Sara and the chain-mail bikini!

[Guest]

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...

[ATTACH]42834.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]42835.IPB[/ATTACH]

[Guest]

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]

Thats a lot of woman! :-)

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

[Guest]

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.

[Guest]

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]

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

[Guest]

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

[Guest]

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

[stona]

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

[Guest]

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:

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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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[Guest]

A week goes by and progress is slow but steady...

As you can see she's still a work in progress and having seen this photo I see I've overdone the shading on her torso so will have to smooth that out more. I'm pleased with her boots and thong - they've come up quite well, but still need to add some highlights - the shading works nicely but it still needs the highlights added.

[Ian M]

Coming along nicly!

Ian M

[papa 695]

She's looking good Andrew ( very good )

[stona]

She does look good.....I need a lie down

Steve

[Guest]

Well the painting has slowed down as I seem to end up adding paint almost molecule by molecule now! in addition she is a VERY difficult lady to photograph!

I took the plunge on Sunday and did the chainmail. This was mostly done with a sort-of drybrush method, using the side of the brush rather than the tip. This meant the paint stayed OUT of the gaps between the chain links. Had to do a little touching up afterwards. Added more shading to the pauldrons, skull on her right boob and added a "sheepskin" lining to the bracer on the left arm. Painted some fingernails but some of these need a bit more touching up. Added some eyes but she's staring a bit and I tried my best not to let her go boss-eyed but not sure if I succeeded. Quite happy with right eye but not so with left. Darkened the lips and added a little bit of highlight to the cheekbones but doesn't look like its enough.

Here is a photo without flash

and here is one with flash but level adjusted in Photoshop

I think I'm beginning to struggle now - I really don't know what to do with her face to make it look more lifelike. Similarly with the rest of her - she still looks painted and not lifelike. I think I need to add more highlights to her hair, right arm bracer and boots, but the skin is just too "plastic" looking. if you can imagine something between the two photos, that what she looks like in normal lighting conditions. I'm goign to have to try to moderate my camera flash to get better photos.

This is getting frustrating...