Welcome to Miss Dream’s Moonie of the Month corner! Each month we’ll feature a creator in the Sailor Moon community – an artist, cosplayer, graphics editor, youtuber, fanfic writer, anyone making things for other Moonies to enjoy. We’ll give you a little bio on that person, link you to everywhere you can find their work, and do a mini interview.

This month’s Moonie is model kit painter Leona!

All About Leona

Leona’s first garage kit.

It was not until 2006 that her then 6 year boyfriend broke up with her and caused her to go into a deep depression. During that time she stumbled upon an Eternal Sailor Moon figure on ebay and purchased it, thinking it was already painted, only to receive an unassembled, unpainted model. She didn’t think much about it at that time, so she just decided to take out her old paints and brushes and start painting it herself. This re-awakened her love for painting and crafting and helped greatly to overcome her depression. She decided to fully dive into this model painting hobby and find any and all information she could about how to paint and assemble these kits. She taught herself her craft over the years, always striving to make each figure better than the last – and the rest as they say, is history.

Check out Leona’s website and Youtube channel for photos of her finished work, in-progress shots and videos, and amazing tutorials! You can also find her work on social media. In addition to Sailor Moon, she paints figures from tons of other shows! Leona’s work extends beyond just garage kits – check out her awesome work upgrading the compact gashapons as well!

Leona’s Work

All images repost with permission. Check out her website for full HD glory!

A Mini Interview with Leona

1. How and when did you first discover Sailor Moon?
It was back in 1996 when I was 13, I used to watch Saturday morning cartoons (when they still existed) so I would wake up really early on that day. I remember that my cartoons were canceled because of some event I can’t remember, so I started to channel surf and there was a channel I stumbled on, TV Azteca, which was one of the main national channels here, and there was this young woman with a bunch of kids around her presenting this new “series” and that’s when the very first episode of Sailor Moon aired in Mexico! I think it was destiny, what were the odds of me finding this show and also the first episode!? All I ever watched was American cartoons and never tuned into any Spanish channels. I was shocked at the animation style and music of this “cartoon” and when I saw Usagi’s intro, I couldn’t help but identify so much with her! She was 14, I was turning 14 in a couple of months, the wish to fall in love and get our first kiss was mutual, I was hooked! After that, I never missed a single episode.

2. Who is your favorite SM character?
It’s hard for me to decide which one is my favorite! But if I have to choose, I would say Sailor Saturn, I tend to like obscure or characters that are not on screen that often but tend to have amazing abilities or powers, in Saturn’s case, the power to destroy a whole world is something that I think is super badass! The whole Messiah of Silence thing really hooked me and I was in shock when I saw that a Sailor was this “horrible” being in Rei’s premonition that would destroy them all.

3. What’s your favorite SM figure you’ve painted so far?
It’s a hard choice for me! I LOVED how my second Sailor Saturn kit came out, but I also love one of my latest Super Sailor Moon kits I completed some months back.

4. If you were a magical girl what would your superpower be?
I would say a combination of telekinesis and mind reading lol, what better power to move anything with your mind and also know what the enemy is thinking to be one step ahead.

5. What are your favorite characters to paint outside of the SM universe?
My favorite characters are those that are sculpted with a ton of details as I love to apply shadings to everything to make it look more alive. I have several kits that I’d love to paint, for example, Asuna and Kirito from SAO. I also love “kawaii” characters like the ones from Key Visual. My favorite characters have to be Ayu Tsukimiya and Misuzu Kamio, but by far my #1 choice of characters to paint would be Mizuho Kazami from Onegai Teacher. I rarely dislike kits except when they’re overrated like Evangelion and Fate series figures.

6. What’s the hardest part about working on model kits? Any advice for newbies?
I’d say the hardest part about working with kits would be to accept that not all projects you finish will be perfect. Working with kits becomes very easy as you acquire and polish skills. I think I can say that if you don’t have patience, you’ll need to learn to it. Once you work with your third or fourth kit, you get the hang of the steps that you need to follow, from sanding, to pinning, puttying and then sanding again, priming and painting, the process doesn’t change, the way you improve your skills to do these steps is the most important thing to learn. The best advice I can give a newbie wanting to dive into the hobby is don’t be afraid to screw up! My mother always said that you learn from your mistakes, and she was right, I messed up a lot when I started, even after a few years in, but with a little time and patience, you can reach any skill level for modeling if you put your mind to it.

Closing

“Thank you so much for the opportunity to be featured here on your site! I remember back in the day when you guys first started your scanlations, I used to be an avid reader when I was still too broke to buy the actual physical mangas (^^;), I never though I’d get to be more than just a reader and it’s an honor to be here :)

If anybody would like to learn more about model kits, I invite you to follow me on social media and take a tour at my youtube channel, I’ve uploaded a lot of videos with all the knowledge I gained over the years so that everything can be found in a single place. Even if you’re not into painting yourself, I also post videos of how I paint a figure from start to end, so you can say that you can watch me paint ;)”

What are you waiting for? Go check out Leona’s youtube channel and social media right now! And if you want to be featured or know someone who you’d love to see featured in a future Moonie of the Month corner, contact us!