WIP
Back with yet another mecha girl, or rather, a ship-girl with the Frame Arms Girl Mya-nee Kongo. I wasn’t particularly interested in this kit when I first found out about her, (especially with the high price point that US retailers were selling her for), but when reviews came out for her and the many poses she can do with her pieces of armor, I got sold, even if she was quite expensive. I searched around finding if I could get Kongo for less than $100 with shipping, which took me a while because she wasn’t out yet in US stores, and getting her from Japan meant high shipping prices, but I managed to snag the last one available from a US eBay seller that I got for $87 shipped. It shipped from my state too, so I got her within less than a week from when I placed my order.
I swear, each mecha girl I build, I’m somehow surprised in new ways each time. Now I heard Kotobukiya has high quality plastic that Nuke Matrix still can’t compete with, but I was kind of doubtful on that statement because of how shiny the plastic is and how much you need to paint to get their kits color accurate, but I stand corrected, Kongo felt really high quality, that when I handled Lirly Bell for a size comparison, I could tell the difference in quality.
Anyway, 3 for 3, Kongo was a blast to build. Her base body is simple but really cute while her armored form really embodies a militaristic mech vibe, which should be no surprise as she’s based off the Frame Arms Kongo, which that is based off a warship. Her mobility with both forms is great, color separation is top notch (though there are still areas that need to be painted for 100% color accuracy) and the structure feels really solid. However, there is a lot of sanding to do as each and every joint is tight af and seam lines are littered across the kit, so be wary.
I’m already impressed with Kongo’s main form, but her body’s only half the appearance. You start building the backpack, then armor plates, then several arms and her weapons, attach it somewhere onto her body, and then you get her complete form, which looks awesome. Sure it looks busy, but, the entire reason why I got her, I’m a sucker for busy designs. That being said, because her design is so busy, the kit gets really finicky. There are so many points of articulation for each piece of rigging it’s quite hard to place them where you like it to be. Pieces collide, joints are tight so you end up turning another joint unintentionally, and you gotta keep the balance act for the stand it comes with. Luckily, the included stand isn’t complete garbage like I’ve seen in other Kotobukiya kits, but it can’t really let Kongo out of the ground. Also, with all the weight that the body induces, the variable hip joints have gotten loose. However, despite being finicky, once you finally get a pose you like, you can get some really cool shots because of how dynamic she is. Battle stance poses work wonders, especially because she is like one of the only kits I’ve seen that comes with a face with clenched teeth.
So yeah, out of the box alone paying quite the price for a mecha girl kit was quite worth it, and I’m only halfway through this project. I’m gonna be painting the hell of Kongo, doing the color corrections + my own additions, panel-lining, using Gundam caution style decals to spice her up even more, and a flat topcoat to get rid of that terrible shine on the plastic. See you then!
Completed
Oh my god I don’t know where to begin with this. This has been one hell of a journey prettying up Kongo from her OOB condition to her complete state. I knew what I was getting into when I wanted to paint her up accurate to her box art + painting my own additions, but wow, there’s just so many areas to paint that shit just got really fucking messy. Painting on the kit itself was also quite the pain considering there were still so many color inaccuracies than I expected, and those areas that need color correcting are very awkward to clean up. Hell, by the time I finished everything, I somehow forgot some areas, but, I’m too damn beat to fix that now.
However, just when I think painting put a beating on me, my pens I use for panel-lining were beginning to dry out on me, and I had no time to get new ones, so I had to suck up what was left, leaving some messy lines and bad smudges as a result, making Kongo messier than she already is with my attempts of cleaning up the excess paint. There was just enough to get her all panel-lined, but I could have bought new pens earlier and made her look better.
Instead I bought decals, because she surprisingly doesn’t come with any, getting some generic red and white caution waterslides from Delpi Decal. I went happy go lucky as I usually am when I’m being creative with my decal placement and turned out fabulous—she’s basically looking like a Ver.Ka now, and then I had to wrap it all up with a matte topcoat.
Just like the pens, I was also running out of matte topcoat and pretty much extinguished the can as I coated everything but the skin, which was already matte anyway, and the cherry on top with all the detailing I did on Kongo. Gone is the stupid plastic shine, and now I have a Kongo that looks even better than the product images, in my opinion. It was time to assemble and get the pics going.
Like I said in my last posts, posing Kongo is endless. She can pull a bunch of poses without the need of an additional stand, the stand that comes included is good enough. Unfortunately some of the paint got scratched during the photoshoot, especially the gray on the knife handles, but oh my god I’m so done I don’t even care about fixing it. The Frame Arms Girl Kongo was an absolute blast, and I feel like I keep saying that with each mecha musume kit I build. This is undoubtedly the best build I’ve done this year, and I also feel like I keep saying that each build I complete. I’m really proud of myself what I’ve created, ignoring the messy areas if you look up close, and I’m glad I bit the bullet for her in the first place.
Well, that’s that. I just finished Kongo just in time before I’m out of the country for 2 weeks, but when I return, I’m finally getting the damn Fox. I have no more excuses—she can be found for less than $70 and I have money on me, so, I’ll see you then.
