Resin Figures

Read more about the article Time for a quick resin figure build

Time for a quick resin figure build

Time for the first resin figure project of the year. This has been a fairly productive year so far with finishing a number of gunpla project. Time to get at least one figure kit. I picked this kit up at Anime Expo at the Volks booth. They were there last year and back again this year. They even have a location in Torrance, so if I ever need to order something, I believe I can pick it up at their warehouse. Damn cool for folks that have had trouble getting original resin kits. And these are not your run of the mill resin figure kits. These have a high level of quality control. They are engineered using the bandai gunpla model; everything is molded in color. The color separation for these kits are insane. Last year, I grabbed a Revy kit from them and I was sold. You just shake the box and the kit’s done. It’s that friggin simple. Ok, maybe not quite that easy; but if you’ve ever built any other resin anime figure (original or recast) try these Volks kits. For anyone interested in trying their first resin anime figure kit; get a kit from Volks. The comparison is akin to building a macross kit from hasegawa to building any bandai gunpla kit released in the last 5 years.

Last week, we had our July build gathering and the goal for the day was to get her semi cleaned up and pinned together. Like most other Volks kits, she has some options. She comes with two sets of right arms to hold up a sign or her jacket. Pinned together, I have her holding the jacket. Again, the pictures below show the kit as is out of the box, pinned together. The color separation and engineering is amazing.

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Continue ReadingTime for a quick resin figure build
Read more about the article Sena Kashiwazaki: Getting her hair did and finishing up the project

Sena Kashiwazaki: Getting her hair did and finishing up the project

This weekend was the build gathering and I actually finished this kit before the build gathering even started. This past couple of weeks, I have been dealing with the issues of the paint chipping on one of the chap parts. I had painted the chap piece along with the other parts and masked as I normally masked and the paint chipped when I started unmasking. I ran the part in a tub of lacquer thinner and placed this tub in the ultrasonic cleaner with water and ran it there; then painted and it chipped again. I then soaked the thing in more degreaser, ran it with the degreaser in the ultrasonic cleaner, and left it soak in the degreaser overnight. Then ran the part in isopropanol alcohol in the ultrasonic cleaner and dried the part. Upon close inspection, I found that the mold release was still on the surface of the kit, so those areas were rigorously sanded and the part re-cleaned in alcohol in the ultrasonic cleaner. Dried completely, then repainted and masked without any issues.

With that done,I finally got the rest of her finished and assembled. One of the major last parts was the hair. Once that was finished, I got to working on the details such as clear glosses, washes, the fingernails, and flat coats. The very last piece was her butterfly hair clip. And with that, she’s done!

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Continue ReadingSena Kashiwazaki: Getting her hair did and finishing up the project
Read more about the article Sena Kashiwazaki: The Painting

Sena Kashiwazaki: The Painting

I got two more videos in the can now. One for painting the skin tone and the other for just general painting that includes work with metallics and a little discussion on Alclad paints from the regular metallics to their enamel candy line and hot metal red. As usual, I ran into some issues with the paint chipping off the resin. I attribute the issues to improper soaking or cleaning of the resin. I did soak it over night which is my usual time allotment for that process. But the cleaner may need to be changed out; I’ve been using the same tub of purple power for well over 6 years now, possibly longer. I don’t think there is an expiration, but there’s quite a bit of gunk deposited in the liquid. The parts may have just had some super mold release. Who knows. The process is the same, you accept it and continue.

The following process progressed over several days, and in the video, I compress all this into a 25 or so long video. Post production editing is cool yet laborious work.

Painting Anime Skin Video:

The other video as well as a pictorial description of the kit’s progression so far after the jump.

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Continue ReadingSena Kashiwazaki: The Painting
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