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Silvia

April 10, 2006 on 8:51 pm

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Introduction

Scale
1/6
Sculptor
Yutaka Ishimoto
Maker
Akagiya
Completed
7/99
Parts
9
Retail
7800yen

This is my first non-anime human subject. I had a long history with this kit. I saw it on my first days of modelling, but I didn’t like it back then because the pictures of her wasn’t so great. Then one day someone on the gremlins mailing list hyped about this kit, so I had to buy her. I got it first from Starwars Emporium… what a mistake, not only did I get a recast but a bad one. Apparently the English recaster resculpted her long flowing hair on the back with a ponytail and renamed her “Stool pigeon”. I actually like the pony tail better, but the casting is not great. A year later I found an original sculpt at a good price and I had to try again! This time the cast is tons better and after she’s done… I think this is one of my most beloved kit. The sculptor really did a great job and I’d like to know his name. Since then I bought all the commercially available kits from the sculptor.

Don’t pay for bootlegs from EBay or anywhere else! Get the original (at about $78) from the Pink Doll’s Gallery.

I still like short hair better, and the sculptor did a wonderful job on the back, didn’t want to obscure it by having the long hair, so I sawed off the hair to keep it trimmed nice and neat. What do you think?

This is another marvelous sculpture… it looks different from different angles.

Kit Review Seam lines: ?/5 Pinholes: ?/5 Casting: ?/5 Fit: ?/5 Part Break: ?/5 Help

Parts: back hair, body, l&r arms & legs, stool top, l&r.

Casting is very clean. The latex boots have a groove running in the middle as part of the boot, and the mold line is running alone it… no clean up! Well, a little. Same goes for the arms. Just needed to be extra careful about the rib cage; a mold line runs thru it and the relief there was quite shallow, so I had to be careful not to remove the relief. No fit problem to speak of… all parting lines are hidden inside clothings. The only problem is the fit between Silvia and the stool… it is nearly impossible to get her to sit flat on the stool because the boots and the hands are in the way.

BuildingSawing the hair was a lot of fun, but putting it back to the right shape is another. Had to resculpt some groove back, and in order the sawed off surface doesn’t look flat, I glued saw dust on it… kind of works.

Painting – initially I thought the skintone is too pinkish, but after readjusting shades with artist oil everything comes out just right. Doing shades with such a good sculpture is really a pleasure. The boots and gloves are painted with Payne’s gray with Mars black as shadow, and finished with a couple of future floor wax for that glossy latex look.

Disasters: I tried to readjust the space between the stool and Silvia because that space was ridiculously wide… it wasn’t that way in test fitting. Anyway since I pinned her on the stool already, pulling them apart is extremely difficult, and resulted in the stool breaking up into 2 pieces…

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  1. I think this is my favorite among all your pieces. First of all, this is an amazing figure, a fantastic sculpt. There’s something transfixing about this girl’s pose and expression.

    Your treatment is really superb, too. And you’re right–she looks better-hotter-with short hair. Long hair would just cover up the great sculpt of her back.

    I have this kit but am somewhat awed by the idea of painting it. Not yet, I tell myself, I have to get a little more experience. How many other copies of this kit are sitting on guys’ benches, while they say the same thing?

    A fantastic job, Cody, really life-like!

    Comment by Brad James — February 24th, 2007 at 7:08 pm


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