02.06.2007 » Concepts/Initial Progress

My first experience with Battle Angel Alita was watching it at a friend's place right before graduation from the Art Institute. My friend was from Japan (Hi Mari if you're out there somewhere!) and her boyfriend was a big fan. Thankfully the OVA I watched was subtitled. Great story though and got me to eventually get the OVA for myself as well as a few issues of the fantastic Manga.

This kit is another horrible recast from HobbyFan. Not quite as bad as Deunan, but still awful in its own right. (Especially when compared to recasts from other companies that have always been top notch for me) Pin holes on the chest, misaligned mold halves, rough patches, and more. I've spent the past few weeks cleaning her up while painting Deunan and still have quite a bit of clean-up to go. The kit comes with the extra parts to do Gally either in her coat or without. I'm opting for without because I like the look of the arms. Plus I want to do some nice bare metal weathering effects on her.

Since the story takes place in the "Scrapyard" where Gally is discovered in a pile of scrap I decided to make a scrapyard base. The base is made from a pile of miscellaneous leftover parts from my spares bin. Extra kit parts and scratch-built items that didn't make the cut from past projects. Anything that looked interesting is in there. It should be a nice rusty mess when completed.

Here's some pics of the progress so far:

02.09.2007 » Pinholes and Alclad

Gally is not ready for paint and in fact, painting has begun. As you can see in the first pic, her chest was riddled with pin-holes. I filled them with Tamiya Basic putty thinned with lacquer thinner, but I hear that bondo spot glazing putty works great too. After that was fixed, everything was primed and let to set for 24 hours. All parts were primed first with Duplicolor Filler Primer (light gray) then when that cured I buffed them with a wad of very fine steel wool. After that I primed the face with Tamiya Fine White primer and the rest of the parts with Duplicolor primer (dark gray).

When that cured I started on the bare metal parts. My first coat was of Alclad II Jet Exhaust. This is a dark brownish metal as seen in pic 2. Afterwards I highlighted the various parts with Alclad II Magnesium then highlighted that with Alclad II Aluminum. Finally along the joints I added Alclad II Pale Burnt Metal to show heat stress on the joints. Later I'll take some oil paints and Rub-n-buff and add more distress and wear.

02.10.2007 » Base Paint and More Heat Tarnish

Today so far I've given the base a coat of a rusty-colored mixture of Tamiya Acrylics. Over this I will add various tones, washes, and weathering to really bring out the details of the base. I also added some gold and Blue Run-N-Buff in spots on the metal parts to give more of a heat tarnished look. The additions are very subtle and probably don't look like much through the eyes of the camera, but later when I start adding the washes and oils the effect will really be brought out. Before that though I've added a coat of gloss Future Floor Acrylic to protect the metal coats from the thinners and oils. Here's some pics:

02.10.2007 » Finished Base

I didn't expect to finish the base so soon, but it's all done. After spraying it with the rust color, I added colors onto certain parts as if they were once painted. I used drybrushing, random splooges and a sponge to do this. Then I gave everything a wash with Tamiya black + brown. You can see the results of this in pic 1. Then I added a wash of "standard rust" mig pigment powder over everything. While wet I dabbed on light rust randomly and black smoke in a few places. When that dried I took a large soft brush and blended all the rust pigments around. Then I added light dust, europe dust, and beach sand pigments to give it a dusty dirty feel. Finally I applied some gunmetal pigment via my fingertip to some edges to give some parts a little worn shine. You can see the end result in pic 2 and it's IMO amazing!

02.17.2007 » Finished Head

This week I finished up painting the face and hair. The face painting turned out better than Duenan, but that's partially due to this casts face being smoother and accepting the blending better. This time I added a little blue to my oils and I think the color worked out rather well. More realistic that my last batch of flesh tone. I painted the eyes first then masked them off with Windsor Newton Masking Fluid for Watercolors. I airbrushed a flesh tone to the face then applied my thin layer of base flesh tone oil paint. This base color was made from burnt sienna, white, and a touch of cobalt blue. Highlights were the base color + white and shadows were the base color plus more burnt sienna and a touch of burnt umber. The face is a little paler in person, but I did that on purpose. I wanted her to have more of a porcelain doll look since the only real flesh left on her is her brain. The rest is cyborg. One last step for the face is to brush some Future onto the eyes to make them more glassy. I also took the advice of several forum members and added some "eyeliner" to accentuate the eyes more. Looks great!

I also added the straps to the boots and catsuit as seen in the manga. I made the straps from photoetch seatbelt parts and lead foil. And finally, a wash was applied to the metal parts of her arms and legs along with a little more blue and gold highlights.