Losing grip – Comfortably uncomfortable

Yo! Long time no write, I hope you’ve missed me. In between considering whether to emigrate and how to provide for my family when I quit my present job in three months, I have spent some time dreaming up my next body. Nothing like painting to settle my mind when it has been crowded with Big Thoughts and Major Considerations.

Truth is I have three bodies to paint, two Subaru BRZs and one Lexus, all of them from Killerbody RC. Bit of a mistake, I only meant two order two, but apparently hit the wrong bottom. Never mind though, they are great bodies and I’ve got plenty of ideas for them.

Naturally, all my ideas will take me outside my comfort zone, as per the usual routine. Regular readers will know that I like to push my painting skills. As should you! Seriously, it’s like going to the gym – staying comfortable won’t get you anywhere. Thinking of it, that goes for a lot of things in life in general. Progress quite often takes a bit of discomfort.

You might remember the phoenix I did a while ago? That was a whole new thing to me, combining airbrushing and brush work. I quite like it, it was a bit like finally getting home. Finding my style, using all of my skill set in a way that I had never tried before. For a first try of a new technique, I am happy with it, but there are things that in hindsight I could have done better.

Hence, say hello to what is to become the Redcat Dragon. A more advanced design that started in Bing’s AI, was finished in Photoshop and is now to go on the hood of a 1/10 Subaru BRZ. A jet of fire on the sides.

That should be a real pain to realise on polycarbonate! Also, a lot of fun. To make it even more fun, I have a new airbrush (my third…) that I’m going to try out. It’s a Bittydesign Caravaggio that costs half of my Iwata Eclipse HP-CS and less than a third of my Harder & Steenbeck Infinity. I expect it to prove to be a lot of bang for the buck. Mainly, it has a bigger needle than the other two (0.5mm versus 0.35 and 0.2 respectively), that should make covering large areas a lot easier.

In a week, I hope to show you some early progress. Write a line and wish me luck at martin at bigsquidrc.com

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