Dark Peko

The stock, unaltered Pekora! Pictured is the regular ole figma Usada Pekora, fresh outta the box.

Her default outfit is very bright. As I was making a plan for this figure, I figured (heh) black and red would be appropriate instead of her normal white and blue. Get it? They're like, opposites.

Disassembled, cleaned, and drying out. I kinda just ripped this bitch to pieces. Anything that wasn't supposed to be removed can just be glued back in place once we're done.

My standard practice of delicately mounting every piece on either alligator clips or toothpicks. Neverlia cameo in the background.

I find that mounting putty (like fun tack) makes for a pretty decent masking tool. 

Mounting putty being used to cover Peko's skin. I am NOT in the business of repainting skin tones. Not yet, anyway.

Don-chan gets extra special treatment to do a striped finish. 

The original plan was to leave the masked parts white, mostly so I wouldn't have to repaint his little face. While I ended up scrapping the white stripes in the end, this masking job still helped get solid lines. You'll see later, don't worry.

The train stops at Primerville first to pick up some beautiful shades of grey. 

This is only the 2nd time I've used a grey primer instead of my regular white. I didn't really see a difference overall, good or bad. 

Have you ever considered using electrical tape for masking? I can tell you from personal experience that electrical tape was a pretty poor choice.

I used electrical tape to block off some stripes on 1 of her legs. It made for clean, sharp lines but left behind an ungodly amount of residue.

You can make out a bit of the residue on these skirt parts, specifically on the shiny black areas. You can also see where the masking was a little off, resulting in a lot of unpainted skirt. 

Even with some residue stuck on the red parts, the stripes look good! Good enough to not redo them, at least.

The outcome of striped Don-Chan. The red and white combo was very 'Christmas" or "candy cane." It did not fit the vibe. Red and purple, tho? It fits the theme.

With the base coats of her outfit all done, it's time to start painting Peko's hair.

I used more mounting putty to block out the faceplate receiver. The inside of her noggin is still clean and changing out faceplates still works well, as intended.

I had originally painted the twin tail joints purple to match her hair but almost immediately destroyed the paintjob with one small movement. Painting joints is not one of my fortes.

This is a HUGE improvement over the first attempt. This photo was taken right after removing the joints from the dye bath and haven't been washed yet but damn are they dark.

After rinsing and drying the joints, we're left with this interesting two tone design. One side is very, very dark while the other turned into a dark blueish-green. I consider this acceptable.

They may not match the hair but it's a lot better than bright white.

A tale of two Pekos.

What's under the lid?

A massacre.

If you have a warmer on your stovetop, putting parts in a small heat resistant bowl for a few minutes on low heat will help with reseating joints.

Remember her?

This is her now. Feel old yet?

Borrowing the umbrella from figma #215, Kanzaki Ranko.

I tried very hard to make a clean Don-chan face. It's larger than the old one but I think it came out pretty good!

Using the hair bows from figma #215, I was able to cover most of the off-colored joints. Cute!

The hair is shades of purples with some pink dry brushing.

For the most part, I followed the highlight patterns from her stock hair colors.

From behind, you can still see parts of the hair joints but the red bows cover quite a lot. Regardless, I don't think the color of the joints is too bad. I've seen worse color matching on official figma releases.

Cuffs have been painted the same shade of red I mixed for the other elements of her outfit. I was thinking about doing more for the shoes but simple is often the best way.

Peko's striped leg turned out pretty nice. I ran into many issues with clear coat (mostly due to some tape residue), but overall I'm quite happy with the end result.

Some fun details on the rear.

As you may have noticed, Pekora's dress is a mix-match of blacks and purples, split down the middle; I had fun with this one.

Some close ups so you can see my errors and sloppiness.

I painted her rocket launcher as well. An attempt to make it a bit more realistic while retaining the preexisting orange parts.