Very 1st custom ever

[Mr_K]

Hi all,

well i have just finished my VERY FIRST custom ever and I wanted to share it with you!

Firsty, before I started my custom I was unware that anyone else had done what I've done but since looking through this thread I notice that someone has done a similar (probably better :P) job than me.

Secondly, there will be a few of you who won't like the custom I've created because it is a Nemesis Prime. The reasoning I chose to do a Nemesis Prime repaint though was because he doesn't involve any hard painting and since he is mostly dark colours I felt it gave me some room to move in terms of accurancy in being my first custom.

I'm not a great painter, in fact I haven't painted anything since I was about 14 and it was bad; I didn't even pass year 2 painting lol.

However I would like to hear all your comments, especially constructive criticisms of how I can improve for next time because I have another I am going to be starting before the end of the week.

So now, here are the pics:

http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/1053/dsc00758mg3.jpg

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/7141/dsc00759ij9.jpg

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/1387/dsc00760jo0.jpg

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/4902/dsc00761xw2.jpg

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/7223/dsc00762wi4.jpg

http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/3848/dsc00763dj7.jpg

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/9792/dsc00764fs6.jpg

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/1094/dsc00765ds1.jpg

[Mr_K]

It is a bit hard to see from these photos because of my flash, but all the grey parts I have re-painted and then brushed over them with a metalic silver to make the metal look warn. If anyone is interested in seeing this better I will take some more photos tomorrow in the daylight so I don't need the flash.

[jacksplatt11]

Looks really good man, there's a couple of bits where you can see a bit of red through the black, but overall, for your first time, it's really well done, good work :D

[Lint]

hey thats pretty neat. I like it!

[blackie]

hasbro love nemesis repaints, expect a knock on your door very soon.... :P

looks great tho. makes me like animated just that little bit more

[STL]

Looking awesome, man! Esp. for a first timer. The first time I tried, it was an utter mess. Just ask lcz128. I think he spent more than enough hours trying to fix up all my screw ups.

[GoktimusPrime]

Good effort. :)

Some tips:
+ Wash the parts before you paint them.
+ Consider applying a white undercoat. I never do that, but I know others who do. :p
+ After painting, allow the paint to dry before applying another coat. The more coats the merrier, especially if you haven't applied an undercoat.
+ Consider applying a spray-on purity seal to protect the paint from abrasions etc.; we did this with the Sabretron 2004 exclusive toys. :)

My first custom was a repaint of Transmetal Tarantulas as "Vok Hunter Tarantulas." It turned out that Fox Kids TM Tarantulas would become the real "Vok Hunter Tarantulas" (although neither the toy nor character was ever given that title) afterwards. Later I made an "Animé Optimus Prime - a G1 Prime with blue eyes. A year later Takara reissued New Year Special Convoy, a reissue of Goodbye Convoy with... yep... blue eyes.

So here's hoping HasTak will never make an official Animated Nemesis Prime so that your custom remains nice and unique. :)

[griffin]

That turned out rather well. It really makes that 'heroic' mould look quite evil. Probably because the front windows have an angry-eyes look to them (to me at least), so better suits an evil character and colour scheme.

[Omega Supreme]

First off nice work, especially for a first attempt. I have only starting doing customs recently myself, on my 1st figure I had the same trouble as you did with the original colour showing through, my solution to this was to just simply add coats until I could no longer see any of the orig colour scheme. As Goktimus mentioned above get a spray on purity seal, so as to protect all your hours of effort :) Goodluck with future projects & look forward to seeing more of your work.

[Mr_K]

Thanks for all the responses, encouragement and great tips! Yeah, I think in the end I got a little too excited that I was going to finish him soon so I only did really one coat of paint and I have been having trouble keeping the paint on when there are hindges involved.

I have placed a gloss overcoat on it to protect the paint so hopefully it will last a while :)

Hopefully with all the hints from you guys my next custom will be even better :)

[i_amtrunks]

Thats a nice first up effort, your painting is quite good, when I started not all that long ago I'd end up with the wrong coloured paint in the wrong sections because of my unsteady hands.

While the idea of Nemesis prime might not be original, I quite like the look of the brighter blue with the black on the Animated mold, its visually striking.

When you are painting a darker shade of paint on a lighter coloured plastic, you don't need to undercoat. However if you are painting a lighter shade on dark plastic then I suggest getting a spray can of White Undercoat, it will make your job much easier.

[lcz128]

Some tips:
+ Wash the parts before you paint them.
+ Consider applying a white undercoat. I never do that, but I know others who do. :p


Totally agree with your tips except that undercoat colour depends on what colour you intend to have on top :) If it's a light colour, white all the way - else - black if you want black on top - black also if you're going to paint silver on top (matte)

Mr_K : Admirable effort :) As blackie mentioned - there are bits where the red is showing through - bits where it's the joints - if there's paint rub - the only way around is to sand the joints so that it's thinner BEFORE the paint so that by the time the paint is on, it's around the same 'thickness' as pre-paint. With regular areas, just make sure you coat him with a uniform coat of paint, and yes - more layers if required. You may want to dilute your paint for a smoother finish. Jin Saotome's tutorials helped me get started about a year ago, so I recommend that! (jinsaotomesdangeroustoys.com (http://jinsaotomesdangeroustoys.com))
Anyhoo - all the best with more that you work on and remember to share! :D

[Mr_K]

Thanks for the pointers lcz128 and i_amtrunks (and those before hand) I didn't think to put an undercoat of a darker or lighter colour on first, that's a great idea and will use that next time.

lcz128, yeah I used a tutorial of his as a guide. I saw he mentioned sanding back parts of the TF but at the time I didn't understand what he meant, but now I do -> thanks :) That will be a great help for my next one.

[Hot Rodimus]

Nice job!

Just a couple of tips from me aswell, these I learnt from painting tonnes of 40K and Warmachine figures which I never actually played a game with just painted because I loved the mini's so much.

I used to (as well as the majority of miniture painters) undercoat in Black most of the time as if there are any gaps you can not get your spray or brush to it will generally not stand out as much as white, expecialy in crevices and corners and it will act like shading or shadows. Undercoat in white if you will be painting bright colours like yellow though as a black undercoat will give you a crappy finish for lighter shades of colour.

Depending on the finish you want you have a couple of choices as to what sealant you can use to protect your work. If you want a glossy coat something like Purity Seal that Goktimus Prime mentioned works great and it is cheap and can be bought from most hobby stores or places that sell Games Worksop paints.

If you want a matte finish (which is what most mini painters prefer but I don't know what the custom creaters here like) first seal your figure with Purtiy Seal then allow it to dry for 24 hours and then give it a coat of your matte sealant. Something like Wattyl Estapol works well and can be bought from places like Bunnings for arounrd 12 bucks. The reason for the double coat is that some matte sealant can be brittle so the purity seal provides superior protection while the additional coat of the matte takes away the glossy finish.

Wether you want to go this route or not is up to you but the other advice given here is realy good.

[Hot Rodimus]

Oh and here is a site that may help with some techniques.

http://www.brushthralls.com/tutorials/index.php

It has nothing to do with transformers, it is based on a wargame called Warmachine. The figures used in this game are metal and alot of them are 'robots' so there are some techniques for painting metal and prep before you paint etc that you might find helpfull.

I learnt alot from this site and after practicing some of the techniques on their can paint a 3cm tall figure to a better than average standard.

[Paulbot]

Nice job and very encouraging to my own plans to do my 1st ever custom. The tips from the others are great too.

[The_Damned]

looks good excellent choice of moulds.

[loophole]

That looks really good dude and yet so evil, i love the contrast of colours it works very well. Two thumbs up!!

[Mr_K]

Thanks guys!

The next one I'm doin' is of another TF that came with this OP in a twin pack at one stage, I'm gonna try and bring this transformer back to their roots with some paint ;)