MaakieHello MFC and welcome to another Garage Kit walk trough of mine!
I'll be honest, I was doubting for a long time to even post this, because a lot of older work done on this garage kit is of quality I now don't think of as good enough anymore. Most of the prep work and painting was done in early 2019, then it got boxed up for my emigration and then the finishing touches were done mid 2020. For upcoming kits I will make a lot of changes in how I paint to make it less streaky and I also want to start pinning all of my kits (instead of only some that have it now).
I'm currently painting some older cheap kits and bootlegs before I try my hand on my more expensive and rare kits. In no way I agree buying bootleg garage kits and I ask people to please support the original creators and don't make the mistake I did when being new to this hobby. There are many real and affordable kits that you can find on websites like Suruga-Ya! and Yahoo! Auctions.
That disclaimer aside, this time I'll be putting together a bootleg of a Gwendolyn figure ITEM #22847 from the Game Odin Sphere sculpted by Circle PLA4U. I personally really enjoyed Odin Sphere and was hoping to do this amazing character design some justice!
Preparation
This kit actually came with a lot more pieces than I was expecting, I was quite blown away!
The prep work meant that a lot of flesh tabs needed to be removed. While I was doing so, I was pleasantly surprised to see that a lot of the feathers were really high in detail.
The sculpt on the fabric pieces was also very nice.
Gwendolyn's panties were quite a bit more detailed than I expected!
I had some small bubble holes to fill here and there, mainly at the smaller pieces like the wings.
Unfortunately Gwendolyn's staff had warped. This might have happened because this kit was packed in a very small box in which the staff would not even fit straight. So it was already warped when I unpacked it for the first time. I'm not on expert on warped parts, but I decided to try my best to fix it up. This was mainly done by heating it up and placing heavy items on top of it for a longer time to let it bend the other way.
Here are all the parts prepped and ready for a test fit! You might already have noticed that the special base is missing. I don't know if that is something that was lost from prototype to final product, or that it was simply forgotten or skipped for the bootleg.
Test fitting
The parts all fitted together nicely and surprisingly little extra fitting work was needed.
I knew this Gwendolyn had a bit of a sad expression, but I did not realize how sad until I had this kit in my own hands.
I know this is going to look very cool when completed!
The 'ear pieces' are nice as well.
Cleaning and bending
It was time for Gwendolyn to get a bath and a scrub!
Meanwhile, trying to let the staff be less warped, I heated it up in warm water and laid it underneath some exercise weights to try and flatten it.
The staff was now looking a lot less dramatic, but still needed a lot more work.
Undercoating
After putting everything on clasps, it was ready for undercoating! This was before I bought materials for pinning to be possible. My next kit will be properly pinned everywhere! At this point I had also spend so much hours of work on straightening the staff, I just had peace with how it looked at this point.
I was happy that the new undercoat I tried out (Vallejo's type), was very light and the details remained to be seen very well. I think this will be my new main brand to use for undercoat.
Painting start!
The parts: Undercoated and ready to go!
References: Prepared!
My main reference was of course the original picture from the Garage Kit, but I wanted to make two changes: Her wings and armor I wanted to be more like Alter's ITEM #463475 figure and her eyes to be more like Aquamarine's ITEM #604449 figure.
As always I start with some of the bulk colors, such as the white here which is going to need a lot of layers.
The blue for the armor was my own mixture of multiple shades of blue, the effect is what I wanted!
Her hair is going to be a lighter shade of gray than the undercoat, it will be a bit hard to see on most pictures.
The staff still had a huge bend going on, but it is what it is. If it turns out too horrible in the end, I will make something new from scratch.
No worries, those rough parts of the clasps will be fixed later! And no more clasps directly on the kits after this.
I was very excited to start on the wings!
Most of the white and dark blue has multiple layers now.
Silver shine~
Golden necklace~
As I wasn't that satisfied with the skin color on most of my recent figures, I decided to make my own skin color mixture this time~
No worries, small errors will be fixed up later. Right now I just want to show off the shine of the silver!
I really like how the skin color turned out! Maybe a bit less yellow for the next time, though.
After most pieces got the basic skin color, it was time for some shading! At first I 'overdo' it and then I brush away what is too much.
My first line work for the eyes was very much like a raccoon, but at least I was satisfied with the shading on her skin!
Some more work on black pieces:
I couldn't find any reference for her lingerie, so I decided myself to give it a white-and-black alternating color palette.
It looks a bit too much now, but after drying the shading will look good!
I thinned down my grey paint even more to create shading for the wings! As I saw that the sculpt was amazing there, I was hoping to catch the sculpt better this way. It worked!
Left wing: shaded, right wing: no shading. It makes a huge difference!
I was on a roll so I also mixed some very light blue highlights to put on the white parts!
I was happy I made this choice!
The lines are not 100% perfect, but I was pretty happy for my 1st try!
State of the kit before I had to pack it up for my emigration!
And a last picture of my crafts room, that I was slowly packing up and giving away/trashing parts as we had decided on our emigration to the other side of Europe. So the kit was packed in this condition and there is more than a year of a break between this last picture and the one coming next...!
My new set up! The work that was left to do was: finishing the face, fixing some smaller paint errors, assembly and making a base (I hadn't thought of anything yet at this point)!
I sorted all the pieces and checked my list of used paint colors.
Unfortunately some of the paints had dripped (I think because of temperature changes during all the moving and storage). I remember doubting before the move if I should seal them, but back then opted against it as it was still unfinished and I wasn't sure how much it would work against me for the final changes. But in general I don't think it will ever happen to me again that an in progress kit will be lying in wait for so long.
It was a slow process where I had to add many layers (making the paint on the face too thick unfortunately), but it was fixable.
For most of the parts I only needed to do a little bit of paint fixes and then I could assemble them.
That leaked blue was continuing to show, looking back, I should probably have attempted to remove most of the old face paint, but on the other hand I was also at a point where this project has been on hold so much I just wanted it finished.
It was more confusing than it looks to find out the right way to put the earpieces together.
The process so far!
Finally the blue spots were gone and I could continue on improving the eyes!
I was pretty sad I couldn't let the bend be less...bad. Looking back on it I should have just replaced the piece, maybe with a small straw painted black.
I was pretty happy with the progress on the eyes! Those small sparks add a lot of life to it.
Most of the upper body was now put together.
The fit of her feet was more complicated than expected because her ankles were incredibly thin, making it easy to cause a lean here when not attached perfectly straight on.
Something I completely forgot during assembly was that the staff needs to fit in Gwendolyn's hand which is o-shaped, so I had to cut it up.
And then re-attach and paint it again.
More work on the eyes and a bit of shading on the skin.
With most of the body put together now, I could start on the base as I knew the exact position of Gwendolyn's feet.
The footprint of the figure is quite interesting.
Some levels in the games showed the Valkyries standing, walking and running on clouds, so I decided I wanted to recreate that.
I first wanted to make something the figure would 'sink' into to make sure she was stable, so I started out with some pieces of cardboard.
Covering it with white fabric as too make it more 'invisible' in the clouds.
I'm not that happy with my paint application at multiple places, but I do like the general vibe/aesthetic I managed to give the piece.
For better stability, I put the base on a plastic circle.
Now I used plushie stuffing to create clouds which I attached with some school glue and...all done! (Forgot to make pictures of her topcoating process, but was done while I was making the base.)
End result
I did multiple mini photo shoots with my end result!
Quick pictures after completion:
Comparison with the attached reference picture:
I'm happy with the changes I made versus the original reference picture.
Outdoor photo shoot:
NSFW: View spoiler
And to finish it!
For those who read all this way, thank you! My next blog will be one again in the 'Maakie's collection'-series!
I do plan on working again on GK's later in 2021, but first I have a pile of other crafts I want to finish first, mainly my Ymir cosplay cosplay.com/mem... .
If you want to see other kits I have made (and my road in progress), you can check out their blogs here:
In progress kit (started in 2019): Tourou & Ten Ookami by Fenrir - Part 1 BLOG #46164
My 12th kit (2019): Rozen Maiden - Souseiseki - 18 (Cherry Blossom) BLOG #46059
My 11th kit (2019): Planetarian ~Chiisana Hoshi no Yume~ - Hoshino Yumemi - 18 (Flat Sox) BLOG #46027
My 10th kit (2019): White Album - Morikawa Yuki - Wonder Showcase (025) (Takkyuu Mokei) BLOG #45839
My 9th kit (2019): Code Geass - Hangyaku no Lelouch - Lelouch Lamperouge (Heavy Gauge) BLOG #45773
My 8th kit (2019): Original Character - Prom - 1/7 (Ireba Dou) BLOG #43149
My 7th kit (2018): Kamichu! - Hitotsubashi Yurie - 1/6 - Summer WF 2007 (Seikoro Caramel) BLOG #41010
My 6th kit (2017): Rozen Maiden - Suigintou - 1/6 (T's System) BLOG #35160
My 5th kit (2014): Touhou Project - Kirisame Marisa - 1/8 - Nemu Matsukura ver. (Gouhondou) BLOG #16825
My 4th kit (2013): Houkago Play - Kanojo Ms. Girlfriend (LaFavorite) BLOG #8408
Newly fixed! My 3rd kit: Fate/Hollow Ataraxia - Kaleido Ruby - 1/6 (T's System) BLOG #3515
Thank you for reading this blog!
And if you like my blog and would like to receive e-mail updates when I have a new one, you can subscribe here --> profile/Maakie/...
See you next time!
I'll be honest, I was doubting for a long time to even post this, because a lot of older work done on this garage kit is of quality I now don't think of as good enough anymore. Most of the prep work and painting was done in early 2019, then it got boxed up for my emigration and then the finishing touches were done mid 2020. For upcoming kits I will make a lot of changes in how I paint to make it less streaky and I also want to start pinning all of my kits (instead of only some that have it now).
I'm currently painting some older cheap kits and bootlegs before I try my hand on my more expensive and rare kits. In no way I agree buying bootleg garage kits and I ask people to please support the original creators and don't make the mistake I did when being new to this hobby. There are many real and affordable kits that you can find on websites like Suruga-Ya! and Yahoo! Auctions.
That disclaimer aside, this time I'll be putting together a bootleg of a Gwendolyn figure ITEM #22847 from the Game Odin Sphere sculpted by Circle PLA4U. I personally really enjoyed Odin Sphere and was hoping to do this amazing character design some justice!
Preparation
This kit actually came with a lot more pieces than I was expecting, I was quite blown away!
The prep work meant that a lot of flesh tabs needed to be removed. While I was doing so, I was pleasantly surprised to see that a lot of the feathers were really high in detail.
The sculpt on the fabric pieces was also very nice.
Gwendolyn's panties were quite a bit more detailed than I expected!
I had some small bubble holes to fill here and there, mainly at the smaller pieces like the wings.
Unfortunately Gwendolyn's staff had warped. This might have happened because this kit was packed in a very small box in which the staff would not even fit straight. So it was already warped when I unpacked it for the first time. I'm not on expert on warped parts, but I decided to try my best to fix it up. This was mainly done by heating it up and placing heavy items on top of it for a longer time to let it bend the other way.
Here are all the parts prepped and ready for a test fit! You might already have noticed that the special base is missing. I don't know if that is something that was lost from prototype to final product, or that it was simply forgotten or skipped for the bootleg.
Test fitting
The parts all fitted together nicely and surprisingly little extra fitting work was needed.
I knew this Gwendolyn had a bit of a sad expression, but I did not realize how sad until I had this kit in my own hands.
I know this is going to look very cool when completed!
The 'ear pieces' are nice as well.
Cleaning and bending
It was time for Gwendolyn to get a bath and a scrub!
Meanwhile, trying to let the staff be less warped, I heated it up in warm water and laid it underneath some exercise weights to try and flatten it.
The staff was now looking a lot less dramatic, but still needed a lot more work.
Undercoating
After putting everything on clasps, it was ready for undercoating! This was before I bought materials for pinning to be possible. My next kit will be properly pinned everywhere! At this point I had also spend so much hours of work on straightening the staff, I just had peace with how it looked at this point.
I was happy that the new undercoat I tried out (Vallejo's type), was very light and the details remained to be seen very well. I think this will be my new main brand to use for undercoat.
Painting start!
The parts: Undercoated and ready to go!
References: Prepared!
My main reference was of course the original picture from the Garage Kit, but I wanted to make two changes: Her wings and armor I wanted to be more like Alter's ITEM #463475 figure and her eyes to be more like Aquamarine's ITEM #604449 figure.
As always I start with some of the bulk colors, such as the white here which is going to need a lot of layers.
The blue for the armor was my own mixture of multiple shades of blue, the effect is what I wanted!
Her hair is going to be a lighter shade of gray than the undercoat, it will be a bit hard to see on most pictures.
The staff still had a huge bend going on, but it is what it is. If it turns out too horrible in the end, I will make something new from scratch.
No worries, those rough parts of the clasps will be fixed later! And no more clasps directly on the kits after this.
I was very excited to start on the wings!
Most of the white and dark blue has multiple layers now.
Silver shine~
Golden necklace~
As I wasn't that satisfied with the skin color on most of my recent figures, I decided to make my own skin color mixture this time~
No worries, small errors will be fixed up later. Right now I just want to show off the shine of the silver!
I really like how the skin color turned out! Maybe a bit less yellow for the next time, though.
After most pieces got the basic skin color, it was time for some shading! At first I 'overdo' it and then I brush away what is too much.
My first line work for the eyes was very much like a raccoon, but at least I was satisfied with the shading on her skin!
Some more work on black pieces:
I couldn't find any reference for her lingerie, so I decided myself to give it a white-and-black alternating color palette.
It looks a bit too much now, but after drying the shading will look good!
I thinned down my grey paint even more to create shading for the wings! As I saw that the sculpt was amazing there, I was hoping to catch the sculpt better this way. It worked!
Left wing: shaded, right wing: no shading. It makes a huge difference!
I was on a roll so I also mixed some very light blue highlights to put on the white parts!
I was happy I made this choice!
The lines are not 100% perfect, but I was pretty happy for my 1st try!
State of the kit before I had to pack it up for my emigration!
And a last picture of my crafts room, that I was slowly packing up and giving away/trashing parts as we had decided on our emigration to the other side of Europe. So the kit was packed in this condition and there is more than a year of a break between this last picture and the one coming next...!
My new set up! The work that was left to do was: finishing the face, fixing some smaller paint errors, assembly and making a base (I hadn't thought of anything yet at this point)!
I sorted all the pieces and checked my list of used paint colors.
Unfortunately some of the paints had dripped (I think because of temperature changes during all the moving and storage). I remember doubting before the move if I should seal them, but back then opted against it as it was still unfinished and I wasn't sure how much it would work against me for the final changes. But in general I don't think it will ever happen to me again that an in progress kit will be lying in wait for so long.
It was a slow process where I had to add many layers (making the paint on the face too thick unfortunately), but it was fixable.
For most of the parts I only needed to do a little bit of paint fixes and then I could assemble them.
That leaked blue was continuing to show, looking back, I should probably have attempted to remove most of the old face paint, but on the other hand I was also at a point where this project has been on hold so much I just wanted it finished.
It was more confusing than it looks to find out the right way to put the earpieces together.
The process so far!
Finally the blue spots were gone and I could continue on improving the eyes!
I was pretty sad I couldn't let the bend be less...bad. Looking back on it I should have just replaced the piece, maybe with a small straw painted black.
I was pretty happy with the progress on the eyes! Those small sparks add a lot of life to it.
Most of the upper body was now put together.
The fit of her feet was more complicated than expected because her ankles were incredibly thin, making it easy to cause a lean here when not attached perfectly straight on.
Something I completely forgot during assembly was that the staff needs to fit in Gwendolyn's hand which is o-shaped, so I had to cut it up.
And then re-attach and paint it again.
More work on the eyes and a bit of shading on the skin.
With most of the body put together now, I could start on the base as I knew the exact position of Gwendolyn's feet.
The footprint of the figure is quite interesting.
Some levels in the games showed the Valkyries standing, walking and running on clouds, so I decided I wanted to recreate that.
I first wanted to make something the figure would 'sink' into to make sure she was stable, so I started out with some pieces of cardboard.
Covering it with white fabric as too make it more 'invisible' in the clouds.
I'm not that happy with my paint application at multiple places, but I do like the general vibe/aesthetic I managed to give the piece.
For better stability, I put the base on a plastic circle.
Now I used plushie stuffing to create clouds which I attached with some school glue and...all done! (Forgot to make pictures of her topcoating process, but was done while I was making the base.)
End result
I did multiple mini photo shoots with my end result!
Quick pictures after completion:
Comparison with the attached reference picture:
I'm happy with the changes I made versus the original reference picture.
Outdoor photo shoot:
NSFW: View spoiler
And to finish it!
For those who read all this way, thank you! My next blog will be one again in the 'Maakie's collection'-series!
I do plan on working again on GK's later in 2021, but first I have a pile of other crafts I want to finish first, mainly my Ymir cosplay cosplay.com/mem... .
If you want to see other kits I have made (and my road in progress), you can check out their blogs here:
In progress kit (started in 2019): Tourou & Ten Ookami by Fenrir - Part 1 BLOG #46164
My 12th kit (2019): Rozen Maiden - Souseiseki - 18 (Cherry Blossom) BLOG #46059
My 11th kit (2019): Planetarian ~Chiisana Hoshi no Yume~ - Hoshino Yumemi - 18 (Flat Sox) BLOG #46027
My 10th kit (2019): White Album - Morikawa Yuki - Wonder Showcase (025) (Takkyuu Mokei) BLOG #45839
My 9th kit (2019): Code Geass - Hangyaku no Lelouch - Lelouch Lamperouge (Heavy Gauge) BLOG #45773
My 8th kit (2019): Original Character - Prom - 1/7 (Ireba Dou) BLOG #43149
My 7th kit (2018): Kamichu! - Hitotsubashi Yurie - 1/6 - Summer WF 2007 (Seikoro Caramel) BLOG #41010
My 6th kit (2017): Rozen Maiden - Suigintou - 1/6 (T's System) BLOG #35160
My 5th kit (2014): Touhou Project - Kirisame Marisa - 1/8 - Nemu Matsukura ver. (Gouhondou) BLOG #16825
My 4th kit (2013): Houkago Play - Kanojo Ms. Girlfriend (LaFavorite) BLOG #8408
Newly fixed! My 3rd kit: Fate/Hollow Ataraxia - Kaleido Ruby - 1/6 (T's System) BLOG #3515
Thank you for reading this blog!
And if you like my blog and would like to receive e-mail updates when I have a new one, you can subscribe here --> profile/Maakie/...
See you next time!
Comments6
I can't say specifically for this kit, but I do recommend you always putty and gaps between connections with 90% of kits will always have, you mention hair and wings, I would have done putty on all connecting parts.
Overall the painting looks great and it's nice to see you take some photos outdoors - I think it shows off the completed project quite nicely! :)
Thank you very much! I also like the outdoor photo's, once the world is safer again I maybe want to take her to more locations. :)
leonasenshi • 17 days ago • #92277415Unsure if you want some constructive criticism but I'm just gonna give it either way.
I still have yet to see you pin any pieces, this will make your figure extremely unstable. Pinning gives stability to your kit, the glue you might have used will break with time because I also saw that you painted the pegs, and the paint will strip with time along with any paint that it was touching making your figure fall apart.
If you're going to use alligator clips to hold your pieces, try inserting some type of metal pin in an area that won't be visible so you can hold it by the pin and not to the surface of the piece you're painting, because those clips will leave marks behind where ever they were holding on to, ruining that part of the paint job.
The next time you need to reshape a piece, try dunking it in boiling water for a few seconds and take it out to straighten it.
I think I have commented something similar in a past post of yours but maybe it was someone else. So I hope that for your next project, you can apply these methods to get better results. I also didn't see any putty work, so that might also want to be another topic you tackle in a future kit.
Hi! Thanks for your comment. After you and another user pointed this out in an earlier blog of mine I bought the required materials, but the GK in this blog was mainly constructed in 2019 and the blog covers older progress, so I didn't have the materials yet back then. For the next kit (because now I have finished my blogs on older works that I was still writing) I'll fully pin them before starting painting.
As for the putty work, I only did it on parts that have bubble holes to close them. Looking back on my completed work, I think I could have also used some to fix some parts of the hair and make the gap between the wings and the dress smaller. Would there be other parts where you would have recommend putty with this kit?
I still have yet to see you pin any pieces, this will make your figure extremely unstable. Pinning gives stability to your kit, the glue you might have used will break with time because I also saw that you painted the pegs, and the paint will strip with time along with any paint that it was touching making your figure fall apart.
If you're going to use alligator clips to hold your pieces, try inserting some type of metal pin in an area that won't be visible so you can hold it by the pin and not to the surface of the piece you're painting, because those clips will leave marks behind where ever they were holding on to, ruining that part of the paint job.
The next time you need to reshape a piece, try dunking it in boiling water for a few seconds and take it out to straighten it.
I think I have commented something similar in a past post of yours but maybe it was someone else. So I hope that for your next project, you can apply these methods to get better results. I also didn't see any putty work, so that might also want to be another topic you tackle in a future kit.
Overall the painting looks great and it's nice to see you take some photos outdoors - I think it shows off the completed project quite nicely! :)
Thank you! :) All of it is hand painted. I tried airbrushing before, but it wasn't a very big success for me, so I went back to doing everything by hand and trying to improve my skills there.