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It feels like forever since I did a proper “loot” post but then I guess it’s because my hobby doesn’t really allow for large orders at once. Usually I get one kit at a time and a loot post of just 1 unfinished kit is a bit sad… I also haven’t really bought many PVC figures for while since there haven’t been many which have caught my eye and the few which have were released months apart. But this was the first time I got a few figures in one go and, in a stroke of timing, I got them all the day before my birthday. Well, actually one came the day after cos I needed to go pick it up.
Now that I have Super Robot Wars Z2: Saisei Hen, maybe that will give me the impetus to complete Hakai Hen. It’s been sitting in my PSP for ages!! I couldn’t say no to the Charagumin Selvaria Bles from Volks, but I kinda wish I got the special Ruhm version instead (it was event exclusive). Erio caught my eye a while back and Cecilia Alcott is the first in the Armour Girls Project line. The main draw (for me) from the line is on her way though. And yes, I have already pre-ordered Laura Boudewig! As for Sheryl, do I even need to explain?
Here’s the 3 ladies out of their boxes. Sheryl was surprisingly small. She feels like 1/9 scale! Erio is a little odd in that she has a few balance issues and the material she’s made of is kinda rubbery and not as solid as higher quality figures. Cecilia herself isn’t too great but the Blue Tears is kinda cool. It’s just a shame that the parts won’t fit any other poseable figure line. There are also some major annoyances with the arm parts as well…
And here’s a very quick preliminary build for Selvaria. And while I do still love the pose (I think this is the best figure of her by far!) I can’t help but be a little disappointed by the kit overall. I mean, what’s the point of making her a colour resin kit when the first thing she screams is “PAINT ME!!!”?
The kit needs a crapload of detailing and that’s only the start. I can’t help but feel that she was better off as a regular kit so they could have left the builder to their own devices. The kit would probably have been cheaper too! Still, she’s mine and that’s all that matters. I’ll be going to the MCM Expo in London this weekend (it’s kinda local and I get in for free!) so I might end up with a few more items but I doubt it. Next week will probably be the annual blog birthday post. How long has it been since I started writing now?
Well Damn…
I actually very nearly completed Hanekawa in time for this weeks post but after looking at her for an extended period of time, there was just something about her which I didn’t like. I narrowed it down to the eyes. Nothing particularly wrong with them (for once) but I just think that the expression looks a little off.
I’m going to try shifting the gaze a little more to the right, so a more ‘over the shoulder’ like look. Of course, that means I need to redo the whole thing so I’m still waiting for the new layer of enamel paint to dry so I can work on it again. I just hope that my instincts were right, otherwise this is pretty much a wasted exercise. At least she’s still on schedule, but something really didn’t sit well with me from the above pic…
Oops. Nearly forgot about this weeks post.
Well, there’s not much to update this time around. I finally added a base to the kit so she can now stand on her own and the body and hair is now almost completely finished. All that’s left are small parts, minor details and the eyes… Damn…
The arms are also done, but they won’t be staying put until I glue them on , and it’s not time for that yet. I need to redo some of the pink an the shirt as the paint was a bit uneven in some areas, and I need to add some of the trim. There was also a little problem with the hair as well…
The black looked too harsh for my liking so I put on some lilac underneath to give it a more purple-like effect while keeping a very dark hair colour but the front and back are a little too different now, so I’ll have to redo one to match the other. I think I’ll redo the back to match the front. I think the lighter look is better.
A full front shot shows off the effect I’m trying to get with the hair. I think it’s much better than just solid black. And I put the left arm on this time cos I could hold it in place. Not quite there yet but we’re getting there steadily. Should be finished in a week or so. Maybe even in time for next weeks post. Not 100% sure tho…
Do you know what one of the most annoying things which can happen while you’re working on a project is? Getting on a roll only to come to an abrupt stop because you’re lacking the correct paint!!! Guess what happened to me this week…
So, ultimately, I didn’t get anywhere near as much as I had hoped done because I was lacking some crucial paint for the job… I still managed to get some parts done though, but they’re all incomplete as I try to figure out what else needs to be done.
I think I’ll spray on a little very dark grey on the hair as It doesn’t look quite right as solid black, even though that is Hanekawas hair colour. The crimson colour on the collar and sleeves look to be right, but until I’m able to finish off the rest of the body, I won’t be certain…
Still, Progress is progress and I’m still hopeful that I’ll be able to finish her before the end of the month, in time for this blogs anniversary!
It feels like this blog is moving further away from the main reason I started it in the first place… Is it just me or has there been a significant drop in model kit posts? In any case, I haven’t stopped working on them and here’s a current workings post to prove it!!
Still need to do a little tidying up before I move onto the other sections, there’s a little chip damage here and there and I need to clean that off first. But I have to say that I really REALLY hate pinholes now. especially the invisible ones which don’t show up until after you’ve sprayed the undercoat on… There was a lot of that. I ended up spending an afternoon just getting rid of the damn things.
I also found out that, oddly, the weight bearing leg on this kit is actually the left leg. Normally, it’s the right unless the pose makes it really obvious like in KOS-MOS and my Ignis. Hanekawa is definitly going to need additional support though. She won’t stand at all on her own! Still, that’s not the worst of it. The worst thing is that I seem to be missing her glasses (assuming that she came with a pair). That’s just WRONG! She’s a meganekko dammit!! What good is a meganekko without megane??
I have to admit, this is the first season in a while where I’ve actually got shows I genuinely get a “must watch” feel for. Most shows get a certain “this looks like it’ll be good” vibe to them but rarely do I get a show which I feel that I will watch regardless. Next season will be even bigger by the looks of things but we’ll deal with that when we get there. But first, lets take a look back at what has just finished.
Best Show
Another
Despite knowing roughly what the show was going to be about, I didn’t really know what to expect. But what I got was a really great dark show with a good deal of mystery to it and kept making you guess what was going to happen next. Pacing was really good too and it didn’t show it’s hand to often. My only gripe was that it wasn’t a type of mystery show which allows you to play along by providing clues and whatnot along the way but the structure of the story would make that pretty difficult to do effectively so it played its cards close to its chest and revealed next to nothing, which I was OK with!
Rinne no Lagrange almost made it as it was many times better than I had expected (which was quite low) but it lost out due to the really abrupt and unsatisfactory “wait till season 2″ ending…
[runners up: Rinne no Lagrange]
Continue reading Anime Roundup: Spring 2012
 
This was one of those things which had to be done. I’m still a little amazed that I have this game in my collection seeing as I played an early build back at the Eurogamer Expo last year and hated it with a level of hatred saved for only the most heinous of things.
My original intention was to gleefully ignore the game and let it sink as I was confident that it would. Then I read the reviews and, instead of a critical mauling, I found that some respectable publications, such as Eurogamer and Edge magazine were giving the game very high scores and praising the game while others fell in line with what I was expecting. It was one of the most divisive games I have read up on for a long time and there seemed to be no middle ground. So, I decided to check it out as I was able to acquire a copy without having to pay full retail.
Now, if you’ve been keeping up with the game at all, then there’s nothing much to add. This game is basically Ridge Racer in name only. The mechanics are more in tune with burnout and Split/Second as opposed to the “pure racing” that Ridge Racer Represents. There’s also no Reiko Nagase so you KNOW that this isn’t a canon RR game now!! There are several events available in the game, all of which ram home the point that this is not anything like the Ridge Racer you know. The main one is domination, a standard racing fare with destructible environments, hidden shortcuts and the ability to take out (or “Frag”) rival cars. Next up we have Frag Race, where you just eliminate as many cars as you can in a set time limit; time trial, where the developers make weird stunt tracks with lots of ramps, half-pipes and god knows what else, pepper the track with tokens which shave seconds off your time and just tell you to get to the end within a certain time limit; Drift events, where you drive and perform drifts to accumulate points and extra time and finally, there’s just plain old racing (though this is not a common event).
The unofficial slogan for Unbounded seems to be “Forget everything you knew about Ridge Racer” but it may be more accurate to say forget everything you know about EVERY racing game! And that was part of the problem when I first played it and it seems many others have hit the same wall. The developers of RR:U actually changed the method of drifting in their game to the point where it’s pretty alien and there’s not a single tutorial or set of instructions to explain this in the game! If you haven’t played Unbounded yet, let me say this, if you try to play this game like any other racing game, you will fail HARD!!!
In Unbounded, the handbrake button has been changed to the “drift” buttons and to drift in the game requires you to hold down the button while simultaneously doing the usual steps of release accelerator -> brake -> accelerate like in almost every other arcade racing game. Except that the drift button also slows you down so you need to balance the presses with the other inputs to ensure that you don’t slow down too much or spin. And it’s VERY tricky to do well! My technique is basically down to lightly tap once on the brakes and then continue to tap the drift button repeatedly to maintain the drift and speed. It’s not perfect but it kinda works for most situations and the game is more enjoyable once you break from the ways you are used to. However, there are quite a few other problems which rear their head when you play…
Continue reading Mini Review: Ridge Racer Unbounded
Err… oops! Forgot to post this up! Nothing major for this weeks post but I thought I would show the next kit which I’ll be working on. T Systems Hanekawa Tsubasa from Bakemonogatari!
Nothing major to report at the moment. Just did some very basic pinning and flash removal. I haven’t even started on the parts cleanup yet. It’s very much just on the starting line right now but with my video game backlog drying up a little, I hope to be able to spend more time on my modelling than I have for the past few months! And I need to check to see if I have any display bases left. There’s no way this kit will stand on its own!! Should be fun, and a slight contrast to the easy-to-build Saber
Sometimes, simple is better! It’s kinda refreshing to be able to build a kit where the process is (almost) completely smooth and you don’t need to stress out over certain bits or how to get some effects right or just how to make parts not look like ass!! OK, KOS-MOS was almost like that, but at 1/4 scale, you’re acutely aware that any flaws are going to show up way more than in a 1/7 scale. Which is why finally getting around to building the try-gk saber from Volks after sitting on it for years was probably a good thing. And here’s how she turned out!
Continue reading The Continuation of the Dream…
Hurray for boobies!!! Wait… Nope, I got it right!
Seriously though, I am a pretty big fan of the Dead or Alive series. Afterall, I’ve played every version of the game and own all but DoA2 hardcore on PS2 and DoA for PS1. Heck, DoA dimensions is by far my most played game on my 3DS! Still, I have to say that the series did lose its lustre after the last few games. DoA Ultimate wasn’t too great and it introduced that stupid “forward + hold” to counter just mid kicks which I hated with a passion. DoA4 has cheating AI, a fickle counter system and just felt less accomplished than earlier titles. For me, the best in the series were (and still are) DoA2 and 3.
Dead or Alive Dimensions did a pretty good job of scratching a small itch but when Dead or Alive 5 was announced, I was cautiously optimistic. This is, afterall, the first original DoA game since the departure of Itagaki (Dimensions doesn’t count cos it was basically a remake) but my hands on with the Ninja Gaiden 3 demo at the Eurogamer expo last year left me with some major concerns on how the final version of NG3 will play, concerns which proved to be fact if the online reviews are to be believed. That leaves some big questions about how well Team Ninja will be able to handle DoA5.
I have the PS3 collectors edition of Ninja Gaiden 3 on the way but I was able to acquire a code for the 360 demo from a member of Destructoid (thanks, Chris Carter!) so I spent a while blasting through the demo which had Hayabusa and Hitomi as playable characters!
So, how was it?
Continue reading First Impressions: Dead or Alive 5 Demo
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