Canceling a bid on Ebay

Someone recently wanted to cancel a bid they placed. I actually had to look this up. To do this, click on your item, the click on the (#) number of bids. It should bring up the bidding history page. At the bottom of the page click on "See how to cancel bids" Go to that link and fill out the Item #, User ID, and a quick reason.

Just future reference stuff for me....

Protection with Varnish

So normally I would use a gloss varnish on metal/armor ect, and then just matte varnish for the rest. As I was painting my first garage kit, it occurred to me that I might want to just varnish certain sections as I am painting just in case I bump it or something. Anyway, while googling around I came across several articles that suggest for additional protection, you can gloss varnish first, and then spray over it with matte and this will take the glossy effect away

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?249298-Ard-coat-question

Store Review: SMcG Customs

Store: SMcG Customs
Website: http://66.147.244.127/~smcgcust/Prestashop/
Type: Online Retailer
Description: 

SMcG Customs specializes in any and all 1/6 female items from PHICEN to TTL-TRIAD to HOT TOYS. They also offer many custom made 1/6 scale clothing items and accessories for all styles of bodies, from male Tees to trenchcoats and Female lingerie to Superhero outfits.

SMcG Customs also offers a special order service for almost any 1/6 item imaginable. Originally, they started out with just custom commissions but have in the past couple years grown and expanded. You can also find a lot of their products on ebay.

Background:

I will say when it comes to 1/6 figures I am totally new to the market and hobby in general. I recently fell in love with the idea of them because of the Steamless Bodies that don't show any joints. Originally, I had purchased some larger VMF figures and realized how much I liked them. Then on AmiAmi there was a random link to Phicen and those awesome bodies. I knew I had to have one. The real trouble was learning and reading about them and thinks to OneSixthWarriors I learned a bunch. The next biggest problem was finding a dependable retailer to even think of purchasing stuff from and thats where SMcG comes in.

My Experience:

I first heard about SMcG when I was researching the Phicen Line of bodies on onesixthwarriors. Everyone there keeps talking about some guy named "Chad" and "SMcG" anyway I ended up finding his website and he had some of the things I was looking for in stock. On the forums Chad offers a wealth of experience and commentary about different products. The one thing that really caught my eye was his post about Phicen Nina:

"As many of you know, I stand behind the quality of the PHICEN. When you purchase from me, I dont leave you high and dry if something is wrong.

I still deal directly with PHICEN and take care of all of my customers.

If anyone has a question about NINA, I will do my best to help you out." 

^Link

I am pretty big on stores having good customer support and that pretty much had me sold. In addition, I had been reading reviews about Phicen bodies breaking ect...I have pretty terrible luck so I didn't want that to happen to me.

Anyway I ended up ordering some stuff from Chad, it was well packaged and came in with USPS Priority which means 2-3 days from when I ordered. I didn't have any problems with my order and it was great!

Customer Support: 

I can actually comment on this! I randomly emailed Chad through his support email just asking for information. He responded back pretty quickly and answered my question. In addition, my second order from him got messed up, but he contacted me in advance and definitely made the effort to make everything right. So A+ from me for customer service.


Verdict:

If you are going to order any 1/6 dolls / accessories ect... definitely give this store a shot first. Ebay can be sketchy at times and at least you know here Chad has your back.

Play Arts Kai Commander Shepard Repaint

I went into this whole situation knowing that Commander Shepard from Play Arts Kai was bad, but man, his face was freaking AWFUL.  The figure itself is really cool and intricate, but damn, that face. The bottom line is the face is so terrible it completely breaks the figure.

Normally, I would never be so cocky as to repaint the face of a figure, but this was so bad, I had no choice.

Okay so take a look at the AmiAmi page for him

http://www.amiami.com/top/detail/review?scode=FIG-KAI-3861&page=top%2Fsearch%2Flist%3Fs_keywords%3Dplay+arts+kai%24pagemax%3D100%24getcnt%3D0%24pagecnt%3D1

Okay so here is my shepard at the start

That's pretty freaking bad.

Okay and now here is me painting him

Here is him after!

 And Finally a Side by Side

Play Arts Kai Tomb Raider Single Player Model Conversion

So I recently was suckered into purchasing the Play Arts Kai Tomb Raider Figure. This is the same one that comes with the collectors edition. Honestly, it is an awesome figure, but while I was in the store, I noticed the WIDE range in Quality of the figures.

The main differences I noticed was:

1. On the forearm, some figures have uneven plastic, where the arm must have been broken off from the mold.
2. The dirt looks like it is painted on free hand with a brush so almost every figure is slightly different. 

I went through all the boxes of Tomb Raiders until I found the one I was most pleased with in quality.

I really liked the figure, however, the one thing that bothered me was they seem to have painted the figure based on the multiplayer Lara. Shes great and alll, but the Lara I know is the poor college kid that got thrown into the action, she got cut, hurt, and really beat up.

I don't suck at the game by any means, but the Lara I grew to like really got freaking messed up and injured. The figure I bought, wasn't my Lara from the game. Well... Since I am a miniature painter in my free time, I whipped out my paints to fix it.

The first thing that needed to happen was that intense stomach wound where [SPOILER] Lara gets impaled at the beginning of the game. 

The next thing was, my bandage on her right arm was VERY poorly painted. I repainted it, and added some blood on it because [SPOILER] She get shot in the arm! 

I also added a bunch of scrap marks after a screenshot I had in game

Here is another view of her stomach wound, arm scrapes, and wounds on her upper chest

And can't forget the wound in her back that came from the impalement! 

Another view of my more messed up Lara. I also added some extra dirt painting to make her more dirty because lets face it, in the game she gets so filthy you wouldn't want to come within 10 feet of her!