If You Keep at It, Will Something... Finally... Work Out? Or, the Flamie Post~

Hello, kitties!

I haven't written anything in quite a while, but only because there was nothing to write about: garage-kit building came to a halt because of the heroine of today's post. Somehow, immediately after finishing Utaha-senpai, I decided I had enough experience under my belt to build a kit like this at my husband's request.

I really liked the character, but the kit itself didn't especially appeal to me. There was no alternative, though, so I got to work. The resin was just like in the photo—white and delicate—but from that point onward, everything diverged somewhat from E2046's fit-test photos. At the moment this is the single most demotivating kit I've ever had to deal with, for a number of reasons. The first and most important: I simply didn't have enough experience for such a complicated kit. The rifle I straightened by heating it in boiling water bent back again after painting. The cape doesn't join properly with the chest and arm. Why was this kit even split into parts this way? It isn't logical or convenient. And why didn't I cut it apart in a way that would have been convenient for me? The thought never occurred to me. The section of the cape beside the right arm broke countless times, and when I finally glued it back together and repaired everything neatly, it turned out the cloak couldn't be attached properly unless I simply broke that part off... On top of all the problems fitting the parts together, I painted the kit with Vallejo and used their semi-gloss and gloss varnishes too—God, never again! Not long ago I tried painting with solvent-based paints, and those are exactly what someone like me needs! The paint goes down without primer and only comes off if you deliberately pick at it hard—just my sort of thing... but that's not what this is about. I stripped this delicate maiden quite a few times because the paint and/or varnish had gone down badly or become chipped, then repainted her, which did the delicate plastic no favors, alas. I already wanted to abandon it, but decided to put an end to this long-running build and, after New Year, tried to finish it as best I could. Not many process photos survived, but I do have a few.

And here is how it turned out in the end:

Why this post? Probably to mark a certain turning point in this hobby of mine. Working on Flamie gave me invaluable experience in judging my own abilities and brought my unnecessary enthusiasm back down to earth. So for now I'm switching to solvent paints and more or less simple kits, and I'll gradually work my way from the easy ones to the difficult ones. Then, who knows, perhaps Flamie will become perfect someday :)

Thank you for stopping by!