Well, here's my first attempt at a custom figure using an airbrush. I think he worked out fairly well for the most part. The eyes were hand brushed and could have been much cleaner, but i have no experience whatsoever with hand brushing. It was definitely a challenge keeping steady and in the imaginary lines as much as possible. Any critiques/advice always appreciated. Thanks for looking

was he a flesh color originally?
looks clean. simple is always good for first attempts. I like him, seems more human with just hair pants and feet painted.

thanks uber. yup he was a flesh originally. thought it would make for an easy first try, since i didn't have to go paint him flesh colored.

Not a bad first try at all.

Some critique, if you want it:

- The white part of the eyes could be a little cleaner, especially along the top edge. You mentioned that you brushed them on, how many coats of paint did it take to build up to that white and what kind of paint did you use? The belt kinda got a little sloppy around the skull area, too. Not a big deal as this is stuff you'll get better at if you keep painting.

- The masked feet kinda come out of nowhere and the masking, while well done, looks weird to me. It seems like every other part that you masked incorporates the sculpt except here.

- Finally, it looks a bit unfinished. Maybe if you painted the wristbands to match the shorts (or maybe the feet?), he'd come together a little more. If I were you, I'd keep putting paint on this one. You might like what you end up with.

The execution overall is nice and I'm not trying to slam your work here. There are lots of painters in this hobby/artform that are doing awesome work. Study their stuff, learn from them, and keep painting. You will improve.

sweet...sounds good so far. thanks for the feedback guys. yeah, i'm definitely still very new to this, so i wanted to attempt something very simple. it took quite a few coats to get the eyes white, brushing it on was a pain. the boots were tough, i see what you mean about the masking. however, it'd look weird compared to the actual astro w/o a little thigh showing. however...i totally agree about the wrist bands, i thought about painting them at first. but i wasn't sure once again how i'd go with the overall comparison to astro.

thanks again and i'm definitely open to further critiques. i just like the painting aspect and plan on attempting other customs. it's just i haven't really had a chance to learn technique or skills from anyone really. it's been a lot of trial and error.

You've got the "Astro" vibe going, I didn't mean to suggest anything that would take away from that. Maybe even paint in some big black eyes with a little gleam to 'em and consider an orange and yellow fade on the feet to make 'em look like rockets/fire.

Just some more ideas...kinda bored today.

haha, no worries. i appreciate all the responses. oooh, that fire/rocket idea sounds awesome...but now onto execution i'll have to think about that one. i was thinking about eyes also, but was afraid cause of my lack of brush skills. we'll see what happens...i've got to figure out how i'd go about those additions. thanks midnight!

eyes are hard... ive painted hundreds and they are still hard... a steady hand is really all you can do to fix the problem...

Whilst it's no secret I'm an avid anti-customs kinda guy I thankyou for having the common decency to spoil something that was at least intended to be spoilt!

Just an opinion on checking it out are that it's sprayed as you would a western toy. The masked areas are great and pretty clean and the concept fits the sculpt, but if you take a look at the Devilman Evil from a few years back, like most traditional Japanese paint apps, it's the freehand spray accents that seem to bring it to life.

thanks again guys for the additional feedback!

d-lux: yeah...i noticed that too and i'm sure it's due to too many layers of paint. however, what can fix that though? i was thinking a little bit of mild retarder in the paint might help the white level out better in terms of coverage. but each time it could've been my impatience or lack of experience, when i brushed on it would either lift the first layer or it would leave unsightly brush strokes if i really needed to, i'm sure i can try to strip the eyes and test my hands at it again.

scary andy: haha, thank you for comments and support despite your anti-customness i have to agree with you on the japanese paint app for sure. when i was browsing around for ideas and such, i noticed the devilman evil and he was probably the only "flesh" colored production piece i found that resembled the astro idea i had. i was torn while i was thinking about the paint app and whether i'd feel comfortable enough w/o masking the mutant head and freehand spraying him. which is most likely why i went the safe route for my first custom and masked him instead. however, now that you bring it up i think he would definitely be more..."deserving and appropriate" to have a japanese spray app based on the characters origins and figure in which i'm customizing in terms of keeping with the pre-existing style and theme.

i'll be keeping all of these comments in mind for any other customs i plan on in the future. i've got lots to learn and plenty of practice needed to get that control of the airbrush and paint brush. once again, i'm really happy to have received all the feedback, thanks guys. hopefully the next one will be a bit more on par in terms of execution and theme.