Yup, the brotha's at it again...another custom glowie!

Hey, all! Sanjeev here, back again with another custom glowie by yours truly! Some of you may remember my first custom glowie, the Marmit Vinyl Paradise Garamon/Garadama piggy bank that I finished in glow spraypaint a while back. Well, when the opportunity to pick up a cheap M1 Giant Sized Garamon in unpainted glow vinyl came up, I hopped right on it knowing it would look great along with the Marmit!

Now, I got the inspiration for this figure from Nekrodave, who picked up the blue spray version of this figure some time ago. And y'know something? He was damn right: this is one creepy figure. The babydoll eyes are just weird! I LOVE IT!!

So, just as before, I grabbed my trusty glow spraypaints from ReadySetGlo and my Parafilm-M (for masking), and went to town!

The results are pretty killer, if I do say so myself! ;)

My creativity was a tad hampered by my previous efforts since I wanted this figure to match the piggy bank in terms of color scheme. If I hadn't painted up the Marmit previously, I would have tried a more daring color scheme (maybe blue or pink and yellow). As it is, however, I still dig it. It came out well, I think, and any experience with these tricksy paints is valuable (you may recall, my only other endeavor with glow spraypaint was Daimajin). The stuff's real tough to work with...

So, sticking with the red color scheme begun with the piggy bank, I tried something I learned with Daimajin: I sprayed down from above with red spraypaint after spraying up from below with purple (this sorta complements the red I used on Garamon and the purple I used on Garadama for the piggy bank).

The overall effect is pretty cool! If you notice, I also masked off the middle of his chest with torn masking tape to make an interesting pattern. Over the gap, I blended in orange glow spraypaint, again to match the piggy bank.

As you can tell, I touched up his nostrils with black acrylic--he kinda didn't look right at this scale without it. And finally, I masked around the face, hands, and feet, and sprayed his lips, toes, and tops of his hands orange.

One of the last steps, of course, was sealing the paint job. As before, I used Minwax Polycrylic: three quick coats and some light brushing to remove excess dust, and I was pretty much done. The only thing I had to be careful about was the eyes. I had to cover just around the eyes with a good seal to protect the mechanisms from getting gummed up with the varnish. Worked out great, see!?

Aiight, aiight...I know what you're saying: enough yappin', let's get to the glowie shots!

Done:

Not a bad effect at all, huh? When fully charged, the red glow color glows just as long and intensely as the bare glow vinyl. The orange and purple, however, last a little bit longer. The effect over time is pretty cool: the green glow vinyl and the red dim a bit after a while, but the orange stays a bit brighter...and the purple undertones on the down-facing surfaces glow a bit brighter blue.

My spray coats were a bit thicker than I would've liked, but it creates a stronger, more contrasting look under normal light. Even a little too thick, the glow effect of the paint matches well against his face and other exposed bits.

Finally, I'll leave you with a group shot! From left to right, we have the Popy/B-Club reissue of the original Bullmark mold, the giant M1, and the Marmit piggy bank:

Charismatic Ultra-kaiju...glows in the dark...holds your cash...what's not to love!? ...But wait--there's more...!

Some time ago, I picked up this unpainted Marmit Vinyl Paradise glowie of one of Ultraman's classic nemeses, Garamon, along with his pet meteor(!), Garadama. It's actually a glow-in-the-dark piggy bank: there's a removeable plastic cap on the bottom and, of course, he's hollow. Anyway, it was a steal for the price from Kaiju-Taro...and besides, I just fell in love with that fun, goofy sculpt!

Shines like a beacon, no?

Among my other glowies at night, it's like a lighthouse! Still, not terribly interesting on a visual level, under either normal light or while glowing...

So, I had a couple options: either ship it off to a custom painter like my buddy, John Groff of KaijuZoo, or unleash my own imagination (and recently-purchased glow spraypaint!). I went with the latter--I figured this would be a great opportunity to muck around with the various colors of glow spraypaint I'd picked up from ReadySetGlo.

Right now, I have purple, red, orange, pink, and yellow to work with, though green, aqua, and some clear versions that glow in different colors are also currently available (and more products are added to their offerings all the time). With these, I came up with a simple, effective color scheme. First, I've always liked the red Garamon look as opposed to the more traditional(?) green. Besides...I already have a green glowie Garamon: the Popy/B-Club Bullmark reissue!

So, I decided to do a light purple over-spray up from the bottom just on the Garadama meteor, and then a thicker red over-spray from the top over Garamon, himself. This would leave quite a bit of glow vinyl still exposed and just leave the hint of color. When this was done, I would do a quick spray of pink on his lips, orange on his belly, and I would hand-paint his eyes with gloss black acrylic paint. I decided to leave the rest of the face, hands, and tail completely exposed.

After quite a bit of time-consuming masking with Parafilm-M, various stages of spraying, and final sealing using Minwax's "Polycrylic" varnish, the project was complete. It took the better part of this past weekend...and I'm pretty excited with the results!!

And here's how he looks alongside his Bullmark-esque counterpart:

The cool thing is that the glow spraypaint takes a little longer to charge than the bare glow vinyl, but it glows for much longer. This creates different interesting color effects based on different kinds of exposure. Real fun stuff for the glow nut in all of us!

I'll certainly be doing more of these customs and I look forward to sharing them with you. If you're interested in doing your own custom glowies such as this one, there are two important things to keep in mind when working with glow spraypaint from ReadySetGlo (Lebel Enterprises, Inc. products):

1) The spraypaint is actually a very fine glow powder suspended within a traditional acrylic paint matrix. The presence of the powder leads to a LOT of spray nozzle clogging, especially if you start and stop a lot. It definitely helps to have lots of spare nozzles. I recommend completely clearing out the nozzle after each coat by inverting the can and spraying for several seconds. I then simply remove the tip/nozzle and toss it in a container of paint thinner to await the next use.

2) Once your coat dries, you'll notice that there's a fine, sandy texture on the surface of your subject. That's the glow powder. Be very gentle with it as it will rub off under heavy wear. This basically means that you HAVE to seal your work. Any spray varnish will do and it'll work like a charm...just be dilligent about it!

Glow forth and prosper, my children!

The Giant Garamon (ジャイアントガラモン) checks in at just over 14" tall and is a commanding presence on any vinyl kaiju shelf.

Usually the paint on M1go (M１号) vinyls is top notch, but there is a bit of overspray on this one. The paint from the lips can also be seen a bit on the chin underneath. No doubt the person painting it was distracted by those eyes, so I'll let it slide this time.

There are six points of articulation at the hips, arms, neck and tail, but you won't move anything but the head in all likelihood. The toy was sold in a bag with a header card. The version I have came with a round wooden base with a gold foil label on it. I can't read the Japanese but it seems this one may have been sold at a fuction of some kind on June 11, 2006. I can't find anything about it being a show exclusive so I'm not sure what it signifies. If you know, feel free to clue me in.

Soul of Bullmark is a capsule toy line composed of 2 inch tall versions of classic Kaiju toys. Included in series 1 are:

• Gomess
• Garamon
• Kanegon
• Namegon
• Pegila

This particular toy is Gomess, also from the show Ultra Q, created by the legendary Eiji Tsuburaya. The toy is made out of soft vinyl and articulated at the head, arms and legs. The detail of this thing is absolutely amazing. Gomess was in the first episode of Ultra Q, and was defeated by Litra.

For a great write up on Soul of Bullmark Series 1, check out this overview on ToyboxDX.

Soul of Bullmark is a capsule toy line composed of 2 inch tall versions of classic Kaiju toys. Included in series 1 are:

• Gomess
• Garamon
• Kanegon
• Namegon
• Pegila

This particular toy is Garamon, from the show Ultra Q, created by the legendary Eiji Tsuburaya. The toy is made out of soft vinyl and articulated at the head, arms and legs. The detail of this thing is absolutely amazing. I'm not a huge kaiju fan, but these are little works of art. Not really much to say about these. Just marvel at the pictures.

For a great write up on Soul of Bullmark Series 1, check out this overview on ToyboxDX.