In the course of the pre-receipt evaluation of the figure, I had come to the conclusion that the katana would have to undergo some serious rework, at the very least. Upon receipt, I saw that while my worst fears were for naught, the katana would be the focus of my prepwork travails.
The two incidents described in the previous posts merely underscored the obvious.
The tsuka was quickly repaired with a spot of superglue; however, that did nothing to mitigate the bulk and squarish x-section of the grip. I intend to reduce the tsuka to the appropriate conforma- tion, and re-braid the grip. Finally, I intend to reshape--and rescale!--the tsuba to its circular form.
The braiding on the saya should be reworked as well, but given the scale and the fact that it is a historically-questionable item, I decided to leave it as is. Which brings us to the broken section of the saya. Rather than glue and refinish, I went ahead and carved the entire section of the saya below the braiding from a piece of scrap resin.
By way of closing, I would point out that the katana has been re-scaled as necessary. . .
More to follow. . .
FOLLOW-UP 06.01.2018. . . In the course of fitting the replacement section of the saya, I de- cided to remove the tsuka-tsuba to facilitate the re-braiding of the former, and the truing of the latter. With all "obstructions" removed, I was faced with yet another over-coiffed subject! The hair, in this instance, is used primarily as a filler of deadspace and/or undercuts, but its enormity is ridiculous! So I began paring it down to a more realistic--and complementary!--volume.
“When the cost of a hobby exceeds the fun and doesn't attract new people, the game is over.” -
Oscar Koveleski, August 2003
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