Ginga custom pt. 13

I wish I could say I planned this out, but it was just a coincidence that my Ginga custom part 13 also happens to be the 13th post of this year. Woo, pointless numbers!

This time I chose to paint Benizakura! One of my favorite characters of the series. I don't know where exactly I'd place him on my list of favorite characters, I just know he belongs there somewhere.

I had this dog figure, on the belly side, it say's American bulldog. Yeah, I know it's far from a Tosa Inu Benizakura is supposed to be. The figure's snout isn't too squashed in so I thought it could work out.

The first order of business, I cut the figure's ears off. And then I used "the green stuff" to build some new ear stubs. This was the first time I used green stuff, it was pretty interesting. I was surprised how fast it hardened, so I had to sculpt those chewed off ears in a hurry.

After that little sculpting, while I was base painting the figure white, I accidentally dropped it on the floor. Of course the dog's left ear broke off. Luckily it didn't shatter or anything, so I was able to just glue it back in place. While I was at it, I mixed up some more green stuff and tweaked the shape of the ear a little.

I was using a new set of acrylic paints, and I wasn't really liking the way the paint was behaving. The biggest issue was that it wasn't opaque enough. I was a pain in the butt to have  to mix all those colors over and over again.

Painting those scars was really hard too. I used the smallest brush I had and still  those scars are too wide and blotchy. The dog has a lot of wrinkles in its face so it was a struggle to even get a straight line. I had reached the end of my patience with mixing those brown colors so once I got scars I was semi happy with, I just decided to let it be. 

Same goes for the eyes. I was struggling to get the other eye to look straight. I got it wrong so many times, I was about ready to throw the whole thing out the window. That's when I decided it was for the better to put the figure down and continue working on it the next day.

The collar is again made of folded masking tape and then painted. I'm not sure why my Benizakura turned up so glossy. I used the same matte varnish I've used on all my other dogs. Maybe it's the new paint I used?

Before & after

Benizakura is supposed to be this big and powerful dog, that illusion is broken when I place him next to my other customs.

***

For the heck of it, while working on the figure I became inspired to do some fan art as well. I don't draw Ginga dogs that often so I used a reference picture for this. The red background is supposed to mimic those eyecatchers from the GDW anime. And the other just because I like a simple background.

Ginga Custom pt. 12

Not related to the post in any way, but happy April Fools' day! :D

pictures shamelessly copied from the Ginga wiki pages

Sasuke time! The little Shiba dog from Ginga Densetsu Weed series. I guess you could say that Sasuke is special in a way, because unlike the other characters I've painted, there actually is an official figure of him. (As I'm writing this, I realize that's not actually true a, both Riki and John have official figures made of them. I just completely blanked out about that fact.)

don't know where that stain came from  (right f. leg)

All my other custom dogs have been flea market foundlings, but this one I actually bought brand new, specifically with the intent that I was going to paint it into Sasuke. I'm probably not lying if I say that this figure sat on my desk for two years before I finally decided to get it over with and just finish it. I don't know what killed my motivation with this one. The main thing I hate about it is the head shape. It's not round enough. And the snout was somewhat misshapen too. As I was painting the tip of the nose, it was difficult to get it to look right, more trouble than I've had with any of the previous figures. Or maybe my "skills" have gone just a bit rusty.

I had a hard time deciding which reference to follow, his anime look or manga look. And now the end result doesn't look like either of them. I was also confused over those two black dot above his eyes. In the anime it's just some shadings, but in the manga they do sometimes look more like distinctive markings. You could say the same about those black stripes under his eyes too (in the manga images). I did give the figure the two black dots at first, but later painted over them, because I didn't get them to look right. The official Sasuke figure doesn't have any black markings on the face either, so maybe it's okay that I left them out.

I also wasn't sure if I should give him a collar or not. Again, in the anime, it's absent, but in the manga he has one. With my tape method, the collar is simple and fairly quick enough to make, so why not? I made him a collar. I then had to decide which color it should be, blue or black? I don't think (not that I have paid attention to it really) there's any consistency in the manga for when it's blue or black, it just seems to be random. The official Sasuke figure has a blue collar though..... I was going to compromise and paint it very dark blue, but since I already had the black paint on my palette anyhow, and I hadn't used any blue until this point, so I decided to save that tiny speck of blue paint for some other time.

What do I think of the final result? I hate it.

I hate it. I hate it. I hate it.

The main reason I do not like it is because I know I rushed it. I was sick and tired of seeing his base painted ass sitting on my desk for so long. I had to finish it to be able to move forward. I always get mentally stuck and unable to start new projects if I have too many old ones on the back of my mind. I'm glad this is over now. Fingers crossed that I'll do better next time!

Hyena, Sasuke and Jerome

Ginga Custom pt. 11

Wow! Has it really been two years since I last made a Ginga custom? I can hardly believe it!

I bought these two Husky appearing ceramic figurines (or whatever the correct term for them would be) at a flea market.  I'm remembering that they cost only 0,70€ each, very cheap indeed! The lying down posed dog reminded me immediately of Fuji, so I really had no other choice but to paint that dog in Fuji's likeness. About the sitting dog, it only made sense to me to paint that one into Riki. 

I painted their eyes in the same style I did Buck's (The Call of the Wild), just because I wanted to try something different. I finished Fuji first, before I moved on to Riki. I ended up painting Riki twice, because the first coat of paint looked wrong. The belly side was far too yellow (this is like the 3rd time I've done that) and the backside too dark. For some reason Riki game me a hard time, I always messed something up! Fuji on the other hand went really smoothly.

I did something extra and made those collars. I folded some masking tape sticky side to sticky side and then painted it. I'm not sure if I like them or not...

"Lapland, Finland" engraved on the backside of both dogs

Ginga Custom pt.10

What? Only part ten? It feels like I've painted a hundred of these already! Okay, maybe not that much, but this little Dachshund does bring the total number of dogs painted up to 14! Yay! I never imagined I could keep this up for this long!

I'm not that proud of this one. Now when I look at it, his underside is a little too yellow. Oliver had been sitting on my desk for quite some time, and I just wanted to hurry up and finish it. I didn't bother this time to watch the DVDs for any episodes Oliver appears in for reference. I lazily just checked the images on Ginga Wikia. I could again bitch about how inconsistent the anime is.... but I'm not going to do that!

I don't know why it's always John who ends up posing for the picture with the new arrival. <_<

Ginga Custom pt. 9

I'm confused about the name, but anyway, here's TOPPS' Puppy in my Pocket: Precious Puppies: Shogun repainted as Gin (Hopeanuoli!)!

Somebody might remember I bought this little puppy in last years October as can be read in this post. As it turns out the figure IS actually an Akita and not a Husky, like I stated in my first post. The site that was my source information was apparently very wrong. Whoopsie!

If you're wondering how the figure's paint job has deteriorated so much since I bought it, the answer is quite simple. It's not the same figure! I traded the dog I bought for this one in worse shape, because since I'm repainting it, the condition of the original paint doesn't really matter.

Repainting  this thing was horrible. The dog is made of very soft material and the acrylic paint didn't respond well to it. No matter for how long I left it to dry up or sprayed some varnish on it, the paint would remain so sticky that every time I finished painting something on it, and was putting it aside some paint would stick to my fingers and tear a hole in the paint coat. That was frustrating as hell on a whole new level. Now when it's finally finished, it's still semi-sticky and I'll not touch this thing ever again! >_<

Ginga Custom pt.8

The first customs of 2016! Wohoo! And it's a double! This time, my victims are Batto and Hyena!

(Please right click the images and open in a new tab for a larger view.)

I specifically looked for a Labrador retriever figure for painting Batto. Hyena on the other hand was very much so an unplanned custom. I bought a small bag full of toys at a flea market and there was a couple of Dalmatian dogs I didn't really plan on using for anything. While I was waiting for the paint on Batto to dry, I took a closer look at one of the Dalmatians and tried to think of a character it would be suitable for. Hyena for some reason was the only floppy eared dog with a collar I could think of at the moment. So that's how he came to be!

The first coat on Hyena turned out a little bit too greenish and Batto was too blue and the color was not dark enough. I repainted both of them twice, which didn't turn out to be such a good decision regarding Batto. I'm sad to say, that Batto is the first one out of my customs, that I'm not happy about the end result. I used black paint for the markings around Batto's eyes at first, but the black didn't stand out at all and just faded in with the rest of the coat. So I tried a few things to make it work before giving up and deciding to use dark blue instead and even that doesn't look very good. Batto's scars were also a real pain in the butt to paint. Looking at reference pictures now, I realize I didn't give Hyena brown eyes! Another failure!