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1/7 Takai Sayaka Floral Mint Version |
| Series | Welcome to Pia Carrot!!! |
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| Title | 1/7 Takai Sayaka Floral Mint Version | |
| Scale | 1/7 | |
| Height | approx. 10.4 cm | |
| No. of Parts | 20 resin parts + instruction sheet + 1 photo | |
| Purchase Date | 2004-08-21 | |
| Model Status | Completed (2004-09-16) | |
| Production Roll-Out# | #1 |
Comment
I have been spraying Gundam HG and MG for some time and I need a break from doing those kits.
The amount of efforts in constructing Gundam is not easy as a typical MG kits consists of 200 plus
pieces. Moreover, the splendid release of Gundam Fix Figurations and Zeonography really deflate my
enthusiasm. For example, my HG Gundam GP01 is indefinitely on hold now since I have purchased the
GFF of version GP-01, which it comes with fabulous markings that are missing in any HG and MG kits.
Why construct when you can buy?
My sudden lost of lack of interest in Gundam does not mean that it is the end of my modeling hobby. Again, I am doing some research on the web and found out that e2046.com really does some good re-cast of resin figure. I bought two from them, which are 1/7 Takai Sayaka Floral Mint Version and 1/6 Kazami Mizuho White Bikini. Both resin kit comes packaged nicely in plastic wrappers in a hard plastic casing. I immediately count the parts and a quite check on both kits. E2046.com really does a good job and each part that shipped is highlighted with marker on the instruction sheet. Takai Sayaka re-cast quality is only so and so where most joints do not fit, many excess, mould lines and seam lines. Nevertheless, the recast quality considered quite acceptable.
Construction
I have started work on my first resin figure, Takai Sayaka Floral Mint Version. The resin
re-casting quality for this figure is never as perfect as the original. Flash and excess is a plenty
but somehow the parts fits nicely after some sanding. It is a challenge to remove the excess, which
are position at irregular spot. Mould lines are visible on both thighs and arms, which require
sanding.
Firstly, test fitting is to be done. I glue the 2 part hairpieces together with epoxy glue. Epoxy is somewhat slow in holding a bond so I use a drop of superglue on some surfaces to get an instance hold. The single hairpiece that juts out is glued with superglue. Once the glue is dried the next day, the visible gap on the hair is putty with some Tamiya epoxy putty. The rest of the parts are then sanded with any issues. I am concerned with the strength of epoxy glue since some joints require bearing quite a heavy burden. Thus, I got myself a Black & Decker hand drill from Carrefour. The drill bit is at 1/16 inch (1.6mm) and some 1.3mm wires. Both items are crucial for the pinning process. I drilled some holes as indicated by some markers on the joining parts and insert wires into it. There are about 6 wires in this kit.
The sanded parts are then bath to remove the mould release agent. I used water, liquid dishwasher and a toothbrush. This is not the best solution but the best I could come up with at the current moment.
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| Test Fitting Front View - Uses some blue tack and pins to hold the figure in place. | Test Fitting Rear View | Liquid Mask is used to masked the eyes |
Painting
All the parts are then primed with Gunze Resin Surfacer and then sprayed with a layer of white
as base coat. The ribbons and bow tie is sprayed with cobalt blue.
Next is the masking. I am preparing to spray flesh tone to the kit and I masked parts that do not have exposed skin. The figure eyes are masked using liquid mask. Getting the right flesh tone for anime kit is quite a challenge. There is no readily make flesh tone that is suitable and it has to be mixed. I did some research and found the mixture for flesh tone. I used Gunze Sanyo Yellow Orange mixed with a drop of red and a drop of sky blue. I had to remember that anime flesh tone has more red than blue. I screw up once when I put in too much blue. Once these color are mixed into something like brownish color, I get a separate paint jar and to mix the color with flat white. At first, I started dropping the mixed color into white and mix my way up to the color tone that I want. This is definitely an eyeball process and I have painstakingly taken more than an hour to get the color that I believe to be right. The mixed color was sprayed onto the kit and to my disappointment, the color still turn out to be too dark to my liking.
After the flesh color was painted, I took out the masking tape and then sprayed the hair color. The photo provided shows a blond Takai Sayaka but I prefer the original hair color, which is brown. I spray earth as base color and then a thin layer of wood brown for highlighting. The blouse was then masked for preparing to spray on the emerald green. The skirt is painted using Mitsubishi Green.
The skirt cloth piece is quite complicated since it is suppose to be greenish white. I tried to put on yellow green as shadow but it turned out to be too yellow. Then I used Mitsubishi green mixed with white for shadow. Then, I mix white, and few drop of yellow green and Mitsubishi green for the base color. The base color was thinly mixed and when sprayed on, I tried to avoid the shadow color as much as possible and work my way patiently for the toning effect.
The shoes are hand painted with semi-gloss black and the shoe buckles are painted with silver pigment pen. The bow tie silver lining is done with the same silver pigment pen. The blouse is painted with white mix with a few drop of Mitsubishi green. I tried to paint a lighter green as in Kotobukiya's PVC figure but it still turn out to be too dark. The button on her blouse is hand painted with yellow.
The hardest part is to paint the eye. I have to spend 2 days to paint the eyes in phases. The eyebrow is painted with earth and then the pupil and the eyelashes is hand painted with semi-gloss black. Once it is dried, I painted on red, pink and then white. I believe I had rushed in the second step, where I should have waited for another day to blend in the pink and white.
The final touches are the panel lining on the socks, shoulder piece and the skirt covers. The lines are paneled using oils.
Final Assembly
The final and most dangerous step is to assemble the parts after all painting and touch-up are
done. I use epoxy glue, wires and some superglue in this process. Since epoxy glue take too long to
hold a bond, I use some superglue to help to get an instant hold onto the parts. The trick here is
that I will put in superglue to the pin hole and at the outer ring of the gluing surface and epoxy
at the inner area. After 15 seconds, I got a bond and leaving the parts overnight guarantee a strong
bonding.
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Document Date : 2004-09-17 Last Modified : 2006-10-04 |
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