Suicide Squad Katana [WIP - Samurai sword, right hand & sculpted half face mask]

With her right hand, samurai sword (katana) and half face mask painted, Suicide Squad Katana is all but completed. All that remains to be done is to assemble the painted base and place Katana onto it. So here's a quick update on a finished Katana sans base and her mask that I sculpted and painted.

Katana (aka Nocturna Models Soum, 13 Moons) work-in-progress: sword, right hand and mask

Katana's sword is painted in two-tones to depict a sharp edge not unlike the real thing

Suicide Squad Katana herself is more or less done so all that remains is to put the vignette together

A key bugbear for me is the slight bend in Katana's sword which becomes more pronounced at certain viewing angles. As the sword is made out of resin, I did try to straighten it as much as possible with the help of a hair-dryer. In fact the bent was actually far worse than it is now. I managed to straighten it somewhat but obviously not enough. But I've made my peace with it so unless I can figure out a way to straighten the sword even further it'll have to do. 

From this angle, the slight bent in the sword becomes more pronounced

Back view of the completed Katana figurine sans base

As this Japanese Samurai sword belongs to Suicide Squad Katana, I painted it in a color scheme that is as close as possible to what I saw in the movie. That meant a hilt with a black grip and a sword blade that has a gold band at its base. Luckily for me the sword this figurine is holding is similar physically to the one Katana has i.e. a samurai sword (or a katana, the main character's namesake).

Yet another angle in which the bent sword blade is noticeable

Color scheme of the sword was painted to resemble the one used by Katana in the movie ...

... for example, the gold band at the base of the sword is unique to Suicide Squad Katana

To give a sense of edge (or sharpness) to the sword, I painted it in two metallic tones with one brighter than the other. In addition to that, I also painted a thin line of extremely bright metallic grey at the very edge of the sword to amplify the sharpness of the blade.

Katana's right hand holding on to her sword, which was painted in two tones to reflect a sharp edge

Katana's iconic face mask was sculpted using Citadel Green Stuff

Katana's iconic face mask, after a fairly simple paint job

While the mask isn't exactly to scale (it's a tad bigger than it's suppose to be) it should be good enough for the vignette. Moreover as the mask will likely be placed a fair distance away from Katana's face, any discrepancies in scale won't hopefully be too obvious. All the disparate parts of the Suicide Squad Katana vignette have now been painted. Once they are put together I should be able to post the final photos as well as video of this project ... the first of 2018!

Suicide Squad Katana [WIP - Facial features, Hairpin, Ponytail and Leather Arm Armor]

Funny how things work out. It was only during the painting of Katana's face that it finally dawned on me what I had to do. Prior to that I wasn't too sure what kind of look I wanted for her facial features. But I suppose that's how it is for all creative endeavors. In all likelihood I had subconsciously mulled over how to paint her face a thousand times prior to actually starting the task. And after all that subliminal thought processes, all it took was a trigger to open the creative floodgates, if you will.   

Katana (aka Nocturna Models Soum, 13 Moons) work-in-progress: face, hairpin, ponytail & leather

Suicide Squad Katana sports dark red lips on a fair (almost white) complexion à la Geisha (芸者)

That trigger was Katana's extremely fair and low-contrast facial skin tone, which was bordering on white. If you really think about it, there was only one direction I could've gone - creatively speaking - in the painting of her face i.e. Geisha style. Well, not full-Geisha makeup style. It's more of a toned down version comprising dark red lips, simpler eyeliner makeup and dark albeit thinner eyebrows. The fact that Katana is Japanese perhaps makes this all the more fitting choice of colors.

Both Katana's eyes have had light reflections (as well as tear ducts) painted on them

Katana's ponytail sports plain ivory hairpins and a vivid red hair band

Studded leather armor on Katana's right arm (... which is still missing the hand)

Another significant work-in-progress item that I finished painting was Katana's leather arm armor. While it would've made sense to paint the leather in reddish hues - this being Katana's color scheme after all - I decided on brown instead. My reasoning was to have minimal amounts of red in the entire color scheme (Katana's lips, hairband, character symbol and a yet-to-be-painted red disc on her sculpted mask) so that its impact is that much greater. Essentially I didn't want to overuse the red hue to the extend that its effect in the miniature vignette becomes diluted.  

Suicide Squad Katana is about 95% completed with only her right hand (holding on to a sword) that's missing

Viewed from this head-on angle, Katana seems to be gazing intently at you

Additional highlights were actually painted onto Katana's hair e.g. her bangs (front and side)

Katana's ponytail completes her hair, adding volume to an already voluminous hair. The reds of her hairband on her ponytail is vivid and much brighter than the dark red of her lips. Meanwhile, the hairpin was painted in ivory and off-white hues to blend in with the rest of her clothes as well as to provide a 'sandwich framework' of sorts for the reds of Katana's lips and hairband.

Katana's hairband was painted a vivid red to contrast it with the dark reds of her lips

Ponytail adds volume to Katana's already voluminous soft black hair

To avoid it being too much of a distraction, the hairpin was painted in simple ivory and off-white hues

 
Katana's right hand, which is holding on to her namesake Japanese sword, is still missing at this point. So next up is to paint her right hand, the sword as well as the character's iconic half-mask that I sculpted. Once that's done, I'll have to put Katana onto her base and see if the overall color scheme works. Although I didn't really test out the compatibility between the base's color scheme and that of Katana herself, I'm pretty sure it'll work as she primarily consists of neutral and muted colors.  

Under normal daylight, the leather arm armor takes on a decidedly lighter brown hue

For me anyway, white is the sexiest color imaginable on clothing

This is my second favourite work-in-progress pose, with the most-liked being Katana's pose in the first photo

While not exactly a masterclass paint job I am still very happy with how Katana has turned out so far. In fact I would go so far as to say she has currently turned out much better than I expected. You could say this is one perk of starting out a paint job with low expectations. As I write this blog it's the first day of the Lunar New Year. To those of you who are celebrating this occasion like I am, then may you be well, happy and prosperous over the coming Year of the Dog. 新年快乐!  

Suicide Squad Katana [WIP - Diaphanous white top, off-white stockings and white cotton tabi socks]

There isn't a whole lot you can do to make white look interesting. Two ways I could think off was to vary the tonal quality of the white clothing (i.e. whites vs off-whites) and to create different fabric textures via paint (i.e. diaphanous vs stocking vs cotton). So that was what I did in the painting of Suicide Squad Katana's white clothing, work-in-progress photos of which you can see below.  

Suicide Squad Katana (aka Nocturna Models Soum, 13 Moons) work-in-progress: white and off-white clothing

Katana's white top was painted too resemble diaphanous fabric

White is the preferred hue for the cloth wrap around Katana's upper left arm 

To save time in the tonal variation process, I utilised the midtone and shadows hues from the range of paints that I would eventually use to paint the whites of Katana's clothing. Meanwhile, to create a diaphanous fabric I used glaze medium with the white highlights over her flesh skin tone, especially around the frontal chest area of her white top. And as for differentiating the texture between Katana's stockings and tabi socks, I relied mainly on the tonal variation of the respective items of clothing. But I did layer on a clear coat of semi-gloss varnish over the socks to mimic smooth cotton fabric.

Leg stocking was painted in off-white hues for some colour variety in Katana's all-white ensemble  

Katana's stocking is in off-white hues so as to provide tonal variety in her predominantly white clothing  

Katana wore traditional tabi socks which I painted as plain white cotton

What paints were used in the painting processes described above? Well, they comprised mainly acrylic paints from the Vallejo Model Color Black and White paint set. In addition, I also used a glaze medium together with the highlight colours to enable a diaphanous see-through effect on Katana's white top. While not a must, the glaze medium does make it easier to create a diaphanous effect.

Acrylic paints and glaze medium used to paint the whites and off-whites

When painting the diaphanous effect I consciously avoided the wet t-shirt look. It's not that I've any objections to such a look on a painted miniature but Katana required a more subtle see-through effect. So after painting flesh hues on her chest area I proceeded to lightly glaze over the skin tones with progressively lighter highlight colours, ending with pure white. 

Katana's skin tone looks much better against her white clothing than the earlier grey primer coat

A diaphanous fabric makes for a much more visually interesting white top

Katana's facial features haven't been completed yet hence her deadened expression

Initially I contemplated doing some freehand painting of Japanese design motifs on Katana's off-white stocking. But those plans has since been shelved as I've decided to keep her colour scheme as simple as possible and limit any freehand painting to the base only.

Temptation to paint her upper left arm cloth wrap any other colour but white has been resisted so far

An off-white stocking creates sufficient contrast to make it stand out from her white tabi sock, and vice versa

At this stage of the painting, it looks increasingly likely I'll add more highlights on Katana's hair tips

Not all of Katana's clothing has been painted though. There is still the studded leather armour located on her right arm. For that I'm leaning towards a red leather hue that's muted enough so that it doesn't overpower the whites and off-whites of the rest of her clothing. In addition, the final colours of her leather armour will also have to go well with existing hues found on the base.

Not much clothing can be seen on the back view of Katana

Studded leather armour on Katana's right arm is one clothing accessory that won't be in white

I'm happiest about how Katana's white cotton tabi socks turned out

Thus far, painting Katana has been exactly the challenge I anticipated. She has an extremely simple colour scheme - fair skin tones with generally white clothing - which are always the hardest to paint. There is still much work to be done before Katana is truly brought to life. But the good thing is I've established 'forward creative momentum' on her paint job and that's so important in a project that had languished in inertia for so long. A long stretch of holidays is on the horizon - the Lunar New Year celebrations - and that presents me with the opportunity to get the Suicide Squad Katana project over the finishing line. As The Little Engine That Could once said ... I think I can, I think I can!