Girl's Rider - Hasegawa 1/12 scale resin figurine [Primed for Paint]

 As I have alluded to before in one form or another, the year 2021 has turned into a series of 'prep and prime' projects. And while I have set myself up to start painting soon, there is still one figurine left to prep and prime before I do. That figurine is none other than the Hasegawa /12 scale Girl's Rider. 

Hasegawa 1/12 scale resin figurine Girl's Rider [work-in-progress: primed; front view]

Hasegawa 1/12 scale resin figurine Girl's Rider [work-in-progress: primed; back view]

 As with after every priming session, the details on the miniature figurine tends to stand out more ... for me at least. You should be able see this at a glance from the series of photos below showcasing the figurine after it had been primed by a light grey hue of the Tamiya Fine Surface Primer.

For a figurine is that is based on a minimalist concept ...

... of  a female bike rider clad in a simple tight-fitting white t-shirt ...

... and denim jeans as well as an all leather ensemble comprising ...

... accessories such as black gloves, belt, and riding boots ...

... there is a rich tapestry of little details ...

... ranging from her facial features and elaborate hair strands to ...

... the myriad of creases and folds on both her t-shirt and jeans ... 

... to the straps of her riding boots.

 One thing I love about Japanese sculptors is their approach towards miniature figurines in making every day situations extraordinary by exploiting tiny little details. This is not too different from how anime is made especially by two of my favorite directors namely Hayao Miyazaki and Makoto Shinkai. Let me explain. For example, the concept of a girl clad in a simple t-shirt and jeans ensemble is made remarkable by small details such as the myriad of folds and creases on her clothing which serve to accentuate the body's sensual s-curves. Add to that excellent facial features and you have a winner. 

Each sculpture will invariably have its own distinct racial facial features ...

... and it's no different for Girl's Rider which to me looks distinctly East Asian ...

... meanwhile strategically placed creases and folds on both the t-shirt and jeans ...

... serve to further accentuate the already sensual s-curves on the figurine's body ...

... which is displayed primarily by the figurine's model-like pose ...

... helped of course by the figurines natural body shape ...

... which is shaped like an hourglass.

 Personal workflow of the painting process for this figurine necessitates that I paint her main body (e.g. legs, torso, and face) separately from her arms and hands. However, I am still in two minds whether to paint her using a combination of lacquer basecoats followed by either oil or acrylic paints; or maybe just stick mainly to acrylics. Knowing myself, I will likely try something I have never done before which is the former. If I do so my initial challenge will be to mask the appropriate areas before block painting the separate areas e.g. t-shirt (white), jeans (blue), hair and belt (black), and face (skin tone). Masking is one of the things I hate doing in the painting process, hence my indecision.

In order to make the riding boots look a tad more interesting ...

... I am thinking of painting anthemion-like designs on the shafts.

As for the figurine's hands, the right hand is holding on to a glove ...

... while the left hand is open-palmed and will eventually rest on her hips.

 Suffice to say I have already prepped a fair number of miniature figurines to keep me occupied with painting in the months ahead. This is in addition to my ongoing assemble-prime-&-paint-as-you-go projects that involve working on sub-assemblies before they are put together as a greater whole. An example of this was the RX-78-2 Gundam scale model kit project. And top if off, I finally get to do show better quality hobby-related videos and photographs with selected Corel creative software I had gotten on the cheap. Things are looking up hobby-wise even if they are looking worse pandemic-wise as hospitalization cases shoot up yet again. Will this nightmare never end?

For Fellow Hobbyists on a Shoestring Budget who are in need of Digital Creative Tools

 In a departure from my usual posts, I would like to bring to your attention a website that sells digital content such as ebooks, audiobooks, software, etc. at attractive prices in aid of charity. Some of you may already be aware of this website but for those of you who are not, then you would be remiss not to check out Humble Bundle. I myself first found out about it via Warhammer Community which was selling a bundle of its ebooks and audiobooks via this site.

 How attractive a bundle can be is largely subjective because it all depends on how much you need or want the items included in a particular selection. So far, excluding the bundle that I will talk about later, I have only purchased two bundles. Both were from Black Library i.e. one an eBook bundle and the other an audiobook one. I am, if you didn't know already, a huge fan of the Warhammer universe. 

 But this particular deal I am highlighting in this post is more relevant to the scale model/miniature hobby. What I am talking about is of course digital tools to edit and compile hobby-related content for consumption via photos or videos. To my delight, a software bundle currently being made available in Humble Bundle (expected end date is about 18 days from the date of this blog post) includes software such as Corel Painter 2021, VideoStudio Pro 2021, PaintShop Pro 2021, AfterShot Pro 3, Particle Shop, and Multicam Capure. It also includes a significant amount of brush packs, paper packs, video overlays, scripts for use in the list of COREL software.

 In case you were wondering ... no, I am not getting any commission for recommending the above website. It's a site that I have found a few good deals on, and I just thought I would share it with any of you whoare still unaware of the site. If you know of similar sites like Humble Bundle, please do not hesitate to let me know in the comments below as I am always on the lookout for a good deal. With the weekend already upon us, I can only hope you are having a good one. Cheers! 

Girl's Rider - Hasegawa 1/12 scale figurine [Assembly]

 Painting sessions are likely to resume again, sooner than later, thanks to my new folding hobby table. But first I plan to prep and prime one last figurine before I set about putting paint on miniatures. This project is that of Girl's Rider, a 1/12 scale resin figurine from the Hasegawa Real Figure Collection. Previously I had done a quick unboxing and dry fit of the figurine. In fact, I had made some videos of that process but I guess now I'll now only upload them as a "looking back video" at a later date.  

Hasegawa 1/12 scale resin figurine Girl's Rider [work-in-progress: assembly; front view]

Hasegawa 1/12 scale resin figurine Girl's Rider [work-in-progress: assembly; back view]

 During the assembly process, there were only two things of note. Firstly, there were some visible gaps between certain joints after assembly. And because this is a resin model, the glue used (which in this case was a low viscosity cyanoacrylate (aka super glue). Unlike the application of plastic glue on plastic parts which will melt the parts together and in most cases seal the gap at the same time. This does not happen with the super glue. As such, any gaps were filled with putty. Secondly, brass support rods were inserted into the main body and both arms (see below) to allow the figurine to be held without obscuring surfaces that are going to be painted later. 

Girl's Rider figurine: after holes filled with putty and brass support rods inserted (front view)

Girl's Rider figurine: after holes filled with putty and brass support rods inserted (back view)

 Below is a series of photos taken at staggered intervals when the figurine was spun 360 degrees. This view of the main body sans arms clearly shows up the figurine's sensual s-curves, from both the front and back as well as her sides. This is brought about by the figurine's pose i.e. her stance which accentuates the natural arch of her back and the curve back inwards via her rear to her legs.

Main assembled body of the Girl's Rider resin figurine (front view) 

Just from the main body of the figurine itself, it's fairly visible that ...

... her pose is dynamic with sensual s-curves highlighted by ... 

... stance of one foot forward and the hips tilted slightly to the side

Main assembled body of the Girl's Rider resin figurine (back view)

Sensual s-curves on the figurine are also augmented by ...

... before flowing back towards her thighs and legs

Girl's Rider figurine assembled sans her arms/hands, which will be primed separately

 While there are other ongoing non-figurine projects yet to be prepared-for-paint such as vehicular scale model kits like the Neon Genesis Evangelion EVA 01 unit and the Sturmgeschütz III, these will require a multitude of parts and/or sub-assemblies to be painted before being fully put together. As such, the assembly/prep/priming steps tends to alternate with the painting process. Unlike figurines, vehicular kits rarely get fully assembled and primed prior to the painting process starting.

 So the hobby-wagon is slowly juddering back to a start after a long inertial loop of assembling, prepping and priming. No actual painting yet per se, I admit, but more importantly a significant mental hurdle has been overcome by the creation of a temporary work space via the folding table. My mind is now awash with painting possibilities again. And that's always a good thing. Cheers!

Getting back on track with a folding hobby table

 It's past mid-September and I've yet to do any significant paint work in 2021. So far I've been entangled in an endless loop of assembly, prep, and priming work. Any painting I've done has been trifling busy work comprising color tests and simple base coats. So what went wrong? One word, three syllables ... pandemic. Apart from devastating 'normal' life as we know it and taking away what little free time I had for the hobby, it also resulted in my usual hobby table for one becoming a work-from-home table for two. Having the missus beside me during the work day is the one silver lining in this pandemic, but space for painting via hand-brush/wet palette was compromised, until now ...

All folded up, a folding table for use as a temporary hobby work area

Once opened up, the table has two-tiers: a narrow one stacked above the main area

Each tile on the floor roughly measures 1x1 feet, so the work area is less than 3x2 feet 

 As you would've gathered by now from the photos above, the solution came in the form of a fairly compact folding table. Costing slightly more than RM100 (roughly USD25), this was the cheapest option I could find online to solve my workspace problem. I got it via Shopee, a local online shopping portal. Incidentally it was the first furniture I had bought online which was non-Ikea. For the price, the compact and stable folding table is definitely value for money. But more than that, I hope it pays back above and beyond what it cost by enabling me to resume detailed paint/weathering work.

Here the folding hobby table is stacked up against my dedicated airbrushing space

 While I do retain a small dedicated workspace for airbrushing (see above) that is set apart from my normal hobby work table (now a work-from-home table) due to the issue of toxic chemicals and fumes; that very reason makes it unsuitable for prolonged periods of slow hand brush painting of miniatures. With the acquisition of this folding hobby table, I now no longer have any valid excuse to procrastinate anymore when it comes to finally painting a miniature or scale model kit.

Above is the exact dimensions provided by the online furniture supplier

 This folding hobby table is spacious enough to place the required materials e.g. wet palette, reference images, elbow room for steadying the painting hand, a work-lamp, magnifying lamp (rarely used now), brush cleaning material, water container, etc. etc. And it's also close to the same height as my current work-table which helps. Speaking of the pandemic, there is a bit of a good news for my family in that my son has finally been able to get vaccinated. Thankfully he qualified to receive the Pfizer Biontech jab. The missus and I could only get the Sinovac jabs ourselves. Regardless, please get vaccinated if you haven't done so already. Until next time, stay safe always. 

Loki Variant [WIP - Primed for Painting]

 If there is one thing this pandemic has cast over my hobby activities, it's a pall of inertia that has put me on a mind-numbingly looped path comprising just prep and priming work. This is partly due to my hobby worktable being turned into a work-from-home-table to be shared by the missus and I. That impediment should be resolved eventually with a mini folding-worktable that I plan to get online. For now though, all I can effectively do is to prep and prime to my heart's content. So dear reader, please forgive me for yet another boring primed-figurine blog post; this one for Marvel's Loki Variant.

Knight Models Marvel Universe - Loki Variant [work-in-progress: primed]

 As per the norm, a light grey primer coating was applied on the Loki Variant figurine. In most cases I've found that light grey works best for the majority of my projects. Other primer colors I occasionally use are black (for metal paint) and white (for anime figurine skin tones). Prior to the application of the primer coat, the details on the Loki Variant figurine weren't very visible due to the metal's shiny texture. However, with the primer coat on, the figurine's inherent details began to show up.  

Loki Variant (front view) after applying the light gray Tamiya Fine Surface Primer

Loki Variant (back view) after applying the light gray Tamiya Fine Surface Primer

With the application of a light gray primer coat ...

... the inherent details on the Loki Variant metal figurine ...

... becomes much more visible to the naked eye compared with ...

... when the figurine was at its plain metal (i.e. non-primed) stage

 Even from a cursory glance you can already tell that the inherent details of this Marvel Universe Loki figurine is simply excellent. While Loki's clothing texture was brilliantly done, the crowning glory for me is the figurine's facial features. While not exactly Tom Hiddleston, the facial features are very much Loki personified. It's evil, its cocky, its confident, its maniacal, in other words it's so Loki.

Loki Variant (top-down view) after the light gray Tamiya Fine Surface Primer was applied

Nice details on the fur-like clothing texture on the Loki Variant's upper back 

A length of sprue from a different kit was glued onto the throne to help stabilize the base

 Similar to a previous Knight Models figurine I had completed (i.e. Spider-Man), the back of the base had to be propped up with a piece of spare sprue from a different kit. Without this simple piece of sprue, the whole vignette (i.e. figurine plus base) would simply topple over. With it, the vignette's center of gravity stabilizes, and the figurine seated on the throne will not topple over.

As these closeup photos show, the inherent details of the Loki Variant figurine ...

... are simply excellent, everything looks good especially the facial features ...

... which should bode well for the coming painting process to follow

 So with the Loki Variant ready for paint, is my prep-prime-loop destined to be finally broken. Alas dear reader, the answer is not yet. It will take a while for my folding-worktable to arrive so there might be another one or two prep/priming posts of other projects before the painting can begin. Meanwhile on the pandemic front, the situation is as dire as it ever was. My country even ranked dead last in the Bloomberg Covid Resilience Score. Worse still, in recent weeks more covidiots are starting to surface with numerous people refusing to be vaccinated. Sigh. When will this nightmare ever end.