Toy Story 4: Woody [Painting selected parts of the Bandai Cinema-Rise Standard model kit]

 Previously one of my major hobby no-nos was painting parts while they were still attached to the sprue. And while that still holds true in many instances (especially when the section attached to the sprue needs to be painted as well), it is no longer a hard and fast rule for me. In the case of Woody, almost all the parts that had to be painted could be done with them still attached to the sprues. This was possible because most of the painting involved simple tasks such as straightforward panel-lining, and the application of weathering pastels. Even when a part needed to be painted, it was only done on sections of it and not to the whole part. Here then is how I made Woody color accurate ...

Painting on the sprue ... a big no-no in most cases but acceptable for the Toy Story Woody project

 Easiest to paint were parts still on the sprue that required only panel-lining, for example Sprue B1, which comprises parts for Woody's checkered shirt. What requires painting on this sprue is the lines that make up the checkered pattern on Woody's shirt. In what I believe was a brilliant design choice, Bandai made these lines in the form of grooves. That made a potentially difficult painting exercise into a relatively easy one. Now instead of depending on a steady hand to paint the checkered pattern, all I needed to do was to apply generous amounts of panel-line-paints into the grooves.     

Before painting: Sprue B1 comprising parts for Woody's checkered shirt

After painting: Woody's checkered shirt parts panel lined with orange rust paint

Before painting: Parts making up the pelvic/groin section of Woody's jeans

After painting: Pelvic/groin section of Woody's jeans panel lined with orange rust paint

 Similar to the panel lining process, the injected-gold parts required only a wash for them to be considered painted. A dark brown wash helped bring out the details as well as add depth to parts such as the sheriff's badge, the belt buckle, and the bot spurs. Initially I was tempted to paint these parts in metallic gold paint. But I refrained from doing so because I wanted the injected-gold parts to retain a toy-like look to them. To me, a plasticky fake gold look to the sheriff's badge would be more in keeping with the fact that Woody is a soft toy than having the badge in actual metallic gold hues.

Before painting: Injected-gold parts making up the belt buckle and boot spur

After painting: Belt buckle and boot spur given a dark brown wash

Before painting: Injected-gold parts making up the sheriff's badge and boot spur

After painting: Sheriff's badge and boot spur given a dark brown wash

 Meanwhile certain sections of Woody's cowboy hat, gun holster, and belt were painted using acrylic paints. To be specific: (i) the band around the hat was painted in umber; (ii) the ribbon on the gun holster was painted a combination of red, gold, and dark brown; and (iii) lastly the belt loops on the belt had to be painted in the blue of the jeans because it was originally molded in brown (see below).

Before painting: Brown parts comprising the cowboy hat, gun holster, and belt/belt loops

After painting: Band on cowboy hat painted umber, ribbon on gun holster painted red/gold/dark brown, and belt loops on the belt painted in the blue colors of the jean

 And then there were the parts that needed to be cut from the sprue before any painting could be done. This was because the very sections attached to the sprue were the areas that required painting. That being said, technically the parts could still be painted on the sprues provided the aforementioned areas were completely hidden from view after assembly. Unfortunately in Woody's case the areas attached to the sprue won't be hidden from view after assembly, namely the pull-string ring, the white parts o the vest, and all four buttons found on Woody's shirt and sleeves.  

Before painting: White parts making up the pull-string ring and white sections of Woody's vest

After painting: Pull-string ring and white sections of Woody's vest given a black wash

Before painting: White parts making up the buttons on Woody's yellow checkered shirt

After painting: Edges of the white buttons (on Woody's shirt/sleeves) painted gun metal/black

 Finally I painted Woody's face, one of the three facial options anyway, using weathering pastels that came in skin tone hues. All I did was to give Woody rosy cheeks and add some color to his lips. Below is a comparison between a painted Woody face (middle) and the unpainted ones (left/right).

Woody face painted with pastels (middle) compared to unpainted faces (to the left and right)

 With the painting done, Woody is ready for his main sub-assemblies (i.e. head, limbs, body, etc.) to be put together, and following that for his final assembly process to begin. Because assembly of the Woody plastic model kit is expected to be easier compared with Buzz Lightyear, due largely to the lack of gimmicks for the former, I should be able to complete Woody as early as end of this week. Then it's a matter of writing up the process and uploading both the relevant blog post and videos. Looks like it's going to be a busy few days ahead. I better get to it then. Hopefully I'll be back with completed photos of Woody by next week or even before the week is over. Cheers!