I am glad to be back into this hobby after my relocation back to Hong Kong. It really took me a while to get my work desk set up and also warming up my skills after resting for some time. Presenting Mikazuki…
The Character
Mikazuki (三日月) is a Iga-ryu (伊賀流) Ninja working for Shogun Tokugawa (徳川家康) in the 16th century. She is specialized in assassination and intelligence retrival. Her primary weapon is Ninjato. She is also equipped with a wakisashi (side arm), shuriken (throwing star), kaginawa (grappling hook) and tokubutsu (poison). Mikazuki is calm, merciless and lethal. She strictly obeys what her master told her to do and she never fails to complete any of her missions.
Synthetic Computer Graphics
Mikazuki is watching over the city under the crescent moon light. She is wearing her skull mask. Someone is going to die. But it will not be a painful process.
Silently she jumped down from the roof to strike on one of the guards. She has stabbed her ninjato right into his heart to kill him instantly.
The second guard did not notice what’s happened to his partner. The last thing he senses was the cool sharp blade on his throat.
Both guards were neutralized in a split of a second.
Mikazuki is traversing across the bamboo forest at lightning speed.
Mikazuki has a pair of furious red eyes.
Mikazuki is using Kuji Kiri (九字切り) to help her concentrate: Rin, Kyo, Toh, Sha, Kai, Jin, Retsu, Zai, Zen!
Mikazuki is meeting her master to receive her next mission
The Figure
This figure is based on Crazy Owners’ Kunoichi. In my opinion, it is the best stock female ninja figure made so far. The costume quality is good. I like the semi gloss black fabric on costume. The body has some good articulations. When it came to character design, I have to admit that I was under a lot of influence from HunterPig, a ninja figure master (http://hunterpig.blogspot.com). His work is very inspiring. The other source of influence is from “Tenchu”, a video game. A lot of the postures are based on what I saw from the game.
Parts Breakdown
Head: Takara CG Luna repainted
Body: Crazy Owners Kunoichi modified
Hands: Takara CG modified
Costumes: Crazy Owners Kunoichi
Sandals: custom made
Skull Mask: Azone(?)
Ninjato: Mononofu
Wakisashi: Crazy Owners Kunoichi
Grappling Hook: custom made
Poison Pot: custom made
Sleeve Armors: custom made
Greaves: custom made
Head Repaint
The head is Takara CG Luna. Yes, it is a very rare head. I was lucky to get one as loose part. Otherwise I will never have this head as the complete figure is now selling at US$300 in the market. Having said that, the head alone is also not cheap. As usual, I removed the factory paint and redrew the eyes and lips. The eyebrows are painted in a way to give her a serious look. Chalk shading was applied to enhance the face features.
Body Modifications
The original Crazy Owners body is pretty good. I like the arm and leg articulations. But there are a few things I dislike:
1) the hands cannot hold on to weapon firmly and there are no spare ones for different postures, so I modified the wrist socket to fit CG hands. The CG hands are modified with epoxy putty as well.
2) to allow the crouching poses I need to enhance the head tilting articulation and also the thigh need to move up against the chest. I cut the neck and put in a double ball joints. Then I made a cut out at the waist to allow the thigh to move with a larger extent.
3) I just cannot stand the shape of the breasts. They really look unnatural. I resculpted them with epoxy putty.
Accessory Customizations
Kote (sleeve armor) and suneate (greaves) are made of aluminum can. Plastic stripes are fixed on to the aluminum by instant glue.
Sandal: the sole is made from some thick fabric. Strings are attached to it with instant glue.
Skull Mask: original is a shinny silvery finishing. I used a grinder to remove the surface coating before repainting with black acrylic. Then dry brush metallic silver to create a die-cast iron look.
Grappling Hook: this is actually made of fishing hooks. 2 hooks were glued together to form the shape of a kaginawa, a commonly used climbing tool for ninja.
Poison Pot: gun silencer was cut into pieces and glued together again.
