putty to fill them and then repriming it.

The jacket/vest was a simple thing, just bought a one off of ebay that came from some fortnite figure and then cut it down to what I needed.

Finally to my current part of the project, doing the gradient in her hair. Back and sides actually turned out pretty well, especially for someone who's a beginner at airbrushing. Front bangs...not so much. Fucked up and had to sad it down and now am going to restart when I get a new can of primer in

But yeah, learning and relearning tons of stuff during this entire endeavor, and it's been pretty damn nice.