The Energon Pub

News Credits: 1452 · by **Blurrz** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 5:23 am

A little back story on myself, I guess I've been painting for a decade or so with miniature figures. Regretfully was in Warhammer Fantasy/40K while I was an early teenager but realized how much of a time and money sink it was. To this day I still wash, smooth, paint and decal Gundam kits as well. But nothing, certainly nothing can get you ready when you try to customize a Transformer. I've learnt quite alot of new techniques few months, just about the quality of different paints, thinning them out, how to nail out pins, how to sand something without turning it into a mess, and the list could go on and on...

On to this particular figure, Animated Chromia from Animated Arcee. This was my first custom, and I finished it last summer. Despite the fact that it's my first, I really treasure it because it's seemingly my best custom out of the first half dozen I have done, likely because I actually took the time and didn't rush things. The reason you're only getting this gallery now... well was patiently waiting for the Reprolabels to come in. And not only that, but my good friend Counterpunch sort of indirectly pushed me in the right direction to take good photos, and holy crap, not much is required (two black t-shirts, two pieces of printing paper, two lamps and an empty 24 pack) to turn blurry photos into high quality steak and dinner.

With Chromia you might notice..

Likeness to DJW's Ani Chromia Sketch
Tron-esque teal blue highlights!
Blinged wheels, probably going to be a Blurrz thing..
White backed Autobot symbols courtesy of Reprolabels
Paints from GamesWorkshop/Black Citadel

Moving on, here we have it, Chromia giggling her way onto Seibertron.com

Bankai!

Don't make Swoop smack fembot!

Critiques, comments, and what not, appreciated!

News Credits: 9 · by **Mykltron** » Mon Mar 26, 2012 6:12 am

Blurrz wrote:
Critiques, comments, and what not, appreciated!

You asked for it!

There are two things that could be improved, and these go for the four customs I've just looked at:

1) Edges
They're not straight. I can get clean edges with a fine brush and a steady hand but you may want to try masking, although it never worked for me. You'd want to varnish the part that's having the tape stuck to it first and use high-tack masking tape.

2) Brush strokes
I can see lots of them. You need to do many thin layers. It may also be your choice of paint. You don't need to use expensive paint but if it's the right one the first layer would look like how yours have come out, and subsequent layers would improve it.

I hope I've been clear, non-patronising and not-arrogant. If you have questions PM me.

News Credits: 1452 · by **Blurrz** » Mon Mar 26, 2012 11:59 am

Nah all good, it's all fair. Yeah, I do believe if I continue to keep brushing then I gotta have better brushes, and at the same time, gotta find a much better white paint, Black Citadel's is just awful. Also, the tape idea is something I should start utilizing more. Thanks!

News Credits: 9 · by **Mykltron** » Fri Mar 30, 2012 6:16 am

You don't need to spend loads on brushes. Dry brushing tends to knacker them anyway.

Ask at your local art shop about opacity. Some paints have more covering power than others. Alternatively, ff you use silver as a base coat (it's quite easy to get a smooth coat with two layers) then put a not-very-opaque white over the top you should get a nice pearl white.