I painted zero tortoise and gave her the mask of Shingen. Now she reminds me of a masked character repeatedly appears in Gundam series.

Finished this one up tonight (minus waterslides....ill get to those...). Big kit wow, simple colors but solid separation and great finishes right out of the box.

For those who also have the kit: did you also receive copies of a bunch of the runners in clear orange? I got copies of the gold and clear blue runners in the clear orange used in the kit. Not listed in the manual from what I can see so thought I would ask!

All in all, really liked the kit. Wish there was a pegged mount for sitting on the flower canon, but its workable.

https://www.kotobukiya.co.jp/en/product/detail/p4934054071135/

https://kotobukiya-us.com/collections/new-arrivals/products/190526066809

Felt like my Meltina needed to be painted, mostly stuck to the original colors

the start of a new month, the start of a new series of posts! i, rookie translator Alexroob "Alexus" Tensaier, have spent three restless nights looking into the girls' names, with the help of the trusty Dictionary-kun! and today, i shall share it with everyone!

a bit about me: i'm a high school senior from Indonesia with a passion for language. i have been mostly teaching myself Japanese for four-ish years, but i have a good general understanding of the language! although i still rely on a dictionary to read stuff i can't, i especially love looking into Japanese names.

today's edition is on Sousai Shoujo Teien first year girls! all photos from Kotobukiya. Dictionary-kun: jisho.org

1. Yuuki Madoka (結城まどか)

(also romanised Yuki Madoka)

• Yuuki (結城) is a common surname. Yuu (結) means to tie or to bind, Ki (城) means castle. Yuuki is also a city in Ibaraki prefecture, Japan.
• Madoka (まどか) is a common given name written in hiragana and has no meaning, but can refer to 円か meaning round (as in shape) or tranquil.

translator's note: i speculate that Madoka’s name might reference illustrator Morikura En (森倉円)’s name, in which, per the second point above, Madoka can refer to 円か, which features the same character as Morikura-sensei’s first name En (円).

2. Takanashi Koyomi (小鳥遊暦)

• Takanashi (小鳥遊) is a common surname and a classic example of jukujikun surname, a case where a set of kanji is read entirely different from each kanji’s readings. 小鳥遊 would be read as "kotori-asobi", meaning “little bird(s) play”. however, it is read as Takanashi, which would be the reading for 鷹無し, meaning “no hawks”. the idea here is that, when there are no hawks in the sky, the little birds come out of their nests to play. thus "kotori-asobi" being read as Takanashi.
• Koyomi (暦) means calendar or almanac.

there's no short explanation for Takanashi so it's my favourite Japanese name tidbit. don't ask me why she's Calendar-chan.

3. Saeki Ritsuka (佐伯リツカ)

• Saeki (佐伯) is a common surname consisting of the kanji Sa (佐) for assistant and Eki (伯) chief. It’s also the name of a town in Okayama prefecture, Japan.
• Ritsuka (リツカ) is a girl's name, written in katakana and has no meaning.

it's super simple, but befitting of an ojousama~

4. Nijimura Eimi (虹村映美)

• Nijimura (虹村) is a common surname, consisting of the kanji Niji (虹) meaning rainbow, and Mura (村) meaning village.
• Ei (映) means reflection, Mi (美) means beauty. a perfect name for a journalist character.

she's one of my blorbos, i love John SST.

that's all! did you find them interesting? stay tuned for Vol. 2, where i will show name etymologies for the second years!

https://www.goodsmile.com/en/product/1139114/PLAMATEA+Armored+Soldier+of+Unknown+Affiliation

This is Kotobukiya's Front Mission Zenith Girl.

I painted the inner frame and the gun with IPP Metallic Iron, and finished the rest with a flat matte topcoat.

The sculpt in its unarmored state is pretty decent. In my subjective opinion, her hip and glute sculpt is the second best-looking among Girl Plastic Models, right after Magatsuki.

However, once you put on the armor, there is almost no articulation left. The hip joint range of motion is severely limited, the shoulders suffer heavy interference from the added armor pieces, and the head is practically fixed in place—you can hardly turn it left or right.

Now I completely understand why there were barely any posing examples in the manual....