I was wondering, how long do you guys spend on just prepping your figures before you even get to painting? Prepping like sanding and cleaning, etc.
too much time. right now I'm working on a machine wars Soundwave, spent more time with the bastard hinges and rub areas than paint...
I usually make sure what's going on this figure is amased, otherwise I just dive in and perform modifications as I go. I still need to sand off Energon Prime's Autobot insignia (right sholder) for my Nemesis Prime project, but I haven't cut out a Decepticon symbol yet to replace it.
I usually prep a figure as soon as I get it. Often many at a time. Nothing worse that getting an idea and needing to scrub that figure up. I spend about 20 minutes scrubbing and using rubbing alcohol for paint removal, but it's the drying time that kills me. So I do a bunch at a time, and leave them in the sun until I'm ready.
A thing i do which i find works well is soak all the pieces in warm soapy water for an hour or so before i go to sleep at night then let them air-dry overnight and start painting the next morning. Thats all after ive used alcohol and sand paper to remove factory paint of course. Saves waiting for them to dry after washing them. Just go to sleep and then wake up and start painting!
usually, the most prep i do is taking everything apart. it's definitely come back to bite me a few times by not doing any other prep. but i usually do things as i go along as i recognize something is going to be a problem or something ends up being a problem and then i have to fix it. thankfully, it takes me like half a year to finish just one custom most of the time
i use dishwashing liquid soap, i read this tip here. i don't know if can ruin some metal parts of your tf's, but it really take off the grease on joints. then your transformers feels squeeky clean after this.
Research: ======= 1-2 days to 1 week I take this time to look up pics of the figure I am working on. Drawings, the G1 toy, Radicons and what parts from various other figures I could use when building it. One useful resource that every Radicon should have is the More Than Meets The Eyes guide and profile books. Building: ====== 3 days - 5 days This gathering the parts and cutting, sanding, and gluing the parts together. Making sure they all fit together and that the figure still transforms. And then cleaning the parts with warm soapy water and letting them dry over night. Painting: ====== 2 days - 1 week. Base coat flat black and let dry un the sun for as long as possible and let it sit over night. Start painting base colors and that takes a day with drying. Shading and detail can take anywhere from 1-2 days depending on the amount I want to put into it. Overall about 2 weeks with it all said and done.
Very helpful. What about a simple repaint? How long would something like that take you? Let's say a deluxe figure.
For a deluxe shave all those time in half basically, give or take a day. The Blurr I did took about 3 days with all the hours added up. I think Frenzy_Rumble did a complete repaint in a little over or under three hours. I think with his Inferno repaint don't quote me thou. It all depends on how much detail and change you want to put on to or into it.
or how often you do it, heh.... 14+ hours a day, I usually have 5-10 projects running at a time. Most deluxe/voyager/leader repaints I do in < 2 days, combiners are reaching towards 30 hours each...
