Hey guys!
I'm super excited to finally be in a spot to put a kit together, and to put the plans for a design I've had for a while in to action, so I'm gonna document it all and share it, now that I've got all of my details sorted.
For a little bit of background: I had an idea for some fairly simple, block coloured designs based off Pokemon, taking the idea from wallpapers in that style. A fairly simple artstyle ended up giving me a bunch of mockups that were nice and interesting, but not too busy, and that would be fairly easy to paint. Eventually, after a bunch of culling ideas because they didn't turn out great in mockups, or because I wanted to use them for grander plans (Multiscale kits will happen one day I'm sure...) I decided on an MB-1 kit (because I need a Mockingbird in my collection somehow,) and using Krookodile as my themed Pokemon.
EDIT: Updated the mockup to represent the Grey on the front better. It was originally darker, but with the paints I'm using it will need to be lighter. It does also make the outlines on everything a little cleaner and sharper looking though too.
I did talk to Adam, and I got my kit customised too. So we've got a Mahogany body, Ebony fretboard, black hardware, and no inlays (but I will be looking in to getting some Sharkfins added at a later date).
There are a couple of little gripes I have with the kit, the neck pocket is on the large side, asking for no inlays resulted in no side dots, and the glue joins in the body are a little thick. Of course all of these can be worked around (well the glue will just be painted over so no visual damage done there) but it does add a bit more work to it.
I also bought a couple of Push-Pull pots to add some splitting, but it turns out the pickups aren't 4-wire, so I might have to get some new pups a little sooner than I planned (but that will have to wait a bit because I'm still quite undecided on that front...) Oh and the Ebony fretboard was a little lighter than I'd hoped/planned, but it also has light streak down the whole fretboard, and I really like the look of it. So no complaints overall for that.
Now for my planned modifications: Carving the heel joint to help out the upper fret access, shaving away the back of the top horn to make it a little more comfy and less stabby, and a non-standard-for-MBs/LPs wiring scheme (1V, 2T, with Push-Pulls, I originally planned for individual coil taps, but I might make it a Master tap, and either Master Phase or Series/Parallel).
And for Finishes: I'm going for rattle cans to do the body and headstock, purely because this seems like the simplest, and easiest way to get the painting done, plus I have found the colours I need, and a Tru-Oil finish on the back of the neck, because that also seems like the easiest solution! (As well as apparently being one of the best)
And I think that's about all I have to say. I've done some work on it before posting anything because I got excited, and also because I didn't have all of my plans with the finish totally sorted, but everything is started now. And finally: here's a bunch of pictures to accompany the text wall
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