Midztoyz: Let's Make ToyZ!

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Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4

Awesome Paper Action Figure
2007-06-15 09:05:00
You got to see this! Introducing Mark Patraw's paper action figure. The character is Katt from Breath of Fire 2. She was made using cardboard from a cereal box, newsprint, colored paper, a plastic broom bristle, Kleenex, wire twist ties, white/hot glue, and acrylic paint. This guy is GOOD! Did I mention she have 54 point of articulation? You can read about the details here.You can also visit his art page at Mark's Art Page. Be sure to visit his Master Figure section.Man, I got to try making something like this!Until Then!
More About: Action , Awesome , Paper , Some

Pocketable atelier face sculpting video
2007-06-13 04:33:00
I just found this while browsing youtube!This video show us how to sculpt a face, a japanese face, using clay. Enjoy!Until then!
More About: Video , Face , Pocket , Sculpting , Lier

Jiji--Mascot Swing
2007-06-11 05:02:00
OMG an update!I hope this post will be the comeback of this blog. I've got most of my problems sorted out, and will hopefully fill this blog with the love that it needs. Today I'm showing a mascot project for my friends at Diamante Studio. I've met them on a doujin event not long ago. They also will have their first manga publish soon by a known publisher here. Kudos to them!I've sculpted Jiji, one of the characters from their new manga. He's supposed to be a sassy,smart-mouthed, all-round pain in the @ss, rickshaw pulling old penguin. I made him key-chain size, hence the name swing. He's made mostly of poly-putty and some paper clay, the eyebrow are epoxy putty wrapped on a copper wire. I do apologize for the crappy paint job -_-u. I'll do my best next time around.Enjoy the photos. Until then!
More About: Swing , Asco

I'm not dead! ...yet
2007-06-05 07:49:00
Hokay, first I'm sorry for not updating this blog like I promised.The main reason for the absence of post is I'm on a tight deadline at the moment. Juggling between commisions, making figures, and updating this blog have gotten me swamped. Since my priority is to finish my commisions on time, the blog have to be sacrificed...for now. Don't worry though, I'll put my act together soon enough. I'm working on a new layout for the blog too.Thanks you for reading, and I hope to see you again in the near future.Until then!
More About: Dead

Kagura WIP 280507
2007-05-28 02:47:00
Dang it! I'm lazy.Haven't been updating the blog as I wanted to. Oh well, cest la vie.Anyway, here's a couple of photo of the Kagura . I've primed her and is now on the stage of a sanding-putty-sand-some-more marathon. Still haven't touch the feet though. Sculpting toes scares me! I've also cut her up in preperation to cast her. Yes folks, I'm going to cast Kagura, and maybe sell some as kits. But since I don't want to break any copyright law (?!?), so I'm going to sell it as "I-can't-belive-it's-not-Kagura" kit ^_^u Well,I'm going back to work now.I'll post the claymore piece tomorrow.Until then!!

I'm Baaaaaaaaack!
2007-05-20 15:35:00
I'm back from my vacation holiday and I'm pumped!I'll be posting some new project soon. You can look forword to something from my current favourite manga Claymore. Kagura is still on going, so there will be more of her in the future. The progress may slowed though, because I'm currently on commision to finish 3 (Yep, that's THREE) figures in about 5 weeks.All in all, it's good to be back!Until next time.

YAY VACATION!
2007-05-16 04:06:00
I'll be going on vacation and tour starting today. I'll be back on Monday, hopefully with some more goodies to post. Until then, I wont be able to reply any mail.I'll check back soon!Until then y'all!
More About: Vacation

More Kagura WIP photos!
2007-05-14 15:32:00
Here's more current shots of Kagura !Done some general sanding and fix up on her. She looks so much smoother now. I've also sculpted some more muscle and fat to their respective areas ;)Click on the pictures to enlargeEnjoy!
More About: Photos , More

Making Kagura part 4: Waste mold revisited
2007-05-14 15:00:00
Finally!The fourth installment of this figure-making-guide is here. In this installment, I'll be showing you how to make a waste mold for our oil clay figure and cast it in paper clay or polyputty. I have written a guide concerning the production of waste mold here, but this time I'm going to show another way to doing just that.Well, lets get started shall we?The main reason we're making a waste mold is to cast our sculpture in a stronger media. Let's face it, oil clay is great to work and sculpt, but a slight slip up can destroy a full day of work in an instant. Accidentally pushing your sculpt off the work desk is one of those slip up. Before that happen (and you loose your insanity, not to mention your hair), we're going to cast our oil clay Kagura in paper clay and pollyputty. Click the picture to enlarge.I've developed this method of making waste mold while trying different stuff to achieve the same result. I found this method easier and faster in producing a waste mold. ...
More About: King , Part , Visi , Visit , Waste

Making Kagura: WIP shots
2007-05-10 03:37:00
Just some WIP shot again guys. I really haven't the time to finish writting the 4th tut. In the meantime. I'm going to post some pics on the sculpt as I get along. Dont worry, I WILL have the tutorial up. Just dont know when.Untiul then, Enjoy!
More About: Shots , King , Hots , Maki , Kagura

I'm sooooo lazy! Or am I?!?
2007-05-08 12:20:00
Before you asked, yes I'm still working on the tutorial. When will it be posted? When it's done of course. For now, just a little teaser ;)Until then, Enjoy.and remember, "patience is virtue"
More About: Lazy

Figure Making Resource/Tutorial
2007-05-04 15:32:00
Well, I'm still writing the 4th part of the tutorial. In the mean time, here are some great sites that really inspires mt to make my own figure. These guys are good, and they don't mind sharing their wisdom either.Hope you can learn much from them. Oh yeah, most of this sites are in Japanese. You can use Excite or Google to translate them. Enjoy!Garage Kit Circle Nekoban WIP Many great kits and in progress photos!Roughness column Much info on painting, sculpting and the works.Katsura Matsumura's Kat's Land In ENGLISH!!!Heavy Gauge modeling tips One of my fav sculptor.Autarkie atelier click on atelier.MA-SA-gk Lotsa stuff here too.
More About: Tutorial , King , Resource , Tori , Rial

Making Kagura part 3: Sculpting a Face
2007-05-01 16:05:00
Welcome to part 3 of Midztoy's figure making mini tutorial!If you haven't read the first couple of tutorial, just click here and here.On this third installment we're going to sculpt the face of the figure. There are as many way to sculpt a face as there is sculptors. This is my way. It might not be the best way for you, but I hope you can learn and develop your own way to sculpt faces. Like always, have some reference handy. We'll be aiming for likeness, and those references are needed for that. I can't stress this enough.Okay, let's sculpt some face!Start by making a ball of clay roughly the size of the head. Use your reference as a guide. You can also stick it on the body to get an estimate of the size and proportion of the ball.I then flatten the ball and score some guide lines. Using this guide lines, I cut away parts of the squished ball to make the chin and jaw. Again use your reference for this.After getting the jaw and chin right, I then pres an indentation on the hori...
More About: Face , King , Part , Part 3 , Sculpting

Claudio's armature tutorial
2007-05-01 05:05:00
Sorry folks. No new tutorial for the moment.While waiting for the next installment of my tutorial, why dont you visit Claudio's sculpting blog. He's one talented sculptor from Canada! He'a also the one responsible for the BloodRayne statue, which is AWESOME.He also have a tutorial in making a figure's armature. My tutorial concerning making armature was inspired after reading his post. You can read all about it here.
More About: Tutorial , Tori , Rial , Mature , Laudio

Making Kagura part 2
2007-04-29 21:08:00
Welcome to the second installment of Midztoyz's Figure Maki ng Mini Tutorial.Sorry for the delay. If you haven't read the first part just click here. There have been some changes to the original plan, but not too much. The figure I'll be making is still Kagura (from Azumanga Daioh), just the scale has changed. I'll be doing a 1:10 scale instead of 1:11. In this installment, I'll be explaining how to work with reference, making armature, and some bits about general sculpting.So let's continue with the tutorial!First of all an artist need references, LOTS of it. Fortunetly, the internet is an almost unlimited vault for reference resource. This is where I tell you that,"Google is your fried". Actually any search engine will do. Since we're going to make a figure based on an existing character, we need to collect reference for that character. Get as many reference as you can. There is no such thing as too many reference. While you're at it, get some reference on body proportion, ...
More About: King , Part , Makin

Making Kagura part 1: Materials
2007-04-26 18:00:00
Welcome to the first part of Midztoyz's figure making mini-tutorial.Let's get this tutorial started! The first thing you need to know about making a figure is the material used. This is the stuff that our figure will be made of. There are many to choose, from the common automotive putty to the more expensive professional sculpting clay. It really depends on what you have access to. The materials I used are the ones that I can get my hands on. I live in Jakarta, Indonesia, and this is the stuff that I can get locally, unless noted. I will also try to provide alternatives for these materials if there are any. Let's get down to bussiness.Oil ClayAlso known as plasticine. This is probably the easiest clay to find. It oil-based so it wont dry out. You want a firm texture with high elasticity. My current favourite is a local brand called 'Raja Ketawa'. It has great elasticity, easy to work with and have a nice scent. I find that the black colored clay is firmer than the other colors....
More About: Materials , King , Part , Material , Rial

Making an Anime Figure: Tutorial is underway!
2007-04-26 03:05:00
Yep, I've decided to post a complete step-by-step mini tutorial on making an anime figure. In this tutorial I'll be making a 1:11 scale figure of Kagura from Azumanga Daioh. It will be a work in progress, so hopefully I'll update this daily. This tutorial will cover the materials, tools, and steps in making a figure. I haven't plan on making a painting tutorial just yet.Well stay tuned. I'll have the first part up later tonight. Until then!
More About: Tutorial , Anime , King , Tori , Rial

Making Figures: Sinta revisited
2007-04-23 16:27:00
I'm not satisfied with my paintjob on Sinta, and neither was my friend, who commisioned this piece from me. So after some discussion, we agree to repaint Sinta. The most sucky part of the first paint job is the metallic silver color of the dress. The red 'stripe' on the bottom of the skirt just got to go. And her skin is too dark. With all the changes mapped out, I began my weekend hobbyfest.I started by cleaning and scraping all the paint that I can. I only use water, soap, and a LOT of elbow grease to clean her. After most of the paint is off the figure, I sanded and buff the figure to give myself a smooth surface for paint. After the workout, I'm ready to base coat the figure. I use white spray paint to lay the base coat. It took 3 layers to coat the figure. I even base coat the hair white! After the basecoat is dry, I started to work on the colors. I use a mixture of poster and acrylic paint to paint all the colors you see here. Yep, no Tamiya color for me, yet. For those of...
More About: King , Visi , Figures , Visit , Maki

Figure Making Tutorial poll
2007-04-22 02:53:00
Hello everybody!I've promised to post some of my tutorials and guides for making figures. Now I want you to help me decide which one should I put up first. The choices are as below: You could participate by entering your vote in the shoutbox. Dont forget to fill in your name :)The subjects are:1. Sculpting an anime figure from clay2. Alternative tools parade3. Painting your kit with poster paint!Choose only one please. The subjects with the most number of votes will be posted first.Until then, happy voting!
More About: Tutorial , Poll , King , Tori , Rial

Making a figure: Arjuna v.2 pt. 3
2007-04-18 06:29:00
Just a small update on this figure. Fix the hip, although a lot more fixing is still needed. If you're wondering about the breast area, it the light. She has almost equal size boobies. The figure on the right is my reference, a microman Batgirl. Here's one more shot of the figure from the back. I've sculpted some gluteus muscles. Now she got something to sit on ;)Well, that's it for now. Really short post isn't it. I'll promise I'll get right at work on those long tutorial article posts soon. Until next time!
More About: King , Maki , Arjuna , Figure , Makin

Figure making: more Arjuna ver 2.0
2007-04-16 04:34:00
I've done a lot of work on her during the weekend. Finally fixed the right arm, sculpted the torso and all-around area. I've even sculpt her a new face! This time it's more anime-ish than before. I've also added some 'baggage' on the rear. Now she got some junk in the trunk ;)If you're wondering what the white stuff are, they're paper clay. I love working with this stuff. It sands smooth, take detail well, and if you mess up, just put some water and rework it. AWESOME!I take the picture using my photobox. Sorry for the blur near the bottom. It's actually my reflector. I'll do a better job next shoot. Well, that just left detailing and priming. I was hoping to finish this figure by the end of the month. Painting it would be a treat.Until next time! Enjoy the pics
More About: King , More , Maki , Arjuna , Figure

Cheap mini photo studio
2007-04-13 02:42:00
This might not be about figures, but taking a good photo can make a mediocre (or even bad) figure look decent! Photo equipment doesn't come cheap. Since I'm not the kind of person who easily forks money for equipmet that I can (at least try) to make myself, I search the net and found a very helpfull article. And yep you guessed it, I made myself a cheap mini photo studio. How cheap is it? Well, I already got the box, tape, white card paper, tracing papers (it's commonly known as 'kertas kalkir' here) and lamp, so I spend nothing on it. You can't beat that! I dont have many shots on the box, yet though. My previous post regarding Arjuna is shot using the box. Here is a shot of the box that I made, and a test shot using tungsten lamp. All photos are shot using a Sony Cybershot DSC-P7 camera with the macro setting on.
More About: Mini , Studio , Cheap

Making a Figure: Arjuna Ver 2.0 Update!
2007-04-11 02:59:00
It's that time again.In my never-ending journey to make my own anime figures, I meet many challenges. Posing the figure is one of themI've finally managed to finalize the pose for Arjuna . I wont be changing the pose anytime soon. Now I just need to prep this baby up for paint. Who knows, if there's interest, I might actually cast this and make it a garage kit (hint, hint..)I will be updating a lot more frequently now. With 5, yep count it FIVE figures in the works at the same time, this blog will fill up fast. Well technically, I'm only allowed to post 3 of them, still that's a lot. And did I mention all the figures must be done at the end of June?For all of you who asked (or wanted to ask), Yes I do take commisions. Just contact me if you have something in mind. I know we could strike an amicable agreement :)Untill next time!
More About: Update , King , Maki , Figure

Arjuna Ver 2.0
2007-04-07 01:53:00
Well, I've finally did it. I've remodeled my Arjuna . The first version is ok, but I feel it lacks the personality and character that I had in mind. The pose seem stiff too, although when she was first finished it look good! Darn good!Anyway I decide to make a standing pose. The picture is the current (and hopefully the final) pose of Arjuna. I will also try and resculpt the face and her body. Just to make her more sexy.

Sinta is Finished (Finally!)
2007-03-29 14:22:00
Just finished this figure up. The original plan was to leave it as a grey prototype, but I decided to paint her instead. All the painting was done using hand brushing and poster paint. Yes, it's not a typo. I use poster paint to paint this. The metalic silver is sprayed though. I'll write something up about this experience. As you can see my brushing skill is crappy. Behold the brush strokes! I also didn't mix enough paint for the skin tones, that's why there's so many patches of color. I learn much from making this figure. So I'm happy :)Here's more pictures
More About: Finally , Fina , Ally , Finish , Nish

New 'job'
2007-03-24 15:02:00
There's a new forum for Indonesian modelers! It's calledAnd as a matter of fact, yours truly is one of the moderators there. Joy!So if you're Indonesian (or at least know how to speak and understand Bahasa Indonesia), and like modeling, then what are you waiting for?!? Grab your ass and register ASAP!We'll see you there!

Sinta WIP, yet again
2007-03-17 12:10:00
Here is some of the more recent photos I took of this figure.I've made adjustment to her body and repositioned the head. Now she looks less dorky..hehehe.Still need to sand, putty, prime, and sand some more.Well, enjoy! powered by performancing firefox

So there's more like me?!?
2007-03-17 12:01:00
I've got featured at claygeek! If your wondering, claygeek is a new blog dedicated for people who has interest in clay and sculpting in Indonesia. Hence the name. It's awsome seeing someone putting the effort to help promote the art of clay sculpting and local sculptor to the public. Thanks Via!powered by performancing firefox
More About: Here , More , Like , There

New Figure WIP: Dewi Sinta
2007-03-08 18:07:00
If you've been wondering why I haven't updated the blog, this is your answer. I've been working on a commisoned figure for a friend of mine. It is based on Dufan's adaptation of dewi Sinta from the Ramayana epoch. I tried to avoid the usual standing pose and go for a more dynamic looking pose. I want to show that she's floating. I've also made her a bit naughty, since I'm kinda bored with the depiction of Sinta as the epitome of womanly purity and virtue and all that stuff. Hey a girl need to have some fun once in a while! and Rama's a jerk! (just read Ramayana, you'll see).The figure itself is 18 cm tall. It's made with polyester putty, epoxy putty, air-dry clay (Lyra Keramiplast), and some paper clay. I've just now work with paper clay, and I do say that it's a lot easier to work with than keramiplast, and less messy too! At this point, I still need to sand-prime-putty the figure, but the sculpting is done. I might need to add more details though. Oh, and if you're wo...
More About: Figure

My new toy!
2007-03-05 02:49:00
I was browsing my local hardware store the other day while looking for supplies and stuff, the usual. Suddenly My eyes caught this baby.It's a mini drill by Sellery, and its GREAT for sanding. Here you see theattachment I use to help me sand my sculpts. This ones are made of stone. Still looking for the metal ones though. I also saved a boat-load of time using this tool. The price are pretty reasonable too. Just Rp.75.000 for the drill. Oh and you need to buy an adaptor for it. The total cost, including the stone grinder is about Rp.120.000. Good investment I say.It'll run from 3-18 volts, that means variable speed. Good for those delicate parts. It's no Dremel I can tell you that, but at least it does the job for me... at least for now.