Model Citizen

This is a project that I started a few years ago. I say a few years ago, because that is when I bought the model of Major Motoko Kusanagi, the lead female from the Ghost in the Shell series. This model in particular goes by the name Hard Disc. For the uninitiated, the series deals with a pseudo future where people can have upgrades and cybernetic enhancements as well as sockets for connecting to the net etc.
Motoko has had more than her share of models sculpted after her, this being my second, almost time Buc Wheat did a page about her for his excellent site Here eh Buc?

Anyway, here are the bits. You'll notice a tonne of wiring comes with the kit, and this is what has taken me so long to get round to doing. I always wanted to change some of this wiring for Glo Wire, or Electroluminescent wire, or even Surelight as it's called. it's basically very thin neon tubing.
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So, first step was the soldering of the kit that I bought on eBay. I chose the thinnest wiring, just over 1mm thick. This wire is stripped at the end to reveal 3 smaller wires, some are as thin as a human hair, which means the chances of a mistake are huge in the trimming and soldering stage.
What I found worked best was to solder the thin wire onto a thicker more robust peice, which in turn was soldered to the tranceiverthingumybob that plugs into the power supply. When I had a join and this was tested I immidiatley coated the join in hot glue to protect the fragile soldering. This was repeated 3 times, and tested along the way to make sure it was glowing correctly.
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A nice easy bit now, here's a pot I dug out of my bits box. I'm going to house the wiring in here and sit the model on top of it. I'm undercoating it in and ou for a good tough finish.
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Sorry for the blurry picture, by now I've pretty much finished the base and fitted the wires through some holes I've dremelled. I had to make sure the wire passed cleanly so not to pull on the connections. When it's through, and tested again, I put some super glue in place to hold the wiring some more.
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Now onto the model, it's a very clean casting, and fits together very well with it's own locater pins in resin to aid the join. There's just a bit of work needed on the legs. For this type of thing I use anything, I've used Milliput, hot wax, Super Sculpey, but this time I'm using Mr Putty, which is smeared on, wiped clean and then dries very quickly.
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The finished seam. I have a tendency to add superglue to things to fill in tiny gaps after and then sand down smooth.
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now, a first, the masking. Again, I've used many things for masking, white tack, cling film, tape, but this time I want to try latex rubber. It's used for mold making, and I'm thinking it will do for such a complicated shape. I followed the instructions and added it to my paint job with a soft brush. it looks like milk but dries clear. i gave it about 3 coats and left it over night.

Here's a quick look after the third coat
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Well, amazing! It worked, and so easily. I gave the model a few coats of silver clear cote and when dry just peeled off the mask. I'll definatley use that again.
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I finish the paint job on Motoko with metallic colours, the idea being that I want as many reflective surfaces as I can get.
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Well, here are the finished images. I've added the wires, trying to make the 3 Glo Wires prominent. I rebuilt the hair piece too, instead of using the resin lump of wires I made one out of real wire.
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The wiring is crazy to add on, and I kept having to tighten it, glue it with PVA or super glue and then go back to it. I drilled plenty of holes in here for the wiring to go beforehand.
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The first close up.
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I should note that the model has creases and grooves in it where the wire should go, though I added a few more too.
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And finally a brief shot showing her illuminated. The exposure on the camera has compensated for the light so it's not as contrasty as it should appear.
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All in all a good project, and she now has pride of place in the living room. I'm waiting to add an X 10 unit to the plug so she can be controlled by remote for on and off.


Update:
Very pleased to hear that Motoko made the gallery of the day at E2046: