WIP
Boobs.
Well, I actually took a little break from plastic kits, so that once I returned I can feel a bit more excited with my next kit. However, I have been… too excited with AUV Amaterasu. Viewer discretion is advised. I am very sorry about what I’m gonna say.
Going into this build, I didn’t want to make the same mistakes I did with Susanowo, so I did my due diligence and sanded every single joint, no exceptions, and gave a band-aid fix to the abhorrent stand problem—the power of a coin! to help the base stay down on the ground, but, only for Amaterasu, the durability of the arm is very questionable as it creaks no matter how much I sand the joints. I knew I was going in for a better time when her hair was much simpler and out of the way. Sanding the seamlines were quicker because of the white plastic and I got her base form relatively quick, even with all the sanding I did.
But that’s where the problem starts—while Susanowo Regalia’s base form was nothing to write home about, something about Amaterasu… really got me acting up. Last time, it was Durga’s cheeks, but damn, there is limitless potential with how you can pose Amaterasu’s base form, and just at every damn angle, whew I’m starting to feel sinful. There’s the very, very obvious, but you know, she shares the same thickness as Susanowo, then you even got her legs and her garter straps—her legs look good from front and back, which her black heels really add a bit to her attractiveness, and the nail in the coffin: that smile, that damned smile. Kotobukiya, why are you doing this to me? This entire combination is making me take shots I’d never do before! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I mean, once you do get to her big happy face, all my lust is kinda just washed away. But still, somebody please help me.
If Amaterasu does good, maybe too good on her base form, she definitely loses out in her Regalia form compared to Susanowo. Some of that sexy factor is removed in for a cooler look, but has less colors popping than her sister. The huge armor pieces are finicky to put on her arms, and since I went straight for her Regalia form, the shoulder armor and her crown thingy clash a lot, so one step forward for her hair being out of the way, but a step back with the damn crown becoming the problem! Woohoo, I reached nowhere! I am glad that there’s a bit less partsforming from each mode. Her arms don’t have to be replaced, most of the gold parts are sandwiched at the shoulder armor and I opted for the smaller back skirt just to differentiate from Susanowo. Her huge staff… raises concern. For now, she can hold it just fine with either hand, but for how big it is, I feel like it would cause problems in the future. With all that said, her huge personality is not going anywhere, nor is her damn smile, but it definitely affects me less than in her base form.
Unlike Susanowo, there’s quite a bit of work to make her shine. There are a lot of areas to panel line (should I or should I not go for the hexagons?) I can maybe paint some of the inner white pieces gray, and of course, do the color corrections and paint up the gold to remove that cheap look. Instead of the Tamiya Titanium Gold I used last time, I’ll be trying Mr. Hobby for the first time, using their Brass color. And yes I will be avoiding painting the joints that connect the huge armor bits entirely. I am not making that mistake again.
Well, that’s about that. I think I’m gonna relieve some… I’m gonna wash away my sins for how I felt doing this kit so far. If you made it up to this point, like before, I’m sorry for what I said. I’ll try not spending a day and a half detailing her up, so, see you then!
Completed
It’s redemption time! Not really.
Welp, I finished Amaterasu basically in the same length I did Susanowo, but my experience with them is like night and day. Susanowo, with my carelessness that led to my disinterest of the kit, put me in shambles, while Amaterasu, I’m happy with the result, but my god I do not want to touch her. No, I do not mean that in the delusional way, but like her sister, she’s still delicate because of the goddamn stand that still finds itself to be the bane of my existence even with the added weight on the base. I probably should’ve put on more weights. Hell, I should just invest in a Simple Stand pack already, but spending $16? I mean, I shouldn’t excuse myself for not buying it, those $16 could’ve saved my sanity posing these two gals.
I almost painted Amaterasu the same way I did with Susan, which shouldn’t be a surprise considering how similar they are. I did the same color corrections, painted the gold with Mr. Hobby Brass, used Vallejo Steel on the same areas I did with Susanowo, dark gray inside some of the white parts, and dabbed a bit more red and some green onto her weapon. There was a lot more panel lining this time around because I decided to panel line the hexagons on the shoulder armor, and I like that I did instead of leaving it alone. Sure, black lines on white is something people usually don’t recommend, even with Gunpla, but that’s never stopped me from doing so anyway. I did go panel line-happy everywhere else, so hopefully it blends it well with the rest of the kit. If not, damn.
Decals—they surprisingly went a lot better than last time. Where I messed up badly with Susanowo on her skirt, I did them just right without any bubbles (probably opting for the shorter back skirt helped). One minor decal ripped partially in the posing process, but it was on the bottom of the weapon, so I didn’t really care. One of the shoulder decals did tear, but with the help of Mark Setter, that tear never happened. It was damn satisfying to get Kotobukiya decals done near perfectly for once. I then gave Amaterasu a topcoat, and she was ready for some poses.
I took a lot less photos than I did last time. Luckily, I’m not horn dogs about Amaterasu’s base body anymore as my sins were washed away with the early release of the GTA 6 trailer, so I took some pics of her based on my OOB photos, and made a super-light armored version by just using parts of her weapon (can someone enlighten me what the weapon is supposed to be called?) However, the true test was posing Amaterasu in her Regalia form. Yeah, it was still a challenge. While the joints were far more stable, the stand was a bitch as always, but I had two new problems unique to Ama—the gold paint and the weapon. The gold paint was my fault—I didn’t know it fucking smears. With my experience with Tamiya and Vallejo paints, sure you can rub them off with your fingers, but it never got on the plastic. Well this Mr. Hobby paint was different, and goddamn was cleaning the smeared paint annoying as I basically had to take off the topcoat on the plastic as well. Then, her weapon—I mean, it’s goddamn large and has no support bracket like Durga did, it was bound to drive me nuts.
Finally, I offer the very awaited AUV pairing—and got damn there is a lot of detail in these photos. Pulling Susan out of display and posing her again was… not fun, but making the dynamic of Amaterasu having fun while Susan’s fighting for her life was enjoyable. I love these two very expressible faces—they’re so great and adorable.
Anyway, that’s that. While imo Susanowo still is the better looking kit, Amaterasu was the much better experience. It should be, I spent $78 for her versus the $56 I paid for Susan. I’m still worn out as I didn’t expect for unique problems to arise, but hey, the hype around Amaterasu is well deserved. I should be moving away from kits like these, but man I’ve been eyeing Asra Nine-Tails lately. I don’t have her yet, I’ll probably wait until Christmas to treat myself to her, and get third party decals to not lose myself with the astounding amount she has. But, I literally have no space in my display room anymore, and I really have to attend to my growing Gunpla backlog. I’ll see you around. Until next time!
