Sara and the chain-mail bikini!

B

Boldman

Guest
\ said:
That does look good. I'm glad that the dragon is on our side!Have you tried popping the vinyl parts in the freezer for a couple of hours before sanding? It works on aircraft tyres.

Cheers

Steve
Thats an interesting idea - I might try it on some scrap vinyl tonight!
 
B

Boldman

Guest
\ said:
Now that is one mean looking lizard Andrew, and i bet you cant wait to get your hands on Sara
Hmm, I think I know what you mean...

I am thinking of renaming her Helena and painting her as a brunette to represent my better half - I suspect that might let me get away with building it in the first place, although that will mean I'll have to do a VERY good job painting her face to make her look prettier OR ELSE!!! :smiling3:
 
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B

Boldman

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I think I can safely say this will be the first time I can legitimately get away with the phrase:

"She's a very well put together lady!"

She went together with care but without any real drama. It was a case of continual dry-fitting and trimming the vinyl from the inside of joints to thin the walls so they sat well together. This was particularly important on the torso joint which is around the chain of the bikini. Some of the links are intended to hang down onto the lower part of the torso so the vinyl there had to be thinned down quite drastically.

The shoulder joints were tricky because once you have the upper torso attached, you've got very little "wiggle" room to get the arms to fit since the hands they attach to are moulded on the thighs! There is a small amount of Mr Dissolved Putty to fill the joints, this was particularly useful as it was possible to drip a tiny amount from a toothpick into the seam and encourage it to spread along the gap before it dried.

Once everything has dried out tomorrow, I'll "prime" her up and then we have the fun of painting - remember, I don't have an airbrush so this will be a hand job... I mean hand-painted...
 

Ian M

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Looking good Andrew.

Just how high is the figure, she looks quite tall.

Ian M
 
B

Boldman

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She's 8" 21cm tall... priming her at the moment, might need some more filler on the arm joints :sad:
 
T

treyzx10r

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Andrew ,yes she is well put together,looking forward to seeing more!
 
B

Boldman

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The lady is primed and ready to go!

I'm pleased with the joints - the joins on her upper arms are not easily detectable as they've blended with the natural patterns in that area. The other joints are also pretty much invisible.

Now is the bit I'm most nervous about - painting her without an airbrush! I've not plucked up the courage so far, mind you I've been a bit preoccupied with a certain Mustang build as well, but that is coming to a close soon so I'll be able to concentrate on her a bit more...

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J

John Huggins

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Looking good Andrew, i know what u mean i hate painting flesh & for u theres a lot of it.

Good luck & have fun.

John
 

Ian M

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Thats a lot of woman! :smiling:

What are you going to paint her with? I think you are an acrylic guy but cant remember for sure.

If it was me I would find the oils for all that skin. Although Acrylics will be fine, just use plenty of retarder and they are just as good as oils.

Ian M
 
B

Boldman

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I've bought all the Vallejo model colour flesh tones to use on her. I made a start last night but made a right mess of it, so today she is drowning her sorrows in Isopropyl Alcohol to remove the paint to have another go this evening.
 
B

Boldman

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I've been thinking about this for a couple of days after I managed to ruin the paint. It was hard work stripping the paint and it hasn't been entirely 100% successful. I re-primed her yesterday and this has shown a large number of places where small spots of paint remained from before, usually in the nooks and crannies so I can't afford to make another mistake.

This makes me realise I can't do this with a brush, so I'm going to suspend work until I get an airbrush which should be sometime in the next couple of months. I'm expecting a minor windfall form my job sometime soon (company got bought by a bigger company and share options being converted into cash woot!) So once I have an airbrush I will feel much more confident about doing the lady justice.

In the meantime, I'm going to put the lizard on display on his own...
 

Ian M

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Ouch! Poor Sara!!! Poor you as well. Never a good thing when some thing goes (excuses the phrase) tits up!

Good luck with the air brush and all that.

Ian M
 
N

noble

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Hi there i have worked on a few vinyl kits and i tend to use super glue to put them together, also if you find that some of the parts don't quite fit correctly just put that part in hot water and it will go soft so you should get it to fit no problem. Use a good primer once built and don't use oil paint for the skin tones.... and there are a lot of them hubba hubba. I used enamels and acrylics for my kits and it works fine.

scott
 
B

Boldman

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Well I'm pleased to say that today my birthday present to myself (the big day is on Saturday) arrived in the form of an ACS-AS186 compressor and ACS-30 airbrush from here Airbrush Compressor Kits - Airbrush Compressors | Airbrushes | Compressors so once I teach myself how to use the airbrush, I can pick up where I left off earlier in the month after I almost ruined the poor girl by brush painting badly.

Is that a decent airbrush or simply a starter set? I think I'll need to do some reading about how to do this airbrushing lark :smiling3:
 

stona

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Your compressor is the baby brother of the one I've been using in recent years and is absolutely fine for the job with all relevant bits attached.

I'm not famiiar with your airbrush but several members here have started out with similar tools with great success. All these brushes are basically Chinese imitations of better known brands (a bit like SWMBO's latest handbag!). They may have seals and rings which will not be as resisitant to "hot" chemicals as say an Iwata but they appear to work perfectly well.

Cheers

Steve
 
B

Boldman

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After the sterling service from John in getting my airbrush to me less than 24 hours after I bought it, especially as it arrived on my birthday, I've started practising today. Its quite a complicated process from learning how much to thin paints down to exactly how to use the trigger and direct the paint. Then comes the cleaning afterwards. Its complicated but the results are just wow.

I could not resist having a go at giving Sara a proper coat of "flesh" so here she is standing in front of my practice sheet:

View attachment 39781

I made a bit of a mess of her lower right torso - I tried to add a darker patch to the slight hollow but was too close and wiped it off and at the same time managed to spill the remainder of the mixed flesh colour. By the time I'd mopped up it had al dried, so I'll just go over it again with the lighter colour later.

All in all I'm much happier with the results, a much smoother and finer layer of paint!

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