Next up is the oil paint “glazing”. A thin layer of green was applied to the flesh. Thick enough to alter the color, but thin enough to let the spots and stripes show through. This glazing was highlighted and shaded then stippled smooth with a dry deerfoot brush. After that I reapplied the strips in oils and blended them in more naturally. Lastly I glazed the scales on the shoulders and thighs to make their tones different and interesting. Now I’ve got to wait a day or two for this to dry. Bummer!

Moving right along I got a lot further tonight than I thought I would. Not bad for 3 hours of work! First after priming in white I sprayed the flesh with a Tamiya “Sky” like color. Then I airbrushed on faint lines of a slightly more saturated green which isn’t visible in the pics. I then masked off the “red ears” with sticky-tack and airbrushed on the red. After I sprayed the chest and back with a medium brown color. The front was then highlighted with a desert yellow mix. The same mix was applied to the back to make the shell pattern. Then Khaki Drab was sprayed on the back shellover the brown color deepening the look. The same drab color was applied to the chest for the pattern.

At this point I used Mig Productions Liquid Mask and masked off the chest and rear shell. I also masked off the stripes with the liquid mask so that Leo will have the light stripes like real Red Eared Slider turtles. Once the mask was dry I spattered Leo with more liquid mask from a toothbrush to get some light specks on his skin later. Next I used Khaki Drab and shaded all the shadowy recesses around the muscles. Then I used Tamiya Field Gray (military green) and lightly oversprayed all the skin. The mask was rubbed off and darker stripes were hand painted on with JGSDF Drab Green. Lastly the more thin paint was spattered on and blueish veins were applied with oils.

Next I’ll start painting the flesh with a thin glaze of oil paint to further highlight and shadow the figure as well as apply detail to the chest and toe nails. The straps and mask will be painted after all the skin and shell is done.

Back when we were doing the 31 days contest on the forum, FilmMkr showed me this awesome Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figure he was working on. I managed to snag an original from the sculptor, but I think mine was from a later if not last pour from the mold. In fact the mold probably should have been pitched BEFORE mine as it made for some unfortunate monkeywork. Nothing major and I’m not posting this to knock the sculptor at all. In fact this kit is AMAZING! But it’s worth showing those wondering what happens when a rubber mold has outlived it’s prime.

As seen in the above image, after so many uses (around 15-25 depending on the complexity of the mold) the mold starts to tear and deteriorate resulting in buldges and blobs eminating from undercuts mostly.  The largest blob is seen above on the left shoulder where ther eis a big undercut between the body and shell. On this kit they were relatively easy to fix given the detail of the sculpt. Just dremmel out the buldges and refil the detail with Aves Apoxy Sculpt and add whatever textures are necessary. Here’s the result:

Notice that I removed the buldge and matched the surface texture of the surrounding areas. Not a huge fix, but worth noting for anyone else with similar issues on any type of resin kit. I replaced the resin sword hilt guards with resculpted ones I made from Sculpey as the originals were not nice. I also replaced the brass sword blades (just strips of brass supplied) with once I cut and sharpened from aluminum sheet.

Here’s the full kit ready for primer. I’ve since primed him with Mr. Base White. Later I’ll start painting him. I found out that the TMNTurtles were “Red Eared Sliders” and plan to base my skin texture on them. I’ll be giving him the “red ears” as well as some faint striping to his skin to make him look more like his pet-store brethren.

Yesterday I sculpted Luke pretty much from scratch using Super Sculpy, an extra plastic 1/48 head (I added the hair) and hands. Yoda looks a tad short, but he’ll be sitting up on some roots. I may remove the feet and add a little more to his cloak at the base to make him a few milimeters taller.

Here’s the tiny 1/48 scale Yoda sculpted with Super Sculpey/Sculpy III. I need to do a little touch-up like scraping the folds of his cloak cleaner and adding more nose definition, but he’s otherwise ready to go.  While he may look rough, remember that you’re seeing a larger than life digital image. Once painted and sat onto the base he’ll look just fine. Next-up: Luke.