Friday, December 28, 2012

Painting Journal: Vassal Kabuto


I'll slather the appropriate praise of Matt Doughty and his Glyos toyline eventually (spoiler: there will be lots of slathering), it's one of the things that got me back into painting in a big way.  For now though, enjoy this custom Glyos toy, with a custom resin head from Marty 'The God Beast" Hanson.


Vassal Kabuto is composed of parts from the Glyos Traveler and Buildman toys, with bits of an axis joint accessory pack, and then the resin head to top it all off.  The paint job is a fairly simple one: a basecoat of Monster Kolor Gold, then layers of Monster Kolor C-Thru Chocolate.  I faded the chocolate coat on the limbs and horn, I like how that turned out.  Then a generous amount of MK Blue Pearl for an iridescent bug look.

To give the eyes some extra visual impact, I painted them MK metallic blue, and added a large amount of MK Color-change flakes.  The color change flakes create a rainbow holographic effect, and are notoriously hard to capture in pictures.

While I'm satisfied with how this turned out, I should have given the basic build more articulation, and maybe some more gold highlights to bring out the sculpted detail.


One last shot, trying to capture the sparkley eyes.


Friday, December 21, 2012

Painting Journal: Grody Starlight Mint



Of the clear vinyl Grody Shogun trio I painted, this is the one that I am most satisfied with.

This is the scheme I had in mind when I ordered a set of clear figures.  Although I waffled trying to decide on traditional red peppermint stripes, or green spearmint.  Settled on red, and Monster Kolor C-thru Bad Apple.



Focusing the design on the big noggin was key.  The lines are shaky (it's cold in the workshop!), but that compliments the rough design.

White paint over a silver base, with lots of white pearl and of course the stripes and clearcoat.  I made an effort to keep some translucency.  Shines just like a sugary confection should.



He's gotten a nice reception, and now I want to do that spearmint version!


Thursday, December 20, 2012

Painting Journal: Grody Rock Candy



Say hello to Grody Rock Candy!  I love this angular, rocky sculpt (though I don't know what it's called, CCM?), and since it looks like a rock candy lump come to life, I ran with that idea.



In contrast to yesterday's "It looks better in person! Really!" here we have one that does look nice in pictures, but that I'm still not satisfied with.

Painted inside and outside with a light coat of Monster Kolor Silver (Silver has become my all-purpose primer, it's great), and some white touches to vary the finish.  Then I blended C-thru colors, and a coat of white pearl, glosscoated, and done!

I really like the way the internal/external and silver and white base coats vary the finish.  I also like the way the pearl and base silver give the figure depth, and enhance the reflective surfaces.



So technically, no faults here, and it looks pretty, BUT I didn't do anything to the face but add some silver to the eyes, and there isn't much contrast in my paintjob.  Because of this, I think it's lacking in personality.  Maybe I'll go back and repaint the eyes.

Stop in tomorrow for the last of the Grody Candy trio!



Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Painting Journal: Grody Root Beer Barrel


Grody Shogun from LuluBell Toy Bodega hit a sweet spot of cheap, grotesque, and cute.  Luke Rook is the mastermind behind them, and they've become a darling of the Sofubi world.

I jumped one the last run of clear figures. I thought doing candy colors would be keen, and when the box arrived, there was a handful of candy tossed in! Including a classic root beer barrel! Neat coincidence!

But running with that idea produced mixed results.



My own Root Beer Barrel is at the bottom of the curve.  In person, it's a deep caramel color, translucent (Monster Kolor C-Thru Chocolate! Indispensable!), rich, and glittery.

... But in pictures it looks exactly like a polished turd.  You can see my feeble efforts to show the translucency with a flashlight.  It didn't work.



Painted sparingly inside and outside with silver MK as a base, then layered up with chocolate, gold, and last year's MK holiday special Snowblind pearl (a mix of gold, silver, and blue, very nifty).

Learning experience: When a figure already looks like Eddy Munster after a terrible butane accident, don't paint it brown.

Stay tuned for two more Candy Grodii.


Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Painting Journal: Tiny Shiny Kitties

Candycat, Starbum, and Mossmulch


Micro Negora!  An adorable kaiju kitty from Konatsu and Mark Nagata.  He's lit the sofubi world on fire, and never stays in stock long.  Fortunantly I was able to get three unpainted Micro negora the last time they were available from Max Toy Co (he also comes in Mini and King sizes).

I had a horrible time photographing them.  A combination of shaky hands, bad lighting, and the the fact that shimmery Monster Kolor Pearl is notoriously hard to capture in pictures.



Candycat is has a gradient of eye-popping Vividtone pink, orange and yellow, with yellow-gold metallic highlights, and Pink Pearl.  The pink pearl is really subtle, but it enhances the depth of the finish.  I usually like to use a contrasting pearl color, but this time, I wanted the bright base colors to be the star.



Starbumb received a black base coat with Bell Gold highlights, and teal and purple spots.  Finished with purple and teal pearl.  Influenced by one of my Mom's favorite artists, Laurel Burch, and her wildly-colored cat paintings.



Mossmulch got a base coat of my favorite Green Tea Metallic with Clover Metallic, and Rocket Red metallic highlights.  Green and teal pearl gives him an amazing shimmer.  Green and red are one of my favorite schemes, it makes me sad when color combinations get relegated to a holiday ghetto.

I went back and hand-painted each face and eyes for extra definition.

Apart from my lousy photography, I'm really happy with how they turned out.




Thursday, December 6, 2012

That didn't happen (oops part II)



Obviously, I didn't end up trying to sell anything yesterday.  I still really don't have the hang of this side of eCommerce (great at the buying stuff bit).  That's particularly embarrassing, since I'm an IT guy by trade.

In the meantime, enjoy another picture of the amazing Glyos Armorvor, new wave coming soon from Onell.  They're much better at the whole eCommerce thing!

Monday, December 3, 2012

Oops!


Oops.  Future, hypothetical, sales through this website are postponed as I work some things out, and my paranoia dies down (I'm going to get sued! The IRS will be barking down my snorkel! They're watching meeeee!) In lieu of trying to sell something, enjoy this picture of two Glyos Armorvor that I painted a couple months ago, when the sun still shown in the Pacific Northwest.  Monster Color C-Thru paints will never let you down.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Updated: Something Shiny This Way Comes...


Update: Drop postponed indefinitely!

Next Wednesday, December 5th, will see the first official Deluxe Orbitdyne product launch!  Packaging and everything! A sneak preview is above, and there will be more as I approach the release date, stay tuned!

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Painting Journal: Beast Fight Saga



Not quite Battle-Beasts!  For fun I painted up a spare Takara-Tomy Beast Fight Saga Lion and clear "burst" Dolphin.



The Lion is a complete repaint, he was originally red, brown, and green.  I didn't do much to the dolphin, just a pearl coat, and ultra-gloss finish.  Usually, Monster Kolor gloss produces a terrific glassy look on clear or translucent plastic, but that didn't happen here, live and learn.  The weapons were painted silver with clear colors on top.  Makes them almost look vacuum-metalized, it's one of my favorite techniques.




Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Painting Journal: Elegab Daburunga

Elegab Daburunga, painted by yours truly

I should have listened to Philip Reed's warning.  Reading his review of Elegab Shuttlegon got me interested in the wild Kaiju designs of Naritada"Nari"Shintani.  Under the name Elegab, he is a one-man sofubi powerhouse: designing, sculpting, casting, and painting his own figures (or so I'm told).



Nari's designs are grotesque yet charming, full of playfulness and character.  They wouldn't look out of place in the wilder Tokusatsu shows.  Nari often sells unpainted blank versions of his toys, and I knew I had to try painting one.  The first that I've finished is Daburunga (AKA 'Bad Friend).




I haven't read any background on the design (Nari has some fiction for his monsters in a book, and on his website), but the design seems clear enough: A robot fused with a monster.  I imagine some kind of teleporter accident, and now they're The Odd Couple 1999.

I was able to purchase one from Nari, cast in glow-in-the-dark vinyl, my favorite!  That made the painting decisions easier, as I knew the glow had to show through the paint, at least partially.  Monster Kolor C-Thru are fantastic for this sort of treatment.  Very fine translucent paints, perfect for adding vibrant color without obscuring the material underneath.  I decided to use them on the monster side, and do opaque colors on the robot side.


The monster half was a stream-of-consciousness, completely freehand experiment.  I kept adding colors and layers until it looked right.  I think I used every C-thru color in the toolbox, except orange.  Once finished, I used a q-tip to wipe the paint from eyes and teeth.  Then I put on a layer of Monster Kolor Ultra-Gloss clearcoat...


 ...and stopped dead, as I now had to figure out how I wanted to paint the robot half.

My problem was, I liked the monster half so much, I really didn't want to mess up on the robot side.  It took me months to work up a plan of action.  I masked off the monster side and proceeded with a thick coat of Monster Kolor Green Tea metallic (my favorite green in their catalog), and a highlight of Money Shredder Pearl.  Money Shredder is a complex pearl with flakes of green, red, and gold metallic.  It's tough to capture the pearl effect in pictures, but it adds a strong sense of depth to any paintjob.



For the details, I deviated from my usual process, and removed the robot arm and leg and painted them separately.  The joints were masked and received a thick coat of standard Monster Kolor Red, and a highlight of lighter Crosshair Red.  Unfortunately when I reattached the limbs, the paint scraped clean off, in some very visible places.  I ended up removing the masking, and repainting the joints freehand with both brush and airbrush.  I think there's one really clean line, and the rest are fuzzy.  Live and learn!

I also masked off the fingers, antennae, eyes and various bumps.  Then painted them with the same red mix as the joints, and used standard MK Yellow and MK Eyezon Yellow for the eyes and what I've decided are lamps on the body.



I was unsatisfied with the masking, I haven't gotten a good masking technique at all.  So I went back freehand with the airbrush again, especially on the eyes.  There's some unsightly overspray on the head which I'm not to happy with, but I can't remove it without removing the paint underneath.  I'll just consider it added character.  For more depth, I gave the yellow parts a touch of C-Thru Orange.  The last color added was a thick coat of MK Moon Dust paint on the mouth.  It's a silver pearl with a very fine metal flake, and I like how it highlighted the grill, without covering the green completely.

To clean up the antenna and fingers, I went back with Monster Kolor Brushable, until I had clean lines.

Finally, I put on one more gloss coat, and the figure was finished!



I toyed with the idea of doing one side matte, and the other gloss, to up the contrast, but the matte finish took vibrancy out of the paint, so I settled on an all-gloss finish.

I'm very happy with the finished product, and it glows proudly on my shelf.  Well, half of it does anyway...



Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Eyezon 5th show at Double Punch - Thank You!

Edit: The remaining customs are on sale now!  Get 'em while they last! 


Word is both of my customs at the Eyezon show have sold, to the buyers, a huge thank you!  I'd love to hear from you (info@orbitdyne.com)!  Pictures below from Mark:








More pictures from the show over at the Max Toy Co Blog, and Toy Karma.

Thank you again to Mark, Double Punch, and to the buyers!  There are still a few customs left unsold, be sure to watch the Double Punch store for sale details!



Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Eyezon 5th Anniversary Video Preview

Toys'R'Evil put together a very nice preview video for the Double Punch Eyezon 5th Show:


My two start at 2:40, but please watch the whole thing, all the pieces are incredible!


Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Eyezon 5th Anniversary show At Double Punch!


Mark Nagata was kind enough to include me his 5th Anniversary Eyezon Show at the Double Punch gallery, November 3rd!  I'm honored to be a part of the show with such distinguished artists, and I hope my additions do everyone's favorite mutant potato kaiju justice!

I went all out and added LED's to a big clear Eyezon, and sculpted a galactic suit of armor for Neo Eyezon!

Meet GigaGuts, and Galaxy Captain Eyzono (and a sneaky micro eyezon)!


With the lights out, GigaGuts really shines!



In-hand, from Mark's Twitter.

Each figure is painted with genuine Monster Kolor paint and clear coat.  GigaGuts has a removable back panel to swap batteries on his lights.  I had originally tried to engineer a switch on his front, but that ended in blood and tears (literally, I accidentally stabbed an awl into my hand trying to fix the switch after it broke).

Galaxy Capitan Eyezono was much less painful.  I modified his arms with Glyos axis joints, and sculpted a galactic-themed suit of armor for his space adventures.  I also ended up removing his main horns, and replacing them with more eyes, since I had covered several with the armor.

Thank you again to Mark for five years of a great kaiju creation!




Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Welcome!

Welcome to the initial Orbitdyne.com blog post!  Home of Seth Longmire's custom toys and art.  More coming soon, in the meantime, the home page is sitting at www.orbitdyne.com, and feel free to contact me at info@orbitdyne.com.  I'm also on twitter: https://twitter.com/nomorenames01

Stand by...