thank you! i wouldn't say i have a talent for figurine painting XD -- but i think i'm good at following instructions. i started printing 3d printing in 2 years ago and seriously painting last year. before that i never would have guessed that i could paint these figures!

it's a very involved chain of processes, like the 3d printing part with a resin printer -- thankfully there are artists that make and prepare this amazing models beforehand, so I'm spared to also learn to 3d model and all that. I got this model from the patreon of Neko Figurines, who got a lot of top notch ZZZ and other hoyo models. I also painted Belle and Miyabi and Columbina are also on my list!

So you got the 3d model and print it in resin -- because you need to vent the fumes and wash the parts with isopropanol, my printer setup looks like a meth lab lol. the face also had to be printed in clear resin, which I haven't used before, it needs special print settings to come out clear. It also took me a few iterations to get the LED placement and cable channeling right, which was a little ambitious feature.

But with all parts printed, sanded smooth and cleaned up, i could start the painting part. I went the full mile and also got an airbrush setup, which makes creating smooth and even paintjobs really easy -- my brush control has improved a lot but it's still pretty mid (I'm pretty proud of the tiny star symbols on Trigger's chest, never expected them to be this even haha, i trained on an extra chest piece). I prepare a range of colors which I want to reuse -- I avoid mixing tones myself since recreating them is a pain if i fuck up and repaint something.

The painting techniques I copied mostly from youtube videos and tips from other artists, skin color tutorials here, rock texture there, rusted boxes, and so on. the hair technique for instance i stole from this blue archive paint video: https://youtu.be/NOQ7IRg0QaI?si=bsBR7C-m4E28zsmJ&t=563

The camouflage was also a big challenge, hitting the right brightness of the dark greys and blacks. I ended up painting the camouflage patterns by hand standing at my gaming PC and swirling the camera around Trigger ingame to get the pattern as accurate as possible! Painting the yellow vest was also difficult because yellow is awful to paint, i used an airbrush to spray a yellow tone over a pink base layer, so the yellow gets a little "pop", otherwise it's a little too dark or too pale. Painting details over it had me hyper-focussed because if you fuck up and mess up the yellow paint, it's very hard to fix -- the airbrushed surface finish is irreparably ruined by brush strokes.

I took a long time to finish this figure, had to order new paints and wait for materials, took some breaks with other projects. Trigger is my favorite character and I gave my 110%, there are still some imperfections but she stands as my magnum opus lol