All the parts are painted (OK, the huge bow needs a little more work) but each time I look at her, I keep thinking that I need to do more!!

One thing is for certain though, Doing this kit has given me a real sense of appreciation for clean, well molded kits! Of course, blaming all my problems with this project on the state of the parts when I received her would just be making excuses but I’ll be glad to be working on something which has a better parts fit and won’t need so much sanding and puttying after this.

Here’s Sheryl without her Bow. In some ways I prefer her like this but it feels incomplete. Having sad that, the Bow did cause me all sorts of grief (and still is!)

The first problem is that it’s incredibly back heavy and Sheryl isn’t exactly the most balanced figure on the block anyway! The back tail also doesn’t touch the ground, which would have helped immensely if it did as it would then be a load bearing part. Heating it didn’t help matters as the part was too thick to bend to the desired shape! So in the end, I added a brass rod to provide the weight support.

Far from the most elegant method of dealing with the issue but on the plus side, it’s practically invisible from most angles.

Aside from the back-heavy issue, the 2 parts which make up the bow probably has the worst parts non-fit I have ever seen!! They just won’t stay together without 2 brass rods! They also rest on the skirt so there’s no leeway as to how they are positioned (hence the need for the brass rod above). Basically, there’s a massive gap and lots of putty needed!

I still haven’t stuck the last parts together and the hair needs to go on last as it goes over the bow.

Speaking of the hair…

I tried to make it look as though the hair goes from golden blonde at the top darkens into a more orange colour as you reach the tips. Not sure how well it turned out and it may not show up too well on the pics. The fact that my room lighting gives off a very yellow light doesn’t help matters either.

Regarding the arm which was giving me so much grief before, I eventually went for the “final solution” which probably caused as many issues as it fixed… Initially, I had hoped that wrapping some tape around the affected parts would be sufficient to protect the paint while I put the arm in, but after a few attempts, that obviously wasn’t going to work.

In the end, I hacked off the hand to enable me to slide the arm into the gap before gluing the hand back on afterwards.

I would have preferred to avoid this plan of action but it became quickly clear that it was the best choice without doing some irreparable damage. The reattachment wasn’t too bad but it’s not great either. I think the hand is at a slight angle. Not really noticeable but it does stick with me a little.

There’s also a slight gap and a little mess where the putty used to fix a larger gap distorted slightly when I put the arm through. Fixing it now would require me to break the whole kit apart, such is the way it was designed.

So aside from more cleanup, One thing I definitely need to do is differentiate between the Bow and the skirt. I’m planning to go over the bow with a very light pink and see what happens. Not sure if the hair needs another attempt tho, and the eyes look like they could do with some work as well…

What do you guys think?

But because of that setback, I get the chance to put some words on one of the most interesting titles to come out for this generation of consoles; Heavy Rain!

Now, where to begin? Heavy rain gives people plenty to talk about but it’s incredibly difficult to review. Yet at the same time, it’s not very often where you can distil a review into a single word…
In this case, the word is divisive!!!

First up, here are the facts. Heavy Rain is the new title by David Cage and his team, quantic dream. It can be considered a sort of spiritual successor to their previous title, Fahrenheit/Indigo prophecy (for simplicity sake, I’ll use Fahrenheit to reference the title as opposed to the American title from now on). Fahrenheit received a lot of critical praise when it came out on the PS2 and various other consoles. It was a strongly plot driven interactive story where players took the role of an unwitting killer and the police officers who are trying to catch him. Heavy rain plays very much like Fahrenheit but with the more irritating parts removed or refined but the underlying core of the game is still pretty much the same, which is part of the issue…

In heavy rain, you follow 4 characters who are looking for a serial kidnapper/killer who goes by the name of the origami killer. However, the story focuses most on Ethan Mars, a father whose son has become the latest victim of the origami killer. Now, I’m going to avoid all story based spoilers from here on out as without the story, there isn’t much point in going through heavy rain. It works hard to try and squeeze out the most natural choices out of you in various circumstances and adjusts the plot accordingly. As a result, foresight pretty much destroys it as you are no longer making natural decisions but rather ones which you think will get you your desired outcomes.

Now, heavy rain is easily one of the most interesting titles for this console generation because there is quite literally, nothing like it out there right now. It doesn’t fit into any of the regular categories and it pretty much does it’s own thing. To it’s credit, it does a lot of it well but it’s not without flaws, and some pretty big ones as well. but lets break it down a little!

Loved

• Morality that matters: Moral choices are a real buzzword which have been shoehorned into titles in recent years. The problem is that they don’t matter as they are completely inflexible. Take mass effect as an example. It gives you good and evil choices in conversations, which they call paragon and renegade points and they effect how people see you in the game. The problem is that, near the end of the game, certain decisions require you to to be either full paragon or full renegade before they can be unlocked. So you’re not really given any choice at all. You must be either a complete saint or total sinner! But heavy rain does things differently by firstly, not making it obvious which are good choices and which are bad but also your choices are not so visible. You won’t know how your choices affect the game unless you go back and try lots of different things. The changes will ultimately be minor but enough to make your game different from someone else’s.
• QTE that works!!!: God, I never thought I would say that! Personally, I hate QTE sections. At best, they force you to focus on a particular part of the screen to find out what the next prompt is so you miss out on the cinematics which the game was trying to show off in the first place, and at worst, you have what you got in bayonetta where they spring out of nowhere and failure means death!
  Heavy rain takes a slightly different approach by putting the prompts in the context of the action. If you need to press a button to throw a good punch on someone, the prompt will appear close to your fist, where you will be watching anyway. It’s a minor tweak but it works wonders for making the game easier to follow and you don’t end up missing what’s going on!
• Who is the origami killer?: If all goes well, you will meet the origami killer near the end of the story. I won’t say any more than that, but during the course of the investigation, the game does a pretty decent job of providing just enough evidence and hints to allow you to work things out for yourself, or at the very least not be completely shocked by the reveal. It’s the mark of a decent detective story to be able to do that, and since I like the logical thinking involved in such stories, I really enjoyed trying to work out who the killer was!
• Mature without being excessive: Heavy rain is rated 15 in the UK. So only people who are aged 15 and above are supposed to be able to buy it, yet it has one of the most adult and mature stories I have seen in some time. Too often, titles are considered “mature” because it simply has graphic and gratuitous violence and/or sex. Such complaints can’t be used on heavy rain. Yes, there are gunfights and violence. Yes, one of the female characters can walk around topless, but they are all within context and never overdone. If nothing else comes from heavy rain, I hope that people, “critics” and developers will realise that you don’t need excessive violence to call your work mature!

HATED

• Movement controls: In heavy rain, they implemented a system where the left stick controls the direction where you look and you press the R2 button to walk in that direction. In the majority of the game, it works fine, but when it doesn’t (and you will come across a section like that at least once!) it’s maddening. Even the system gets confused from time to time.
• The BIG reveal: In the above points, I said that I loved the way you are able to work out who the killer is. The problem is that once the reveal has been done, several sections of the game no longer make any sense. I won’t go into any more detail than that but it’s really annoying when that happens.
• Plot holes galore!: Several elements within the game exist purely to try and get you into a certain way of thinking or to trigger an event. Once it’s task is done, it’s promptly dropped and forgotten. One of the best examples is Madison Paige, one of the characters you control. When she first shows up, you discover that she has acute insomnia and can only sleep in “sleazy motel beds.” Why? It was never explained. The sole purpose of the insomnia is to ensure that she meets Ethan Mars, who happens to be staying in the same motel. once that’s accomplished (pretty quickly, I might add) then the insomnia is ignored, as if it never occurred.
• Romance: David Cage cannot write a good or convincing love angle in his stories if the fate of the world depended on it. FACT!!!
• Linear to a fault: You may not realise it initially, but the plot and even the choices in heavy rain are incredibly linear. Like Fahrenheit, the choices you make ultimately make very little difference to how the story progresses, save for a few sections where it will obviously branch, such as the vaunted sections where a character can die but the game continues regardless. There aren’t as many sections like that as you think so for a large part of the experience, you are simply following a tightly controlled script. It’s very good at presenting the illusion of choice, but it’s just that. A total illusion!

For myself, the linearity of heavy rain is one of the major sticking points I have. In fact, because of it, I question if it’s a game at all! Check the review again! I tried very hard to avoid calling heavy rain a game (damn hard it was too!) and that was the biggest reason. One of the earliest trophies you can earn from it is called “thank you for supporting interactive drama.” that’s a pretty good way to describe it.

A games magazine once interviewed Warren Specter about his (then) newest game, Deus Ex (still freaking awesome BTW) and he was asked how they went about making it so open ended with respects to how you could tackle problems. And this is what he said; “The plot is mine. How you follow it is up to you!”
That last bit is important because regardless of the game in question, even if it’s something as linear as uncharted 2, Modern Warfare 2 or even bayonetta, you are given a certain degree of freedom to choose how to go about certain problems, usually how to dispatch a bunch of enemies. It may not vary much but you can diversify your tactics and weapons to go about things differently, even in those games. Do you take out the heavy first? or try and take many out with a single explosion?
But for heavy rain, both the plot AND how you follow it are strictly controlled. You cannot deviate from what the very strict and limited choices presented to you. It’s akin to driving a car and being driven.

The other major sticking point were the plotholes. As a fan of the detective way of thinking, such holes simply detract from the overall conclusion. Even if the story ends, you are left with “what if” questions, and for detective stories you cannot have “what if?”
Others may go through heavy rain thinking it as more of a thriller, focusing on whether or not Ethan will be able to save his son as opposed to who is the killer. They can overlook the holes as it doesn’ t contradict the outcome and they are satisfied with an ending. “what if?” questions aren’t going to give them sleepless nights.

Despite all that, I will say that I enjoyed heavy rain. It will cause debate for a while yet and kudos should be given to sony for having the balls to release something like this, which is not guaranteed to sell well.  It’s a title which will promote discussion, not only about the experiences people went through but also what it may mean for the industry as a whole. Heavy Rain made it up to #1 in the UK games chart on it’s first week of release. It’s now down to #4 but still, #1 is a pretty amazing achievement for something like this and a PS3 exclusive no less!
Some people will really enjoy it while others may hate it. You won’t know which camp you belong to until you try it yourself.
Heavy Rain may end up being one of the most important titles in recent years and may get publishers and developers to diversify and take more risks. Then again, it may not change anything but even if that happens, it will still serve as an example of what the medium is capable of even after removing all the trappings which have caught on over the years. A talking point for those who wish to discuss video games as a medium.

Success or failure? Industry changer or footnote? Nobody can say, but one thing is for certain, heavy rain will not be forgotten!

They’re a little different from my standard purchases. 3 variable action pose kits and the Volks Moekore Fate T Harlawn figure.

Overall, the amount spent was similar to previous events but then I did get 4 items this time as opposed to 2 or maybe 3. And since I didn’t go through the auctions, I didn’t have to worry about any massive markups in price (although it was pretty light this time round from what I saw). Commission fees from Tokyohunter were also reasonable. It’s just a shame that I don’t think that he does GK sales too. Or will he? *strokes chin*

Anyway, lets have a closer look at the loot.

Lets get the more boring stuff out of the way first. This is the Volks PVC figure of Fate T Harlawn from Nanoha StrikerS (like she needs any sort of introduction) in true sonic form mode.
Volks have a bit of a reputation of being incredibly uneven in it’s quality control and it’s easy to see why. It’s reasonably well made, but a few minor errors detract from the figure as a whole. It certainly doesn’t match the production quality of the Alter version (but then Alter is one of, if not the best PVC figure makers out there IMO) but to counter that, I think the Volks version has a much better and more natural pose.
I’ve managed to miss out on fate a ridiculous 4 times(!!) so far so I’m glad that I finally have her, even though PVC figures are not my thing (I have a GK of Fate and Nanoha to do up eventually as well) and she’ll look good next to my Alter Nanoha Exceed mode, which should be arriving very soon. (That’s one of the worst things about living in the UK. Everything gets to you really slowly!)

Now, with that out of the way lets get onto the stuff which most of you are probably more interested in.

We’ll start with Dimension Diver Metis.

One of the most surprising things about Metis is that she has very few parts. Everything fits into the small bag you see in the top pic!

And here they all are! And now for the bad news… I know that Dimension Diver kits are rather desirable items, esp over at tomopop it seems, but if you are looking for a simple snap-together kit like Hoihoi-san or various gunpla, then you are in for a shock.
I was expecting it, but it’s still going to hurt. You see, like the liquidstone Fate kit I built a while back, you are given separate joints to connect the parts together and are expected to drill the necessary holes to connect them. Here are the joints.

According to the sheets provided, the ends are 3mm in diameter and I just happen to have a 3mm drill part with me (thanks to the aforementioned fate kit) so I should be OK. I’ll need to test the joint fit before going all out as loose connections cannot be allowed to happen on kits like this! My Fate suffered because I couldn’t completely match the joint sizes with my available drill parts.

Looking at the parts, I suspect that Metis, once complete, will be closer in size to actsta than figma but I won’t be able to tell for certain until I build her. No support stand is provided either, but there is a hole in the back of the body section which fits the figma base connection quite nicely, so if you have a spare figma base, you can use that or get a di-stage set to hold metis up. She definitely won’t be able to stand on her own!!

Here’s a shot of the instruction sheet. A far cry from the 4 sheets given with Fate by liquidstone. In fact, it looks deceptively simple! Remember, stand is not included!!

But if you want your Metis to look as good as the shots on the back of the sheet, I guarantee that you will need to do some extra work with the paintjob!

And next, we have Thanatos;

Thanatos is similar to Metis in that you will also need to drill the parts to create the holes necessary to insert the joints, but unlike Metis, Thanatos uses joints of varying sizes so there’s no 1-size-fits-all drillbit. In this case, the instructions state that you will need a 3mm and 2mm size drillbit. It also didn’t come with the required joint parts, so I have to wait until they arrive before I can do anything. Shouldn’t be too long now.

Thanatos also contains a large number of small parts so you just know that things are going to get messy! It also lacks the hold for a figma stand peg in it’s back so you’ll need something else to hold it up. At a guess, I suspect that the completed kit will be around figma size.

In case you’re curious, I have 2 Thanatos kits as I was asked to build one for someone. So I’ll probably work on Thanatos after I finish Sheryl, and with no distractions until next Tuesday when Final Fantasy XIII is released (I have completed Bioshock 2 and heavy rain. I’ll need to do a review of heavy rain soon!) I should have some time where I can focus solely on Sheryl and get the final bits done! I’ll probably not really get into FFXIII either. I haven’t enjoyed a main Final Fantasy game since FFIX. FFX had one of the worst cast of characters I have ever seen and FFXII was just a grindfest.
I’m also disappointed that S-E didn’t include the japanese voices, at least in the PS3 version. They definitely had the space for it!! And yes, I’ll be picking up the Limited edition PS3 version on Tuesday. There’s supposed to be some kind of event over at the HMV in London Oxford street. I’ll try and get pics if I can!

And here’s the instructions for Thanatos. it’s a little more honest in it’s complexity! I think you need to provide your own chain as well…

And on a completely random note, I really like the logo used by Naoki (the member of Rampage Ghost who made Thanatos). His logo reminds me of the Naomi arcade board! (the board for arcade games which were basically specced up dreamcasts!)

And on a final note, I also had a few other items arrive at a similar time to the wonfest stuff…

I finally have my Sheryl Nome N.A. version, Nendoroid Drossel and Revoltech Levaetin!! The Sheryl isn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but the eyes are really badly done. It’s more of a design thing as well, rather than a production problems.
Nendo Drossel is both my first purchased Nendoroid (Excelica was included with the PS2 game) and my first Drossel figure. And it’s likely to be my last for both. Fireball is fun, but I really don’t understand why people went so gaga for drossel merchandise. Esp the figma! And I’m not a fan of nendoroids in general but for some reason, putting the 2 together simply works!!
As for Levaetin, I have been kicking myself for ages over missing the initial release so when it was going to be re-released, there was no way I was going to miss out. I’m interested to see how Robot Damashii will handle it as well!

And that’s about it. With any luck, the next post will be either a completed Sheryl Nome or a mini-review of Heavy Rain!

After suffering the indignity (and inevitability) of the dreaded RROD on my 360 a couple of weeks ago, I have finally got a replacement! Unfortunately, my old machine wasn’t covered by the extended warranty as it was that damn old but on the plus side, I now own a 360 Elite with the only permanent side effect being that I have lost my Mass Effect 2 save, so I need to go back and complete it again when I have the time.

In any case, I was a few chapters into Bioshock 2 when the RROD hit so the first thing I did was return to rapture on finally getting my elite sorted with the necessary cables.
At first, I didn’t know what to make of Bioshock 2. After all, how can one go about making a sequel to one of the best games of 2007 and a contender for one of the best games this console generation? For the most part, 2K went for the “if it ain’t broke…” approach to it and so anyone who has played the first game will be instantly familiar with most of the mechanics as soon as they set foot in rapture again, this time to find a little girl named Eleanor. All the while being hounded by Dr Lamb, the new “ruler” of Rapture. Once again, we are given access to weapons and plasmids to unleash hell on the splicer population of Rapture but this time, the player does it in the guise of a big daddy instead of an outsider like before. Ultimately though, nothing really changes. Defeating the big daddies to get access to the little sisters is made a little easier by the fact that you are also one, but the game tries to balance things out by introducing the big sister into the mix. She’s faster, tougher and more agile than you so she’s meant to be the one to look out for.

So we have an old dog with a few new tricks. How did it fare?

Loved

• Better moral choices: In the first bioshock, the morality system has hyped up as a way to alter the game is played by giving you the chance to get more ADAM (the “currency required to purchase upgrades) at the cost of a little sister. But it ended up being nothing more than a black/white choice with the decision ultimately made out of either convenience or whether or not you wanted that achievement at the end of the game! Bioshock 2 gives things a little twist by allowing you to adopt a little sister and assist her in gathering ADAM. Should you choose to do so, then you will get more than you would by simply harvesting her from the start. The change isn’t that big but it makes you weigh the pros and cons of helping the little sister and defending her while she collects ADAM into your decision instead of lumping it into a single question. There are other choices as well later in the game which have a larger impact on the game as a whole.
  
• Plasmid fun & Improved hacking!: Old plasmids get upgrades and we get some new ones into the mix. Admittedly, I didn’t find the new plasmids all that great but the old ones are still really fun to mess around with. Hacking has also changed to make it less disjointed with the main game. Gone is the old pipe puzzle and in comes a “stop the pointer on a safe zone” timing puzzle. It also rewards you for hitting the smaller areas and PC owners aren’t given a massive advantage over console players anymore!
  
• Beautiful Rapture: The initial sense of awe may now be absent but Rapture is still a beautiful place to explore.
• A more consistent game: The one major flaw in Bioshock 1 was that after a certain event, the game went downhill and the final boss was incredibly anticlimatic. Bioshock 2 isn’t without it’s own faults but the game experience feels a lot more smooth and it doesn’t suddenly jump the shark.
  

Hated

• The plot: Let’s get this out of the way… Bioshock 2 was never going to match the brilliant plot of the first game, nor could it possibly come up with something as awesome as the “…would you kindly?” moment from the first game. (I think it’s called the M.Night Shyamalan syndrome). But even with those facts in mind, the plot in Bioshock 2 is pretty damn poor. Even from the go-get, when you wake up in the ruined Rapture and are told to find Eleanor, the little sister who was formerly in your care, there’s a strong sense of “Why?”  You aren’t really given any incentive to find out what is happening nor is there the desire to simply explore like in the original bioshock. You are a big daddy and you are told to look for your little sister. End of story! Of course, things are fleshed out during the course of the game but there is little motivation for you to keep going other than your gamers desire to see the game through. There are no events to try and make you really feel a part of the story like the part when Atlas’ family is killed in the first game or “would you kindly” (I don’t know about you but I really wanted to fill Fontaine with holes when that happened!)
• Sofia Lamb: Despite basically being made out as the philosophical opposite of Andrew Ryan (He’s a Capitalist and she’s a communist) Sofia Lamb is a really poor substitute for the founder and first ruler of Rapture. The plot in the first game was very much self contained and left no plotholes, just a few questions. As a result, the elevation of Dr Lamb as the new “ruler” of Rapture feels out of place and attempts to integrate her into the history of Rapture fell flat.  Instead of expanding on the setting from the first game, it feels like the developers simply created Dr Lamb from nothing and forcefully inserted her awkwardly into the game. Various recordings in the game made it sound like Andrew Ryan took the threat of Dr Lamb and her communist views very seriously, yet there’s not even a hint of her existence from the first game. The result is that the plot feels incredibly forced in places and doesn’t quite flow as well as it should.
• The big sisters: The big sisters were touted as the games bogeyman! An ever present existence designed to keep you on your toes and which could strike when you least expect it. BULLSHIT!!! The developers could advertise their entrances harder if they tried! Even before the noise that signals when one is about to arrive, you can easily work out that a big sister entrance is due. And with that goes any real feeling of tension when they come for you. In the end, they are nothing more than tougher than usual enemies which you can see coming a mile off. And they give you plenty of time to prepare once they announce their entrance anyway. I just end up twiddling my thumbs waiting for them as I prepped everything long before that.
• The Multiplayer: OK, hated may be a little harsh as the multiplayer element is kinda fun for a little while but it feels like it was tacked on and wasn’t properly integrated into the game like Uncharted 2. It also feels incredibly chaotic a lot of the time and kills/deaths can be just as much about luck as it is about skill, if not more so. It’s an interesting distraction but it doesn’t really have any staying power.

In the end, I have to say that the tag of “unnecessary sequel” is incredibly apt in the case of Bioshock 2. It’s still an enjoyable and entertaining game but it doesn’t quite justify it’s existence as a sequel. Then again, it did have massive shoes to fill.
Without the baggage of it’s predecessor, it holds up a little better. Sure, the plot is still kinda naff but the plasmid mechanics are still fun and fresh and Rapture is still a beautiful location which one can get lost in. I do wish that we could get another “would you kindly…” moment though.

I posted a slightly blurry pic on my Wonder Festival post a couple of weeks ago and then set out to try and find out some more info on her.
I am, of course, talking about the (still) beautiful KOS-MOS ver. 4!

Sporting an incredibly long R-BLADE instead of the usual G-SHOT, I know a few people who were more than a little curious about this little number.

But with some help from Johnson over at GKhaven, google and some helpful people over at Volks, I have a pretty good idea of what we have to expect!

Firstly, she will be made available at Hobby Round 3, which will be held this year on April 18th (thanks, Johnson!). As for the rest? I recently received an email from Volks customer support who were kind enough to answer my questions.
Hit the jump to have a read at what the rep had to say!

Dear xxxxxx,

Thank you for your email and we apologize for the delayed reply.
Thank you very much for your interest in our products.

The KOS-MOS item that was displayed at our Wonder Festival booth was a completed sample of a 1/4 KOS-MOS statue that will be offered by Volks in the future.
As such, the sword is not a separate option part.
If you wish to purchase the sword, it will be necessary to purchase the entire 1/4 KOS-MOS statue.

However please note that at this time we are only scheduled to offer this item within Japan.
Unfortunately if you are residing overseas we will not be able to sell this item to you.
We apologize most sincerely for the inconvenience.

Sincerely,

VOLKS Web Site Service Center

In summary, what we saw at Wonder Festival was a sample of a completed PRE-PAINTED 1/4 KOS-MOS!!!!

So for those who didn’t want to paint their own and want an official prepainted KOS-MOS figure, you got your wish. Not only that, you get a kickass R-BLADE as well!! So you get to one-up those who went for the E2046 gathering offering! (perhaps that was their intention?)
Of course, this leaves the buyers of the original kit out on a limb as there’s no way to get the R-BLADE parts since it seems that there are no plans to release it as a part of a whole kit or separately at present. So unless we get a Recast (and you just know that places like E2046 will be supplying them!), we have just the G-SHOT! Which isn’t all that bad, but still…
Is it still bad to get a recast for extra parts after you have bought an original and only intend to use the new parts? hmm… Damn my ethics for kicking in!

Price has not been set yet, but expect it to be fairly expensive. The kit was 50,040 yen so I would estimate the Statue to be in the 65~70k region for pricing, if you use the 1/4 Kanu figure as a rough guide.

But I want… I really do want!!!

In summary:

KOS-MOS ver. 4 with R-BLADE
Scale : 1/4
Type: Prepainted Resin statue
Available: April 18th at Hobby Round 3
Price: TBA (but likely to be around 65~70,000 yen)

and so, the love/hate relationship with Volks continues…

[pic was nabbed from Gigazine]

Admittedly, I haven’t been giving Sheryl the time she deserves in order to complete her, but with Bayonetta, Mass Effect 2 and then Bioshock 2 being released in rapid succession, I think I have a valid reason!!

There are still a few major sticking points which I will need to address before I can continue anyway. I have several ideas on how to go about them but none are ideal…
In any case, here’s where I’m up to right now.

The 2 main issues for now are the gaps between the shoulders and the main body. The arms themselves aren’t exactly a great fit either so I’ll need to push them into the correct positions. On top of that, some paint was scratched off the left arm when I tried to put it into the gap in the skirt so that will need to be redone and something will need to be done in order to prevent that from happening a second time.
Lastly, I haven’t stuck the body in place yet as it will be dependant on how the arms will be done. Basically, a lot of things are in the air right now, but as soon as one is resolved then things will fall into place.

It’s likely that I’ll end up using standard putty to cover the gaps in the shoulders and then airbrush over it to match the rest of the skintone. It means that I’ll have to mask the clothing, which will be a hassle, but it’s probably the easiest option thus far. I’ll have to fix the scratched paintjob first though… But at least with a busted up 360 (which is out of warranty) and Heavy Rain not due for a few more weeks, perhaps I’ll have fewer distractions and can get some serious progress done.

And on a completely unrelated note, Wave have just released pics of the Yen Xing kit I took a liking to back at Wonderfestival last Summer!!

Add another kit to my wish list…

Surprisingly, there were quite a few good kits on show at this years event. A few of which I might even try to obtain at a later event. Unfortunately, buying a new kit right now would be an impossibility but I did get a few things from WF. Guess that’s something worth looking out for.
Overall, this years wonderfestival actually has me hopeful for the future. Looks like the GK scene has plenty of life left afterall!!

Tomopop has a large gallery of kits posted up already but for this blog entry, I’m going to focus on the kits which caught my personal interest.

Firstly, there were 3 which really caught my attention:

This number is called Kanu 2020 and it’s sculpted by Mr Surprise. Now, normally I hate Ikkitousen kits (unless it involves Ryofu Hosen) but when I first saw this over at Gamera Baenraes forum, I couldn’t take my eyes off it!
It pains me to say it, but I really do like this Kanu kit!! I’m hoping that he’ll sell it at the next event, which Gamera informs me will be Treasure Festa in May… Should be able to replenish my funds by then!

This Morrigan kit was made by ooxoo, who also did the taimanin Asagi kit I still need to make. Nothing too fancy about this kit, it simply feels right! Plus Morrigan has always been a fave character of mine since the old darkstalkers games. I have yet to find a Chun Li kit which captures the character and design as well as this Morrigan! (The Chun Li kit of her sitting down and eating a bun comes close tho)

Lastly, we have the SD Nazuna from Cerberus Project. I wasn’t too fussed on the non SD original when she was first released and I also lamented how Cerberus project seemed to be moving away from fixed pose GK and doing poseable action figures instead (tho they did do a Yamamoto sensei from Hanamaru Youchien) but this is just cool!

Those are the 3 which I liked the most but there are still others which deserve a mention. Hit the jump on even more GK goodness! (also, I got a request for some ero kits, so I put a couple in at the very end of this post. Consider this your NSFW warning!!)

My love for all things Sheryl Nome continues unabated, as does the sculptors inability to do a good face for her!! Seriously tho, if I had more funds and time, I’d buy this! Better than the Captain Slut costume everyone and their dogs continue to use!

One of my Golden rules of kit building states that I would only build female GK, and that still holds. But if I were to break it, this would sooo be the kit I would break it for. It’s Klein Sandman from Gravion!! KLEIN SANDMAN!!!!!!!! グランナイトスの諸君、合しんせいよ!!!! *Squee*

A really impressive Akiyuki X’amd and Haru from Bounen no X’amd. Shame that it would be really boring to paint…

Sharon/Sayo from Umineko no Naku Koro ni. I was quite disappointed by the end of that show… first half was pretty good tho.

Saki Morimi from Eden of the East. I think there was a Takizawa Akira one as well but I forgot where I saw it and didn’t grab the pic…

Asuka got to cosplay as Yoko so why not Rei? Personally, I prefer this one. Not only cos I’m a Rei fan but because I also prefer this Yoko costume!

Ishida Karin from Shangri-La. I posted her up in the preview as well but I do like this kit. Unlike Kumiko, I think the sculptor has done a really good job of sculpting the face this time while keeping the “range Murata” look.

Hachikuji Mayoi from Bakemonogatari. The second one was nearly a buy as well, but I’m not as big a fan of the character as others so I skipped.

There were also quite a lot of Senjogahara kits as well, but many had poorly sculpted faces.
I don’t see the popularity of Bakemonogatari falling anytime soon so hopefully, we’ll get to see better Senjogahara kits at future events.

Loli Nanoha from the first movie. And a pretty good kit to boot!

Another true sonic form adult Fate. Was tempted, but I already have a True sonic form Fate… but this one is really nice…

A better look at the figma conversion for Mahoro.

Asuza from K-on. Not interested at all but I bet she’s commanding quite a high price on the auctions right now!!!

Fumika from Shigofumi!! A proper look this time!!!!

A slightly blurry pic of Fuego from rideback!!

M.M from Kemeko DX.

Yotsuba and Fuuka in diving gear! I bet Gamera really loved this one.

Pocket fighters Chun Li. You know you want one too!!!

The summon monster for Mizuki Himeji from Baka to Test to Shokanjuu. I think there was originally meant to be an accompanying full sized Himeji to go as a pair but I haven’t seen it outside of the sculptors FG page.

[EDIT: I forgot to add this last kit up originally. ]

And finally, we have what appears to be an updated Volks KOS-MOS kit sporting a R-Blade instead of her usual gatling gun. I have absolutely no other info about this kit so if you know more about it, please share!! Hopefully, it’s just another set of parts which Volks will sell separately and we won’t be required to buy a whole new kit just for the new sword. And it’s also interesting to note that they painted this one with the Mary Magdeline Blue eyes!

That’s it for this Wonderfestival. I’m hopeful that I’ll see the kits I really like again at later events so I’ll try and snag them then, as opposed to going through places like E2046. But I have plenty to keep me occupied in the meantime…

If you want to see even more pics, you can try plus alpha, WFS21 and HK-DMZ for more pics.

I get the feeling I’m forgetting something tho…
And why the heck are you all shouting “ero”?
Oh fine…

God, I hope I don’t get into trouble for that last one…I think I hear the 4chan party van outside.

That’s definitely it from me. I need to take a long LONG shower now after that last pic… If you pervs want even more go knock yourself out here.
Probably not the best use of words there…

I’ve been chatting to Joseph Tsai, who runs the TokyoHunter Proxy service (the one which offers to get the really cool event exclusives) for a while on stuff outside of simple purchase requests. He’s a really cool and friendly guy and he even gave me a glimpse of his plans for the future (which are awesome btw) but just today, he landed a bit of a bombshell.
I was told by the man himself that he’s planning to interview the GK group, Dimension Diver next week.

For those who don’t know, Dimension diver are the group who are responsible for the likes of Aegis of Persona 3 fame, here:

And Samus Aran from Metroid:

Danny Choo did a post on Aegis when the group gave him a completed one as a gift (first time I was ever jealous of one of his freebies).
The group have also done kits for an assortment of female mecha, such as Aphrodite A (mazinger Z), Neo Okusar (Godannar) and, my personal faves, Kouryu and Anryu (GaoGaiGar FINAL).

Their main site is here and you can also see their work on the FG boards (account required)

So far, so exciting. But what was really cool is that Joseph is looking for questions to ask DD next week. That’s when you guys come in…
If you have any questions you would like to ask the group, here’s your chance! If you want to ask them about what their next plans are, or how they got started, perhaps even suggest a new project for them here’s your chance!!!!

The questions can be pretty much about anything. There are no guarantees that they will be able to answer them all, but they will try and get thru as many as they can. Joseph will then post the answers in March to coincide with another little thing he’s working on. (I don’t want to spoil the surprise)

To get involved, simply leave your questions in the comments of this blog post. I’ll pick them all up and tidy them up before sending them over to Tokyohunter & Dimension Diver.
You have until Monday morning GMT to write down whatever you may want to ask.

Now, all I have to do is clear my head and figure out what I want to ask them. Aside from the obligatory “can I get some freebies!”

Images taken from the FG boards

Johnson Huang over at Garage Kit Haven has already written up a few posts regarding kits which have caught his eye so here are some which have done the same to me over at the FG boards. Luckily for me, however, these haven’t quite hit “Must get” status for myself. Though that doesn’t mean that I won’t be buying anything from the event. Curious about what I’m going to get? Well, you’ll just have to wait a little while.

Johnsons list is dominated by Touhou kits and they seem to be out in full force this year again but I’ve never found myself particularly drawn to them. My list is dominated by Bakemonogatari kits, specifically of Senjogahara Hitagi. She seems to be a rather popular choice for sculptors this time round. I only counted 3 Hachikuji kits and 1 Kanbaru. I think nadeko had one too…

Anyway, here’s a few kits which caught my eye.

Bakemonogatari

Senjogahara Hitagi

Another Senjogahara

Last Senjogahara kit (for now)

Hachikuji Mayoi

Rideback

Fuego (last seen in Summer WF 09)

Mahoromatic

Custom Figma parts for Mahoro (have no idea how this works!!)

Deathsmiles

Casper. An older kit I believe, and I would have preferred Rosa but I just simply love deathsmiles. Best shmup I’ve played in a while!!

Black Lagoon

Revy. Would have been an amazing kit of the sculptor gave it an evil smile expression instead of a frown but it’s still pretty good.

Kampfer

Sango Shizuku. The student council President and the next kit from Hihumi, who gave me Sheryl Nome!!

Shangri La

Ishida Karin. Was I the only person who actually liked the majority of Shangri-la? Or was everyone put off by all the financial talk and how countries fell without any physical evidence?

Original

Samurai Girl by Cerberus project. A non-SD figure by Cerberus project was their first venture into making a poseable figure. It was quite good as well, very detailed and cast off-able. But this SD number is too damn cute! Armour is removable here as well!!

And that’s all that has caught my attention over at the FG boards. I’m sure that there will be plenty more once pics of the actual event surface so we’ll see when i write them up next week.
Hopefully, I would have finished mass effect 2 by then. Doubt I’ll write a review of it tho. It’s really hard to write about. For starters, I’m not sure I would even class it as an RPG! To me, it’s more like a 3rd person shooter with RPG elements. Bioware may have said that the JRPG is stagnant but at least they have an identity.
Still a pretty good game tho.

All images can be found on the FG boards (account required)

Then the game release date came and went, I got my Bayonetta but no scarborough fair. Then, last week, it finally came…

2 things strike you when you first take this thing out of it’s box.

1) it’s really quite heavy for it’s size. You may not be able to pass it off as an actual weapon but if you use it to pistol whip someone, it’ll definitely leave marks!! And…
2) It’s really shoddily painted!! The actual sculpt is rather good and the details etched into the body is good too. It’s just that the person assigned to paint in the details was either really lazy or simply can’t hold a paintbrush steadily!

Paint leakage is pretty much everywhere and it really spoils the look of the gun.

Even the elevated words suffer from patches of unpainted letters…

But the black areas were the worst. it was as if, not only could the painter not hold a brush well, but was probably using one several sizes too large!!

And it affects both sides too equally.
Sufficed to say, I was rather disappointed with the overall finish. But what could a model kit painter with various paints and brushes possibly do to fix a badly painted… oh, right!

So that’s kinda what I did. I wasn’t willing to use up the excessive amounts of paint required to do a full repaint of the poor thing so I instead, opted to simply try and clean up as much of the problem areas as I could.
This did lead to some problems with the correct shade of purple needed as it required a custom mix, but I got a decent approximation which only really shows up under strong light. I found a match in the gold colour by using my “old gold” paint which I used on my knight of gold.

It’s still far from perfect but it’s much better than it was initially. Had I decided to go all the way, I’m sure I would be able to make it look even better.

The lettering was redone and made a little clearer.

Shots of the other side. I also experimented with using washes to change the colour of the gem but stuck with the original green in the end as the washes made the gem a little too dark so the colour wasn’t as vibrant.

The handle is actually quite small. I’m not sure if that’s the correct way to hold the gun, with the middle finger on the trigger, but that’s the only way for me to hold the damn thing!

Overall, I’m a little disappointed that I had to put in some extra work to get it to this level, but at least the gun was a freebie! With a little more effort and attention, this extra could have been fantastic, but I still can’t say anything really bad about it. I just wish they included it with the climax edition as opposed to making the 2 separate exclusives.
Still, the painting practice got me working on my Sheryl Nome again after a long hiatus. I was finding it hard to get back into the swing of things, but that’s all sorted now!!