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This picture shows some of the filling that was required after the major pieces of the model had been assembled. This work was done before the skirt was formed and attached. For another view, see here. |
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This is another partial assembly photo. 5 minute resin epoxy glue was used to attach the body pieces. |
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This is a picture of the pieces before final assembly. There will be fit problems with the arms and some filling and repair will be required. |
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This is the model after the skirt has been painted. Some minor touch-ups are required, however the next major task is to fit the arms. These will require filling and repair once they are set into the model. |
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You can see the problems with the ill-fitting left arm. Note that the toothpick is not the cause of the problem. It simply prevents the arm from falling over. The hand is touching the skirt and this is what is holding the shoulder part away from the body. A similar but not so severe problem exists with the right arm. For a closer look, see here. |
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The arms have now been attached and filled. Here's a note to myself. Plastic filler compound is not glue. I filled the arm cavity with lots of plastic filler and inserted the arm, then left the piece to dry. When working on it the next day, grinding and sanding, the arms easily detached. As the plastic filler did not act as a glue I tried again with a 5 minute epoxy resin glue. When the epoxy was securely set I applied the plastic filler only around the seam area. For a few other pictures, see here. |
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Major work requires major repaints. The upper part of the body had to be completely repainted once the arms were sanded down. Of course, the lower part of the body has to be covered and protected throughout the rework process. For other pictures, see here. You may see the odd flaw and pinhole in these pictures. These flaws were corrected before painting the flesh color on the arms. |
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This is how the model looked after the arm rework was complete. For some other pictures, see here. |
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The last stage is to fit the head. The inner side of the hair bangs were sanded down to try and position the piece lower and closer to the face. Then, after confirming that the head and hair subassembly could be attached to the model as a complete unit, all the pieces were glued together with resin epoxy. Plastic wrap was laid over the face before gluing to prepare for the repaint process. For another picture, see here. |
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It is always important to protect the finished model surface when checking subassemblies such as the head and hair for fit. The brown and red hair, if it touched the white shirt, would leave marks. |
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The hair was shaded with the airbrush. Orange, red, pink, and a lighter color of the base tint was applied. In some sense, Naru's hair now shows similar characteristics to the shading and streaking that applies to hairstyles in fashion today. |
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This is Naru, finished and complete. To view the complete photo gallery for this model, click here. I won't tell you about the disasters that happened within 24 hours after the work was done. Such as the time when the model fell flat on it's face because it is not well balanced and the skirt broke. Or the time when I was putting the model up on a shelf and it also fell on it's face, but this time it fell all the way down to the floor where the hair broke off at the neck line. After all this work I had to glue it together again and refinish the surface. This time I made a base and pinned the legs into the base. Now, hopefully it won't fall over any more! |
