Rising Sun's Oni of Blood

This is the second of about a zillion figures from CMON's Rising Sun kickstarter game. While I don't play there are quiet a few of the larger sized Ogre's, Trolls (both know as Oni in Japanese Folklore) Dragons and the like. This guy has been on the desk for weeks. I'd paint him in between other steps and other models as to not waste time.

With so many figures that piqued my interest I was glad that CMON released an art book. The only thing I wished they included even a few lines of what the figure was all about. Having said that I was glad to have a document of what they thought it looked like and what color. Here's the page of the Oni of Blood - 

The figure was well done, but the down side was that it was done is a soft almost rubbery plastic.  It was also pre-assembled, making some places difficult to reach with the paintbrush. Being per-assembled it means that there are seam lines as well as a little flash. With the plastic so soft, it made getting rid of the flash etc... a bit difficult. After a time, I left some flash instead of ruining the figure.

The first thing noticed was the red skin so that where the painting started -

Gloss black was added to those "maces" as they will end up being a gold color. Making a mistake the beaded necklace was painted a tan rather than the gloss black. This will be fixed. 

Heads and faces base coated. Also realized the hands are to be darkly colored

Continuing on, more parts get painted in. He has a number of layers of fabric, heads and gold ornaments that make things a bit difficult to keep track of.

 The gold ornaments are painted the gloss black And the fabric, a dark green color. In the book's image it's hard to make out individual colors - everything looks gray to me. So some I left gray, other items I made a dark green. Then I tried my hand at free brushing a little design. Easy with the flesh color - harder with the gloppy Army Painter Gold I used. I didn't realize until too late that I had Vallejo Gold. :-/

Finally I got to the point where if I went on, I would start ruining things. So I painted the base, glued on some of the red sand I had, and called it done. Thanks for looking.

Took 3x to get the tiny pupils just right.

Dennett's Klaatu

Another bust from the talented hands of John Dennett is Klaatu. People recognize Michael Rennie in the starring roll in 1951's The Day The Earth Stood Still. 

The likeness of the bust is excellent, and the model comes in two pieces - the bust and the base. John was also gracious enuff to sign it for me - 

 I started right in with the face as I usually do, and began with a was coat of V's Beige Red, then a little Citadel Reikland Flesh shade wash around the eyes. I found it easier to get the lash line by painting the eyes black and that gives me a blank spot to color in the iris/pupil. The shirt was also primed with a gloss black in preparation for the silver topcoat. 

Next was the shirt. I masked the base off with tape, and then covered the lower part of the face with Silly Putty, then sprayed V's Silver.

When I took the tape off, it took a little bit of paint with it - the edges got he worst of it. After cleaning that up, I added a little purple wash to the cracks for a bit of color and then panted the name plate the Silver. with that, I was done. Thanks for looking.

 

TIE Experimantal Finale

Getting the craft together was pretty simple, but when I went to get the windscreen on, it just looked off. Not the fit, but I had painted the "guts" in the window too light. So I went back and darkened it up a bit. There's a lot going opn in there, and didn't want to just black it out, so I came up with what I think is a good compromise.  
With the windscreen on I was done. Thanks for looking. 

 

TIE Experimental

This build has been running in stealth mode for a while now. It's called the TIE Experimental from Trilliance Models. Looking up info forr Trilliance, I found nothing except a place holder at Scalemates. More than likely I got it thru Starship Modeler, but even they have no listing in their Store. 

It's obviously an older kit that was one of a number of kits that I pulled out of a separate stash I had. 
The kit comes in 4 pieces of gray green resin and 1 in a nicely done clear resin - 

  Most of it is very clean and has sharp decals. There is, however a weird area where the pour plug was in the power panel/vane - 

After cleaning the pour plug on the panel, I started in on cleaning up the pour plugs at the end of each pod arm.  Here I used a Dremel flat cylinder bit. I create a divot first and then it's easier to flatten the rest of it out. Makes it nice and easy. I learned this from one of the guys build launch vehicles over at the Yahoo Real Space Modelers.

 

Just the divot(L) and the cleaned one(R) on the pod arm

With the seam lines, flash and pour plugs gone, the first step I did was to glue the cannon onto the one pod. You can see the pod on the right, where the pilot should be, is filled with "electronics."  With that I called it a day. This will be an easy one. check back for the finale. Thanks for looking.

Pans Labyrinth's El Fauno

This is a bust I found on Etsy, by Noemi Smith. I 'm guessing she kept #1 as there was an inscription on the bottom of mine with an autograph saying "#2 of 50." How cool. Anyway, her store there is Angels by Noemi.

It comes with just about an invisible seam line. It also has it's eyes glossed, so if you just wanted it to leave as is, you could. Is it a perfect likeness? No. But it is very close and the perfect size for my shelves.  

At first I decided to make this a dry brush only experiment-

 Then it went a little farther -

Then finally I said "Who am I kidding?" And added more detail - 

It was here that I discovered whey the bust looked off. It was bald!  In the film, El Fauno definitely had hair.

Hairy El Fauno

 So besides the obvious of leaving it alone and hope no one else notices, I had two choices. Get out the Aves and start sculpting or go WAY out of my comfort range, get some hair and start winging it. 
Here's where the model sat for a month or more until I got up the courage, and stopped at my fav "online sculpting place" MoreZmore, who has all sorts of supplies for sculpting, dolls and more. I bought some Tibetan wool. 
I watcher her video on how to do it, as well as a few others on YouTube

Then I got out my glue, hair and scissors and started in -

The glue I got, Fabri-Tac was the sore spot. You had one chance to get it where you wanted it to go, or if you touched it again it would stick to your fingers and not the model - I learned that a wet finger left the sticky hair where I put it.  The other thing was that on one or more of the video's, they say when you come to an end put it on from the opposite angle and this way you don't get an ugly seam line. This didn't work out for me. So what I did in the end was put a drop pf the glue on the model and just jabbed a bit of hair in at a 90° angle. This ended up looking ok for me. 

After that I got out the scissors and pretended I was a barber, and grabbed the hairspray to make it stay where I "styled it. ;)   
I was done. Is it terrific? No way. But I'm happy with it. Thanks for looking. 

Flash Gordon's Rocketship Finale

I was further along than I thought. Seems when I sat down for my latest session, all I had to do is glue the cockpit area the the rest of the fuselage.  They were butt jointed so I had to  match the center window with the center fin on the back. I was done. Thanks for looking. 

 

Flash Gordon's Rocketship

Another kit that was deep in the stash was Flash Gordon's ship.  It is produced by Fantastic Plastic and has been in and out of stock for years. As of this date it is currently on back order, but I suppose you can order one for when they come in. 
From FP's site: 

"Flash Gordon" starring Olympic swimming medal winner Buster Crabbe was the first cinematic treatment of Alex Raymond's intrepid space hero who debuted in comic form in 1934. Distributed by Universal Studios, the serial was filmed in 13 parts running a total of 245 minutes.

Shot on a budget of just $350,000 (Studio press releases inflated that figure to a more impressive $1 million), the production recycled numerous sets and props from earlier movies, including the "hero" rocket, which was originally the "Mars Wing" from the 1930 sci-fi musical comedy "Just Imagine."

Built by the brilliant Dr. Zarkov, the Flash Gordon rocket underwent numerous modifications between "Flash Gordon" (1934), "Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars" (1938) and "Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe" (1940). Most obvious among these was the addition side windows and a nose cannon between the second and third serials.

Rocket is based on the purported filming miniature that was offered on Ebay in 2013. Our kit features a full interior, doors that can be positioned opened or closed, and a clear vacuform canopy and windows. It comes in 26 pieces and has vac-u-form windows. 

As with many flying vehicles, we're starting with the cockpit area. Looking online, to see what it looked like, there's were plenty of views but too many were blocked by Flash or on of his "guys." 

There are a few differences namely the model has a backless seat while the one in the image clearly has one. Even though there is a large window in the ship, without a light, you really can't see in that well. So I just highlighted a few of the instruments and called that part done. While I was at it I detailed the back of the ships instrument console too - 

The the front instrument was installed onto the floor - 

After building those components I turned and painted the fuselage. Knowing I was going to paint the ship in a metallic, I started by priming everything in glass black, then a added V's silver.  There were some light scratches seen, and prolly should have thought to smooth over the raw resin. But I didn't - next time. 
I then slide the front deck into place - 

At the same time I installed the front windows.  The windows are a thin piece of acetate with the dimensions impressed in the plastic. It's just a matter of cutting them to size and installing. For the little side windows, where the tolerance was a bit tighter for the lip, I marked out the size on tape and then used that to create the lip to hold the window in place - 

Continuing on, I glue the front wheel fairings as well the the front "gun."  The wheels parts were all one piece so it was just a matter of being careful when painting the tires. My tire color is V's Black Gray with a little brown added. 

Turning my attention to the back part of the fuselage, I slid the rear deck int place, and then sealed the two parts together. Looking at the fins, which were also primed gloss black, I saw I was one short. How did I lose a big fin?? I had no idea but instead of coming to a screeching halt, I took one and created another out of some sheet styrene I had lying around. 

while looking for a piece, I came across a part that is supposed to represent the power source (I forget what FP called it) on the desk. I knew one one would ever know. But I would and it bothered me. So I twisted the back part open and installed the power unit. In a not too successful attempt to show it bloing I painted the unit silver, then added blue to the recesses, and then some white to make the highlights. I felt better - 

You can also see that one side of the stairs are also in place, closed. The other side will be open for the limited view in.

With that done,  I felt it was time to call it a day. Check back for the next episode. Thanks for looking.



 

Cthulhu Showcase

This little kit was on the bench at the same time as the others I've recently finished. It irked me that all the while, I never had an idea of what I wanted to do with it. In the end I defaulted to trying some OSL.
It basically started out with turquoise and purple in the shade, but morphed into the lighter green as I applied the "light."  Thanks for looking.