Oh the Hresvelgr Qipao—I remember when Rufus’ Qipao was first announced, I thought the new fit was pretty hot and it would be nice to have another tan girl in my collection, but the reveal that all of the gold trims need to be painted… turned me off. OG Borgar would then get her Qipao variant herself and I found her even more appealing as I do love me black thigh highs and gloves, but she was exactly the same as Rufus, so I wasn’t sure if I was up to the task of painting all that gold, especially since I chickened out painting her Bikini version. Time passes by, my painting skills become better, I have spare money to spend, and the thought of getting a Qipao lingered in my mind. Both were still available for cheap at Suruga-ya, and when it came to deciding if I wanted this one or that one, I bit the bullet and got both, and paid a steep tariff when they arrived. Since it was December when I got them, it would probably make sense to build them when the Year of the Horse arrived.
So, fast forward to now, it was a week before CNY, and I had a plan tackling the Qipaos. First, I knew I was going to build both of them at the same time, and I knew that since there was so much color correcting to do, I might as well do that before assembling them in full. But then there were the decals—they are gold and are applied in considerably complex geometry, and my god I was hella paranoid about them considering my experience with Ninja Kaname Shadow’s decals being, well, a fucking nightmare. If they were going to be as bad as those, I also knew that I needed to gloss coat every piece that would have a decal applied so even if the decals did suck, they’d probably be better to apply on than bare plastic. That being said, this was going to be a very unconventional modeling experience—I’m building two kits at the same time, then painting, decaling and then finally assembling and topping everything off with a flat coat. How did it go?
Really fucking good.
Getting the runners laid out, there was quite a bit of plastic. Each Qipao comes with more plastic than Stylet Swimsuit, but probably less than Durga I, though there a few runners from Hres Bikini where you only use half of the pieces. Hres and Hres=Rufus Qipaos are the exact same kit just in different colors, so sorting and swapping between kits were easy to manage. I first assembled their heads until skipping straight to all the parts that either needed to be painted or decaled. With a bunch of runners still on the table, I went ahead and starting painting what needed to be painted, and it went pretty freakin’ smooth. There are distinct panel lines that help you guide where the trims are supposed to be, so it was as easy as panel lining the lines and hand painting the details up to where the lines where at. The details are small, but when painting the pieces separately, it’s a lot more manageable than trying to paint them when fully assembled. The other painted details from OG Hres were also pretty easy to do. The gold pieces that did come with the Qipaos came in ugly ass gold, so I just hand painted them with the same gold I used for the trims.
Killing two birds with one stone, I gloss coated the painted pieces to protect the paint and to help prepare for the gold decals. There were quite a few of them, and I was really concerned that they might be too big and/or they may stick anywhere but the plastic. And Jeeeesus, was I stupidly cautious as the decals were a fucking breeze. Not only did they slide off the sheet better, there were no instances of the decal being too big to fit the surface, and they actually stuck to the plastic as it should be. However, the decals on the qipao itself, especially Rufus’ dragon, requires patience. I didn’t have any Mark Softer in hand, so I was heavily reliant on using Mark Setter to get the decal settled in the many curves and folds the qipao’s surface had. I usually dry Mark Setter right away using a Q-tip, but I actually let it dry by itself, and that helped the decals stick, even if it wasn’t fully laid on the plastic. The majority of the decals were on the sword, which were a piece of cake since they just had to be applied on flat surfaces. Overall, this was a huge detraction from my experience with Kaname Shadow, this was a painless, unexpectedly relaxing experience. Let’s just hope the rest of the build goes well.
It was finally time to assemble the Qipaos. Most of the build is entirely new compared to other Hres variants, with the exception of the arms, the shoddy neck joint and the feet returning. The new parts that make the qipao are thin and finicky to apply as a lot of them are inserted through long thin pegs that have trouble inserting into the holes. I basically had to sand or cut some of those pegs just so I wouldn’t force the piece hard enough for it to crack. The torso and the hips share the same engineering as Izumo where the side hips are a swivel very much like MD kits, but the hip section literally floats on the torso, relying on the hip joints to make the section stay in place, which getting the hips is difficult because that section is held by gravity. Speaking of that section, it’s the hardest part of the build as you have to finagle your way trapping the skirt pieces in place and making sure you’d be careful putting the pieces together as they’re also thin as shit. I didn’t break anything myself, but it does get a bit scary. Finally, the legs are fully seamless, Arcanadea-designed that come with the same Hres feet, I know it’s a controversial design, but I thought they work pretty well for the Qipaos. Somehow completing the duo’s assembly within a day, I gave the Qipaos a final flat topcoat, went well without problems, and it was time to see if they can pose without a hitch.
Compared to my non-existent posing experience with Kaname Shadow, the Qipaos were an absolute delight to pose. With their silhouettes, it was just really easy to pull off provocative poses, and there was a lot to get out of their weapons. Their giant swords may be heavy, but they can hold them up pretty well, even without the included support arm (I didn’t use them because I didn’t want to chip the paint on the arm). The faceplates included in both Qipaos are really cute, the hair braids are very nice, the included stand (that was also shipped with Stylet Swimsuit) works really well since the Qipaos don’t weigh much, and I can decently move the hips without much of a problem. They do tend to fall off a bit, and they are a bit difficult to get back on, but they’re still leagues better than the B1R ball jointed hips. Anyway, I was able to pull a lot of poses of them, especially with them together, and basically saw this journey the entire way through without dying on the inside. My Girlpla backlog has been reduced to 1, but my Gunpla backlog… that’s… we don’t talk about that. Thanks for reading, Happy New Year to those that celebrate it, and I’ll see you later!
