[wip] Azur Lane Glorious (Pungent Plum) Making Process and Tips (Patreon)

I am helping  Itsuki-san with this Glorious.

I asked him, "We could make our progress public, but what would you like me to do?" He said, "Let's make it public. So I will show you the process of production little by little!

Itsuki-san's twitter

https://twitter.com/itsukiyue

His sculpting process

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAuXXlRue4s

■Parts check - some parts require surface preparation and some modifications.

Q.What is the first thing to do with a garage kit?

A.Check the parts!

OK! as usual, let's check the parts.

This time Glorious has a one-piece molded body. The haori is also large. On the other hand, the strings and other parts are very fine, so you need to be careful not to lose them.

The face parts are attached to the back of the head and are not separated. Also, there are no tenon or mortise, which is common in recent kits. You have to dig dowel holes by yourself and join the parts with brass pin, which is the main way.

Therefore, those who are used to digital modeling kits need to be a little careful. The parts themselves are not many, but since there are many cases where 0.3 brass wire is attached to thin parts, this is a kit for intermediate to advanced users in terms of difficulty level, but since there are almost no air bubbles and the work itself is easy.

Here is a brief summary of what might improve the finished product if it is processed at the surface treatment stage beforehand. It is not necessary to follow these tips at all. It is correct to do it the way you want to do it!

┃Recommended treatment to be done before painting

1. File the bangs and ponytail to sharpen the edges

2. Since the eyes are deeply sculpted, fill or shave them to make them easier to paint (& decide the direction of the gaze and neck)

3. Think about how to set up the fluttering cloth of the hairpin.

4. Think about how to install the looped strings that hang from the chest cloth.

5. Use 5mm neodymium of HIQ parts for the body and the haori, so you don't have trouble fitting the parts.

6. Shorten the string between the back and the buttocks.

Let's look at them one by one.

1. File the bangs and ponytail to sharpen the edges

The hair is not sharp enough because it looks like it was painted with thicker surfacer when the modeling was completed. So, I will file the edges by myself to make them sharper.

I think it can be done with a X-works sculpting knife, Argofile diamond finish, Kirara-dou liner saw, Funtec figure engraver, or reverse tension sander (the kind you make yourself).

I don't have the first photo, but I think it should generally produce this level of sharpness.

The arrow part had a space at first, but I dared to have it filled in because it looks unnatural on the contrary.

I wrote about how to detail the bangs in an article on Koyanskaya a long time ago, so if you are interested, please read it. It doesn't require as much hard processing as it did then, so I think you should aim to sharpen the tips and grooves of the hair for now.

The arrow part had a space at first, but I dared to have it filled in because it looks unnatural on the contrary.

I wrote about how to detail the bangs in an article on Koyanskaya a long time ago, so if you are interested, please read it.

…Opps, I didn't post this article. If you want to read this in English, please comment something!

It doesn't require as much hard processing as it did then, so I think you should aim to sharpen the tips and grooves of the hair for now.

2. Since the eyes are deeply sculpted, fill or shave them to make them easier to paint (& decide the direction of the gaze and neck)

I really don't want to tamper with the modeling of a kit that is made as an paint sample, but I consulted with Itsuki-san and modified the face a little because it is not the face that is desired by all means as it is.

The direction of her neck and her gaze are also different from the pictures taken when the modeling was completed. (Below is a photo of the tentatively assembled figure with the eyes unprocessed.)

The reason why we modified the figure is because it is obviously easy to feel uncomfortable in a figure when the body, face, and gaze all face the same direction. Almost all figures are posed with the gaze turned to the side, or with the body slightly twisted, or with the face tilted.

What happens if the face is painted with the gaze straight ahead? It will look like this.

The face became unstable. This is the result of proceeding without any eye modification. They do not resemble each other at all and will have to be redone.

The original modeling of the eyes was curved and deep enough to feel the eyeballs, so the eyes are inevitably thin, and there is not enough flexibility to draw them to resemble the Glorious.

So I smoothed the eye socket and flattened the eye that feels like an eyeball, as shown in the next image.

The eyes are a part of the modeling process that varies from sculptor to sculptor, but if the focus is on "drawing a likeness," I think the shortest way is to make the eye sockets smooth and the eyes flat. It also makes it easier to apply decals.

The direction of the neck and gaze was also changed based on some trial and error that  Itsuki-san had done before the completion of the modeling.

By modified the eyes to flat and changing the direction of the neck and gaze, I was able to draw the eyelashes inside the eyes, so you can see that the face is completely different from the first face.

I think this is why the face direction, gaze, and posing (and eye modeling) are so important. If you draw the eyes without these specific details, you will probably not get a good result.

I think the reason why people who can draw eyes want flat eyes is because they want to concentrate on "making them look like each other".

From the perspective of the painter, I would like to respect the modeling as much as possible, but it would be tough if the shape is difficult to draw and make it look similar, so I personally would be very happy if you could take that into consideration...!

3. Think about how to set up the fluttering cloth of the hairpin.

A fluttering cloth is installed at the tip of the hairpin, but if the hairpin is assembled as is, a 0.3 brass pin needs to be installed. It is a thin part, so it is quite difficult to pass the pin through it. So, if you want to install it easily, I think it would be better to make a ring and hook it by passing the wire through from the side.

If you do it like the image above, the hairpin may break (it actually did). So, if you think of an easy and good-looking method in advance, it will make your work easier.

4. Think about how to install the looped strings that hang from the chest cloth.

The position of this string should be considered carefully. If it is placed at the bottom of the bra part, it will interfere with the fabric part (clear part) installed at the belly button. Therefore, it would be better to pin it at a place where it can be avoided. Use 0.3 or 0.5 brass wire.

5. Use 5mm neodymium of HIQ parts for the body and the haori, so you don't have trouble fitting the parts.

As I told you at the beginning, this kit does not have tenon and mortise. Therefore, you need to make dowel holes by yourself for joining parts, but if you use magnets instead of dowels for mating arms and the haori, it will be easy and fitting and will not create unnecessary gaps.

Moreover, since the body itself does not need to be axed to the legs, it will be much easier to dry fitting or after painting.

6. Shorten the string between the back and the buttocks.

This is a lower priority than what I have told you so far.

Itsuki-san said that it was a little long as it was, so he wanted it to be shortened so that it looks like it is tucked into the buttocks. So I cut it short.

┃What is the best method varies from kit to kit, so let's handle it in a way that suits each one!

I wondered how I should handle this, but my personal best is as I have told you here. Everyone has their own way of enjoying garage kits, so what I have written here is just for reference, but first of all, forget about it for a moment and try tentatively assembling and painting.

If you are not sure what to do, look through this article again and you may find something different...?

In the next article, I hope to introduce painting, eye painting, and finished photos!