misterjustin.com

I really didn't like the transition - and so today I re-masked the hood and gave the coat an even coverage of a deeper pink metallic. This also allowed me to paint the rims, so they'll match the paint now. It looks a bit more red in the camera phone pic, but it's actually a salmon pink.



The chair received a pink seat, and a carbon treatment similar to the hood. I'll might do some of that on the interior too... but only if it makes sense at the time. I'm still sorting through the pieces and working out the build/paint plan as this is the first time I've done this kit.

The plan for this one was to fade it from a bright pink, to a dark purple, with the carbon fiber hood. Although I've managed to do this, I'm not entirely sure that I like it at this point. I'm hoping that I'll feel differently about it once the Hello Kitty icons are in place.

I don't take on a lot of commissioned projects these days, but when my friends at Powered Play told me they were releasing a new light rig for car kits, and that they wanted me to do a Hello Kitty themed car for them... well... I just couldn't say no.

Now I haven't painted a pristine vehicle since... I honestly can't remember when. But I love Hello Kitty, I like the people involved, and I was glad for an opportunity to use some techniques that I don't generally get to play with. For instance:


I've known HOW to use a mask to create a carbon fiber effect, but I've never had a reason to try it.

Of course the hood on the kit is part of the body - which means that I now have to mask it off, and hope I don't mess it up, while I'm painting the rest of the car.

And the rest of the car will transition from a dark purple metallic in the front, to a bright metallic pink in the back. Because I can. I'll use masks to put Hello Kitty on the doors, tail, and on the hood.

The painfully slow process of adding foliage to the model has begun. I wanted to add a bit between the models so I'd have an easier time reaching those spots -- and so I can control the white flower placement, which will become part of the focus control.

Of course I still need to finish painting the figures, but that's beside the point....

My wife and I are both fans of the Miyazaki/Ghibli works, and the moment I found out that Finemolds made kits for some of them... well...



You get Pazu and a Guardian robot in one kit, with Sheeta and a Gardener robot in another -- so I had to buy both. The Guardian is in the mock-up, but I'll use the Gardener in the final. That little diorama will be a gift for my wife, while the Guardian will get his wings and be staged to jump off a cliff for my own collection. There's a long way to go, of course, but I'm happy with the progress so far.

I really enjoyed the "Pick Up w/Equipment" kit from Meng Models -- which I had used to make my Zombie Truck -- and quickly made plans to create another, more mundane version of the kit. Given my three year old son's obsession with yard work, "Misterjustin Lanscaping" was born.

The tool rack was scratch built from brass tube, the tool bin from plasticard, and the TOYOTA lettering is from Voyager and is intended for another one of the Meng truck kits.

Of course any landscaping truck is going to need tools... and so I'm having a set of them run through the 3D printer, with some extra water jugs that I will use on other projects.

This is the 1966 Oldsmobile 442 kit from AMT models. As cheap car kits go it's a nice one, although it suffers from a one piece window insert, as most kits in this category do. Otherwise I have no complaints, and as I didn't use the windows...

I'm doing this one as an abandoned junker, so the little interior details are going to add a lot to the story. In this case those include a plastic trash bag, a few old beer cans, some newspapers, and a handful of Playboy issues, all with appropriate 1976 labels or covers.



The windows were made by spreading out a thin layer of Realistic Water and then sprinkling on some crushed glass. Once that dried I cut it to shape and glued it to the frame with some Water Effects.

I'm finally working on the detailing and finishing... and there's nothing quite like a camera to help you find the spots that need to be touched-up. In particular the (unfinished) gun return, and the shell storage.

But I'm very happy with how the radio turned out, although you can't see the metallic sheen in these photos, and that I managed to get the tiny headset built and positioned without losing my mind. Of course none of this would be complete without cracked leather seats!

I still have a lot of finishing to do, more detailing, weathering, the road wheels and tracks, and a bit of stowage. I do hope to have it finished in the first week of February though.

The initial colour modulation on a Dragon Smart Kit - Marder III M Ausf. I need to clean it up a bit, but it will get muted by filters, chipping, and a small amount of dried mud.

Only the port panel is glued in place -- the starboard panel, gun, gun carriage, gun shield, and rear panel are all loose fitted. You can see some orange tac in the bottom right photo.

Lots to do...

In between painting sessions on the Warlord StuG I have been building this Marder III M Ausf. from the Dragon Smart Kit line.

At 1/35 it is substantially larger than the pieces I have been posting recently -- nearly double the length of the StuG, and the Flames of War wreck would nearly fit in the engine compartment.

At this stage I spent more time building the engine that I did on the StuG from start-to-finish. That engine has something like 60 parts, including a lot of brass etch you'll never see, and had to be built and painted before I moved on.

I put the port side compartment in place even though it means I won't be able to paint a few of the tiny details -- but I'm leaving the starboard side off so that I can properly detail the radios and get it all painted.

I have started work on the hull texture but forgot to get the inside of the gun carriage compartment -- OOPS! Fortunately this space will be much less visible when the model is put together. Because I forgot on this side I will intentionally skip the texturing on the other when I start work on it.

Given that this tank includes individually linked tracks I will probably still be building it even after the next model is completely finished. Because of that I usually have three projects in the works at any time -- a build, a detail, and a paint. These days I'm doing two tanks and one figurine. So now that the StuG is finished, and this is my detail project, I need to dig through my projects and find the next tank....