Archive for the ‘Japanese Monsters’ Tag
Restore is having another painting contest, in collaboration with Pop Soda. I had a great time in the previous contest with my third place entry Gikaku, False Oni. Entries for this contest could use any of Restore’s toys, and I went with Fog because it was pretty much the only way I was going to be able to get one these days. I love the detailed sculpt, so I looked at lots of real life pictures of chameleons for inspiration. Turns out, chameleons are totally rad, so I had a lot to work with. I took key colors from a couple that I liked and tweaked the layout to fit the humanoid shape, and fired up the airbrush. The name “Pardalizard” comes from the species name of some particularly hot looking breeds. The contest is open for a few more months, and then we’ll see how I do!
I took all the photos outside so I could show off my nature-inspired Fog in his home. The photoshoot was a ton of fun and I am really happy with how the photos came out. More after the break, and there are a lot of shots!
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Bemlar has the dubious distinction of being the first Ultra Monster to face an Ultraman, way back in 1966. It’s a solid design that still holds up, and M1’s sculpt is a great representation, capturing Bemlar’s weird upright stance with just the right amount of stylization. The toy is covered with terrific textures that made painting this guy a blast. I painted Bemlar at the last Monster Kolor paint class, where I had access to the full host of MK goodies. I had just come back from seeing Godzilla 2014 the night before, which is incredible and everyone should see. I was really smitten by how hard it was to figure out what color Goji was in that film, so I wanted to try something like that for myself. I used a lot of strong directional sprays, a couple of metallic colors, clear colors, and some final pearl work to make Bemlar look a different color from pretty much every direction. I tried to capture that in the photos by taking shots from different angles. He’s blue in some, green in others, with yellow and copper hues showing up as well. Painted on flesh vinyl visible on the arms.
It was fun to flex all my airbrushing muscles after having done nothing but real type weathered robot figures for so long. Think I’ll have to find time for a few more bright and shiny toys in the future…
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On Saturday, June 22 I took a trek out to the brand new Monster Kolor shop in Middleboro, Mass for one heck of a good time. I attended the ‘Paint your own TriPus’ event, hosted by Monster Kolor with blank TriPus figures supplied by Max Toy Co. The attendees ranged in skill from the talented and always fun Todd Robertson and Will Long to people who had never used an airbrush before. The weather was perfect for a bunch of toy heads to hang out in a back alley and shoot paint. Benny Kline of Tenacious Toys was nice enough to photograph the whole even and post a huge gallery of photos from the day.
I spent the drive to Massachusetts planning the paint job for my TriPus. I wanted to something with deep blue tones and a fade on the bottom to give the appearance of a monster emerging from the ocean, all realistically colored and detailed up top. Walker had a few special paints and surprises out for people to try, so I was able to stick to my plan while trying out a few sharp new colors. Click through for nice big, tasty photos of some shiny green TriPus action! The whole figure was painted on Saturday with whatever tools and colors were on hand, and served as a great warm up refresher piece while I work on unpacking my studio into my new apartment.
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This guy was a commissioned I finished up a few weeks back. The customer sent me a swatch of camo in the style he wanted, and I think I did a pretty good job of matching it. We settled on a flat finish and very technical ‘tight’ camo rather than the loosey-goosey airbrushed camo some other kaiju guys have coined.
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I picked up a pair of blank grey-green Marusan Ganimes from GrumbleToy a while back for my brother and myself. Ganime is the crab monster from the classic Space Amoeba film. I wanted to do something funky to get back in the airbrushing groove, so I painted the pair with blue shells like lobsters and crayfish sometimes have.
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When I posted the finished shots of my Master Grade RX-78-2 Gundam painted with Monster Kolor, Matt Walker aka Dead Pre$idents asked me if he could display it at the booth he was sharing with Max Toy Co at Winter Wonder Festival in Japan. Monster Kolor paint has been a huge success for Matt, and he is always looking for demonstrations of its use in new and creative ways. My MK on plastic Gundam model fit the bill, and was shipped off to Japan for display at the show. These pics of the booth come courtesy of Kaiju Korner Andy, who has been providing the best English-language coverage of Japanese shows and festivals out there for a couple of years now. Go check out the rest of his extensive WonderFest coverage here. He took a gazillion photos, and there’s more still to be posted.
Here’s a shot of the whole Max Toy Co and Friends booth! My Gundam was in good company. I think it’s giving Max Toy Co’s new micro Kaiju Negora sculpt a bit of a shakedown!
The winners of Restore’s Debris Japan painting contest have been announced! You can read the announcement page on Restore’s site, and then go check out the entire entry gallery.
The results are:
First Place: ‘Death Trap’ by Toybot Studios
Second Place: ‘The Spirit Who Restores’ by Plaseebo
Third Place: ‘Gikaku’ by Prometheus Rising Studios
Congratulations to everyone who entered! The overall level of work submitted was incredible, and it can not have been easy to pick any standouts. I am thrilled to be recognized among among such top-tier work. Big thanks to Restore for sculpting such an impressive figure, and for running this contest.
Kaiju Kaos is a new 28mm miniature game by Bryan K. Borgman of Bailey Records. A number of smaller pewter and larger resin monster figures are available, but the game is also designed to allow kaiju collectors to use their own figures in the game. The Kaos Monster here is the flagship monster release so far, and Bryan contacted me to have me paint one. He wanted a crazy Monster Kolor sprayed figure to show off some of the crossover potential between kaiju stylings and his tabletop wargame. Tons more photos of the completed scene after the break!
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In Living Kolor Boston was this weekend and it was a blast! Seven hours of driving both ways to Lot F Gallery, an awesome gallery space tucked away right in Boston, were well worth it. A ton of people showed up for both the live painting and the gallery opening, and a ton of toys got painted. Max Toy Co, Onell, and resin artist Dustin Nakagawa all provided a pile of blanks for painting. It was great to see old friends, make new ones, and see people who had never painted before try out Monster Kolor spraycans and airbrushing. I painted the mini Eyezon above, on clear green vinyl with sparkles…
…this mini Argus on red vinyl. I slathered it with pink peal, and then tried out the MK rattle can matte finish, which gave it a great finish.
I also picked up this awesome little resin by Dustin Nakagawa, named Gamusa. He’s clearly inspired by Zollmen’s Zudon, but has some differences that make him stand out, and is a perfectly sized and shaped little resin buddy. I also worked on a blank Gamusa that I will post up when I finish.
Another shot of Gamusa. The loose sprays work really well on the rough sculpt, and manage to highlight the details really well. I should also mention that this guy has a great heft to him, and seems to be cast from a really nice resin.
This Oni was born blind and hornless, and named Gikaku (フェイク鬼- ‘false Oni’). He was too embarrassing to keep after waiting so long for his birth, so a prosthetic horn (義角) was fused to his head and he was cast out. Now, Gikaku travels alone, appearing only in place of a person being expected. To see Gikaku is a terrible curse, and he is greatly feared. The fundoshi reads ‘Great curse (dai-kyō, 大凶)’ and ‘待人 (machibito) – a person being waited for’, based on Omikuji fortune terms.
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Prometheus Rising Studios 