Project - Arctic Gun Girl

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Today the leg holster arrived from blackopstoys.com
I have to admit, it looks way darker than i expected it to be.
The image on the left shows the image from blackopstoys website.
The image on the right shows the image of the item i received.

I got in touch with blackoptoys, and they replied:

Hey,

The SKU on the bag does match the item you ordered. We do tend to brighten the images to show more detail.

Kind regards,
BlackOpsToys


While it is not the light-grey holster i was searching for, i have to admit, it looks cool.
I think i will use it. I guess to some degree, it will break up the white and add a level of camouflage.

If you are thinking of ordering something from blackoptoys, remember, they like to lighten up their images, probably a bit too much.

Tonight i have been busy painting the pistol white. It made sense to keep the removable clip black.

Ovy wrote:A fur hat seems like the best choice in style, yeah. (Or a helmet, but she is probably protected by plot armor ).  I think ice blue lips fitting the hair would also be cool.

I did consider a helmet painted white.

Oh man, I know you already have a hat, but if you could find one like this, that would be cool — sort of Bond Girl.

Stryker2011 wrote:Oh man, I know you already have a hat, but if you could find one like this, that would be cool — sort of Bond Girl.

The fur hat i picked up off of ebay looks not too dissimilar to the hat in the image you posted.
It is maybe not as tall and has side pieces that hang down on the left and right side. It was the only white fur hat i managed to find in 1/6th scale.
The (Chinese) seller provided a tracking number two days ago.
I am guessing, what with Xmas causing delays, the hat will be be where within the next 2 to 3 weeks.

That sounds cool.

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The Skis arrived today. Much time was spent fiddling with the straps to get them to work with the high-heel boots. Along with the pistol i set about painting the skis white (..as they were grey).

Tomorrow the paint should be 100% dry, and i can fit them to the figure

As luck would have it, the ski poles are silver and white with black handles. I think i will leave them the way thy are. The black part of the part that sticks into the snow, i might paint those white?

Maybe some sections of the poles have to be a darker color in case something happens and they need to be “found”…?

Stryker2011 wrote:Maybe some sections of the poles have to be a darker color in case something happens and they need to be “found”…?

I figured that. A normal soul need's to locate their poles in situations when dropped.
A high end spy assassin type could probably cope without poles if need be ;D

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Edit: I found this picture after posting the above. Military type's using white ski poles with white handles.


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Check out the interesting looking camouflage applied to the weapons.

While i am waiting for the remaining accessories to arrive, held up by Xmas holidays..
..i thought i'd work on the base


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Left pic: FIMO clay over plastic base.
Right pic: In the oven.. 130 degrees 30 minutes

I have no idea how this is going to work out.
Once cooled, the plan is to spray paint the base white.

The idea is/was to have a base similar to a Hot Toys base with a soft snowy organic shape to it.
There is a hint of iced-cake going on.

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Update: The plastic base (under the FIMO) warped slightly, but did not melt. Pheeew!

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Prior to making the base, i had no choice but to come up with a pose for the feet/ski position.
The photo above provided all the inspiration required.

I’ve never worked with Fimo before, glad to hear it’s still usable.

Stryker2011 wrote:I’ve never worked with Fimo before, glad to hear it’s still usable.

I would assume high end pro sculptors probably do not have a good word to say about FIMO
FIMO served my purposes ..it is weird flaky stuff to use.

I picked up a block of white and a block of grey, as the plan is to use some grey to fill in the small holes either side of the hair on Hot Toys - Doc Brown



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Sleeping, skis on..

I remember Fimo and the beautiful things people were doing with it all these years ago. Some of them were translucent. I just can't warm up to the whole baking part. Which is why I acquired some air-drying Sculpey for a new project.

GubernatorFan wrote:I remember Fimo and the beautiful things people were doing with it all these years ago. Some of them were translucent. I just can't warm up to the whole baking part. Which is why I acquired some air-drying Sculpey for a new project.

There are pro's and con's with different clay's.
I guess air drying clay applies a time limit to your work time.

My snow base. I could leave it smooth white. I have been pondering ways of adding snow texture?
The likes of Hot Toys simply apply a texture from the outset using 3D software. This is not an option for my base.
I keep thinking off what to use to possibly add to a sieve to dust over the base, then spray paint over the top.
Another idea i had was white paint that contains grit/sand to form a texture. Another idea i had was glitter, white glitter, but as far as i am aware, they donot sell it anymore, besides, i think the particles are too large to pass through a sieve.

How about good old baby powder? Flower?

Diana wrote:How about good old baby powder? Flower?

I did consider flower at one point. I really have no idea how well paint will stick to it?
On the way home from work today i managed to find some glitter. I spray painted the base with white undercoat paint, covered the base in glitter, then sprayed over the glitter with more white undercoat paint. The finish looks textured. It sort of reminds me of the moon surface.

In 24hrs time i will apply a coat of white spray paint, and see how things work out.
I guess by adding more and more coats of the paint, the textured surface can be reduced. In the end, it might look like snow, it might look like ice.

Time will tell. If it fails, it fails..


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This shot shows stage one of the texture. The paint is under coat white.
The plan is to add more layers of paint to tone down the roughness / detail.
Quite how many coats will be required remains a mystery.
Ignore the two smooth sections, as those will be covered by the skis.
Also, lighting is somewhat harsh, as it comes from one of those desk lamps.

That looks like a good start.

Stryker2011 wrote:That looks like a good start.

Once more layers go on, i think it should improve.
I was thinking, when it comes to the final layer of paint, to use matt white, as snow is not really shiny.

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Tamiya 87120 Powder Snow Effect Paint 100ml

This morning i discovered this, and watched a YouTube video. It looks excellent, on small models at least.
The plan is now to attach the ski's to the base and use the above paint along the sides, and at the front of the ski's to add the look of broken snow.

Apparently it can be thinned down, it probably could spread over the rest of the base. Ideally i wanted to avoid visible brush stokes.

By attaching the skies, do you mean in a permanent way? You could wrap them in foil or something before, then place them on the base and work around them, then remove them when all is dried.

Ovy wrote:By attaching the skies, do you mean in a permanent way? You could wrap them in foil or something before, then place them on the base and work around them, then remove them when all is dried.

I was thinking of permanent, as the figure can be clipped/unclipped into the skies.

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I painted a layer or Tamiya 87120 Powder Snow Effect Paint over the base.
Once dried, i painted a 2nd layer.
Once dried, i added a much thinned down later.

In person the surface sparkles, which works well.

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The other day, i found this stuff, Snow Micro Balloons


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This product is designed to be sprinkled over areas where the effect of frost is required.
It could work well along the edge's of the skis.

Part of me wants to add more paint to make the base surface look smoother. At the same time, i wanted lumpy looking snow. Painting on snow and imagining how (real) snow falls, lands, settles.. painting it on fails to fit.

Atleast i have moved on from the rough moon surface finish.

Hey, that’s coming along really nice. Looking good.

That base already looks very convincing to me. If it sparkles: all the better! Great work.

Stryker2011 wrote:Hey, that’s coming along really nice. Looking good.

Thanks. Something about the snow seem's slightly unfinished?

Diana wrote:That base already looks very convincing to me. If it sparkles: all the better! Great work.

Thanks. It does looks snowy. I sense it lacks icy.


I have a plan for the Snow Micro Balloons, which might add a level of icy to the base.
The plan is to add water and a very small about of PVA glue to a spray bottle, and blast one burst into the air and let the tiny drops land on the base (remembering to mask off the ski's before hand).

The next step will include adding some Snow Micro Balloons to a sheet of card a blow them into the air above the base. Any Snow Micro Balloons that make contact with the water PVA glue droplets should stick.

Well, one skis on snow, not ice. I think it already looks great.

GubernatorFan wrote:Well, one skis on snow, not ice. I think it already looks great.

I am tempted to leave the base as is.

As soon as the white fur hat arrives, i can get this figure posed and on display.
There is still a change we might get snow this year. I hope so, as i want to take so photo's outside.

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This evening i managed to pull the figure together.
Ideally i wanted to take some outside shots, but the weather is neither sunny or snowy.

The various white hats i tried (there were 3 in total) all failed to fit properly. I do like the blue hair being on show anyhow.

One idea i had was to add a backpack. In the end i decided to drop the backpack and have the large gun on her back.

The original pose idea was to have the ski poles vertical, stuck into the snow base. As i discovered, they were not long enough.
The ski poles pose is as you can see in the images above.

The ends of the ski poles were painted white. I decided to keep the handles black, as the large gun features a black strap and sight.
The shades feature a small black section over the bridge of her nose.

In the end, i was as pleased as punch at how the snow base worked out. It turned out way better than i originally planned.

In the end, i guess the character turned out to be less military than i originally planned, and turned out more 007 spy assassin type, which is probably better.

She looks awesome!! What a great project. Congratulations!

Diana wrote:She looks awesome!! What a great project. Congratulations!

Thanks..
..and it did not drag on too long.
It is always good to start something new, but half way though doubts can enter the equation.

With all the spare bits'n'pieces i have, i had considered kitbashing together something bizarre, as i am sure many could on this forum.