Nendoroid Expression Painting: Day Four!

Today I’ll be borrowing a room from the production team!!

I’ve been working at my own desk up until this point, but the fumes from the thinner have been affecting me more than I expected, so I decided to move to a room that’s designed for things like this!

It means I’ll be working around a number of strange machines and tools, but I don’t mind confined areas, especially when I can get down to work on something I enjoy! (`・ω・´)

This is where we left off last time!

I had just finished the borders of the two eyes! I actually made a few more alterations after I was done with the previous blog… 😛

This is so much fun!

I had to keep working until I thought it was the absolute best I could do!

Soak a bud in water and clean off unwanted marks!

After a number of changes the paint tends to cling onto the face a bit, but you can just use some water (not thinner) on a cotton bud to clear away the unwanted paint.

You’ll probably be quite surprised as to how dirty it can get while you’re working on it. This photo is actually Hiro-san cleaning it up for me – but I am doing all the actual paintwork myself! (`・ω・´)

Now it’s time to move onto the next step!

At the moment we have enamel paint on top of lacquer paint (1). Now I’ll be spraying on a thin layer of clear lacquer to ‘save’ the borders!

By doing that, the paint at (2) will not cause any problems with the painted lines at (1)!ヽ(ﾟ∀ﾟ)ﾉ

For more details on what I’ve done in the past, feel free to read the previous articles in this series:
Painting a Nendoroid Expression Part 1: Basic Knowledge & Tools of the Trade
Painting a Nendoroid Expression Part 2: Painting the Eye Border
Painting a Nendoroid Expression Part 3: Continuing to Paint the Eye Borders

These are what you need for this step!

Lacquer clear, lacquer thinner and an airbrush!

These are all available at model stores – although I’m sure many of you are worried about how hard it will be to use the airbrush…

In fact, I am as well, so I’ll be using this instead!

A spray can that does the same job!

You can use this just as it is, so you don’t need to go through the effort of getting the airbrush ready! As a newcomer to all this, I think it’ll be much better for me to use the easier option…

Secure the expression with a clip!

Make sure the clip is securely in place with some elastic bands or tape. I’m borrowing a clip normally used to apply surfacer, that’s the only reason it looks all gray – so don’t worry about that.

Right, let’s get started!!!

I’ve spent about 20 hours painting these lines on, so I’m really nervous now… I don’t want to mess the whole thing up now!

There is a technique to the spraying!

・ Don’t press the sprayer down too hard! Just half way is fine!
・ Hold it about 20cm away and spray, moving left and right 2~3 times!
・ Make sure to cover it completely, and also try to ensure it is evenly distributed!

If you spray too close you’ll end up applying too much, so make sure you are far enough away from the expression when spraying! (Although, if you’re too far it won’t coat properly at all, so you really need to try and find the perfect place.)

You can’t just spray it all quickly at once, or else the enamel paint will dissolve! Σ(ﾟДﾟ;）

If you remember from before, the eye borders are made with enamel paint, and lacquer will cause it to dissolve. But to help avoid this…

Dry with a hair drier after each layer!

Repeat this process about three times!

You don’t finish the coating all at once, but instead repeat this spray/dry process a number of times. By doing this, you can avoid having the eye borders dissolve from the strength of the lacquer!

This is an example of a failure!

I was scared to try on Miku first so I tested the distance I should be spraying at on this expression first. This example only used a single coat of of lacquer clear, but because of that the coating was too thin and the enamel thinner caused the eye borders to dissolve…

You can’t spray on too much, and you can’t spray on too little… it’s a very fine balance that requires a great amount of care!

The expression should appear glossy at this point!

Ooh! I think I’ve managed to get it right!! Yay!! Now I’ve got my layer of lacquer on top of the eye borders!

Of course that means I can no longer change the borders! (((ﾟДﾟ)))

Mixing the color for the white of the eyes!

Oda-P said I could just use white, but I decided I wanted to mix a little bit of blue in anyway! (I guess we’ll find out if it was a good idea later…)

The tools I’m using were all introduced in the first post of this series, which you can find here: Painting a Nendoroid Expression Part 1: Basic Knowledge & Tools of the Trade

Painting the white of the eyes!

Of course with my amateur skills I didn’t manage to paint them neatly within the borders…

The white here is clearly going over the borders – but this is exactly why we sprayed the lacquer clear on top of them! Now we can simply use enamel thinner to clean up the areas where the white is crossing the borders, and it won’t affect the eye borders at all thanks to the layer of lacquer.

Complete!!!

I’m finally getting somewhere with my expression!! It’s so much fun to slowly but surely make progress like this!!

Although as I paint the color inside, the differences between the two sides becomes more and more clear… (‘A`)

In fact it already looks completely unsymmetrical…

But this is the best I can do right now, and I’ll be sure to see it all the way through!

I’ve really had a lot of support from all the sculptors here at GSC, and I’m very grateful for all their advice and help! If there was anything I didn’t understand they would quickly come to my rescue and give me some directions when I was worried about something.

I hope that everyone reading through these posts is enjoying them as much as I’ve been enjoying trying to do this myself, and I’ll be continuing this special corner the next time I have some free time!
Anyway, that’s all for today!
I hope to see you all again tomorrow!! (・∀・)ノ゛
(C)Crypton Future Media, Inc. www.crypton.net

The project I started on a whim…
Nendoroid Painting, Day 3!

It’s been quite tight on my schedule to keep this up, but the right eye has come out looking really nice so I’m really exited to get back to work on it now!! (…at least, I thought it looked nice :P)

I’m a little bit clumsy with my fingers, but I really like making things like this so I don’t really mind if it doesn’t come out perfectly! Although I definitely did have some frustrating times while working on it, it has all been worth it!

Today I’ll be continuing to work on the eye borders!

I’m using the exact same setup as I did yesterday. If you leave the paint in the tray for a day it’ll harden up, but you can use thinner to return the hardened paint back into a liquid form.

As a side note, when you mix colors together, always consider using a little more than you think you’ll need… it’s better than having to try and mix up the exact same color again!

Time to work on the left eye!

Now that I’m looking at this photo myself I can see the lines I made were definitely much too thick here. It’s better to have the paint more fluid and not as thick as I have it here – it’ll help in painting finer lines.

Cleaning up the lines with thinner!

I painted the right eye border on relatively easily, but for some reason the left eye just isn’t working out! I’m told there are two reasons for this!

・ It’s harder for right-handed people to draw the left eye!
・ You’re trying to create symmetry with the right eye!

Now that I think about it, it’s also harder to draw the left eye for me on illustrations – it’s the same concept just in figure form! Plus I need to worry about making the left eye look symmetrical to the right eye… this isn’t going to be easy…

I’m definitely making some progress!

But… something definitely doesn’t feel right…

Something I only managed to notice now…

The eyes are too high!

I didn’t notice this at all when I had only completed the one eye! Apparently it’s actually a mistake that lots of newcomers to Good Smile end up making.

After all my hard work I didn’t want to believe that I was going to have to do it all again…

In my depressed state, Hiro-san and Mesuka gave me some interesting tools to work with!

Hiro-san is the sculptor responsible for the BRS and Dead Master Nendoroids, and Mesuka sculpted the Nendoroid Petite Madoka Magica figures! They came to my rescue in my time of need!!

The tool at the top of this photo is called a Vernier scale, which measures the width of things (in this case, the size of eye). The tool at the bottom is to ensure that different parts are level.

Let’s try using it!

Using the Vernier scale seemed a bit too far past my level, so I decided to make use of this transparent ruler-like tool. As you can see, the upper eyelashes and outer eye lines aren’t actually matching up at all…

The fact that I’m doing this has now spread across the offices, so a lot of the sculptors stop by to see how I’m doing… when Kawara-san came by he told me I should take a look at my paintwork in a mirror…

━━(||ﾟдﾟ)━━━ !!!!!

It looks terrible!!

Not only are the eyes at different heights, they’re not even remotely symmetrical! They look completely distorted!

It’s hopeless! I’ll have to do it again!

This time I’ll pay attention to height and symmetry!

I’ve fixed up the eyebrow and I’ve been moving the eyes downward… but…

Every time I fix something, the balance breaks somewhere else and that needs fixing! It’s an endless spiral of corrections!

At one point I just became completely lost as to what I was trying to do anymore. I couldn’t tell which lines were the right ones and which ones I wanted to erase…

I will get this looking right!

I want to go back in time and hit myself for ever thinking this would be easy.

Anyway… I kept at it while looking at it upside-down, from the sides, from the top and in the mirror from earlier, slowly but surely painting and then erasing lines until I felt it the lines were starting to look better. The thinner has quite strong fumes, so you also need some willpower to overcome those and continue to work… 😛

It’s been a total of ten hours now…

Complete━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━!!!!

This post is obviously cutting out quite a lot… I actually ended up completely erasing and redoing the right eye again. It really wasn’t going how I wanted it to, so I erased the whole thing and once I started from scratch again it actually came out looking much better – determination is the key to success!

Plus, if I ever do this again I’ll know not to just work on one eye at a time, but to work on both and keep a good balance between them!

There is however personal differences on how exactly you prefer to do it, for example Hiro-san says he does 70% of the one eye and then 30% of the other, and then goes back and finishes them up. I guess it’s just up to you to find the way that works the best for you – practice makes perfect!

Comparison Shot!

A look from a different angle!

This is how it looks in the mirror!

I guess the symmetry looks okay… although that one eye looks a little off… is it?

Arrgg!! I think it is!!
But if I change something now it’s just going to end up throwing the balance off somewhere else, so I’m going to have to move on like this for now.

…to be honest, I meant to complete the painting in three posts.

But now I can say with confidence that this is just like playing some kind of impossible game… it’s fun, but it’s certainly not easy! To think that Oda-P can complete this neatly in a day and a half… I have a new found respect for him!

But anyway, with the borders out of the way we can move onto using some color! I can save my game here and continue another day!

But unfortunately I can only load that save once…

Now I’ll be using an airbrush to paint a think lacquer layer over the eye border – a very thin layer. But wait… shouldn’t the weak enamel paint be dissolved if lacquer paint is painted over it?

Normally that would be the case, and all my hard work drawing the eye borders would go to waste… but that’s exactly why you need to make a very thin layer!

I’ve never used an airbrush before… I wonder how this is going to turn out…

Oda-P (Currently Overseas):

“In the worst case scenario the paint will get smudged. It’s something that every newcomer had to go through, so don’t worry.”
(((( ;ﾟДﾟ))) I’m worrying!!
Anyway, I only managed to finish the borders of the eyes for now… but this special corner will have to go on hold for awhile! As soon as I have a bit of spare time again, I’ll continue with my painting attempt! (To be honest, I really want to continue right now, so hopefully it won’t be long!)

Next week we’ll be taking a look at a couple of new prototype figures, so look forward to them!
Anyway, that’s all for today!
I hope to see you all again next week!! (・∀・)ノ゛

(C)Crypton Future Media, Inc. www.crypton.net

Nendoroid Painting Part 2!

Last time we took a look at the tools, but this time around I’m going to actually start with the painting!

I should really hurry up and get started, but first…

This photo is to scale!

The Nendoroid head looks so much smaller when you know you’re going to be painting on it yourself!

First off, I drew on some rough lines!

I drew these on while the fringe was attached to make sure they were in a good position. I’ll explain more about these rough lines a bit later, but basically they can be erased easily so it doesn’t really matter how messy they look!

The road to success is to copy the best!

I definitely need something to base my painting on seen I don’t have any real experience, so I’ll be copying the eyes from this Miku Nendoroid!

I know very well that I wouldn’t get very far if I tried from scratch, so I’ll keep this Miku on the side as a reference model!

I decided to start with the upper eye lashes!

Unfortunately they seem to have come out a bit thick and crooked… I also managed to brush some paint onto the left side of the eye… I’m sorry Miku!!

But you don’t just paint once and be done with it! You need to paint and erase over and over again until the expression looks right!

Let me try explain with a picture!

The left represents what I’ve done so far!

Now I’ll take the wobbly paint lines and make them look neater by using enamel thinner! In other words I’ll basically be erasing the pink section on the image above, to create a straighter, neater line!

That’s the basics of it least, so let me give it a go!

Cleaning up the outer eye!

Here I’ve actually used too much thinner, which is causing the paint to smudge a bit!! At least the line itself does look a little bit neater!

A comparison of the two!

You really only need the tiniest drop of thinner, I used too much (Just dab a small amount on the brush and then dry it a little bit before applying it to the figure). You don’t need to worry about the smudges as they can be cleaned up quite easily later on.

You’ll need three paint trays!

The top two filled with enamel thinner.

The one on the left is to clean the brushes. Once paint collects on a brush it’ll slowly get harder and harder to use, so make use of the enamel thinner to clean off the paint from them when you’re done with a color. That means that the thinner on the left can get dirty without a problem – you’re just using it to clean off the paint.

The one on the right is for thinner used for cleaning up the lines as I was previously doing on Miku. You need to keep paint out of this thinner, as if it gets dirty you won’t be able to remove the unwanted lines neatly. If you think it’s looking a little dirty, consider replacing the thinner with some fresh thinner to continue your work.

Its best to have two brushes, one for paint and one for thinner!

I was using a single brush for ages, and only after awhile did I realize it would be much easier with a second. ^^;

After erasing and painting on over and over again…

2 and a half hours have passed!!

… and I’m still having fun!!

You really have to concentrate or you make mistakes so easily… but the thought of completing Miku’s expression is enough to keep me going!!

I also get the feeling that people who are good at drawing will find it much easier to draw the expression on than others. The main difference would probably be the fact that you need to keep the face stable with one hand while drawing with the other – it’s really not that easy when you’re not used to it…

Oda-P gave me some advice, saying that I should hold my pinky finger to the head part to help keep it stable, and it really did help me quite a lot! If you’re trying this for yourself, be sure to try the pinky trick!

One eye complete━（ﾟ∀ﾟ）━!!!

The lines look a little wobbly still, but I think it came out looking alright! Yay!

I put the hair part back on!

Looking good!! Σ（ﾟ∀ﾟ三ﾟ∀ﾟ）

Everyone said the expressions were really hard to work with, but I think this will come out looking great!! Maybe it’s time for me to leave the WEB team and join the Nendoroid team!

…or so I thought…

But then I found out…

the hard part was just about to begin…
I’ll be continuing this blog tomorrow!!
I hope to see you all again then!! (・∀・)ノ゛
(C)Crypton Future Media, Inc. www.crypton.net

If there is one thing I’ve always wanted to try ever since I joined GSC, it can only be trying my hand at…

Painting a Nendoroid expression!

Nendoroids are known for their big heads and thus their big eyes – because of this the way the eyes are drawn is a very important element of any Nendoroid!

Everyone here at GSC seems to agree that the most pressure when making a Nendoroid comes from trying to get the eyes right… but even so, I’ve decided to take up the challenge as an amateur!

I have a 3-day time-limit!

Although I have other work to do, so maybe only two… I know there are many of you who are looking forward to product and prototype reviews, but sometimes I think its good to have a few articles like this one!

Just give me three days!! ^^

Anyway, I want to get started but I don’t know where to start, so I’ll start off with a lecture from Oda-P!

Thanks, Oda-P Sensei! (`･ω･´)

Oda-P was one of the founders of the Nendoroid series – he sculpts and paints them himself! He does almost everything!!

Oda-P: “You really want to do this? Who are you going to paint?”

Mikatan: “I was thinking Miku would be good…?”

Oda-P: “Miku is really difficult… but let’s give it a go.”

Mikatan: “Around how long does painting an expression take?”

Oda-P: “For someone as serious as Kawara-san or myself, about a day and a half. For newcomers it could take as long as a month.”

Mikatan: “(((ﾟДﾟ)))!!”
Well, I’m still going to give it a try!!

Starting with an explanation of the paints!

There are three different paints, each with a different strength – lacquer, acrylic and enamel paints.

Lacquer is the strongest, followed by acrylic, with enamel being the weakest paint.

In other words, you can’t paint lacquer paints on top of acrylic or enamel paints as the strength will cause them to dissolve, but you can paint enamel paint on top of acrylic or lacquer paints. If you want to paint different types of paint on top of one and other, you need to follow the image above.

I actually introduced this concept on the blog before on the DIY Figure Repairs Part 3: Scuffed Paint post. You can find out a bit more info from that post!

Lacquer Thinner and Lacquer Clear!

These will also be needed – they can be found in most model stores!
http://mikatan.goodsmile.info/en/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/o0515042212272142000.jpg
Wiping the lacquer thinner on Miku’s eye!

This expression part had some scratches on it, so we decided to use it for this article. Just place some lacquer thinner on a tissue and gently stroke it against the eye of the expression. It has some fairly strong fumes, so be sure to do this in a well ventilated area!

The eye disappears completely!

Amazing! I guess that means I can start painting on my own expression now?

Not quite yet… the lacquer thinner will leave the surface a big rough which will cause the colors to run, so first…

Rub on some lacquer clear!

It makes it so smooth and shiny!! It’s just like when they pour concrete onto a gravel road to make it all smooth!

Now I’m ready to start painting on a new expression!

These are the tools of the trade!

The paints and thinner I’ll be using are enamel, which as I mentioned before is weaker than the lacquer. That means no matter how many times I paint and erase the base I’ve made, it won’t remove the lacquer that cleared the eyes away.

There are two different brushes you can see here, one that costs about ¥250 and then a more expensive one… so which one should you use? Oda-P says the cheaper one is just fine!! 😛

Right, let’s draw in the border of the eyes!

By that I mean the red line in the image above.

I think getting that shape right might be one of the most difficult parts… I hope my Miku comes out looking cute!!

The eye border is 1 part black and 4 parts brown paint!

Many of the earliest Nendoroid had a blacker eye border, but most of the recent ones actually use a brown color. The color looks much darker once its painted on, so if it looks a little too brown then its probably still fine!

I’ll be continuing tomorrow with the actual painting!

I’m really going to try my best to get this looking right, but if it turns out as a disaster, I hope you’ll all still cheer me on… ^^;
Anyway, that’s all for today!
I hope to see you all again tomorrow!! (・∀・)ノ゛
(C)Crypton Future Media, Inc. www.crypton.net