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Hi everyone nigel saunders here we are in model making mode today i’m going to be assembling my little avatar figure of natieri from the movie avatar the model of nati is 3d printed and you can get the file on thingiverse this one is printed in three parts so i’ll need to do some assembly work here’s a look at the model it’s quite detailed and there’s supports attached to it so when this was printed it would have been printed upside down like that so you can see the supports that hold the tail up so you’re not printing in space so it’s got something to print onto so that’s pretty cool i’ll have to very carefully remove the supports and then roughen up the surfaces and glue them together with super glue to remove the supports i’ll have to use a little hobby knife and just cut the supports away all right here i go removing the supports ah hopefully this will go well just there so that one support is off i still have one that goes down between the legs here from the back i’m using the magnifying glass so i can come in and see the detail more easily i can see where i’ve got to cut away the support after some patient cutting i managed to remove all the supports from the bottom half and i even managed to keep the tail intact which was really good i’m going to work on the upper half now removing all the supports that hold the hair in place that should be quite challenging to get it all off too i’ve got all the parts separated from the supports so you can see them here i uh i lost one hair braid and maybe one over this side too they’re very very fine but i turned out really good i’m uh i was happy so now i’ve got to sand all the the surfaces so i can glue it together so i’ll do that just give it a life sanding to rough it up okay i can glue the upper part to the bottom part now hopefully that’ll go well and i can get it aligned all right here i go the nozzle on my super glue is kind of clogged up so i’m gonna have to do it with the exacto knife here so i’ll sprint spread a thin layer on the bottom here like that and then a thin layer to the top surface all right here i go i’ll just remove some of the excess glue here i’ve got to glue this little hand on it’s going to be very difficult to do i’ve gotten a nati all assembled here looking really good now yeah now there is that tip for the uh the end of the hair braid there i don’t know if i’ll be able to glue that on but i’ll try that’s the last remaining piece it’s a little tiny tiny thing yeah so it pretty good really accurate model and this model don’t forget is it’s really small very very small the next step for the project will be to begin the painting of net terry here so i do have remember that uh land rover i painted long ago it was this color that’s pretty close color for the avatar skin color so that’ll be the paint i use i’ve got black for the hair and i’ve got a few other darker shades just in case i want to do a bit of shading on it all right here i go with the painting and i’m not sure i may have to thin the paint down but i’m going to try it full strength first because i need it thin enough that it doesn’t hide any details but i need it thick enough to kind of cover up the 3d printing lines so i’ll start on the the leg here so here i go that seems to paint on really nicely i was checking the reference photos i think my blue color here is maybe a little on the green side but it’s not too far off it’s pretty close so maybe i can do a find some blue mix in a bit and kind of do a bit of shading with the darker blue but yeah looking good i think i did find a can of royal blue so i can mix that with my other color and kind of give a wash to bring out all the features and maybe a little shading on the figure and they have stripes on them in the movie so i may be able to bring that out a bit it’ll be would be tough on that size but i’ll see what i can do it’s a really nice sunny day here today while i’m waiting for the paint to dry on the teary i’ll get out my avatar ficus and we can give it a pruning i’ve got my ficus out this is one of the ficus sisters the plain one and i started kind of designing it as a flat top for an avatar kind of planting and i see there’s a bug on my tree a rather large one i better put that outside here’s a look at that insect some kind of a big beetle or something see it right there yeah i’ll put that outside the new shoots on my ficus have grown in really nicely and they’re long enough that they can be pruned back to the first you know couple of leaves so i’ll do that making it more compact that insect may have been what’s called an assassin bug and they crawl around and find other insects and then they they eat them so maybe it was beneficial i didn’t kill it i put it in the front porch actually by the window so i thought if i put it outside it would be below freezing and probably kill the poor thing so i’m going to begin pruning now and i’ve already kind of styled this tree i’m trying to make it that flat top home tree style from the movie avatar i don’t know how well it’ll work but we’ll try it out so here i go i’m going to prune this branch back to here this one back to here and there’s a spider in here oh i see him there or her made quite a web you can definitely stay on the tree there this one to here one here the tree’s looking a little more compact but the structure isn’t that good it’s kind of sprawling all over the place so i will have a look at it so this is the front this side here that you’re seeing there’s a look at the front view now somewhere in this direction rotate it around there’s the back which is nice it’s got nice roots at the back this is sort of the fancy side of my plane tree and this is definitely a planar side well we’ll see how the tree reacts to this i’ll just take the tip off here we’ll see how it reacts i’ll let it grow and that’s all we can do all i can do for now yeah i’ll give it a good watering fertilizer before i put it back on the bench there’s a new shoot going out there all right here i go with the water and fertilizer this tree will need repotting again this summer you can see how high it is out of the pot here it’s probably full of roots i’ll let that soak in for a bit and then give it another soaking all right here goes more water all right that is good it’s coming out the drainage holes i can put it back on the bench this tree may not be the tree that i put my nati avatar figure under it all depends how it develops in the future if i can develop that nice flat top canopy i may put it under my first ficus it looks more like the home tree at the moment so yeah we’ll see how this tree develops um i’m hoping it does well this summer and kind of starts building that flat top canopy it’ll be interesting it won’t be totally flat it’ll have a slight round to it but yeah we’ll see we’ll see how it does the skin color is dry now so i’m going to start painting some of the details on the black hair maybe some of the clothing details well i did find a can of black paint flat black i’ll open it up and see what this one looks like inside it should be okay it’s liquid when i shake it i gave it a good shaking stir it up oh that looks fine yep okay here i go with the black details on the hair yeah this goes on really nicely here’s a look at the terry now the black hair and the black braid down the back you can see i got to touch it up a bit but it’s not too bad there’s a lot of little details here that need painting i’ll have to check the colors of those the tail is supposed to be the skin color the necklace on the teary over here is made of feathers and they’re kind of a tan color kind of white to tan so i’ve got some tan paint i’ll see what i can do to see if i can paint that up all right here i go i’m going to try painting this i’ll have to use the magnifying glass which means i have to do it right here tricky work this but fun okay just gotta relax when you do it i was holding my breath again gotta breathe here we go that’s so precise oh my goodness okay i think that’s got it i don’t know if that’s in focus but that looks like a necklace to me so there’s a thing out front i don’t know if that’s what they drink from i think it is like a little flask or something i think i’ll do that in a different color just to make it you know a bit of variation yeah and there’s a bunch of like armbands and stuff and one around the ankle one around the upper calf there there was a piece here that was like a loincloth and i thought it was a support so i removed it oh well doesn’t matter and there’s a necklace around her neck that i notice has green jewels on it i was checking the reference pictures and the ears have to be pink inside a lot of details to go on this all right i’ve got a different color now it’s a darker brown that i’m going to do that whatever that thing is flask or something it could be a horn too maybe to signal people communication i don’t know whatever it is it’s getting painted a darker kind of a reddish brown color okay that looks pretty good see that it’s on there all right i’ve got a nice tan color here to put on the for the straps all right so here i go this will be very very tricky okay i think that’s good for the armbands and that here’s a look at the figure now coming along i think i’m going to try putting the blue on now so i’ll use the base blue color and i’ll just add a bit of the darker blue in with it the royal blue and try it putting the stripes on and see how it looks there’s a look at my royal blue color so i’ve got a palette here i’ll just put a dab of it on there and then i’ll mix in my my other color the blue the lighter blue and try and get a nice kind of blend between them that should be enough now i’ve got my other blue color i’ll just put the lid back on for now and i need to put some of this blue color in like that and then i should should be able to mix them together and kind of get a darker shade for the stripes okay here i go again i’ll use the magnifying glass okay let’s let’s hope this turns out okay yeah the stripes are going on quite nicely i’m i’m using a fairly dilute mixture of paint i don’t want the stripes to be too visible they’ve sort of just got to blend in a bit so it doesn’t uh subtle is the word i’m looking for i want them to be subtle the other trick is to get these stripes kind of uh uneven you don’t want them looking like you know too uniform of gotta look like a zebra pattern yeah looking good this is the back i still have to paint the tail [Music] i’m going to mix up a bit of a pink color for the ears and the mouth and the nose very subtle so i’ll do that next all right i’ve got a bit of red mixed up i’m going to blend that in with a bit of blue and hopefully i get some kind of a a very subtle color effect i’m going to try painting the eyes now i have this signal orangey yellow color in the movie the eyes are kind of yellow so i think this is be it’ll be close that’s the closest paint i have so i’m going to try putting a drop on the end of this pointy dividers and just touch it to the eye and i hope that makes a little round eyeball if it doesn’t work it doesn’t work i’ll give it a try so here i go i don’t know it doesn’t i think i need a wooden toothpick or something it just doesn’t seem to wanna go in the eye at all no okay i’m gonna try something else that just doesn’t work okay that’ll have to do it turned out okay i think there’s a look at the eyes i don’t know if you can see it in this light let me try it in the sun here yeah something there at least a bit of a yellowish color so i can go in and fix everything up eventually here’s a look at the terry now so i’ve got a lot of the stuff in place i’ve just got to do a bit of touching up and finish the blue on the tail yeah just a little detail work but i think basically it’s looking pretty good there’s my hand for comparison you can see how small the model is size of my thumb while the sun is still out i thought i better get a shot in the terry at the base of my ficus here let’s go and have a look [Music] so [Music] i’m going to let the paint dry overnight and then i’ll come back tomorrow and do any final touch-ups but that’s all for today i’m nigel saunders thanks for joining me in the bonsai zone [Music]