Naima (Unofficial Garage Kit)

[holyscream]

[ *dj khaled voice*: another one ]

Originally posted on my MFC account.

Almost immediately after finishing work on my first garage kit, the red bunny, and vowing to never touch an airbrush again and sell all my untouched kits to save them from my incompetence, I began work on another kit. (I’m in an on-off-relationship with almost all my crafting hobbies, so this is normal.)

KIT by Bulkamancer ft. Kai

Some time ago I came across this 3D fanart of Naima, the face of the music video for Ado’s single Usseewa. The sculpt was created by an artist named Kai for Bulkamancer Sculpts and was optimized for 3D printing by them. The files are available for purchase and download at Cults 3D. I don’t remember how I became aware of it; I think I was just randomly searching for 3D character models to study in Blender and got completely sidetracked by how much I loved the sculpt.

ORIGIN Character design and MV art by WOOMA

I don’t own a 3D printer (…yet) so I paid someone with model painting experience to print the pieces for me. For finishing, I only wanted the supports removed, but the artist also applied (very runny) base colors without sanding the support stubs down first, so I had to strip most of the parts down to the material again before doing anything else. I suspect this was caused by some kind of mix-up in their workshop, because their service was otherwise very good. The packaging had enough cushioning that the fragile material would likely have even survived AliExpress’ pinball transport.

I wasn’t sure how to approach something so fragile yet, so after unpacking and admiring the detailed print (layer height of 30 µm for those interested), the box sat on my shelf for a year, judging me, until about two weeks ago. After my bunny-induced crashout, I needed something low-stakes to work on and this kit could easily be reprinted in case I ruined it, and the color scheme and style were very minimalist. The video uses high contrast color blocking and cell shading, which allowed me to keep my paintjob incredibly simple as well. I only used a handful of Vallejo paints for this, and most of those went into mixing the skin tone.

PALETTE The blue is so opaque that it covered the black after only one coat.

I reconciled with my airbrush long enough to do the black and dark blue pieces as well as the skin, which I decided to apply a bit more shading and blush to. The bright blue and metallic black parts were done by hand.

FRAGILITY Everything was going fine until part of the ponytail broke off while sanding. I was so scared of breaking even more pieces that I gave up on finishing the most precarious parts of them. The rough texture is unfortunately still very noticeable in the finished kit. While drying, the rifle also slipped out of its clip and snapped in half.

I neglected to take pictures of it but in a moment of insanity I airbrushed the rifle + gloved hand piece with skintone first, hand-painted the glove and then covered the very detailed and creviced hand portion with a liquid mask to do the rifle. A lot of this involved trying to cover the pale pink that I had airbrushed into tight corners of the gun. It then took me almost an hour to peel the mask out of all the crevices and from between her fingers, after which I had to fix up some of the skintone again, basically covering up all the airbrush work I had done.

Halfway through this project I ran out of Mr. Super Clear because I had accidentally ordered new Tamiya primer twice instead of one can each of primer and sealant. Another 100% IQ moment on my part that made the detail work more stressful, but I persevered.

FACE For inverted pupils, I like using bright silver rather than white. It makes them pop a bit more in the shadows.

The fully sculpted face took so much work off my shaky shoulders. Naima’s expression is just gorgeous, and I would never have been able to do it justice on my own. And oh my lord, those canines. 💙

BASE I hadn’t painted rocky terrain in ages; it was so relaxing to go wild with the sponge.

I only did a complete assembly after everything had been painted, as some of the pieces had snapped together when I first tested their fit and it was practically impossible to separate them again without scratching the surface and almost snapping the fragile material in half. For the most part, the finished pieces fit together without issue, but one of the arms was strangely loose in its socket. Luckily the collar hides the gap, but its presence annoys me, because I could/should have noticed it sooner. The base also had a strange bulge on the bottom (owo) that needed to be softened with heat and pressed back into shape with the help of 10 kg of books.

The printing file comes with two base variations: One with rods and one without. I chose rods and had them printed in translucent red material that took only half an hour of wet sanding (600, 1000, 2000, 5000 grit) and some glossy sealant to look shiny and clear. Unfortunately, there are some irregularities inside the print that I can’t fix, but it is what it is. They still do a great job of tying the whole figure together.

I love how much of a punch she packs for a tiny 18 cm figure. I could gush about the sculpt forever; Kai, the artist, did an excellent job capturing Naima’s fierceness and translating WOOMA’s character design into their own 3D style. The kit is also separated very well; parts connect along folds and material lines, and every piece has pegs or holes that can be securely gripped by a crocodile clip for painting. Just maybe not the rifle…

Oh and yes, I know I forgot to add the black diagonal break on the blue bands of her sleeves. 💀 I’ll have to disassemble the base to get her out of my display case again, so I’ll add it once I’m not feeling as lazy.

I’ve been eyeing this Ryuuko for a while because her pose and base are so perfect, but with this Naima now on my shelf I don’t know if I haven’t filled that void already. And I’m trying to mostly stick to OC figures these days, anyways. But they would complement each other very nicely…

Oh, and if for some reason you want my personal Ado recommendations: My favorites are her songs Odo, Value, MIRROR, and her feature on WhaleDontSleep’s Osmanthus. The latter was also my first exposure to her music.

Video Embeds

Anyhoo, thanks for reading!

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TL;DR Rating

Sculpting ⸻ 09/10
Immaculate, 11/10—except for blue bands at the ends of the sleeves not being sculpted.

Posing ⸻ 10/10
Zero notes. Perfection.

Base ⸻ 09/10
Sculpt is lovely, but I don’t really get why it’s angled the way that it is.

Fit ⸻ 08/10
The arms kind of threw me for a loop, but that’s likely a deformation that happened post-printing, and same with the base. The extremely tight fit of the torso and jacket on the other hand is nerve-wracking and requires a material that is at least somewhat flexible, otherwise at least one piece will shatter on assembly.

Handling ⸻ 09/10
Most parts are hollow and very light and easy to grip. The ponytail needs to be hung up to dry, but I was able to balance it from a shelf without disturbing the paint or sealant. Physics!

Enjoyment ⸻ 10/10
1000000/10 i worship the ground at her feet 🙇🏽

💙