## Intro I have never watched Naruto, so to be honest this kit or character I don't really know! However, a family friend mentioned she used to be a big Naruto fan and this was one of the couple kits I found available and sounds like she could be a main character. This build will be a gift in a couple of months and I must get started early due to time constraints and infant brings to your life. I'm going with a custom color scheme to match the giftees style and favorite colors. ## Stages ### Initial Cutting and sanding - note about cutting belt - everything else was pretty standard for this one. No surprises ### Painting Base Coats - hair: white base 1000, some flurescent pink mr. color (more white than pink, pink easily colors the white) - shorts and other dark green areas: olive green model air - skirt: pure green, white, yellow mixed together. Ratios unknown, may be hard to match. - base skin: EVO surfacer base color. It's pretty light toned (seems almost white when viewed on part by itself), but it looks less light toned next to actual white and colors so maybe it will still be a good base ### Gluing - normal super glue process. I did accidentally fling super glue when trying to glue torso to hips. Notes below in things learned. ### Detailing - I feel like I've done this before and regretted before. black panel lines on cloth around leg. Didn't look great. tried to blend in more with brown and other washes. will have to keep working at it. don't do black panel lines on people. gunpla only. use darker shades of actual colors. - I tried lots of small dots for skirt cloth texture using dark green. I don't think it worked great either. I've tried before and don't think I understand technique properly. I spend more time blending and adjusting to make look ok afterwards. - hair details came out better I think. thin shade lines all over (pretty dry thin brush ) I think worked out ok to fill in detail and texture. - I tried enamel paints to detail face (red/yellow) per [[Bruno Papa]] techniques, but it did not go well. My base coat was gaia notes. I did a thin wash of red on neck to start, did some nose and cheeks. Tried to be quick, but it's either too strong of a color, or too much thinner and the thinner stripped the gaia notes paint beneath....I also had a clear coat matte (acrylic I think) in between fwiw. I ended up having to basically sand and respray the skin - I had better luck doing detailing with the _gaia notes surfacer less pink_ over the gaia notes base. It was thin, brush was barely wet, but very gentle I did see the color form. I still have trouble getting cheeks the right tone and placement, but at the very least it worked better than my first round... ## Photos ![[IMG_4123.jpg]] ![[IMG_4124.jpg]] ![[IMG_4125.jpg]] ![[IMG_4126.jpg]] ![[IMG_4127.jpg]] ![[IMG_4129.jpg]] ![[IMG_4130.jpg]] ![[IMG_4132.jpg]] ![[IMG_4133.jpg]] ![[IMG_4134.jpg]] ![[IMG_4135.jpg]] ![[IMG_4136.jpg]] ![[IMG_4137.jpg]] ![[IMG_4117.jpg]] ![[IMG_4118.jpg]] ![[IMG_4119.jpg]] ![[IMG_4121.jpg]] ## Lessons Learned - **Putty Comparisons** - Light curing putty is softer consistency similar to other puttys. It doesn't hold it's shape well if you put on gap between pieces and pull them apart (perhaps it would with vasoline, did not try). - polyester putty has a similar consistency to light curing above. It has a pretty strong odor however. The hardener I thought was empty but it's in the bottle, just have to squeeze pretty hard to get a tiny bead out. - For anything requiring shaping, milliput is still best. - **always be careful cutting off mold parts / gates / whatever** they are called. I accidentally cut one off that wasn't actually one - it was part of a belt. I had to rebuild using milliput. - **Un-cure (super glue remover) strips paint** - at least model air acrylic. Today everything I've done has gone wrong. One item was gluing together torso and hip, accidentally splattered some super glue on finished paint job. Tried to wipe up quickly, tiny tab with paper towel with uncure on it. Stripped paint. Not the right approach. I will have to sand the splatter down and repaint both skin and shorts. Luckily both were base coats so I haven't spent too much time detailing either yet... - **to find pin placement**, drill hole in one side, put some tack on the other piece and insert together. Pull apart and there will be a mark from the drilled hole where the other hole should go. Note next point though. - **pin through arms/legs when possible**. I didn't do it on this kit, but in a couple spots may have worked out better. The pins work and are in the right place, but **the angle of pin may be slightly off** and made the final fit not perfect. I had to go back and use putty to try and make things fit better after I had pins glued in a few places (not parts glued together, just pin glued in one side). - don't cut pins too short. There are a couple places I added pins but either didn't make them long enough or drilled hole too deep and pin went in further than initial testing. - **pin torso to hip areas.** Even if larger surface area for glue, pin would help a lot. I always think it isn't needed, but after doing this one I regret not adding a pin there when doing all the others. The torso popped off when working on it, I put it back without trouble, but clearly pin would've made it better without too much additional effort. - As always, I'm constantly trying to sort out the differences in paint and when to use what because I have several brands (Gaia, Mr. Color, Vallejo, Mig AMMO) - [A Few Paint Questions : Gunpla](https://www.reddit.com/r/Gunpla/comments/35k1yw/a_few_paint_questions/) has some interesting responses around paint types. Some highlights although I can't necessarily validate statements: - Mr. Color and Gaia Notes are acrylic pigment in a lacquer solvent. Tamiya acrylics act similar, but are in an alcohol solvent. In general lacquer is a better solvent. - Alcohol solvent evaporates quickly leaving dry tip and you have to keep mixing - You can thin Tamiya acrylics with lacquer thinner to get some of the lacquer benefits. - Airbrushing negates most of the concerns around ordering acrylics > enamel > lacquer with lacquer not being able to paint over acrylics. If you do a light coat first before going heavy, order doesn't matter as much with airbrush, because most of the harsh solvents evaporate before even hitting the model. - lacquers don't brush well - dry too quickly (I can confirm). Someone else also says enamels don't brush well and dry fast, which seems opposite others say (and another user in the same thread at [Brush Painting with Testor's Enamel Paint - FineScale Modeler](https://cs.finescale.com/fsm/tools_techniques_and_reference_materials/f/18/t/117555.aspx)) - I did several tests with thinners on my Vallejo. IPA and lacquer thinner (harsh kind I clean AB with usually) both caused it to clump up, unlike water. So, probably not good options. This explains why sometimes it gets clumpy in my AB as I tend to clean using lacquer thinner between coats which always worked well in the past for Mr. Color and I assumed would work for acrylics or other "weaker" paints, but clearly something causes clumping.