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Volks Saber GET!!!I’m probably the last person to use up his/her prize from the the Dannychoo “your room” giveaway but at last, my prize has arrived!!! The saber Resin kit from volks!!! Many, many thanks to Johnson Huang over at Garage Kit Heaven for posting abour her when the preorders came up. Had it not been for that post, I might have missed her all together!
Mirei-San posing with the box. I’m not sure why but after I had completed a few more pressing matters, I felt compelled to to a preliminary build (basically, removing the largest bits of flash and piecing the parts together temporarily) of the kit right then and there. so, how does she look? GORGEOUS!!!
The pose is based off the end of the Fate route I believe, when Saber is saying her goodbyes to Shiro. Some bigger fate (or saber) fan will need to expand or correct me on that.
Personally, I prefer her hair tied up but I might try and make is so that the 2 are interchangeable. But I have to say that I really do love this kit. Saber in her battle clothes sans armour has always been my favourite rendition of her so I’m really glad I got this kit. The only really weird thing is that the resin parts have a red hue to their colour. not sure why either… I also received a membership card for something from Volks. One of these days, I might sit down and try and figure out what it’s for. Anyone have any idea (to save me the bother)?
A part of me really wants to drop everything and just work on her straight away, but alas that is not to be. She’s now in my “to do” pile! With any luck, she might be done by late 2010! orz On another note, E2046 have recently finished their summer 2009 GK painting competition. Worth checking out although I don’t really agree with the winner of the senior figure category. I much prefer the Tokiha Mai kit. They blocked saving the pics on the site so you’ll have to click on the link to check them out. 14 Comments |
The Kombine
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I have purchased items from Volks International before but I never got a card like that, ah wait, now I remember reading about Volks member points being redeemable for something. You collect points for buying items from Volks and have it shipped locally in Japan, so it doesn’t work for International customer.
Nice Saber resin, the scene is exactly what you said, it’s the end of Fate route where they parted and Saber let her hair down.
Woo congratz! Epic get! So how much assembly did you have to put Saber together? It looks like it’s pretty much done except for the painting.
Woooo nice get!
May be that card can be used to order certain limited items from Volks. Or when there’s a pre order ot other item, you might have the right to get the first offer.
@Woflheinrich & pus2meong: Thanks for the info on the card. If there are redeemable stuff, then I might be able to get it anyway since they didn’t ship internationally for Saber either (had to use tenso.com) but I have other methods as well. Guess I’ll have to be on the lookout on the site and see.
@lightningsabre: Would you believe it took me about 10 minutes? I just took off the large parts of excess resin which were blocking the build and used masking tape to put them together. I do it for almost all my resin kits at first to get a feel for it.
still need to sand the cut marks and remove mroe resin before she’s ready for paint.
Looks like the kit is pretty clean, not a whole lot to work on before priming and painting. I hope the same could be said for mine though. Currently deciding to strip some parts and reprime, I probably already spent more on her than if I were to get the completed one from Gathering -_-.
I seriously doubt that… Gathering is incredibly overpriced unless you go for the really complex kist like Urd & world of elegance or one of the vispo offerings.
And the tagline for this Volks line is Try-GK. Looks like they try to do everything they can to make it as painless as possible with instructions to help you along the way. They even give water decals for the eyes!!! No eye painting!!!!!
I can’t wait to start working on mine! It’s also great to know Volks will still be producing more GK’s(I was getting a bit worried). It would be better though if Volks let HLJ or Hobbysearch stock some of the kits so we don’t have to go through proxy services
Personally, I’m more inpressed at the lengths they went to in order to assist the buyer when building it. That Try-GK line is more than just a tag!! Looks like they’re actively trying to get people into the hobby, which can only be a good thing. But I really doubt they will change their xenophobic tendancies and let their items be shipped worldwide without a proxy.
Hey man, how much did you spend in total on the kit? I get mine from e2046, but I’m curious about the difference in quality and price.. I have this one on pre-order.
I’ve never bought a Thai kit, but e2046’s kits fit the description… crumbly, bad fits etc.. .
I do buy their Gathering kits, not just because they do a better job than me (although not much), but at least I get finished kits this way ;P Also, I don’t like the PVC texture so I’d rather have the resin versions.
hmm, it was a while ago but I bought the kit directly from volks for 10,000yen. Which was around the £65 mark at the time.
I have done a couple of e2046 recasts in the past and they aren’t quite as bad as thai recasts (or rather what I have heard about them). The fits aren’t great but they are decent enough to work without too much extra effort, maybe just some putty to cover small gaps. The resin is pretty solid too.
But official kits are just much nicer to work on so I go for those when possible.
And I know what you mean about the gathering line. I’ve bought 2 from them but I doubt I’ll get any more. I’ve been improving over time so I think I’ll be able to surpass them eventually. At the moment, there are things which they do better and some things I do better.
So… I received my Saber Volks today from e2046.. I nearly cried! She’s so beautiful, if recasts can be this good, I see no reason to buy original. They copied the manual completely (though I can’t read it), and all the pieces fit perfectly. I’m not even going to pin her. After all the terrible recasts I’ve been receiving from E, this is finally my reward! The answer is simply to buy their first batch recasts, and don’t bother with old ones recasted from crappy molds. I do think that E sometimes just resells cheap Thai stuff.
I’m debating to get Asuka with motorcycle 2 from them (Gathering), because that’s a level that I’m not sure I can reach, if ever.
I’d be careful where you say things like that. I personally don’t care. If someone wants to buy recasts over originals, that’s their business but other members of the community will not take such words kindly…
But Saber is probably not the best choice to make such a decision as the original was an incredibly clean kit and all the parts fit perfectly initially. No pins required there either. Had the E2046 version not been good, that would raise some serious doubts about their products. The original was simply too well made! If the E version wasn’t at least good, then I would say they’re not worth mentioning.
But when I compare my few E kits of Wonderfestival items to other WF originals, the difference is much greater.
There are other things to note as well, such as how the makers at E often sand down seam lines, hard!! at times, it’s fine, it just leaves large parts looking flat but that can be easily fixed. The problem arises when they do the same on high detail kits and essentially destroy the detail underneath because they sand the parts too hard.
And, of course, there’s the whole moral thing about supporting the sculptor of the original works.
I never understood why people like the Asuka with bike 2 so much. Personally, I think the first one is much better, which is why I bought one! Asuka herself isn’t that complex but the motorbike could cause issues…
But in any case, let me know how Saber turns out. I’m always interested in seeing other peoples works on kits I like.
I worked on Saber a bit, and while she’s very good, sadly, the skirtparts didn’t fit properly together. I wonder why they made two seperate parts of it in the first place.
E2046’s sanding hasn’t really bothered me so far. E’s received alot of flak in the past. There are huge threads on a few forums about how they ripped off people and how bad they secretly were, also in regard to their employees.
I wouldn’t mind buying original WF kits, but they’re just very expensive, and nearly impossible to get. The Japanese should just offer their products in English, for an international audience.
I like both Asuka’s, but can’t get the original anymore. $260 is just too much for a kit, so I’m not getting it ;-)
The skirt is probably in 2 pieces to conserve space. Molding and packaging it as 1 large piece would have meant that it would take up a tonne of space, both in the bag and mold.
I’ve not had any particularly bad experiences with E, but that being said, I would only use them as an absolute last resort. I just prefer having originals, even if they are more expensive and difficult to obtain.
It sounds cliche but you really do get what you pay for. It’s not so evident on a kit like saber but in general, original kits are far easier to work with than even the E recasts. I spend far less time cleaning up the parts and get the the painting much faster on originals. There are some japanese sellers who are willing to ship to the west but most do require a little legwork and trawling thru the auction sites (which in turn, require at least a little knowledge of japanese)
But I do agree that Vispo kits are a little too expensive!!