Custom Weathered Jetslinger

Here's a short tutorial (more like a list of tips) in doing weathering. Point in case this time: a Jetslinger weathering custom.

First thing first, in order to allow a SIC figure to sit on this thing, you have to remove those plastic connectors on his seat. USe a handsaw to cut them off like so:

 

 

Now your SIC Faiz can sit nicely on the bike.

Now then. there are a lot of ways to weather a bike and you can find all sorts of tutorials on the net teaching you how to do it. I'll share some of them in summary over here for you:

Weathering is all about showing stains, wear and tear, rust and erosions. To achieve this, you have to:
1) Dry brush opposing colors over the surfaces
2) Certain areas, you may consider sanding it to remove the colors to show erosion or wear. Sometimes you can paint two layers of colors on a surface and then sand the first layer off on certain areas to show wear. Add some rust brown paint over the areas where the two colors meet and you have rust
3) Dry brush over edges, lines, corners etc. This brings out the weathering effect
4) You want burnt effect on exhausts? Dip our brush over a heavily thinner-ed heavily paint filled matt black pool and then wipe over the edge of the exhaust leaving small pools of thinner filled matt black paint over the edges. These will dry off to look like the exhaust end has seen some heavy fiery discharges
5) Do linings over lines, edges etc. Panel liners can also be used to create shadows. Dip your tip on the panel liner ink pot heavily let the tip soak up some of those diluted paint and then splash them over corners to create shadows or wear.
6) Metallic silver are a nice color to use for weathering especially over black surfaces. Use this color to your advantage, you can even paint it over tyres and other areas that consist of different colors. Most of the time, you drybrush it voer the surface.

Well that's about all I can remember about the techniques I used to make this weathered Jetslinger. Hope it helps. Enjoy the photo gallery :)

The set of photos below will show you the difference between a weathered version and anoriginal version of the jetslinger :) I did this commission for a friend. One day I will make a SIC weathered version, complete with a lot more added details, weapons, vanes etc :)

Custom SIC Black Kikaider

A quick tutorial on a custom commissioned by a friend long ago which I finally got around to do it in the last couple of days. I underestimated its complexity and cost me precious time for the weekend with an anticipation of hard work in the coming weeks in my office but it is what it is, I rather finish this custom for he customer then leaving it until the last minute when I might still be bogged down with office work.

So here it is, custom black kikaider. The original Black kikaider costs about S$120. I did this commission for less than half of that ;p simply because I under estimated the amount of work required for it. Beware and always think though the process before the custom!!

The Kikaider figure I was told to use to make the black version custom was from the Kikaider and Side Machine set. The original lack kikaider figure follows the same mold as this set.

First thing first, sand the figure as much as possible.

Then paint all the on transparent surface with a dry layer of metallic silver. I did 2layers of this silver to make sure the later black layers shine.

Then paint brass paint (mixed with a slight touch of transparent orange to make it look more gold) over those relevant areas.

Next, paint a gloss bright blue layer over the areas where there are suppose to be blue lines. You will probably need 2 layers of these gloss bright light blue layer to make sure they will shine out amidst the black later. Don't worry about overspill. That will be taken care of later.

 

Next come the crucial part but before you proceed, take apart the figure first so that its a lot easier to paint later. Next paint clear orange over the transparent areas. Make sure mix a lot of thinner over a lot of clear orange and spread them over the transparent area (and the belt buckle) to ensure the orange color shines though.

The most challenging (or frustrating) part comes next; painting gloss black over most of the figure's area. Normally painting gloss black is a joy as gloss black don't require a lot of layer and it practically covers any color beneath it without them showing though. However, for this custom, there are  lot of thin blue lines across the body that criss cross around the gloss black areas... a lot ;p

First I paint as much of those areas not affected by blue lines as much as possible as fast as possible. I paint the areas between the blue lines as well. I let these dry and then I get down with a tiny brush and patiently painted the edges of each blue lines with gloss black. It took hours and a couple of layers to make the gloss black shine out.

After all that, I have to go though the entire body to do touch ups e.g. areas not covered by the gloss black layer (they are very obvious as they stand out against the dark gloss black and very annoying, these need to be settled before the topcoat or the custom can be spoilt), overlapping gloss black paint over areas where gold or light blue lines should be, etc.

Lastly, when all the paint has dried, I sprayed a layer of gloss topcoat over the figure and let that dry.

At last done, the figure actually looks more glossy and more golden than in the photos below but my iPhone don't seem to capture that zzzz. There were a couple of overlapping paint areas I missed and later repaired after I took the photos below too.

And that's it. Until next time :) If anyone wanted to message me, please be patient as I will be quite busy with work next couple of weeks so I might be slow in replying, maybe.

Tutorial for Custom SIC Hourse Gouram tutorial

 

I used to own a custom Horse Gouram bought from the USA from another customiser. But there was a period when i fell into hard times and there was a lot of uncertainties financially so I was forced to sell it to a friend who graciously bought it (one of its legs broke afterward but my friend refused to let me refund the money he gave me back to him as he knew I was in some sort of trouble eventhough I didnt tell him what was wrong with me).

 

 

Now that things has settled back to more or less positive tone, I thougth it would be a good omen to have my own Horse Gouram back again by building one myself.

 

 

So enough with the s.o.b story and on with the tutorial ;)

 

 

First of course you need some materials and the main ones is a Lord of the Rings' horse and a S.I.C Trygouram shell from the Kuuga Decade set. Luckily, I have just managed to buy a LOTR horse recently.

 

To fit the Trygouram shell onto the horse, you need to cut it up. See how i cut it up from the photo below. HOWEVER, please take note that I made a mistake in one of the cut up potion. That portion holding the wings should NOT be cut off from the main shell. I realised that after I cut them up :/ It took me 2 days to reattach them using metal wire skeletons, super glue and epoxy putty.

 

 

I always thought my previous horse gouram which lost the ability to move its front hoofs as the customiser sealed in the activation button on the horse's buttock such a waste. So for my custom, I wanted the mechanism to work even with the gouram shell on it.

 

First you gotta connect the gouram half cut off head onto the horse. This is achieved by first super glueing the heads onto the horse. Let the glue dry and then support the connection with putty PLUS metal wires. The metal wires prevent the gouram head from moving out of position from the horse while the putty dries.

 

 

In order for me to reach the button that is hidden by the gouram shell, I need an access to the button via a hole on the gouram shell. So, I drilled a hole onto the gouram shell that will be right above the button on the horse.

Next, I need a sort of lever or extended button that can be reached from the gouram shell itself. So I drilled a hole on the button on the horse and glued a cut off gundam sprue piece on it:

The sprue stick glued to the button on the horse will stick out of the hole on the gouram shell like so:

Testing the custom made button and yay it works :D

Next Im worried about the horse legs breaking with all the additional weight on it, especially the one on the front. I need some sort of stand to support the horse but i was all out of stands. So I make a custom stand. Cutting off a long piece of gundam sprue and cutting off all its offshoots, I fashion a simple stand like so:

Next I drilled a hole right beneath the horse and connect the custom stand on it like so:

It kinda works. Aside from spoiling the esthetics a little, I think it works ;)

Next. cut a space off from the Gouram shell's back toallow the horse's tail to stick out like so:

Next, I cover that ugly gap resulting from the cut of separating the gouram shell's front head and the body with sculpted veined liked details using epoxy putty. I paint all these details with a metallic silver layer.

I also paint other parts of the armors on the horse with metallic silver.

Next color a brass or gold layer over the silver parts. To weather it, I dry paint some heavily diluted brown color over the gold. Paint all other portions (those with putty or those with overpainted gold) with matt black.

Voila we are done. I did not glue the back portion of the gouram on the horse as I dont see why i should do that. By not glueing it on, it gives me flexibvility of removing the gouram piece from the horse in case i need to store them next time. I did not glue the propulsion beetle legs either so that they can be posed in different ways (see below).

The reason why i reconnect the wing portion back on the gouram's back is obvious in these photos below whereby the wings can now be opened and closed. The propulsion beetle legs are also reconnected to face backwards like some exhausts to fit this "Beetle Battle mode"

Now he is fit to be any rider warrior's horsey. I didnt have a kuuga handy so i used my custom hibki as its riders which fits very well for his Battle Beetle mode.

Or you can have a femalr riding it.

Or a lovely couple ride.

Here you can see the front hoof moving mechanism at work. When  the button I made is not being pressed the right leg is touching the ground and the left is in the air.

When the button is pressed, the right leg goes up in the air and the left touch the ground.

Well thats it for now. I still have one more custom i hope to complete before i go for my holiday and start my new job. See you all!