Mixed nuts XIX - Out of gas

A bit of a end of year round up this time. been contemplating do I post them here or not because reasons, but given advancements in some of those reason, so far the result is why not.

Firefly fans might guess the general mood by the subtitle, but in anycase -- here we goo...

First of all testing the reflectiveness of a platform I built into my shelving system in an attempt to save space:

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Louise was just suitably on hand for this, and zero effort in trying to set up white balance.

During this period I've been very much become aquinted with the tax free offerings of a certain ferry line and been purchasing alcohol for missuse as novelty ornamental objects.
Kaede gets a go at cosplaying for a slightly rude theme with a bottle that was fairly awkward to try and photograph:

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This is a composite of two photos of the same setting in a few different exposures just to get the gold foil to pop a little better, but you can see the divide line a bit too clear as I didnt blur that one out.

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Then a small photo series, with megumin with some off brand building bricks:

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as a side note, Id need to make plans to turn these fruit drop tins into small mushroom-top style stools

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It was originally meant for megumin to build the optimus prime set, but that has so far stayed in its box, because reasons.

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Then a bit of a random continuation, as I found a set of dorky headbands in a suitable size at the local grocery store:

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This was also the point where the LED allergy some of my doll heads were experiencing made me invest in some "proper" photography led panels, and the results were promising, with the worst case Millhiore photographing without problems:

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Next is a few snaps of a 3D printing project that suffered a catastrophic motivation issue while making it, caused by reasons.

but after sitting on it for a four month period, I decided to go back to it, and after a fair bit of work getting the filament printed

bits smoothed out enough for paint it was time for snaps:

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I did start to fiddle in making the chain motif to go with them (based on a certain virgin succubus and all), but that suffers from lack of available crafting materials.

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Next up is a unlikely prop that I picked up at the Kings-Corner Ikea while my last trip in sweden...

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Still pondering about drilling out the thumb post of the hand to try and make it rotatable a bit more, but shall have to see.

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Then we get to the slight statistical performance dissapointment that is namely the D'coord lotto arrival:

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I do like the little upwards curl of the upper lip in downward looking poses.

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Then for another single shot, that was a bit of a humoristic mish-mash of things while I tested out a DIY effect light panel of sorts with Kaede:

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Then we get to projects that seem like a good idea, but in the end ... the time might have been better spent elsewhere.
After getting re-aquinted with some vocaloid songs I decided to dust off Rin that had been sitting around on my shelf for a few years into limited action:

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And these were taken to ultimately make the following:

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Naturally out of Jesus-P's Remote Control...

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Only edits being to remove the manufacturer logo off the classic controller

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Then we get another single shot, that was supposed to be a bit more, but for now is still without continuation:

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I was a bit curious could I get enough of a wild looking stare out of Miku (If you've read the lyrics of the bridge of the song with the original art, you'll know what I mean.), and sort of a so-so end result.

still trying to get enough motivation to do the actual original video art pose (will require fishing line shinenigans with the hair), and perhaps the light novel cover arts where the siren outfit seems to be most based on.

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Then sort of finally its the christmass group, which has traditionally for me been the year aquisitions in various santa-outfits that I've collected over the years:

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Slightly wrong side of the franchise, but still felt most proper for Kaede:

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"No Megumin, you may not "light up" the tree...."

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Brand new one gets the brand new old last year stock santa outfit:

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Then swapping the gang into miko outfits for the newyears:

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The last few singles are a bit random... a head came in the post just after new years:

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As a random note, named after Ellen Lohr a german DTM driver, because of country of origin.

And unfortunately in terms of motorsports, a certain icon in their own right departed for the great rally stages in the sky, and a small tribute for that:

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That is all...

Omg amazing photos... I don't know where to begin.

Is Kaede wearing the new nun outfit or is her outfit an older one? Strangely it went out of stock on Volks Japan, then it disappeared altogether. It seems to have turned into a mythical outfit. I wanted it for Towa, even though it probably wouldn't fit her (unless she borrowed somebody else's chest).

Your lottery Mochi-Ashi is just soooo adorable! That expression is amazing. I wish I had entered this one but I was under the impression they were just one offs (i.e. only one of each was available).

Megumin is really cute too. I definitely missed out on her.

4 hours ago, Xiongmao said:

nun outfit

What kaede has on is the L-bust Praying sister set from 2013, which has a sibling version for max M-busts with a different hem line called the Guiding Sister set.

This one has a bit more grand appearence to it in my oppinnion, because of the hemline.

4 hours ago, Xiongmao said:

Your lottery Mochi-Ashi

under the impression they were just one offs (i.e. only one of each was available)

The tan DDH-21 MDD D'coord lotto girl is actually a normal MDD body, not mochi. the DDH-19 headed semiwhite MDD was a mochi though.

As far as I've understood none of the D'coord lotto dolls were one off's or limiteds, and if you wanted, you can spec them out through dream choise with the included makeup codes if ordered in the proper season. The only thing that makes them unique is being shipped with the D'coord uniform, and the D'coord "build-sheet" which is a bit of a let down at least in my case as it was machine printed, and not hand written as D'coords usually are. Also interestingly the eyes are glued in, and not with a dream fitter.

as to how many were available, I dont know, but it is sort of interesting that at least three out of four models found their way on the forum.

If I had the funds I would have tried for the Suigintou one off despite being an actual one off, but at the time funds were stretched even for the DDH-21 MDD

Ahhh, your megumin has my heart!

That last line in your post: ‘that is all’.

Love your random photo post. There is a lot of variation and your photo’s are very good, interesting and fun to look at. 
Thank you for posting this shoot. 

Your Shino is stunning, so elegant 💘 and Megumin looks lovely in that blonde wig! 

Scrolling back through these, I really love the mature look of Kaede in your photos. The Volks sculpt makes her look younger than she is, and your outfits & posing do a good job countering that. You make her look like a mature woman who's just put a lot of effort into skin-care.

23 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

The Volks sculpt makes her look younger than she is, and your outfits & posing do a good job countering that. You make her look like a mature woman who's just put a lot of effort into skin-care.

I mean, she's only (canonically originally) 25? ... not even the eternal 30 year old thing... honestly I just go with the flow, so cant say whats deliberate and whats not, but what I can say is the head is still a bit weird to photograph, The wig might be a thing, getting it fluffled up just right, and while doing so it likes to drive me mad, especially the forehead stuff, which I've yet to completely figure out.

Edited January 22, 2023 by finnleo

29 minutes ago, finnleo said:

I mean, she's only (canonically originally) 25? ... not even the eternal 30 year old thing

Well, it is anime so character design is rarely indication of age in girls. 😅

Still, my feeling is that they based her design on the recent phone games (Starlight Stage?) where the characters were all a bit chibified. My image of Kaede comes from the anime, where she was clearly drawn as an adult woman enjoying the prime of her life. A woman so powerful and sure of herself that she could go toe to toe with evil-stepmother and just brush the encounter off like it was nothing. Not even Mika could do that, and Mika's a powerhouse who is well on her way to becoming the next top idol.

Mature may have been the wrong word, what I mean is more like "all grown up with no need to prove anything to anyone."

6 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

Still, my feeling is that they based her design on the recent phone games (Starlight Stage?) where the characters were all a bit chibified

had to check some dates, so I dont fully talk out of my butt.

In Doll form kaede manages to come after the Cinderella girls anime, which to me is more of a source than the original cinderella girls phone game with the more simplified graphics.

This is how she looks in the latest console game, Starlit season that mixed some cinderella girls character into it:

amusingly you'd think Anastasia's doll faceup was closer to this Kaede than the actual Kaede.

 

13 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

Mature may have been the wrong word, what I mean is more like "all grown up with no need to prove anything to anyone."

I think "Of legal drinking age in any US state" works best.

 

19 minutes ago, finnleo said:

In Doll form kaede manages to come after the Cinderella girls anime

Yes, and her promo art was certainly from her design there, but the sculpt felt more like Starlight Stage which was the current franchise release when Kaede was made. 
 

19 minutes ago, finnleo said:

I think "Of legal drinking age in any US state" works best.

Well I'd buy her a drink no matter what state she was in. 😀

Edit: I should probably have said "had been released before Kaede was made." I don't know if it was the most recent franchise release at that time. 

57 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

Edit: I should probably have said "had been released before Kaede was made." I don't know if it was the most recent franchise release at that time. 

In terms of a game with kaede, Starlight stage checks out at 2015, with the main 765 cast getting platinum stars at 2016.

But I do get probably what you are after. The shape of the eye's isnt quite the slight "kaede squint" she typically has going on. Actually its a pain in the butt, since if you dont get the angle just right she ends up looking surprised.

Could be that they were trying to avoid a repeat of the Anastasia faceup just a year after.

Did some digging into the event cards of starlight and some didnt have the squint as obviously...

Main outfit:

But sort of intrugued what Ana's head would look with the blue/green heterochromia and kaede's wig now.

25 minutes ago, finnleo said:

Did some digging into the event cards of starlight and some didnt have the squint as obviously...

My image of her really is more this.

My love of the character really come from Episode 15, her principles trumping her career ambitions, and that just takes both maturity and self-confidence. Something you expect to find in an adult and not a teen. IMO her character design in the anime reflects that. Being cute is just the icing on the cake.

Not that you can't find teens who beat expectations and adults who don't live up.

6 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

My image of her really is more this.

My love of the character really come from Episode 15, her principles trumping her career ambitions, and that just takes both maturity and self-confidence.

mm, well those images were mostly my usual research that is there any practical reason for a character model to look like it does... and results are varied.

Well, Kaede is a nice bit of writing that she's 25, and since you dont really see how she's "picked up" by the agency, you assume she already did have some kind of work at that point. knowing that you'll be ok and have something to fall back to if things dont go to plan can help in decision making like in that situation in the anime, so Kaede has the luxury of doing things her way, as opposed to say Mika who is 17 and in theory at least still in school and the idol thing so far is the only thing she knows of.

As to what that perticular previous work was... who knows...?

2 hours ago, finnleo said:

mm, well those images were mostly my usual research that is there any practical reason for a character model to look like it does... and results are varied.

 

Even within an anime, the designs can vary a bit and change from season to season.

Gah, Kaede as Yor is awesome!

13 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

Even within an anime, the designs can vary a bit and change from season to season.

Gah, Kaede as Yor is awesome!

mm, whenever Im digging around anime versions I try to find the character sheets, and from there you can get an idea what they should have looked like.

 

Kaede Briar/Forger was a crossover I mentioned elsewhere even before Yor's release, since the voice actress link is rather amusing. Saori Hayami has a few other iconic character on her list, like Ikaros, Yotsuyugi Ononoki ... and oddly enough Ruby Rose... now I need to think about that foldable scythe.

Another fairly obvious crossover with a voice actress is Yumi Hara, as Takane Shijou / Albedo