Matrixone builds a figure kit...

[matrixone]

I started to build the 1/8th scale Revell Dracula kit and this is my first figure kit ever so I will be learning as I go.

Not much has been done yet, I glued a few parts together and cleaned up the face and hands and painted them. I first put on a base coat of white before adding the flesh tones, the undersurfaces of the hands and the facial features that would normally be in shadow were carefully airbrushed with a dark flesh tone. Next I will attempt painting the facial features with a fine tipped paint brush.

One thing that HAS slowed me down a bit is the poor fit of some of the larger parts, many places will need gaps filled and sanded down.

Matrixone

 

[Iron Mike]

Cool!

 

[Dragunov]

Charming guy :evil:

erik

 

[moon puppy]

Way to go Les, good to see folks branching out in other genre

 

[matrixone]

Thanks guys!

For ages I wanted to try building and painting a figure kit but sadly for me this is not the best kit to try my hand at figures. When I can I will get another figure kit and try again, hopefully a nude or near nude female...something that will allow a lot of paint blending of the flesh tones with the airbrush.

This year I will also try building an armor kit, this will not be easy for me since I have such an intensive hatred for those 'rubber' tracks that are included with most armor kits. :vmad


Matrixone

 

[nerdling]

Les. It looks great so far. As far as armor kits go try for a cheap older Tamiya kit. I finished up a Tamiya Panzer Kampfwagen II for the CTA build and it was a great little kit. It did have the rubber tracks but they held paint just fine and with some drybrushing and pastel stuff they came out looking good. I did use ca glue to get them together and just to make sure I looped a bit of wire around them also.

 

[Iron Mike]

Some of the newer Tamiya armor kits come with link and length styrene tracks, which give better results than the old vinyls. Trumpeter offers link and length with some of theirs too, the KV-2 springs to mind. Dragon's DS tracks are easy and have nice detail, look for them in some of the Tiger kits. Best of luck with this project, I'm looking forward to following along.

 

[jknaus]

Looking cool
James

 

[Arturius]

 

[matrixone]

Thanks for looking, and thanks for the advice on the tank tracks.

I started brush painting the details on the face and found out something very important...none of my small round paint brushes come down to a fine point at the end and makes painting ultra small details hit or miss. If I were to build more figure kits better quality paint brushes will be needed.


Matrixone

 

[matrixone]

Some painting was done on the face today, after the paint is fully dry I will give the face a thin coat of Future and then use some pin washes with oil paints on some of the finer features including the eyes, that will help cover up some of the sloppy painting.

Matrixone

 

[Iron Mike]

 

[moon puppy]

Looks like you're having fun Les, go man go!

 

[matrixone]

Thanks guys,
This figure is a nice little break from my usual diet of WWII warplanes.


Matrixone

 

[matrixone]

More work done on this Dracula kit, the base is finished now.
I was planning on adding some model RR static grass to the base but after painting it I decided the molded in grass detail is enough, the detail on the figure is so soft there is no sense adding more detail to the base...I want them to match.
The headstone and rocks were airbrushed, the grass was brush painted a dark green and then drybrushed with lighter shades of green to bring out the molded in detail.

Here is the cape parts and the bat. The bad thing about this kit is you must finish the figure first and then assemble the cape on the figure. This would not be a problem if the parts fit together well but they don't and I will have to fill and sand some large seamline gaps which will get the rest of the model quite dusty. The inner color of the cape is red and I first sprayed on a light coat of flat white before spraying the red. Also I spray some black in the creases of the cape to give it more depth. The rest of the cape will be black and the last thing that will be painted on this model and will have to be careful of any overspray getting on the figure.

Matrixone

 

[Iron Mike]

Velly scary!

 

[matrixone]

Thanks Mike!


Matrixone

 

[moon puppy]

More work done on this Dracula kit, the base is finished now.
I was planning on adding some model RR static grass to the base but after painting it I decided the molded in grass detail is enough, the detail on the figure is so soft there is no sense adding more detail to the base...I want them to match.
The headstone and rocks were airbrushed, the grass was brush painted a dark green and then drybrushed with lighter shades of green to bring out the molded in detail.

Here is the cape parts and the bat. The bad thing about this kit is you must finish the figure first and then assemble the cape on the figure. This would not be a problem if the parts fit together well but they don't and I will have to fill and sand some large seamline gaps which will get the rest of the model quite dusty. The inner color of the cape is red and I first sprayed on a light coat of flat white before spraying the red. Also I spray some black in the creases of the cape to give it more depth. The rest of the cape will be black and the last thing that will be painted on this model and will have to be careful of any overspray getting on the figure.

Matrixone

Is this the right red for this model cape? :idonno :woohoo: :woohoo:

Great job Les, really like how you're bringing out the details here.

 

[nerdling]

Wait a vampire that doesn't look all moody and isn't covered in glitter like he just left a strip club lol!!

Very nice painting there Les. Love the subtle drybrushing on that tree.

 

[matrixone]

Thanks Bob and Ryan!

Bob,
Not sure about the shade of red on the inside of the cape, I have zero reference books on movie monsters and hope my shade of red is close enough. :idonno I feel lost without my RLM colors!!!

Ryan,
The recent group of movie and TV vampires are lame, the older bloodsuckers from the 1960's and 70's were far better and scarier and IMHO got way hotter chicks that had curves.


Dracula should be done later this week, I am pushing to get this model out of the way so I can finish off the two Me 262's. There is a kit another modeler is sending me that I want to get started on as soon as it arrives.

Getting good pictures of Dracula might be a problem...I can't very well use sunlight like I do with my aircraft models or the dude will turn to ash. hmy:

Matrixone