At the suggestion of several on-line friends, I decided to takea look at some anime kits. It was recommended that I try some Japanese garagekits. A garage kit is a term used for very low production resin kits that areliterally made in one's garage. These kits have several things in common witheach other. First of all, they are usually expensive compared to mainstreamkits. The reason for this is that each one is hand made. The molds have a usefullife span that is generally rather short (perhaps 100 or so moldings) and thedesigner needs to be able to make some sort of profit from it. Second, they areof subjects that one won't find in your average run of the mill hobbyshop. Manyare of nudes or semi-nudes as that seems to be what attracts many of the (mostlymale) modeling community. 

If one is not familiar with Japanese Anime, it may seem that thesubjects of the kits are a bit odd. And they generally are. Often times Animefigures are of supernatural subjects or are of a cartoon-like design. You won'tfind the superhero types as found in American designed kits. No Batman orSupergirl or over-muscled mutants. Mostly things like pixies, faireys, elves andthe like. Japanese folklore is full of these things and so the model makersproduce kits of these subjects. After all, most of the production of these kitsare for local consumption. Often, these kits are collected and not built at all!

This particular kit is one of those elvin figures that I mentioned above. It isalso a nude, which will require quite a bit of complicated painting to have aproper effect. BTW, If this image offends anyone, I can redo it blanking out the'naughty bits', however, I have found that there are very few, if any, childrenwho read Modeling Madness. I have also put a in a warning so those who areconcerned about these things can stop before viewing.

The kititself is made of a fine white resin and has very good detail. I did notice someair bubbles near the surface of several parts so will have to be very carefulwhen it comes to doing any sanding. The mold lines are almost non-existent andwhat are there appear to be easily removed. The long sword is not at allstraight, a problem with long, thin moldings, but should straighten out withsome warm water application. I do appreciate the body being in one piece as thatmeans fewer seams to fill. 

The kit instructions are inJapanese and so totally useless to me for construction. Fortunately, there arenot that many pieces and most of those are for the head. The kit does come witha color photo of the prototype so that will be somewhat helpful in construction.There is no exploded view so all fitting will be trial and error. Again, all ofthis is quite common with these very short run garage kits. 

Nobase is supplied and one will be quite necessary as the kit will be unable tostand on its own feet. Test fitting of a few of the pieces shows fit to be quitegood and it should make into an impressive model.

Review kit courtesy of me and my wallet!

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