The Silver Samurai - Update

By way of follow-up, I have decided to base my creation on Verlinden's oversized (see below) offering, no. 1749. Those of you who have been with me for a while know that I am no stranger to this bust, that, in spite of its numerous shortcomings, IMHO consistently ranks amongst the top samurai busts on the market. Given that period-specific historicity will not be a factor in this project, most of the shortcomings are nullified at the outset.

I have reviewed this bust on numerous occasions, so permit me to present you with the bullet-point highlights:

•  Verlinden markets this kit as a 200mm bust, but this is anything but! I have scaled it out to 1/5th scale. . . in fact, this kit would not look out of place in a collection of its slightly larger 1/4 scale brethren.
• 18 pieces + pedestal.
• Buff-coloured resin - the original releases were cast in the then-typical Verlinden grigio-verde resin, with all that entailed. This new resin is a significant improvement!
• Bust is based on a modern-day reenactor as pictured in Mitsuo Kure's and Ghislaine Kruit's THE SAMURAI Recreated in Colour Photographs (Europa Militaria Special No. 14; p. 67). And as such it is quite a successful accomplishment! Thus, as a historical reconstruction, it leaves much to be desired; but as a cost-effective platform upon which to launch an interesting, colourful, and unique conversion project, it is superb!

The conceptual design of my interpretation is still very sketchy--but I do like where it's going. . .

More to follow. . .