Thursday, February 2, 2012
你可以失败很多次 , 但成功只需要一次.
Finally. After such a long period of anxiety, frustration, annoyance and happiness, its done. My first ever handpainted Gundam model kit is completed!!! Trust me you have no idea how much time and effort I've put into this one kit alone...only cos its my first time trying. And now that it's born, I can say I'm on my way to being pro :).
After so many years of collecting model kits, one might wonder why did I suddenly decide to go pro. Well, I tink its cos of 2 reasons. Number 1. On this random day while trolling through the net, I came across this forum, which was newly created by local modellers for local modellers. And mind you these people are pros in what they do.
One reason why I'm always hesitant to join such forums is because they're always focused overseas, and that they've been established for a long time. Meaning that if I were to join now, I dun feel as much as a sense of belonging as the familiarity with people isn't there. Hence I decided to give this forum a go.
Much to my surprise, these peeps were very helpful. Ever ready to answer any questions posted, irregardless of the degree of difficulty. And throughout the process they've helped me Alot. So now the techniques I employ, tools that I use and places I go to are all adviced from them :). So ya it was kinda tempting to go pro then.
Number 2. Because of army, I'm getting paid sufficiently enough to support extra stuff such as these, albeit it takes abit of saving still. It feels very different from having to ask money from my parents to support my hobby. Ever since I decided to go pro, I self funded it all. The paints, brushes, kits, etc etc. All came outta my own pocket. So I'm kinda proud of it.
And going pro means alot to me. It's a significance that I'm not just collecting model kits as a "half-past-six" hobby for the fun of it, but that I really want to go into modelling as a proper hobby. It's the hardwork that I put into making a kit that makes it feel so much more personal, so much more satisfactory.
In total, this kit took me close to 2 months to completion. That's a VERY long time considering normally I just snapfit a kit in less than 1 day. Waking up, then sit on my work chair the whole day working through, the computer behind me ever on because I have to keep referring to it to solve my problems. During the process there was alot of trial and error, alot of waiting. Waiting for paint to dry, waiting to see if the effect surfaces up, waiting for my forum mates to answer my questions before I can carry on working. Trained alot of patience.
And of course being a first-timer, there were so many failures. I've lost count of how many times I have to redo something cos it didn't turn out right. And its very fustrating at times. Especially when I was down to the final step, almost near completion when a small screw up meant I had to redo certain parts. Causing me to miss my deadline. Haiz.
But alas now its completed. I know it's not perfect, and there are tonnes of improvement I can make. But its my first time, so mistakes are abound. That's what I had to keep telling myself throughout the whole process. I'm a noob, a first-timer, it will not be perfect, its ok.
Enough talk. I think pictures do more justice. And here it is, my first handpainted gundam, 1/144 HG Serpent Custom.
Before:
After:
Process:
My workdesk.
Sanding
Masking
Painting
And with this, I'm now on my way to more kits that are customed by me, in hopes of one day scratch building my own gundam :).
Revealed on [3:38 AM]