My first Diorama - GK Competition 2020 Entry

It's been quiet here … too quiet. There's a good reason for it though; as at least for some of the time I was hard at work on a top secret entry for this year's GK Competition (run by E2046).

The competition entries are up, but voting won't start for another week or so. After that there's an official judging period, so results won't come out till September. Anyway, my entry this year was a bit spontaneous in the end. I bought a couple of 54mm miniatures from RN Estudio with the thought that maybe I'd make a tiny diorama - like both on something not much bigger than a small base. It just so happened that at the time, I started playing a little Valkyria Chronicles and it kind of inspired the colour scheme which went on to influence the rest of the piece and in the end I kept adding more bits influenced by the game - like the recruitment posters.

The other main parts of the kit are the building and bike. The bike is a plastic model Harley kit made by Italeri which came in a lot of parts for something so small. The building is a kit by MiniArt. It was like nothing on earth to build though - the building was vacuum formed and came in big sheets that you had to cut the walls out of. I'm really happy with it now that it's done, but it took a lot of work to get it looking good. The scale would probably be good for Inquisitor though if anyone was interested. 

Painting wise, I used my usual mix of airbrush and brush. I intentionally chose to try more non-metallic techniques as a way to match the sort of animation style that I was looking to create.

You can check out all the entries here (there are figure and robot categories too accessible at the top) 

For just my gallery with more photos: Click Here  

E2046 GK Competition 2018 - Anime Figure Complete!

With about a month to go till the big competition, I decided it was time to defend my second place title from last year's event. It turned into a bit of a rush a week or two before the deadline (which passed yesterday), but I made it in the end. Here are the final results:

If you missed my efforts last year, you're looking at the Champ! The best man here, the best man there, and the best man anywhere.... well that sure is the plan for this year anyway. I actually took second place last year, and I figure I have to at least turn out for this year's event.

So yeah, rewind a year, and I was entering the E2046 GK competition for the first time. They're a Chinese company that make resin "Garage Kits", which is basically code for resin anime girls you build and paint. There are also robots and stuff too. I got the second place prize with my Rage of Bahamut figure that I painted in an uncharacteristically marble effect based weathered style that I think won me a lot of interest as it is very different from the style that most of the figures are usually painted in.



Last year's entry. She is a big figure at about 8" tall.

I wanted to do something equally interesting and different this year, so I opted to base my scheme around the idea of creating a strong OSL look from two light sources (OSL is Object Source Lighting, and basically means replicating the look of a light source hitting a model using paint).

Handily, I have quite a few of these figures to chose from. I had bought a few when I first entered, and the number is now out of control, as the win bought me $250 worth of the resin ladies in store credit. Yes, I have a few spare now to work on...

I have to admit that I wasn't sure what to do until I got the idea fro the OSL. Handily, I had another figure from the same series as last year's entry that was really cool and would be perfect for the job. Getting these models ready for paint is half the battle, but I cleaned her up and built her into sub-assemblies. This is something you always have to do. A lot of people work on all the parts individually and then glue them all together at the end, but I prefer to get them into about half a dozen chunks. I normally divide them up this way based entirely on what I want to airbrush and what I think will make it easy. Never build them fully and then paint them thought as they're very big and delicate and you'd just never be able to reach to get the details.

Anyway, for the first two parts, I painted the base and the legs. I put a pin though the bottom of the foot to hold the model together and it's nice and strong now. Basically what I was going for is for it to look like the crystals are glowing, and I think it has come out well. I've tried to keep most of the model quite dark so the effects will really jump out, but this is new ground for me.

The basic technique was that I assembled the model completely using pins. I then undercoated it in black and then went in with white on the airbrush and highlighted just where the lights would be. Then, when I disassembled the model for painting I had a guide of the rough area where I wanted the lighting effects to be... in theory.

The basic areas where the light would be hitting were defined early on with the undercoat.

After the legs, I worked on the torso, head, hair, arms and wings in that rough order. The whole time, I tried to keep the highlights going in one direction; straight towards that orb. To complicate matters, I ended up doing the yellow gold parts Non Metallic style as it gave me better control of the reflections and the lighting effects.

I've done some glow effects and things like that before, but these were just after-effects added onto a model that I had painted as usual. For this figure, I angled all of the highlighting on every piece specifically to crate the lighting effect, so for example the handle of the sword is a much darker colour than some of the other gold details as it would be less illuminated by the light from the orb.

Overall, I'm happy with how she came out. It was new ground for me, and there are a few things I will try to improve on when I try this technique again later. One thing that is really important is actually the background (literally the backdrop behind her) as if it isn't black the effect doesn't come across as well as other light sources tend to interfere. It's worth bearing in mind if you're planning a diorama or something.

No camera trickery, I just painted a blend all the way from black to light grey across her body! (thank God for airbrushes!)

Anyway, wish me luck for the competition. We'll see if I get de-throned this year or if I'll be taking another title home in a few weeks once the judging is completed!

GK Contest 2017 - I'm the Winner! (2nd place, figure category)

I woke up to some exciting news today. While I was asleep last night, it seems that I was also busy being judged for my painting abilities somewhere in China.

To cut a long story short, my figure placed second in the main figure category (narrowly squeezing past hundreds of other entries). The best part? probably the $200 prize, although really just finally getting a win somewhere was well worth it, after a few dismal showings at Salute!

I'll add a link to the main gallery http://www.e2046.com/contest/2017/, which now features all of the winners at the top. The first place position in my category was well deserved, and I don't even want to know how many hours they spent on that massive dragon and all the figures and bits.

In other news I have plenty of 40k stuff coming up soon. I'm planning to run another full week of Chaos posts next week showcasing all of the things that I've been working on since 8th Edition came out, so stay tuned for that one.

Cheers

E2046 GK Competition 2017

Remember that Anime figure that I painted up a couple of months ago? No? Well, I'll add some pictures to jog your memory.

Anyway, I liked her so much, that I decided that I'd put some pictures into a massive online competition being run by the Chinese resin cast figure company E2046. The competition is a pretty big deal for enthusiasts of these kinds of figures, and literally hundreds of hours have gone into some of the entries. It's all done with photos too, which was a bit of a novelty, but I guess that the main drive is to promote the hobby and their business. There are some big prizes too, with a $500 USD prize for the winner and over $2500 up for grabs in total. It is all in store credit though, but still it certainly puts Golden Demon to shame!

The competition is run in 3 categories. Figure, is for single resin anime style figures. The second category is "Mecha", which is pretty much the Gundam category or giant robots to most people. The third is the always impressive, but obviously insane Diorama category. The reason that I say it is mad, is because the smallest figures they make are about 1/8 scale, so painting up more than one is literally several months of work.

Anyway, my entry is now in the gallery and all I have to do is wait till the 14th, when the initial cut will be made and the finalists will be selected. Here's hoping for a good result!

My Gallery

On a side note, I painted this thing a few months back , and I submitted the gallery about 6 weeks ago, so the competition feels a bit distant, which is something I've actually really enjoyed as it has been nice and relaxing.

Sometimes looking back to the beginning, I wonder where I found the energy to finish it!

An angle that didn't make it into the final gallery. I like it though, she looks kind of annoyed from down here.

The Competition, main gallery

Resin Anime Figure Finished

Well, it was a long haul, but she's finally finished. Hats off to me for another job well done. I think I need a holiday though!

I was so near to completion for months, but I ran out of steam at the last hurdle. Thankfully, I had a bit of spare time over the weekend and finally got her last lance done. At the start of this project, I wanted to use her as an excuse to try out some verdigris and marble effects. I learned a lot about both techniques, although actually the most valuable experience turned out to be just from working on a figure this big. I think I gained more knowledge about painting in sub-assemblies and large resin pieces as I learned about anything else. Finishing her off also gave me a break from working on 28mm scale for a while, and it was nice to do something different.

Anyway, that's enough text for the moment. Enjoy the pictures.

Sometimes it's fun to look back to the beginning too - it was a long journey alright... But probably one I'd take again given a few months to rest up!

Resin Anime Figure - Part VI

Almost there now. I finished and attached the second lance, so it's mostly just finishing off the detailing now and adjusting to taste. On the downside, she barely fits in the light box; having become rather wide!

Not too much to say at this point; if you missed the rest of the project, there are plenty of other posts that take her all the way back to bare resin. I'm still experimenting with improving my photography too, which does seem to be working out so far.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures...

Resin Anime Figure - Part V, Lance 1

Well, despite several New-Year related setbacks, I've been busy again. 

I've painted up one of her lances to look like a piece of marble. This is just a quick post to show the progress I've made in that regard. I'm also trying out some different photography techniques and set-up, which is coming out rather nicely actually. I still have no idea what to do with lights etc, but generally moving them about and taking a ton of pictures tends to yield a few good shots.

I still need to paint the shaft of the lance and the green stuff on her head where I repaired the hair gap as well as patch up a few bits here and there, but the end is in sight!