#so i wanted to design a mg with that style

[rknchan]

what if a cpsu worker became a magical girl

[gu6chan]

me when im in an OC design competition and my opponent is @gothimgem

At any rate, here's my attempt with drawing Sirene's DOD2 design! I wanted to do something that showed off the relationship with the tighter design of the bodice and the looser design of the pants, so I originally opted for a simpler pose like the DOD1 drawing... but i thought it looked a bit stiff, so I ended up with this instead 😭 so it's not exactly what i wanted, but I hope it's alright!!!

[spiritsonic]

Yo!! First off, thank you so much for the GOTF stream, it was a real treat getting to see how things wrapped up, and just getting to listen to y'all chat about the creative process!

The questions surrounding character designs got my gears turning, and it reminded me I had a design question myself, albeit for the IDW comics, so I figured it was more appropriate to wait and ask this here rather than the stream:

When you designed the former Diamond Cutters for T&W, were any of them based on personal fan ideas that you wanted to make a reality, or were they more or less created from scratch? Also, did you have any favorites when designing them?

(I'm personally a big fan of Claire -- which isn't exactly a shocker, I guess, considering I'm a huge fan of Vennie and her powers! Even if the way she got said powers was tragic...)

The DCs weren't based on any particular ideas of mine, other than the occasional octopus character I've drawn in the past and how I wanted to handle the tentacles. Since they were all riffing off of Whisper's outfit (and the MGS characters they're referencing), that's the material I focused on.

Claire is my favorite too! In her case, her species was switched mid-production from a mantis shrimp to a howler monkey. For the monkey version, I decided to draw on some of the style of a midcentury jazz singer. She also has a bit of a "spooky fortune teller" vibe, which was requested. I dunno how much of that came through in the final, but it was fun for me.

Also here's the first pass on the whole crew, cause why not

(I got Smithy's name wrong. Also He was a raven at this point.)

[elegantagent]

Howdy! I have not blogged in a while and I thought this time I oughtta review some of the gunpla kits I've built over the past few months

1. Master Grade Z'gok

This one was a really interesting build, for an old school MG (before the late 2000's with the release of the 2.0) this has mostly a completely intact inner frame

And the greeblies are pretty nice for such an old mold. The articulation is about par for the course of a kit from 2002, but this is made more as an interesting display piece rather than something for posing and play.

Another interesting bit about this kit is the rubber gaskets used in the build. I suppose it's to get in the style if an aquatic/amphibious build, and it works well, they're very interesting parts, but since this was a gift delivered from an online store the runners containing the soft rubber parts had warped in the Texas heat. With some sanding and dry brushing this model looks menacing.

2. Perfect Strike Freedom

As par for the course with the high grade line, the perfect strike freedom is a simple build with decent articulation with polycap joints and some pretty annoying mold lines and nubs. This was a good break for me from some of the more complicated builds I had been working on around this time, (ZZ ver ka, Z'gok) and it was quite fun. I didn't have to care about the details or interesting additions from the designers because the kit was delightfully simple. I had fun painting little details on the eyes and barrels and scopes. I wasn't spending too long on details, besides resurfacing and painting up the shoulder joints in order for them to look more mechanical and less toylike. And a pretty decent deal of such a large kit. If you do want one for your own, I do reccomend pairing the purchase with an action base of some sort or ,if you have the means, to manufacture your own.

3. HGUC Kshatriya NZ-666

This decently aged high grade is actually a pretty decent build for skilled builders, there's a lot of work to be done to make it feel nice, but the size and bulk of the kit alone just makes the build satisfying. One thing I found pretty unsatisfying were the sleeves decorations on the wrists and chest. I do not own an Airbrush, nor do I feel like splurging on such a tool at this moment. But i tried my best at a pseudo reverse wash technique using white paint and my panel scriper. As you can see in the above photo, did not work out too amazingly. I also neglected to build the arms entirely, as I will be completely unable to pose this kit with the binders open on my shelf. The thing is just that huge. The high grade box is literally the size of a Ver Ka box. It's so extra i love it

4. Wing Zero Endless Waltz Ver Ka.

I'm not a huge fan if after colony designs, or the show it comes from, but the Katoki Redesign of the Wing Zero gundam is absolutely insane. It's extra to the highest degree. Double beam rifle, four feathered wings, unnecessary knee bend mechanics, and meshing gears for christ sakes.

This is really the kind of thing I was expecting from a katoki kit when I built the ZZ. Something super interesting and special for the builder, through each part of this build I wanted to go above and beyond, marking panels, washing crevices, and even drybrushing down all the grey mechanical details, I love this kit a whole lot. It's an amazing build, and I might go watch Endless Waltz just because of how much I enjoyed this kit.

Anyways those are the kits I have built over last few months. I love talking about my hobby so like, idk do whatever if I should keep blogging about this stuff

[l-crimson-l]

I'd love to get into girlpla, I'm just a bit too broke to afford any kits; however, if you'd like to talk about it as a whole, I'd be more than happy to hear.

So…let me try this again. I had a whole nice post written up and I swapped off for a moment to check something and I completely lost the post.

Mecha Musume has a pretty long history that I’m not going to go into but here’s a little video if you’re interested.

Now when most people think of Mecha Musume there’s basically one standout line above them all: Frame Arms Girl.

This line is a bit old now but its popularity has set the aesthetic style for the market as it stands now. The build of these are…ok. Kotobukiya was definitely learning with these kits but they’re still solid at the end of it.

Now if you’re like me you’re not too much a fan of the pantsu out look, and other kits in the line don’t exactly do anything to mitigate that feeling (looking at you Durga I).

The next line Koto would release would be better at this tho. The Megami Device line features all original designs as well as collabs from new and old mecha musume brands alike.

First thing off the bat this is that they’re pricey. At an average cost of $70 you’re basically buying a Bandai MG gunpla. That said, they all typically come with a bunch of option parts. These are usually in the form of unarmored limbs, different chest pieces, face plates (with water slides to make your own) and extra connectors to help with kitbashing. Koto also has released option body segments to let you swap any part of the body you might want to if the right option isn’t available in the box (~$12). It should be noted the newest kits in this line have brought the price down to $50 as well as reengineered the build to add a lot more articulation and pose-ability.

Also in this lines favor is the articulation and build quality. You’re going to get a nice range of motion with or without armor and some of the smaller details also sometimes come pre painted.

That said Kotobukiya is a company that favors more complex character design over an Out Of Box experience so there’s some smaller details that are etched into the kit but unless your paints them won’t be color correct. I would say this is pretty common across most Koto lines.

Both the FAgirls and Megami Device are scaled at 1/12 so Little Armory guns and the whole market of 3rd party accessories will work with these kits.

Next up is Koto’s Sousai Shoujo Teien which is simple girls as plastic models

A little cheaper and at 1/10 scale instead of 1/12. I’ve not built any but I do know they can bash with Megami Device and Hexa Gear lines just fine. If you take a peek at the JP girpla community there’s actually a niche but healthy group dedicated to taking nice photos of their kits dressed up in everyday scenarios.

Finally the newest line of Koto girl kits is the Arcanadea line.

Purely in a fantasy take these are Incredible kits. I’ve only built one (Lumitea) but it was far and away a much better build experience than the FAgirl kits. These are actually designed by a vtuber artist iirc which is why the designs are so different than other Koto kit lines. If you have the cash and want to try something different I would highly recommend.

Now finally we get to Bandai. After learning from their failures with the Hg Build Fighters girls they went back and designed something solid and what got me into mecha musume: 30 Minute Sisters

Right off the bat with an average price of around $30 the barrier to entry is much easier. While not as refined as the Megami Device line, these simple kits cram in a lot for the price. You’ll get an armored and unarmored form, as well as face plates. However the biggest selling point is How Damn Easy they are to bash. Being apart of the 30M line means they’re completely compatible with the 30MM line of mechs. Which also means all of those extra weapon and armor sets transfer over for the most part. And that’s not even talking about the dedicated 30MS option sets like hair parts, body parts, etc.

This is a Very beginner friendly line of kits and the place I would suggest most people starting if they’re looking to get into mecha musume.

This example I think uses about 5 different kits to build and I don’t believe any serious modifications were needed.

Another Bandai line to mention is the Standard Figurise line which you’ll be familiar with if you’ve picked up the Sulletta, Miorine or ChuChu kits. Typically pretty solid kits (uma musume excluded, only get the 30ms version of that one) they usually include characters from a variety of different shows. These are still of course bash-able but not without modification.

With the explosion of popularity with these kits means we have even more companies now joining in the race. ATK and MS General have a bunch of kits to offer and we see new companies pop up some really sick looking kits (see tgat Galahad)

We even have Plamax giving us the really cool looking GODZ ORDER kits and soon character kits from Blue Archive, Konosuba and others.

For these smaller/third party companies I would suggest doing plenty of research before buying one. The ATK kit that I made was Especially frustrating and required a lot of extra work to make parts fit right or to clean them up so they fit at all. Not to mention the extra detail work required to really make them look like the box example. Just do your homework.

I hope this helps!! It’s a growing market so there’s always more kits being announced. This should have covered the majority of kits out there but IMPORTANT! Check sites like AmiAmi for sales or resales on kits. You can sometimes find an unbuilt kit that retails at $70 going for $30.

USAGS will regularly get Koto kits in and new releases but by no means believe them when they say a kit is USAGS exclusive. Remember to check HLJ as well. Let me know if you have any other questions and I’ll do my best to answer them!!

[ramenhue88]

Something about cheese 🧀

I love the designs of witches in Madoka Magica. Gekidan Inu Curry, the designer for the witches, is a GOAT. Witches all have that paper vibe going on with them. So, let's list all the witches that appeared in the anime so that you can see what I mean by, "Paper Vibe™" (Also note I'm going by the wiki) + Gertrud

+ H.N Elly (Kirsten)

(Side note for Elly is that we actually see her 2 different forms [Should I call it forms? Idk]. The picture above is when Sayaka killed her and the other one is when she's inside the television. Also, the picture above only shows up for about a second.)

+ Gisela

+ Elsa Maria (Poor her, got murdered by Sayaka)

+ Oktavia von Seckendorff (Seyiku.....)

+ Izabel

+ And of course, Walpurgis!

But wait a minute.... I feel like I'm forgetting someone.... OH RIGHT! + Charlotte!!

[Steppy steppy Homu] See those images? Now those are the #PaperVibes™ I'm looking for! Well except for Walpurgis who has 3D cog wheels instead of a paper vibe™. All witches look like this paper vibe™ but for the one I almost forgot; Charlotte, why is she the only exception to this rule? She's entirely animated like everyone else in the series. No other witch is drawn like this. She's the only exception when it comes to this rule. Well, the only NORMAL witch that is exempt from this rule. Ultimate Madoka's "witch" also doesn't follow the paper vibe™.

It's more drawn than paper bashed. And that's ok since Madoka is the most powerful magical girl thus making this one, the most powerful witch. So of course, it's gonna break the rules, same with Walpurgis. It's also drawn with its difference having 3D rendered cog wheels.

So why does a normal witch get the animated treatment? By Goddess Madoka, EVEN HOMURA has the paper bashed witch.

(Thank God Homura got the paper bashed witch treatment, I am gonna throw hands if she didn't. Look how beautiful that is...)

So why in Goddess Madoka's name does Bebe get the animated treatment, when we consider her, a normal witch? We can chalk this up to the animation team just wanting Bebe to stand out from the rest (Because she's the witch for the #IconicSceneAlert) and nothing more. Buuuuut... That's boring. So let me try to reason out why Bebe looks different from every other witch.

[Let me yoink this witch]

Ok, so about Bebe.... Well, what about her? We have nothing to go on if we're only talking about the main series. We don't know anything about her apart from her personality and design. Her wish? Nothing. Her past? Nothing. So how do we talk about someone who doesn't have anything? Well, we go to another universe silly! Magia!~ Record!~ (Cue the SONG)

Not that universe but another another one!

There we go. MAGIA~! RECORD~! (NOW cue the SONG) The game one.

In Magia Record they expanded much more on Nagisa, giving her an event titled: Nagisa's Wish! (If you want to watch it)

(Me and Nagisa have the same reaction after finding out the event is literally named Nagisa's Wish)

So, let's go back to her witch appearance for a moment. In Magia Record you fight her and EVEN in this game, they decide to make Charlotte look "normal".

Most, if not all, witches still look papery even in the game. I say most and not all because of the NA shutdown and I have no idea of anything past Arc 1 Magia Record (I'm still finding free time to catch up to Arc 2). Doppels and Rumours ALSO follow the papery rule.

There is one exception to Bebe's appearance and that is Nagisa's doppel.

[Now that's the papery vibe™ I'm looking for!]

So why does Bebe have a different art style than ALL of the other witches? Let's go to her MGS in Magia Record (Metal Gear Solid!? No, Magical Girl Story)

So, in her MGS we see that she's being followed by a Pink Kyubey which we can safely assume is Goddess Madoka. Why can we assume that? First, her transformation (when you get her in the gacha). It starts with the symbol of the law of cycles.

Second, it's literally Goddess Madoka pulling for her in her transformation.

[Go get that 5-star girl]

She's also putting make-up on Nagisa and making her look human.

Well not literally making her look human. You can read this as Goddess Madoka, preparing her to blend in because you know. She's half magical girl half witch already at this point. So of course, you gotta blend her in. So, we've made it clear that the Pink Kyubey is Goddess Madoka, watching Nagisa from afar. How important is Nagisa that THE Goddess Madoka, THE concept would get you to do work for her instead of another magical girl. Well firstly, she can't choose any of the 5, because Goddess Madoka is essentially killing the Magia Record version of them by putting another version in their body. Nagisa is the closest choice for Goddess Madoka because.... Because.....

[LMAOOOOO I HAVE NO IDEA WHY. SAME MAMI, SAME. Look I get that Bebe is the closest to them because she killed Mami?? I mean you could say that to Gertrud, Esla Maria, Gisella. Every other witch could have fit the Bebe position. But I'm not complaining that they used Nagisa btw.]

But this does bring up the fact that Nagisa is special in one way or another.

Ehemm... Back to the topic at hand.

So why does Bebe have a different art style than all the other witches. One theory I have is that Charlotte, the witch, has more control over their witch body compared to other magical girls. Like she's more accepting of what happened to her compared to other magical girls. She succumbed to despair, just like any other magical girl. But unlike the others, she chose to bathe in despair. Enjoy it.

[From Magia Record - Nagisa's Wish]

Other magical girls wallowed and grieved in despair. Not Nagisa no. She accepted this despair because there was nothing more she can do, there was nowhere for her to go anymore. She lost everything. So, when she became a witch, she was more in tune with it. She was more welcoming of her faith than other magical girls. (Ehem Homura, ehem...) Can you blame her though?

If everything in your life went wrong and then suddenly for a moment. Everything went your way. Would you not want to stay in that moment forever?

In her witch labyrinth she could eat all the cheese she wants.

For her, cheese was equivalent to her mother's love.

I mean, her mother loved cheese.

She on the other hand, didn't. After becoming a witch, she began to see cheese as a symbol of her mother. She loved chasing cheese; she loved eating cheese.

For her, chasing cheese began to symbolize her wanting to get her mother's love. That is why she's so obsessed with it. All she wanted was to go home with her mother.

Her life was a tragedy and she saved herself from it. By ending her tragedy of a life, she began a new and better life.

She could eat all the cheese she wants.

She could have all the snacks she wants.

She could choose from the varieties of cheese in the room!

This is the HapPiEst she has ever been!

Why would she deny herself this happiness?

The princess has finally found a place where she can happy! The End

Bonus!! So, while I was looking for a screenshot for the end of my post. I saw this happy Nagisa. And I thought to myself... "Wait a minutos, why is she happy? Shouldn't she have memories of everything that happened?" Well, for a fact she does. I mean, Sayaka remembers everything, she just forgot because Homura made her forget. Homura didn't do it to Nagisa. So, it's safe to assume she does remember. So, she's happy because Homura won? Not exactly. In rebellion the scene with Sayaka and Kyoko where she interrupted them, she said.

So, if we go by what she said. We can assume she doesn't care about the Rebellion event. She's just happy that she gets to exist again. Back in 2015, the Madoka concept trailer.

The happiness Nagisa wants is not in Heaven. It doesn't exist there. So, when Homura to dragged Madoka down, she destroyed Madoka's "Heaven" where Nagisa lives. She now lives in reality again. Where she can eat cheese again and experience all the things she never got to experience. So, for her, what Homura did is something that actually goes for her favor. We love a selfish cheese loving character.

[cleolinda]

Weekend links, April 14, 2024

My posts

Honestly, I spent much of the week coping with storm migraines. You can tell, because I was reblogging a lot from under a cold compress rather than doing anything useful with life. 

Reblogs of interest

The Hot Vintage Lady Polls are rough out there, y’all. Round three started closing yesterday (see what’s still open here), and as of this writing, we have lost Bette Davis, Alla Nazimova, Theda Bara, Myrna Loy, Barbra Streisand, Fay Wray, Lucille Ball, Ginger Rogers, and Olivia de Havilland--and it looks like Catherine Deneuve, Clara Bow, Lana Turner, and Mary Pickford are on their way out. Meanwhile, I learned about a ton of actresses I’d never heard of before, only to shriek when Sharmila Tagore, Nadira, and Waheeda Rehman lost this round. (Edwige, I will never forget you.) 

Let me remind you (and me sometimes, too): Not everyone has the same taste or childhood attachments or cinema experiences as you. And everybody in this bracket loses. Everybody but one. 

(I can tell I’m not cut out for brawling because I’m like, “I will be very sad to see Norma Shearer go, but Hazel Scott seems nice!”)

--

“Actually, Mr. Musk, I am an attorney. Do you know that?” Here’s the highlights of Mark Bankston, the man who brought down Alex Jones, coping with Elon Musk and Elon Musk’s Lawyer, who is not even licensed in Texas, for 100 pages of deposition. 

Hozier Watch 2024: “Too Sweet” has now charted higher in the UK than “Take Me to Church,” and it’s getting real close on the US charts. This is a song that didn’t even make last year’s album. I am endlessly fascinated. 

Happy Leland Melvin Day!

Happy Neil Banging Out the Tunes Day!

“Posting endless DNIs because we can’t (or don’t know we can) make spaces just for the people we do want to interact with” actually makes a lot of sense in this centralized social media hellscape. 

There is a 20k mg weed gummy and nobody needs that. “Forget meeting the Hat Man this is what turns you into the Hat Man. This is worse than that torture drug that makes you experience 600 billion years in a second. This is the secret to honest to god shifting.” 

One of the best uses of the Kate Beaton Poe comic I’ve ever seen

“Americanisms that tell you to check on your American” (they are all correct)

“Tuxedo Mask is the first example of being ‘Kenough’”

Just this once, I will allow this AI rendition of a “traditional Polish family” and their traditional Polish woodchuck. 

I am absolutely not saying there is anything wrong with being into tentacles; I’m just saying that Pyramid Head doesn’t even have them and thus is a pretty tame choice to complain about. 

Little Guy, a game

A cursèd chair called “Oops!”

Sparrow Tarot: Honestly, this is one of my favorite takes on the Hanged Man.

This dog is a biscuit and she is precious

Video

One of the things that’s so great about this Ilia Malinin free-skate program is, he makes it look so effortless that I would have never figured out on my own, without Tumblr’s commentary, that there’s a couple moves in here that no one in the world can do but him. Like, the very first jump and the announcers start screaming. 

A journey from fearing moths to raising them

A dude puts on a dress For the Meme and then discovers that he loves it (and then he styles it as a full outfit and it looks SO GOOD)

Watching this cat ride around on a roomba on a sped-up surveillance camera is self-care.

So is this (although it’s a bit strobe-y)

Bat type: hi doggy

Was the jello for the tuna salad lamb supposed to be lime?

The sacred texts

Holy Shit, Two Cakes

The origin of “Me, an intellectual”

#AllMyLifeIHadToFight

Personal tag of the week

Designer Roberto Cavalli, who passed away this week at age 83. I reblogged several fashion posts--I hadn’t even realized myself that he had designed Beyoncé’s famous yellow dress in Lemonade.

[mikoriin]

happy holidays!! I would love to hear about the magical girl outfits of the affinity cast if you'd like to talk about any of their designs !

HI!!! happy holidays!! sorry im getting to this so late, i had to actually get colored examples of all the kids in their magical outfits LOL (HOWEVER everett will not be included in this list simply because he does not yet have a finished character sheet AND i need to redesign his magical outfit)

so, we'll start with our leader and protagonist, Sinie!

her color is white. i dont see very many "white" themed leaders in mg genres, so i wanted her to be represented by the color of innocence and purity because that is what sinie represents. she's definitely my usagi, my steven, my luz.

for her design, i wanted something simple yet fluffy to show her childish nature. i have thought about powerup versions of their outfits, but im not sure how to incorporate it yet so i havent even began to think about their designs haha

next we have agitha! her outfit actually resembles pajamas, her dress is like a victorian nightgown and shes got the little shawl to go with it. everything is so soft anf pastel it just feels like a comfy outfit. this wasnt intentional, but i think it fits with her powers since her magic is centered around dreams.

she's the purple magical girl! though, its a little more pastel than what we usually see i think.

csilla is blue!! i adjusted some of her colors from the first colored design i had. it felt a little too plain being all one color haha. but she sort of looks like a knight and, again it wasnt intentional, but if im thinking about it she rly is the knight sort of character. she fights to protect her friends and herself, but she also is righteous and is a good strategist.

so daren was OBVIOUSLY red in my mind because hes the tank, the muscle, and also another good strategist. his fighting style is more hands on since he uses his fists and legs and so i thought fire would fit to be his power. i have a lot of cool ideas for his fighting style i just rly need to study shounen manga to get them down hahaha

i wanted their design to be androgynous while still being magical girl esque, so i gave him the tall heeled boots however still keeping a sort of sleek, form fitting silhouette. added some more traditionally feminine aspects of clothing like the puffed sleeves, however put in some classic masculine elements such as the tailcoat and pants. im very proud of his design!

elise is pink! of course!! (sinie is jealous) she has the power to purify dark energy. very classic magical girl!

i wanted her design to be big and poofy and girly. but also with the boob window because.....idk its cute lolol

and lastly heather!! i didnt have it in me to do her character sheet atm but i rly wanted to answer this 😩😩 but luckily i had a colored example of her magical outfit!

she is green! very fitting for the pretty, elegant, smart heather. i wanted her design to be faithful to her faith, but still have the feminine magical girl aesthetic! i think she looks very pretty hehe

thank you for asking this was very fun!!!

[prophbuilds]

XVX-016 Gundam Aerial [Permet Score Six] – A Review

If you follow my blog, you’d see that I’d recently started in the one MGSD Freedom kit.

You also probably noticed that this Isn’t a review of that kit.

Well… here's the thing. The MGSD is very much an MG kit. I wanted to just do a nice quickie build and there’s nothing better than an HG to scratch that itch without eating up a majority of my time.

So I popped over to my Leaning Tower of Gunpla, snatched the second newest kit off the top and snapped it up. Here's my review of the P-Bandai exclusive HG Gundam Aerial [Permet Score Six].

I’m not going to mince words… the Aerial is just a very solid kit. It snapped up easy, the color separation is excellent and it has only a few flaws in when it comes to the use of C-clip style attachments on the ankles. It's very much a New Kit and it holds up very well.

Comparing my build to reviews of the regular Aerial from others, I can honestly say that this is a kit for folks that want the alternate colors. If you’re the person who like things like the Trans-Am active versions of the Gundam 00 kits, the powered down version of the Gundam SEED kits or the Many many alternate color versions Bandai like to make of other kits… this is for You. If you want an Aerial for your collection... this is a pass.

With that out of the way, it’s on to the rest of the build!

In the box were the expected runners for the Aerial kit. Nothing really new or surprising from what you could find in the basic version. The only extra piece is the Not-A-Base nameplate that was added for display. It’s a Really nice clear blue nameplate with plenty of holes for displaying the shield bits… if you have the extra pieces for that. There’s not much the “Runner" it comes on so you can use that for plastic to make your own. There also isn’t any parts/pieces for a proper base. It is just a nameplate… but I’ll get to all that at the end.

The colors of this kit are neat. The standard Aerial is the classic Gundam color scheme – White, Blue, Red and that odd slightly orange-y Yellow with Dark Grey for the “metal” bits. For the Permet Score Six, Bandai tweaked things a bit but not in an extreme way. The white is a bit greyer. The blue and red parts are a bit more subdued and sneaking toward an almost royal tone. The orange-y yellow is the thing that’s changed the most out of the classic batch. It's now a kinda’ fluorescent yellow-green with a metallic sparkle to it. Same kind of change was made to the dark grey parts. They printed those in the standard metallic Gun Metal Grey that Bandai uses for their “metal” parts.

The big noticeable change from the standard Aerial (and what makes it a Permet Score Six version) is in the clear parts. The Red and Smoked Clear bits are now Blue and Clear with little Blue Sparkly bits respectively.

So how was the build? It was relatively smooth. This was going to be a bog standard straight build but I did come across a small issue. On the Aerial are little bits on the chest that a normally done up in that smoked clear. Since those are now done in the a clear plastic with bits of sparkly blue pieces in it, it goes from being a noticeable part of the chest design to looking like you forgot a piece.

The quick fix I came up with was to use a mix I was going to use on another project of florescent blue and glow-in-the-dark blue acrylic paint. Since these are nearly completely clear parts, I just dropped a little bit of the paint on the back to make it visible without ruining the original sparkly blue effect that Bandai was going for in the plastics.

This brings me to a bit of an odd part when it comes to the big “Special Piece” that is kind of the trademark for the 'Witch from Mercury’ line - the embedded decal.

On the standard Aerial, this is a nice clear with the glowing red Permet effect embedded in the back. This is actually a plus considering the clear plastics on those parts are a smoked color. This lets you see the colors clearer than if you used the reversed metallic stickers on the chest pieces. With this version of the Aerial, the plastics don’t have the extra added smoked color. In fact, it barely has anything beyond a smattering of blue sparkles. Using the special reversed metallic stickers on the plastic works just the same as the special gimmick piece only with that extra sparkle to it.

For mine, I’m going to keep the stickered plastic parts installed on the kit and keep the gimmick parts on hand elsewhere as this is actually a viable option for this version of the Aerial.

Overall, this is a solid kit. I love the slight color changes Bandai made but I’m also one of those builders who actively seeks out Alt Colored kits. As of the writing of this review, I have an RX-78 Mk2 on my pile that’s done in the "Real Type" colors. I like having kits that are slightly changed from the originals. I also paint my kits from time to time so that’s not a terrible surprise. What makes it so I wouldn’t outright recommend folks buy  this kit over the regular Aerial is what’s not there.

There's nothing that screams Premium Bandai in this P-Bandai kit.

Here are the changes in a nutshell:

A Slightly shifted color scheme.

Almost completely clear plastics.

Blacklight reactive green effect parts for the beam sabers and the gun.

A clear blue nameplate that could be used as a base.

A sticker sheet with some nice tech/warning decals, the title in black on white (Possibly for the nameplate for some reason?) and a whole set of large logos for the various factions from the show.

That’s it. That’s not really “P-Bandai”. That’s like a Gundam Base Exclusive – enough changes to make the trip worth it but nothing to terribly amazing that the average builder would feel like they’re missing it from their collection. Hell, even the box art (as beautiful as it is) is the standard style for a regular release. P-Bandai box art is nice but monochrome and generally clear kits or have extra parts and pieces or are straight up kits you can’t get elsewhere like the GP00 Engage Zero or a basic RG Astray Blue Frame that isn’t tricked out with more blades than a knife shop.

If this kit came with Anything extra – A pair of open hands like the ones that come with the (sold separately) Mirasoul Flight Unit, posts to make the Not-A-Stand Nameplate into an actually usable stand, maybe some waterslide decals (?) – then I'd say it's a valid option and it’d feel more like a P-Bandai release. As it stands… the best I can say is buy it if you want the Aerial in with blue Permet parts. If not, you can totally buy the regular Aerial kit and not miss anything important.

Still! This was fun build. If alt colors are your jam and you don’t mind paying the P-Bandai tax, I say go for it. If you’re like me and you have "Plans", this is kind of a must buy so you can have the whole family looking proper. = )

[108garys]

Scrunkly little vampire children

@kassiekolchek22 @delurkr @mistmoose @oblivious-troll @ivycross @lonnitamongus @ultrabananapudding @badideaart The latest thing I wanted to try was vampire children as I hadn't done any yet, so here's all the children from the anthology so far

For Joe Roberts' son I based his vampire look heavily off his zombified appearance from Joe's MG hallucination

Mary also gets her design based off something in game with her black eyes and the ashes smudged across her bone white skin

I really do think red is Megan's colour

Bethany is supposed to be 8 I really tried to give her a baby face and you know I'll take any excuse with the hair

She may not have a name, may only appear for a minute in one ending but this zoomy little thing deserved to be included

So as you can see I've gone with the idea that child vampires have more uniform horns due to them not growing into something more unique yet and I feel like this is a good addendum to my tutorial by demonstrating how it all may end up looking for styles with rounder, softer features

[natsumebookss]

State of the Nebula

I'll get the good news out of the way first--I'm remastering and finalizing Espoir and Bijou's designs and commissioning a new piece featuring my magical girl duo! It'll be '90s style manga art, so I'm super excited!

But you know what I'm not super excited about? Writing the damn thing. I've been in a creative rut since finishing Imperfect Storm, and I've mostly been writing little scenes from future books instead of prioritizing a Book 2. For awhile, I didn't know why or where to go from here, but now I do. And the reason is that...I've been hiding some stuff about Premiere Nebula from everyone.

(Discussion/critique of what I'm gonna call "Tumblr magical girl culture" will be down below. Just being a magical girl fan on Tumblr doesn't mean you're one of the people I'm talking about. It's like the difference between an "adult who likes Disney movies" and a "Disney adult.")

So I don't think we talk enough about self-censorship in the writing community. Sure, we talk about things like how actual book blurbs are starting to contain words like "unalive" now, but we don't talk about the more insidious and pervasive version that comes from censoring out dark topics altogether. The utter fear that, if I write this thing or this subplot, the people I want to market this to will hate me for it. And because I want to please the people I want to market this to, I don't write it, even if it fits perfectly into the plot.

This is the hell Premiere Nebula has been in for years. Yes, it's a story that's essentially about kidnapping and the various mental health effects it has on its victims, but it can't be too fucked-up because it's also a magical girl story. Plotlines like the Manufacturer liking the dark spirit he's created from day one, even though she's resided in Valka's body since she was a minor, were scrapped and left only to implication until these plotlines came to the attention of my pre-readers. In complete opposition to what I thought they would say, they said things like "this adds a lot to the story" and "it's almost creepier if a mass child kidnapper didn't have some weird obsession with kids in that way." They loved the criminal psychology behind it, something I've had a morbid fascination with since I was a kid.

But even then, I couldn't write it.

This is where I might offend some people and get some anon hate, but I'll say it anyway: magical girl fans on Tumblr can be just as toxic as those sorts of cartoon fans. (Again, talking about the Disney adults of magical girl stuff, which likely doesn't include any of my followers on this blog.) Ever since Madoka Magica came out, there's been this boiling hatred of darker magical girl concepts that has never fully gone away and an assumption that all dark MG series are inherently exploitative. There's also a silent pressure to make your stories more in the Precure or Sailor Moon style (or at least, what's perceived as "Sailor Moon style;" there's a discussion to be had of how the manga is pretty damn dark and the people who call Sailor Moon "light" may not be fully familiar with the original source material, but that's magical girl mansplaining for another day). Anyway, for awhile, that's what I thought I wanted PN to be--a story about both a rebel group and a group of friends who had funny moments and fought enemies that were, in hindsight, watered down versions of what I wanted them to be.

The ideal Premiere Nebula that I want to write is probably somewhere in between Madoka and Utena. A lot of the elements I've toned down so far are the Utena-like ones that deal with child exploitation and how manipulative adults like Akio take advantage of minor's naive perceptions of the world. People joke about Utena as "the magical girl series with trigger tags," but when I rewatched it, it made me realize that my original concept of PN had been like that, too. Just off the top of my head, I can think of "ideal PN" as having the following TWs:

kidnapping

frank discussions of mental health

suicide (no explicit depictions, mostly talking about how the rebel leader Valka is immensely suicidal and how her friends have had to talk her down many times)

physical and verbal abuse (mostly from Omega's ex, who she leaves in Book 1)

child abuse

non-consensual magical acts (brainwashing, as well as Stelle being forced to exchange magic with Alarice akin to a forced fusion in Steven Universe)

addiction

grooming (mostly looked at through a non-sexual lens with a ton of vampire/thrall imagery, long story short I've been listening to that one Olivia Rodrigo song a lot)

the aforementioned pedophilic implications of falling in love with a spirit in a child's body, like if Victor Frankenstein was even more fucked-up

Many of these have been self-censored to varying degrees in the finished Nebula product, with the last one being practically non-existent. But here's the thing: I'm not sure I want it to stay this way. I want PN to be a magical girl series that's "for adults" in more than just a superficial sense--I want to discuss things in it that happen to teenage girls and adult women in ways that children's media can't.

I have no problem with people who love traditional magical girl stories and children's entertainment. I'm one of them! But sometimes, I feel like the vocal minority stifles my creativity and, since most of the magical girl people I've met have been on here, makes me scared that there's no place for a story like mine as I want to write it. Sometimes, I wonder if that's been my real biggest fear after all.

I don't know how to end this, really. I may delete it down the road if I feel like I've vented too much here. But I want Premiere Nebula to stay a concept that shows my love of both dark and light media, something I jokingly call "pastel goth." I feel like anything less would just, well, not be Premiere Nebula anymore. I don't want to keep pretending it's something it's not anymore, even if it loses me potential readers. I want to get back to the way I was before, where I'd just write a scene without wondering how the fandom at large would see it.

Most of all, it'd be a disservice to the people who've read and followed my Premiere Nebula content until now to not receive a finished product written how the writer fully intended it. You all have been thoroughly amazing to me and gotten me through more hard times than you'll ever know. If Premiere Nebula--Alexandria's Version (as much as Taylor Swift annoys me, this is the best metaphor I have for this situation) isn't your cup of tea, I completely understand and wish you the best. But if you're the type of person who some darker social commentary with your magical girl stories, I hope I can do the concept justice for you.

Either way, I hope I was able to give you a fun experience with what little I have now, and I hope to keep doing so with a renewed inspiration.

[ionaartdesign-blog]

01/02-08/02

Research

This week was all about getting medieval research done. For this, I did a lot of medieval research mainly relying on articles and documentaries. Also, the V&A provided a great source for products that would be used in that period. I also watched Disney's robin hood for background inspiration.

Middle Ages - Definition, Timeline & Facts | HISTORY

(31) Timeline - World History Documentaries - YouTube

Medieval · V&A (vam.ac.uk)

Development

I started to look at stonework that may have been used during the medieval period, I then began to create paints and linework of different possible stone works. After I was happy with this trying to stick to the bright colours that had been suggested to us by our show run.

(castle and stone work images taken from google)

Feedback

positives- the showrunner liked the stacked corner stones in the middle of my studies and the thin stacked brick.

Note- to try and simplify the stone work to fit in with the background aesthetic.

Castle exploration 06/02

I started exploring the shape of the castle that I had done previously in a front-view trying to get a feel for how it might look. I had chosen the shape that a majority of my group was drawn to in my first initial shape explorations. From this, I decided to include two different versions one with extra detail in the stonework and one without. Just for fun, I placed the initial sketch of the character in the image (this was not drawn or designed by me)

This was a quick image that I had drawn on the train to university, I wanted to explore line work and its colour to see if this would be an option for us. I also added a small angel detail into the window as I thought having this throughout might be something interesting to include. I also loved the cream-to-yellow gradient I used within the window.

Castle Crowns exploration

A member of my team had made mention of making the castle look like crowns, I really liked this Idea so I drew 3 different kinds of castles that looked like crowns. Using images from google as a reference while drawing. I tried to give different shape theory design, curved, straight edges, and then sharp edges. This Idea was quickly dropped.

Background exploration- 08/02

We were set a task to complete a test for a background that would be going into our animatic. I decided to do the banquet, as this was a ruff I decided to take inspiration from one banquet hall image (found on Google) and then created my own initial concept of the design and layout of the background while referring to styles that the showrunner had mentioned. The first image is lined in a FG, MG and BG format. After I had this lined I decided to explore with colours in the same format, experimenting with texture, different brushes and then adding lighting.

Feedback

colours are nice, but need to be warped to fit the style.

[asseater3k]

Metal Gear Mania Day:7

Spoilers for MGS3 below the cut

I liked The bullet style from day 5 so were gonna use that this

THE SORROW this was a very cool boss fight. in my instance it was terribly mechanically complex or strictly speaking engaging but i was glued to my seat and the screen for the whole thing I wasn’t aware that there’d be a boss fight like this when i decided to try not to kill anyone, to be honest i just wanted to look cool in front of girls, but when i put two and two together that he shows you and makes you fight everyone he kills I kinda wished id killed some people It’s such a cool idea, I was a little peeved that the cobra unit ghosts showed up because I busted my ass to get all the KOs but they did also all explode after that so fair enough. I do love that even though he has a health bar its empty cause hes a ghost and the framing of this boss fight as snake almost dying is cool and helped by the fact that if you call anyone on codec they give you their game over lines

OCELOT this fucking guy every scene in this game makes you realize that the guy we see in MGS 1&2 was the “normal” well adjusted version of this guy who doesn’t go around sniffing random people and keeps his raging desire for Big Boss somewhat in check him being the final encounter was a nice relax from the actual final boss and I like the scene where they fight in the plane

THE BOSS (FIGHT) this one fuckin hurt, It’s a beautifully designed fight, A final duel in field of white flowers nothing but but stealth and CQC I made this harder on myself by using the sneaking suit cause I wanted that contrast against The Boss’ suit but man If you pay attention Snake gets a little better in each cutscene against the boss and that comes to ahead with you having to counter her moves in the fight finally surpassing your mentor add on the timer which i thought would actually come into play cause a timer didnt pop up on screen when the fight started even when The Boss started counting downs herself i was a bit 50/50 but I did actually run out of time so I learned my lesson. You have to play such a mix of patient and aggressive to get through this one

THE EVA ESCORT SECTION Ive heard a lot of flack directed at the Emma section in the last game and honestly i thought this part was worse it wasn’t anything horrible just a bit slow there was a section at the begg=inning where soldiers kept poring out and she wouldn’t go from an attack state to follow state fast enough in the down time between the soldiers showing up so we kept getting detected and entering alert I was mostly annoyed cause she kept shooting people and I thought the game would count it against me like with snake in MGS2 other than that it was just strategic snack acquisition and on to the heart break.

THE ENDING AND THE BOSS while the ending of MGS2 melted my brain this one just made me sad its a much tighter and more personal narrative than the last game and I think thats a smart call if you do something like MGS2 again you’d have to escalate it which I think would be difficult to do so soon after and without getting too convoluted. Don’t get it wrong there’s still some crossing threads in this specifically with regards to EVA, The Boss , Ocelots allegiances EVA being a Chinese spy Ocelot being a triple agent reporting to krushev over gru and The US over even them and of course The Boss remaining loyal to the US despite Kowing the expanded mission out right required her death and disgrace. I dont have a ton i feel i can say about that without straight up beaming the game into your brain its just so fucking heart breaking man her talking about how the ceaseless churn of war turns soilders into these disposable pieces where their lives a relationships are ripped up by the whims of major leaders and bids for power money etc I have players a bit of peace walker at time of writing and the fact that snake didnt fucking get it and interpreted her dream not as a world with out conflict freeing them from the need to be this group beholdent and loyal to the whims of others over themselves or each other and can live in peace but instead as world simply not beholdent to any conflict while still perpetuating it while remaking loyal to themselves just guts me man

MOVING FOWARD i had a bit of trouble deciding to go onto peace walker or MGS4 I started peace walker but got so nervous that i made the wrong choice taht i actually asked a blog I follow who is way more knowledgeable about this kind of stuff than i am about how I should go (you should follow them by the way their @ is cerastes they make good posts and have very enjoyable streams sometimes) in short he told me that while that while I was not making a mistake as both of these games feed into eachother very well meaning it was ultimately a personal choice that personally he would play 4 first sating that its depiction of war as buisness would resonate with a peace walker play through. So I was going to do that then I waffled some more then I decided that MGS4 status as a conclusion to series at lest at the time would vibe better as the final gaem in the context of this deranged two marathon I’ve done. I’m mostly writing this bit so i dont come across as/ feel like an asshole for asking for advice and kind of disregarding it, and if you read this dreamer I really did appreciate the advice and would have played the order you recommended if I was playing this in a more casual way taking my time through them all etc, any way neurosis aside its on to peace walker yippee!!

[sand-rose]

Magitober Day 8: Historical MG

A bit late but I want to try to do at least a couple prompts and this one seemed like it would be really fun. I've always wanted to see a spin off series focused on Cleopatra (especially if it was by the same team behind Tart Magica), so she was who I went with here. I did a little general research and looked at both historical and hollywood versions of her and kind of mixed them both. More design inspo below:

Soul Gem- When you think of ancient Egyptian rulers gold is a prevalent color so I made that her soul gem color and her eye color (it's Madoka Magica, any hair/eye color is possible!). Her soul gem's form takes on the shape of a fang. Partly because of the popular myth about how she died.

Weapon- A sceptor/scythe. No real reason other than it looks cool and very royal. Not entirely sure how she would use it in battle but whatever her magic would be it would probably work best at mid to long range.

Iris- Her pet snake. The name means 'fashioned by Isis', which was the goddess Cleopatra was believed to embody (from what I could tell Isis was similar to Aphrodite/Venus). I thought it might be kind of ironic if she loved snakes considering she supposedly died from an asp's poisonous bite. I don't think she would die from that as a Magical Girl, so with this version of her she would probably die either witching out or smashing her own soul gem from despair.

Magical Girl Form- There's plenty of busts and statues that depict her in both Roman and Egyptian attire, so since I went with the more reserved look for her non-magical girl form (that was what I saw most commonly), I went with the Egyptian style for her magical outfit. It's definitely a more royal and powerful look, so it makes for a dramatic distinction between Queen Cleopatra and Magical Girl Cleo.

Wish- I thought about it and this is what I came up with. She was the seventh in her family to be named Cleopatra, so I felt like she wouldn't want to be just another Cleopatra, but would want to be the Cleopatra that history remembers. And not because of her family, but because of her own actions and choices. And her wish came true, considering that today when someone says the name 'Cleopatra' we know who they're talking about.

That's all! Had fun with this, hope we get a Cleo Magica spin off in the future! 🐍💛

[amazing-spiderling]

for the fic author ask game: 😅 🥚🌾

😅 Was there a fic/chapter that you were nervous about posting? Why?

I was pretty nervous about posting my first Daredevil fic, "Not For Honor, But For You" because it was my first attempt at writing an actual story (at this point I think I only had a few comics and some RP under my belt) but because it was an AU genre that I didn't have a ton of experience with (knights and tournaments). I was unsure if I'd be able to deliver both a story that made sense for the universe, and keep two characters I was still figuring out feeling like themselves.

In the end, I really had no business worrying. The story came out okay, and tbh this is such a supportive and cool fandom (shout out to all my avocados on discord) that not only did the story find an audience, but I got a lot of encouragement after the fact. Whew!

🥚 Any easter eggs you put in a fic that you hoped people would notice?

SO MANY. This is honestly my favorite thing. I put so many in my comics (where it's very easy to drop visual gags) but I like to work them into fics when I can as well. Sometimes this is a reference to canon, but other times it's just little nudges about things that seem like they make sense. For example, in Metal Gear Solid, my favorite character Otacon is an 80's/90's otaku all grown up saving the world, but he's still a complete nerd who talks about things like building in "character defects" in his BIPEDAL NUCLEAR MECHA TANKS. Oh, and also the only reason they have a cockpit for a pilot (when an AI could do the job) is because he grew up watching piloted mecha anime. That's canon. So when I write stories that involve him (pretty much all of my MGS fics) I try to work in as many references to old school anime as I can. Sometimes this is something like the description of a t-shirt he's wearing (described not by the title of the anime, but a character or ship) but in one case he was at a cocktail party talking shop with a bunch of engineers and there were a TON of anime references there. (There was also a dig at one of the canon MGS robot designs because everyone thinks it's stupid. I didn't name it by name but if you know, you know).

Oh, and I don't know if it's an Easter Egg because it's literally in the title, but "The Indictment of Sick Jan" is named after/partially inspired by the Chris Fleming song, "Sick Jan". There is no reason for the average Daredevil/Murderdock enjoyer to know that, it's just funny for me.

🌾 A fic you really want to write but you haven’t (yet)?

I feel like everyone has a pile of WIPs and maybe even some "Works in Purgatory", don't they? I have outlines for a TON of darker, and yeah, probably "problematic" spideypool fic that I may or may not ever get to because I'm a lot slower about writing for that ship these days (I have no abandoned it, though!) and I feel like that fandom skews so MCU these days I'm not sure how much I want to deal with people yelling about me writing horrible things about their sweet baby boy etc etc.

I have some Earth-65 snippets I want to work on, but I'm not sure if they'd make a better comic or fic, y'know? It kind of depends on whether I think I can come up with compelling enough page layouts, that's not really my forte. I did hash out the dialogue at least for the night Foggy wins the election for District Attorney, so that's out there.

Also, this is an extremely cracky idea I had at 2 am last night, but I was making myself laugh at the idea of an Earth-65 "Spy x Family" fake marriage style AU. I don't really have any details, and I may just end up making a doodle but something about "DA x Family" is hilarious to me.

[luvleona]

Hey Leona good to see you again hope you're doing good and feeling energetic 💚

I'm here for your recent ask game in which I will choose number 7 🦋 I want to know that....

How my life would be as a model and a fashion designer ?

Thank you my initials are MG ☺️

Have a nice day 🌼

Hi

You can get opportunity from working at a store to try on some outfits ,but you notice how uncomfortable it can be . Make light changes to the outfit and the boss of the company will take notice . As you to present the outfits on the runaway .

You can get great attention from doing so and become a fashion designer of the store. Although you may do all this while you are still new to the game so you can rely on your coworkers for a lot of help .

Your family and people close at your home will support you on your journey . Post about your fashion designs . At work you can even meet a romantic partner who can be your sweet coworker . Later you can move on to bigger and better things open up your own clothing line. As before you may had been only selling certain clothing.

That step can help you to have your own fashion line .

I get bras , but also a dress line the image of. Black dress - simple yet a pop of color to it . Clothing target to the everyday modern woman but bit sexy style.

( game is over )