charlie98210
Active Member
I just completed a resin kit of Hayao Myazaki's Nausicaa of Valley of the Wind
in 1/12 scale. The kit itself has not been in production for years, and when I got it,
I was a little disapointed. The hair face and eyes were off, not done in Miyazaki's
"retro" style. The stance of the body was awkward, her legs oddly straight and not
bending naturally.
So, after a lot of thought (a couple of minutes, tops) I decided to modify it.
I cut the body up, slicing it at each joint. Ankles, knees, mid-thighs. And then
I used my Dremel grinder to reshape the face, making it more angular. I also
reshaped the hair, contouring the back of it to a more natural shape, closer to
the skull (and also removing material from the bangs in front). I then angled
the cuts of the leg pieces and the arms, giving more of a bend to the legs, and
shifted the torso into more of a fighting stance instead of the original "upright,
holding a rifle" one. I ditched the rifle and replaced it with a knife. After
gluing it all together, I used putty to smooth out the the places where the
pieces didn't quite fit together, and then spent a couple of days painting her.
Then I scratchbuilt a "Mehve" power glider for her out of heat-bendable pvc
foamboard, incorporating a broken wing to look like she had crashed it. I
built a base out of an old McFarland LOST figure model display, adding
sections (made from model clay) to make it large enough to hold both
Nausicaa and her glider.
Here's the completed model:
Front View:
Side View:
Back View:
Side View:
in 1/12 scale. The kit itself has not been in production for years, and when I got it,
I was a little disapointed. The hair face and eyes were off, not done in Miyazaki's
"retro" style. The stance of the body was awkward, her legs oddly straight and not
bending naturally.
This is the photo which came with the kit, showing
what the finished model is supposed to look like.
what the finished model is supposed to look like.
So, after a lot of thought (a couple of minutes, tops) I decided to modify it.
I cut the body up, slicing it at each joint. Ankles, knees, mid-thighs. And then
I used my Dremel grinder to reshape the face, making it more angular. I also
reshaped the hair, contouring the back of it to a more natural shape, closer to
the skull (and also removing material from the bangs in front). I then angled
the cuts of the leg pieces and the arms, giving more of a bend to the legs, and
shifted the torso into more of a fighting stance instead of the original "upright,
holding a rifle" one. I ditched the rifle and replaced it with a knife. After
gluing it all together, I used putty to smooth out the the places where the
pieces didn't quite fit together, and then spent a couple of days painting her.
Then I scratchbuilt a "Mehve" power glider for her out of heat-bendable pvc
foamboard, incorporating a broken wing to look like she had crashed it. I
built a base out of an old McFarland LOST figure model display, adding
sections (made from model clay) to make it large enough to hold both
Nausicaa and her glider.
Here's the completed model:
Front View:
Side View:
Back View:
Side View:
Last edited:
