Introduction Scale 1/5 Sculptor WooD Maker Musashiya Completed 3/1/01 Parts 37 Retail 14000yen Another fantastic rendition of my favorite ninja girl Shiki by WooD. The dynamic pose shows her in a sword playing move, versus the static pose of his first sculpt (which I also built.) Each Shiki has a different atmosphere, but I've got to say this dynamic version has much better body flow. I'm not sure why people aren't very thrilled about the kit (didn't seem to sell very well and not prominently featured in magazines), to me it's just one of the best anime garage kits. That's why she's my homepage's cover girl, and you also see my incorrect lighting CG of her :) Shiki literally means "color" in japanese, and it suggests her devilish beauty as a half evil assassin; I tried to present this aspect of her in this build up. It's hard to take pictures of her face though, since she's trying to hide it :)   Kit Review Seam lines: 4/5   Pinholes:2/5   Casting: 3/5   Fit: 4/5   Part Break: 5/5   Help Musashiya really needs to work on their casting; I think they use some sort of low density soft resin which gives you soft resin that's easy to work with, but riddled with pinholes. She has a lot of pinholes on some of the bigger pieces and it was tedious to fill them. This kit is littered with parts and is definitely not for beginners. Ths picture shows the parts layout. Parts are mostly ok except the rings on the sword - they are quite screwed up (e.g. the "inner rings" are not really circles) and requires a lot of trimming to fit the sword edges. The kit was marketed as 1/5, but it's more like 1/5.5, since it's bigger than the static Shiki, but nowhere as big as any of my 1/5 kits. While I'm not totally happy about this practice, it could be a blessing in disguise due to the balancing issue. The kit comes with a part that fits under the sole of the right foot to anchor her, but it doesn't look natural and who needs that if you pin with steel :)   Building She takes the most time in recent memory to finish, and I applied a lot of new techniques on her.. The surface preparation was a lot of work but painting was even more time consuming. After reading a lot about iridescent and interference colors I gave it a try on her, using PearlEx color pigments by Jacquer... they're fantastic! Interference colors only give you color at a certain angle, so depending on the amount you use, you can create a silky surface, or a subdued layer with very interesting reflected colors. For example I used interference violet on Shiki's hair, and though in general the hair is dark grey, you see some violet highlights. That fits nicely with the mysterious aspect of the character. I also mix interference green with the blue on her outfit to give it a silky effect, and a greenish highlight on her suit. You can do a number of rather interesting things with the pigment, for example I mixed it with oil drying agent and dry brush it on. This helps bring life to areas with large monotonus colors (like her kimono). Even with shading, you still get a piece of cloth that's dark grey. But with these strange highlights you can see some rather interesting variations. I used oil to create Shiki's trademark tattoo that runs throughout her whole body. The tattoo is outlined on the kit, which is both a good and a bad thing - good because you have guide on where to paint stuff in, but bad because it means the back is not smooth at all, and it's an imperfection on the kit that I've to live with. May be I can fill them with some clear putty, or epoxy? Anyway, the tattoo was a lot of work as I had to draw a smooth layer of color via blending, and oil is not known for self-leveling property. I also did highlights and shadows on the tattoo; most Japanese tattoos are shaded and looks much better. Finally, I mixed super clear with a little of my flesh tone to create a transparent flesh color, which I use to seal the tattoo and also makes it appear under the skin. This tattoo is more subdued that the one I did for the static Shiki, which one do you like better? Another challenge was to create realistic hair for her. Shiki is one of those figures that can either be considered anime or real. To create realistic stray hair for her I tried using eyelashes sold in cosmetic sections of Walmart. They are really excellent to work with, as they are gathered in bundles. I bought the set with the longest lashes, and cut the amount I needed. The hair is also naturally curved, which is convenient for most placements of hair, but of course there are cases where you want straight ones. I'd suggest putting the lashes between dictionary pages to straighten them out; I wasn't very successul in un-curling them. To apply I cut a bundle and grab the root with a forcep, and run my knife sideways around the root. This will spread the hair apart. The root also has some glue, but I used CA for extra security. You need to be careful if you use those liquid CA though, because they can run between hair via capillary action and ... well you know. The most insane thing I did with the eyelashes was to use them as eyelashes for her. It wasn't easy to glue an array of hair on such a tiny area, but I finally found a way - apply some superglue to the eyelid, and use the forcep to grab an array of hair the width of the eyelid, cut off, and glue them on to the eyelid. Then trim the lashes to the length you want afterwards. I rarely apply makeup to figures since I don't like them much on female figures, but Shiki needs them! I use cold purple with interference for her lips and mascara. For some inexplicable reason, Shiki looks a lot more evil with a mascara than not. There was a big disaster when I realize her face's skin tone is different from her body's... I can't explain how that happened since the skintone was the same! I tried fixing it with oil but wasn't happy with the result, so I tried airbrusing in the skintone over the existing one... one thing lead to another and I had to strip the face and repaint. Actually it wasn't too bad and now everything looks good. I used Mr. Metal Colors' Chrome Silver which are buffable for the swords, and buffed them with dremel cotton wheels. Unfortunately my priming mixture was too rough and I didn't smooth out the edges too well, so I had to do a lot of sanding, painting and rebuffing. A little imperfection however seems fine, since I probably don't want to end up with a toy-like, uniformly-shiny surface. To hold the kit on base, I used a 1/8 steel wire to hold her. Originally, I wanted to have the wire running parallel with the long sword on her feet, so that she looks completely off balance. However it seems that such a line would totally ruin the perception that she's standing on a sword, so I bent the steel wire and have it run vertical. I also saw another build up on Replicant 3 in which the wires run from underneath the skirt; I think that ruin the off-balanceness of the kit. Cutting thick steel was a big challenge; I could have gone with 1/8 brass wire may be. I used the cut-off wheel of my dremel to saw the steel wire off, but sparks fly and it wasn't safe without safety goggles. Ugh. I put her on a clear base to give a sense of her flying in mid air. I wish her sword would touch the ground however, since it makes more sense to her pose (possibility among impossibility?). But it's difficult to balance the kit with the base I've chosen should I adjust the location of the pin towards the center of the base. May be I'll move her over to a diorama base someday...