I will always be a fan of DBZ and I’m sure I’ll continue doing kits from it for a long time. This is a beautiful version of Android 18 from e2046.com. For this WIP, I’m only going to focus on a couple areas that stood out, most of the build was pretty standard. I was testing how to use and combine some of the Gaia Notes skin tones a bit further. For this kit, I played around with 52 (flesh white), 53 (flesh pink), and 59 (less flesh pink). In the images below, the front was 52 as base with 53 as shadows. The back was 52 as base with 59 as shadows. I found 59 to be a bit bolder than 53. Note most of this will be covered by her top in the end so I wasn’t too worried about consistency between various tests. In the finished product, I actually ended up using all three, which I think was the best option. 52 base, 53 shadows, and 59 for the deeper shadows. You can see this is the second set of images (where eyes are in progress) in addition to a flat coat to remove the shine. For reference, the eyes were following guidelines from one of the figure encyclopedia books from Mig Jimenez – a white/reddish base, black eye/outline, then add color, then black pupil, then white dot. ![[20a0d15e457de27b8724ab2d8851af9c_MD5.jpg]] ![[7cf91e4163d712f1e2959100f15fcae1_MD5.jpg]] ![[7ebbc8a03b17abf9c74b8287920856cc_MD5.jpg]] ![[e7f7c6c600bc8ae6b179a4aa1d6dd51a_MD5.jpg]] ![[c5421b146418daed8b6e806489766ef0_MD5.jpg]] ![[8869e14c0ff4473a6daed705da6b2fef_MD5.jpg]] ![[c6e3564c069309fdfea220bf53b91084_MD5.jpg]] This kit did not come with a base, but I had one that seemed like a good choice. I went for a paved stone look. The base was a sandy brown airbrushed on, and then I brushed on various washes of different shades to different stones to give some variety. There is a yellow wash and a white wash, and then a thin black wash to bring a little more gray and grime look. ![[4e3afdc2f7e389481da54e8fdbaa7f3c_MD5.jpg]] ![[d52a67e4cfec1eec9ef3f26d80e3ba5b_MD5.jpg]] I really struggle with hair. In majority of kits I build there is usually a pretty big seamline so you have to put the hair on and then milliput, then paint in place, or you paint beforehand and be careful with patching and touchups later. I’m tempted to try and hand paint hair completely next time this is the case, as I feel like touching up hair with airbrush after it’s set in place is often hard due to overspray (which I rarely can protect well enough), touching up airbrushed paint with a brush rarely blends well. Perhaps if I hand paint hair completely I will both get better at hand painting and also touch ups would be much easier. In this particular case, I opted to just try and bend the resin a bit better to align once in place (below is pre-bending). It isn’t great but did improve some without having to do any additional paint work trying to match existing colors. The hair coloring isn’t amazing either – I think on my next kit I really want to focus more on hair tones. ![[8deb2e091596bac7c1eafda21b5f0c6e_MD5.jpg]] ![[7141c6042b10d6e242147e93df590eb2_MD5.jpg]] ![[3939a1b8facf266319f8209c168d2f5f_MD5.jpg]] Just about there! Before I basically cover up my skin tone testing for good, here are the final results. For the pants, they were just a gray tone with some black pre-shading. The pre-shading is perhaps a bit heavy down the side of the leg, but overall not too bad – I was trying to not lose all my pre-shading after applying color which is my normal problem. The belt was brush painted using a brown + red mixture. You can see the hair has also become a little softer with less detail unfortunately. I think this is due to all the bending over time that’s taken place (before painting for first fit, after painting to try and fix remaining gap, etc.). Let the lesson be for textured surfaces like hair, bending is quite possible to soften the textures a bit and make them less nice. ![[caaee2f6691414e90cdd87c3e554b35f_MD5.jpg]] ![[b5ad6c124d19e50ab1ca96350b533994_MD5.jpg]] ![[652a099d2da535efdb6142870a6658df_MD5.jpg]] Her top required bending to put on given her bust size and tight fit. It actually was able to fit together pretty well with a little bending in place (and some super glue to hold seam together), looks much better than the hair. ![[9e63fd1d346d37696bfa974d74dc46d5_MD5.jpg]] ![[871f66a94540b8d6ed16762fe078ef6c_MD5.jpg]] Of course, right at the end we need one last major disappointment. A while back I bought this UV gel from Gaia Notes to put over the eyes. I hadn’t gotten around to trying until this kit, and when I went to use it both the light did not work, and the gel was already hardened in tube. What a waste. But I hate to have plans to do something and not do them, so I ordered a different UV gel (meant for nails, but that’s ok) and used a black light I had lying around to harden. Problem solved! It doesn’t end there though. Even though I tested it on paper first just to try (first time using UV gel), I still applied too much to eyes and it ran outside the eyes. I tried cleaning up before setting it with the light, but still gave too much gloss outside her eyes. What to do? I applied my flat coat I airbrushed on earlier, with a brush. Of course it was pre-thinned already, a bit too much I guess, because in doing so I pulled up some of the skin tone from above her nose. Things just keep getting worse. Now I either need to airbrush the whole face again, or try patching with a brush (remember it wasn’t a skin tone out of the bottle, it’s several that have been airbrushed on so a bit mixed). I’m not great at a brush, and you can see my patch work is not perfect…but it’s going to have to do for now. Let it be another lesson learned. If hand brushing pre-thinned lacquer paint, be very cautious of the amount of thinner in it – while it may be ok for airbrush, your brush may pull up some paint. Was the UV gel worth it? In this case, I would say not. Too many bad side effects came from it’s usage. Next time, it may be. It does add a nice gloss to eyes, although in the photo below it doesn’t show up too much honestly (in person better, maybe in my final photos as well). However, it’s not a game changer and you must be pretty careful with it, otherwise you may do more harm than good like me. ![[3530a87e31ee7d6071b5f169b7ffa034_MD5.jpg]] ![[54773e97da817c0fa2c1ce968eb473ae_MD5.jpg]] ![[d84e300d087cce2d6363ab84e108e570_MD5.jpg]] [[Android 18|view the final result]]