Thank you so much everyone!! I am starting my next model kit today and will be sure to share photos soon in a new thread.
AntonyC
Thats Absolutly Awesome... You did a fantastic job painting her eyes.. they look beutiful and and very acurate to the ref art.
She looks fabulous! Way better than the Michael Turner figure DCD gave us.
Fantastic paint job. Gives alot of life to the already awesome sculpt.
Wow, that is awesome. Good job man!
Thanks so much Nuff Said! I think the studio did an amazing job on the sculpt and I was really meticulous in additional sculpture and with the painting to ensure that it stayed very close to the cover artwork. Of course, like any good artist, I took a few liberties to suit my taste and make it my own. I'm really glad you took a few minutes to check it out and leave some feedback for me.
AntonyC
Wow that is asolutely amazing... I've never seen a better custom based on a comic book cover.
Nuff Said
ADDED 07.19.07:
Here is a detail of the face with the blush, eyeballs and teeth painted. You can also see the hair has been given it's first coat of black.
And another detail showing one eye completed (see inset for closer view) and the other eye still in-progress:
ADDED 07.21.07:
Here is a detail of the face and tiara which are now complete! The additional black tendrils of hair will be added on at the very end, covering part of the face as seen in the reference artwork above. I enlarged the irises and used metallic blues to give them a reflective quality. I also enlarged the white dot to give them a bit more drama. A final clearcoat over the eyeballs and they look amazing!
The lips are a basecoat of a dark flat maroon, layered with lighter red and pink metallics, followed by a little blending of white in the center of the bottom lip and a coat of clear gloss over the lips and teeth.
I have decided that I like the look of metallic paints for the gold portions of the armor as seen above on the tiara. The star in the tiara and the earring are painted with stop light red metallic gloss. I will use the same metallic gold for the breastplate and belt, but plan to use chrome Bare Metal Foil for the bracelets.
ADDED 07.22.07:
Okay, here is a photo of the flat black basecoat on all of the components of the costume:
Then, custom mixed metallics were painted on top, resulting in a rich, dramatic look:
WORK IN PROGRESS AND TUTORIAL:
This is the raw casting as it was received from the studio - in fact I thought to take this photo after I had already removed a lot of the extra resin which seeped out of the mold around the seams:
The breastplate needed to be sculpted onto this piece (not included in the casting) and after it was complete, I decided the belt needed some beefing up as well. Also I used a 5/16" drill bit to drill through both fists so she will be able to hold her lasso. Not shown are 15 individual tendrils of hair that I sculpted using the original artwork as reference. They will be primed, painted and attached as one of the final steps in the project:
Here is the main piece completely cleaned, primed and ready for painting. Notice the additional sculpting around the boots which I thought was necessary to balance their appearance with the sculpting on the upper half of the kit:
I am intending to use a darker "noir" color palatte on this piece so it is a little less vibrant than my other models. I'll still keep it on-model with the artwork below. Right now, I am considering using the Bare Metal Foil technique for the "armor" so it really pops from the darker colors everywhere else. But if it looks too severe after testing that technique in one place, I may just go with a metallic paint instead.
Then, after painting the entire piece, I will attach the pre-painted tendrils of hair and custom forge the 'noose' lasso using 20-gauge gold wire.
ADDED: 07.18.07
Below is the model painted with a custom mixed flesh tone using primary red, bright yellow, white and burnt umber. After painting two coats with the "flat" mixture I painted a third coat with a mixture of the flesh color and 1/3 clear varnish to get a soft, realistic sheen. This will also be the flesh paint that is used for touch-ups moving forward. The photos below, due to the flash, look about 2 shades lighter than the actual color in person. The skin tone is very rich bronze with a touch of olive which maintains the integrity of her Greek origin but without looking too ethnic. The olive hue comes from the use of burnt umber for the brown component in the mixture, which seems to have slight blue undertones rather than sierra brown which has slight red undertones.
Many will notice that on my Wonder Woman models, I tend to mix what I consider the perfect flesh tone with the perfect sheen, but do not shadow or highlight the muscles. I prefer the muscle tone be appreciated by the way the piece was sculpted and how the light plays off of it rather than forcing the depth with intense shading and highlighting. I do, however add a little more red to the flesh topcoat and dry-brush this onto the elbows, knees, knuckles, etc - anywhere that the skin is naturally a bit more pink. Stay tuned for another photo showing this technique.
