Sunday, October 18, 2020

Flashback to the Studio - 2017

While waiting until it was time to upload the web files for the Personality Collection Thirteen release, I decided it was probably time to organize and clean out the Magpie files since the last time it was done was, uh, never.

It turns out I've taken a good few studio pictures over the years and I thought it might be fun to select a handful from each year and share them here.

The first year was especially rough. I didn't really know what I was doing, so I was trying to follow the production instructions I found in the Magpie files as closely as possible. That meant I was using enamel paint, which is incredibly sticky and a nightmare to clean up, and was painting the shells before gluing them together, which makes for a whole range of challenges. To paint the models, I would use blue tack on their inner pegs to hold them together (which didn't always hold if the weather stayed warm) and blue tacked them to a plastic plate or acrylic sheet to hold them while I painted, which made it hard to get to the underside.

The models would be haired before gluing - after this year I vowed never to work with nylon hair again. To glue them together one had to be super careful not to let any of the glue touch the paint or the paint would just wipe off. 

Since I didn't know what interest would be or what the painting process would be like, I decided to make thirty of each model. Nothing like starting small. Over the years I've refined my process and scaled back the numbers to something I could manage mentally and physically. 

Personality Collection Ten was released on October 31st, 2017. There were no specials that year as I had spent the entire painting season on the Persies.


The Hunter Master Mold

The Welsh Pony Master Mold

The Foal Master Mold

Donkey Injection Mold

Welsh Rider Injection Mold

The first delivery of boxes

Synthetic hair types tests

Ghost of Glamis getting the first layer

Ghost of Glamis ready for detailing.

Lunan Bey getting their first two colour layers

Lunan Beys ready for detailing

Painting notes for Lunan Bey

Always wear your mask when airbrushing

Pumpkin Pie prototype, Punkin

This is why you wear a mask.
This is what I swept out of my airbrushing box after the painting season.

To protect the models from spray-back in the painting room,
the dry ones would be stored in plastic bags, which made it easier to move them, too.

Luciole, our first donation model getting haired.

Persie 10 prototypes

Persie 10 models, post-hairing,
with Punkin the Pumpkin Pie prototype

A Lunan Bey showing off our wrapping


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