Shire Works Exclusive: Behind the Scenes of the One Piece Going Merry model kit's painting process

 Custom painted model kits or miniature figurines are always pricey. And there is a reason why they are so expensive. Just taking into account the amount of hours put into a project as well as the cost of material used to paint it, the base price of a custom- or fully-painted kit/miniature is already going to sky rocket, assuming it's done well. All this and we haven't even taken into account how much an artist's skill is worth. As an example we are going to delve into the One Piece Going Merry scale model kit ship project undertaken by our resident painter FourEyedMonster on his YouTube Channel, namely FourEyedMonster Miniatures (link: https://www.youtube.com/@foureyedmonsterminiatures9587)

One Piece Going Merry pirate ship: Painted Build Completed (isometric front view)

One Piece Going Merry pirate ship: Painted Build Completed (isometric back view)

 To avoid a lengthy commentary on the whole painting process involved in completing a scale model kit of the Going Merry pirate ship, most of the info pertaining to the work done will be placed in the captions of the corresponding photos/images (see below).

Central Deck Doors & Windows: First Step, the walls of the central deck are masked with tape

Central Deck Doors & Windows: Second, primer is airbrushed onto the doors and windows

Central Deck Doors & Windows: Third, the masking tape is removed from the walls

Central Deck Doors & Windows: Fourth, the walls are weathered with enamel paints while the doors and windows were painted using acrylic paints

Central Deck Doors & Windows: Fifth Step, a zoomed out view showing the rest of the ship's deck after being weathered using enamel paints

 By far the hardest part to paint was the ship's side hull. The difficulty lay in the fact that the original plastic part was molded in just one color. In terms of color accuracy, the side hull has at least three different colors located on many different sections of that single part. So what entailed was an extremely tedious and time-consuming process of masking, painting, re-masking different section, painting that, rinse and repeat (see below).

Side Hulls of Going Merry: First Step, the entire side hull is airbrushed with primer

Side Hulls of Going Merry: Second, 'non-wood' sections of the hull are masked with tape

Side Hulls of Going Merry: Third, 'wood' sections of the hull are airbrushed with brown lacquer paint

Side Hulls of Going Merry: Fourth, after paint on 'wood' sections have dried overnight, it is the turn of the 'non-metal' sections of the hull to be masked with tape

Side Hulls of Going Merry: Fifth, the exposed 'metal' sections are airbrushed with black primer

Side Hulls of Going Merry: Sixth, primed 'metal' sections are airbrushed with metallic lacquer paint

Side Hulls of Going Merry: Seventh, after painted 'metal' sections are dry, the masking tape is removed

Side Hulls of Going Merry: Eighth, now the non-white (wood & metal) sections are masked with tape

Side Hulls of Going Merry: Ninth, white sections of the ship are airbrushed with white lacquer paint

Side Hulls of Going Merry: Tenth, once paint on the white sections are dry, the masking tape is removed

Side Hulls of Going Merry: Eleventh, all sections of the side hull were either panel-lined or weathered with enamel paints

Side Hulls of Going Merry: Twelfth, other side of the hulls were airbrushed with white lacquer paint

Side Hulls of Going Merry: Thirteenth Step, side hulls fully painted, panel-lined, and weathered

 A similar process was carried out for the rear section of the hull and the rudder, hence below are photos of the completed process. One great characteristics of this kit was the wood grain texture molded onto the wood parts. Caveat being the parts will need to be painted in order to bring out the wood texture.

Bottom Hull of the Going Merry: Painted with lacquer paints and weathered with enamel paints

Rudder & Rear Hull of the Going Merry: Painted with lacquer paints and weathered with enamel paints

Rudder & Bottom/Rear Hull of the Going Merry: Materials used were mahogany, wood brown, and white lacquer paints; with panel-lining/weathering done using either black or dark brown enamel paints

 Below are all the hull sections of the Going Merry fully painted.

Going Merry Hull & Rudder [Completed]: Fully-painted, lightly weathered, and panel-lined

 Meanwhile, the display stand/base also required painting because the original molded-in metallic color looked horribly toy-like and plasticky. To overcome those issues, the 'wood' sections were painted a dark mahogany brown while the 'metal' sections were painted using a metallic gold lacquer paint (see below).

Going Merry Display Stand/Base: Parts were primed with black primer

Going Merry Display Stand/Base: Here the 'gold' sections were painted with metallic lacquer paint

Going Merry Display Stand/Base: Non-metallic sections were painted mahogany brown (not shown was the process of masking off the 'gold' sections prior to airbrushing with brown paint)

 For the small brown shed on the rear deck of the Going Merry. These parts underwent the same process as the walls, windows, and doors surrounding the central deck (see below).

Small Shed on Rear Deck: First Step, the walls of the shed are masked with tape leaving only the windows and door frame exposed

Small Shed on Rear Deck: Second, primer was airbrushed onto the exposed (i.e. not masked) parts

Small Shed on Rear Deck: Third, masking tape was removed to allow painting process to begin

Small Shed on Rear Deck: Fourth Step, windows (painted panes with sky blue & frames with gold acrylics); door frame (painted with white & metal acrylics); walls (weathered/panel-lined with dark brown enamels)

 If you look closely at the sprues above this paragraph, you should be able to see the unpainted parts for miscellaneous items like a crate, barrel, mobile cannon, anchor, and what seems to be a contraption that is holding a length of rope with two hooks at the end. Meanwhile, below are images of the paint job results these small items. Work done comprised the painting of  the stock of the anchor with brown acrylic paint; panel-lining the cannons with black enamel paint; and painting any 'metal' sections of the parts with metallic gunmetal acrylic paint.

Going Merry's anchor/rope (stock was painted with brown acrylics, and whole anchor give a black wash), main and side fixed cannons (panel-lined with black enamels), 

Going Merry's wooden crate (panel-lined with dark brown enamels), wooden barrel, etc. (panel-lined similarly to crate; 'metal' parts painted with acrylics), cannon (panel-lined with black enamel paint) 

 For both the main/secondary sails and masts, it was time to bring out the masking tape again. Lots of masking was required to paint, panel-line, and weather the masts. However, only the secondary sail required masking as red stripes needed to be painted on it. The main sail retained its original semi-opaque pearl-like sheen, and the only work done on it was to apply a water decal of the Straw Hat Pirate symbol. It is an extremely large water decal and required lots of patience to enable it to stick onto the main sail successfully without folding in on itself. Details of the work done are in the captions below.

Going Merry Main Mast/Flag & Crow's Nest: First Step, mast is masked with tape before priming

Going Merry Main Mast/Flag & Crow's Nest: Second, crow's nest is weathered/panel-lined with brown enamels; ropes around mast is painted with dark brown lacquers; flag painted with black lacquer paint

Going Merry Main Mast/Flag & Crow's Nest: Third Step, masking tape removed to allow the mast to be weathered/panel-lined with brown enamel paint, and the flag is given a pirate symbol water decal

Going Merry Main Sail & Yard: Parts in their original state i.e. unpainted and without decals

Going Merry Main Sail & Yard: Parts in their original state i.e. unpainted and without decals

Going Merry Main Sail & Yard: Sail has a pirate symbol water decal; while the yard was weathered with brown enamel paint, and the ropes around it painted with dark brown lacquer paint

 As alluded to earlier, more work was required on the secondary sail (see below). Masking was required to paint the red stripes without affecting the non-red stripes of the sail. As for the secondary yard, the work done was similar to what was done for the main yard. Masking was also required to first paint the ropes around the yard without affecting the yard itself. Once the masking tape was removed, then the yard was panel-lined and weathered with brown color while the ropes were given a wash of dark brown.

Going Merry Main Sail & Yard: First Step, sections of the main sail that is to remain in its original molded-in color as well as sections of the yard without ropes around it are covered with masking tape 

Going Merry Main Sail & Yard: Second, alternate strips of the main sail is airbrushed with a custom mix of red lacquer paints; and ropes around yard is airbrushed with a dark brown lacquer paint

Going Merry Main Sail & Yard: Third, panting completed (note: additional painting done on 'metal' parts of the sail with acrylics, and yard weathered with brown enamels)

 Apart from the main sail, the Straw Hat Pirates symbol can also be found on two flags.

Going Merry Secondary Mast/Flag: First Step, mast is masked with tape before priming

Going Merry Secondary Mast/Flag: Second, ropes around mast is painted in a dark brown lacquer color, while the flag is painted in black lacquer paint

Going Merry Secondary Mast/Flag: Third Step, the secondary mast and flag after painting is complete and water decals have been applied

 Below are some photos focusing on the pirate symbol water decals used on the main and secondary flags: displaying the painted flags before and after the decals had been applied.

Pirate symbol water decals provided together with the kit, and both the flags 

Main flag (left) and secondary flag (right) with pirate symbol water decals already applied

Main flag (left) and secondary flag (right) with pirate symbol water decals (reverse view)

 As the painting process neared completion, there were two unique parts to work on, for different reasons. First, there was the orange trees. Yes you heard right, the Going Merry has actual orange tress planted on its deck. Long story short, go watch the anime to understand why orange trees are so important to one of the pirate crew's backstory. Secondly, the detail of having rigging/rope parts to attach onto the ship is a great idea. Now one would expect it if it were a model kit of a real life ship, but to have such details in a make-believe anime pirate ship just makes it look that much better!

Going Merry Rigging & Ropes: Before parts were painted with acrylics, and weathered with enamels

Going Merry Rigging & Ropes: Rigging/ropes were weathered with dark brown enamels while the metal parts at the end of the rigging/ropes were painted with metallic acrylic paint

Orange Trees on Going Merry: Before parts were painted with acrylics, and weathered with enamels

Orange Trees on Going Merry: Oranges were painted with acrylics, while the leaves were weathered with a darker green enamel paint

 Finally it was down to the figurehead of the ship, and the rest of its railings. Work on them didn't take too long as there wasn't any masking needed (see captions on images below for details of work done).

Ram Horns on Going Merry's Figurehead: Plastic parts in their original molded-in color

Ram Horns on Going Merry's Figurehead: Horns were panel-lined with black enamel paint

Railings & Ram's Head on Going Merry's Figurehead: Parts in their original molded-in color

Railings & Ram's Head on Going Merry's Figurehead: Parts panel-lined with gray enamel paint, while eye on the ram's head was painted in black with acrylics

 As you can see from the photos above, the painting process for a scale model kit can sometimes be a lengthy affair. If you want to watch the video of the assembly process, please check out the video below that can also be found in the FourEyedMonster Miniatures YouTube Channel.

  Phew! This was a super long post. If you have stuck with us until now ... thank you! Hopefully this blog post gives you an idea of the work needed in any commission work related to scale model kits or miniature figurines. Thank you again so much for watching. Be well, and be happy!