From StuartL - Bio-Booster Armor Guyver - Manga & Library Cart (85 Points)

Hello again,

    For my last post today I have a bunch of 3d printed minis for you. My first model and the price of admission to the Manga section of the library is a 3d Print from a maker called Papsikels over on MyMiniFactory. Papsikels makes a range of SF and Anime inspired minis and has a large catalogue to choose from.

    Back when I was a teenager, anime and manga were just starting to become popular in the UK. I had seen anime before (most notably G-Force, or Gatchaman as the original Japanese show was titled), but after Akira proved to be a big hit, there were suddenly a lot of anime shows being broadcast and not all of them were cartoons for young kids. One of my favourites was the Guyver series, a story about a nerdy kid who winds up in possession (or possessed by in some cases) an armoured suit of alien origin that turns him into an unstoppable killing machine. He then winds up fighting a bunch of alien monstrosities and the like and then the series abruptly ends after only 12 episodes. It turns out though, that while the animated show only lasted for half a season, the manga ran for about 25 years. The series isn't finished yet, but has been on hiatus since 2016.

    Sadly the print didn't come out perfectly and the backs of the shoulders are a mess, so you only get a front shot. I've asked my friend to reprint it, but as I have made a lot of other requests, it is unlikely I'll get the mini before this challenge ends.

    To bulk out this post a bit, I have some more cyberpunk minis. Again, these are 3d prints and they are from Papsikels and Unit9 over on MMF. For these figures and the two girls I showed in my other two posts today, I wanted to try out something new. 

    I am not, by any standards, a great painter. I usually go for base, wash and highlight and that is it. I do watch YouTube videos about painting, but that is more for background noise than any desire to improve. Recently though, I saw a video by a painter called Ninjon about using odd coloured base-coats instead of the more traditional method. The idea is that you do a zenithal undercoat (I used black paint with a light grey drybrush), followed by contrast paints. For each of these minis I used 3 different colours of contrast and applied them roughly over large areas of the mini, though not following any particular design or style. After that, I went over the minis and highlighted them with the colours I wanted that part of the mini to be. This leaves you with a lot of colourful and strange looking shadow areas. I don't think I followed the YouTube tutorial exactly right, but I'm happy enough with the outcome to do it again.

    
    I like the colourful effect that it gives the minis and I think that it works quite well for this particular genre. I probably wouldn't use it for fantasy or historical minis. The effects can be seen on the mini below, particularly the legs and the boxes she is resting on.

    I'm going to hop over to the Sci-Fi area next and for that I need to hitch a ride on the library cart, so here is one last cyberpunk girl to pay for my ride. 

For my scores.

9 x 28mm minis = 45 points

Manga section = 20 points

Sarah's Library Cart = 20 points

TOTAL = 85 Points

    Hopefully I will see you all next week.

From Millsy: I'm a bit like you Stuart in that I don't watch painting videos so much to improve as to just keep me interested and motivated. Even so, I was also a bit intrigued by that Ninjon video and the same approach is also being used by Jay from Eons of Battle. I agree that the approach works well for a genre where the colours are vibrant and highly saturated. Nice work and another well earned 85 points.