Whenever I play the Date clan in [Nobunaga's Ambition], I always have difficulties deciding whither I want to conquer the
north and rid myself from anxiety about the future, or get the powerful Generals into my army and build a solid battle
array... yup, that's me, Tomeko. Hey there people.
Since historic war stuff is currently on a trend here in Japan... as I may have subtly hinted last week, I will be making a
plastic model kit of Date Masamune's Kabuto! (that's pronounced Da-teh, for those silly people who read it as date as in
days...).
Helm of Date Masamune
Lets start with the introduction of the kit frames.
Looking at the number of bits and pieces, it seems easy enough to handle. The pictorial instructions on the product info
page look simple too. And here is an interesting point to check out.
Here are the close up images of the main bowl shape part of the helm, and the part that covers the neck. They are both
black, but if you look reeeeeealy closely, you might notice that they have slightly different luster.
It might be hard to tell from the photos, but it seems that the bowl uses half luster, while the neck cover uses normal
luster. I guess it could be that Doyusha-san is trying to illustrate the use of different material... may be.
Btw, the actual name given to this helm is [
Tetuji Kuro Urushinuri Roku jyu ni ken Suji Kabuto].
Yup, that's the just Japanese, im sure you wont have a clue about the meaning, considering many Japanese people wouldn't
understand the name either.. so here is a translation.
[Tetsuji] means steel based.
[Kuro Urushi nuri] means its been coated with black Japanese lacquer.
[Roku jyu ni Ken Suji] means the bowl has been constructed with 62 plates.
[Kabuto] means helm, more specifically, the samuri helmet/head gear.
The bowl of a kabuto originally was not a single piece, and was usually made of many thin triangular strips of metal plates
joined together. The title [Suji Kabuto] comes from the way the metal plates were joined together, by folding back the deep
parts to create a stripe. It might be easier to understand if you imagine a beach ball with very many segment lines.
Out of those, it seems that the 62 segments Suji Kabuto was know for being very solid, and many other Generals used these
too, in the Sengoku era.
Now then, lets start the construction with the face protector.
...I wonder if they take a face print to get the shape right, like a death mask,,, what a mystery.
(I hear that the gauntlets from western armors were build for each individual user, to their fingers, so there is a
possibility that the face protector here could have been order-made too... who knows?)
Btw, the face protector is also a single piece on this model, but the real ones use many parts merged together. If you look
really really closely, the nose parts does kinda seem like it.
tho the rivet looks like a mole.
The teeth part of this face protector is slightly different to the packaging.
The real one has gold teeth. Gold teeth, that seems as if it could bite through anything. But if you don't paint the model,
you cant make it have gold teeth... but painting it properly is too much effort...
And here is an item for a lazy person like me...
GUNDAM MARKER!!
With high sealing capabilities, this is an easy to use super item. The gold and sliver ones are especially used to deal
with cutting edges of metallic color models from the frame, to conceal the base color.
It's not suitable for covering large area, as it gets abit rough, but it is great when you just wan a little bit of color.
It may be called Gundam Marker, but it can be used for most scale models, so if you use the color often, there is no reason
not to have one, I'd say.
So yeah.
Stroke stroke stroke till the black is gone~
Layering it up til the black is gone~
...(this kinda feels like I'm brushing some else's teeth)
stroke stroke stroke...
(gee, have to layer it properly, otherwise the black shows through... kinda like teeth decay.)
stroke stroke stroke stroke stroke stroke stroke...
Yaaaaaaaaay Finished!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wanted it to be cool... but it's depressing how much ink has gone over the edge...
The tip of the Gundam marker is slightly thick, so apparently it would look better if you get some ink on a pallet and
mount it with a toothpick or something.
...dear self, please realize that there is no point in remembering this after you finishing coloring. *face palm*
So be careful not to think that it will be all right, or you will end up like me.
Anyway, there weren't content in this one, but that's it for today.
See you in the next blog post!
By Tomeko, who want's to stay home and hibernate.