1/7 Kazami Mizuho White Bikini

Series	Onegai Sensei
Title	1/7 Kazami Mizuho White Bikini
Scale	1/7
Height	approx. 23 cm
No. of Parts	26 resin parts + instruction sheet + 1 photo
Purchase Date	2004-08-21
Model Status	Completed (2005-12-14)
Production Roll-Out#	#4

Story
Onegai! Sensei (Please! Teacher) is about Kei is a 15 year old boy had fallen into a "standstill" lasting three years. After recovering, he quietly moved away from home in order to avoid social difficulty due to his long "absence," living with his doctor uncle and aunt and keeping the situation a secret from his new friends.

During the first bits of the story, he meets Kazami Mizuho, a beautiful half-human alien who is researching planet Earth and eventually begins posing as a teacher. After being discovered in a compromising situation together, he protects the Kazami's cover story by supporting the idea they are married, resulting in a marriage of convenience that later blossoms into genuine affection.

Kazami Mizuho, half-alien, half human Level C Planet Inspector from the Galactic Federation, sent to Earth to observe and study humans. She enjoys pocky (though the boxes are labeled "Pochy" due to trademark issues.)

Comment
This is a 1/7 scale resin kit figure of Kazami Mizuho, a very popular main character from the anime series "Onegai! Sensei" (Please! Teacher) dressed in a white bikini and grooming her hair. There are countless number of sculpt on her but this is by far the one that I like best.

Although this is a 1/7 scale kit, it is actually quite big standing at about 23 cm. It feel more like building a 1/6 scale kit. She comes with a very simple sculpt on her body and a gets very complicated on her hair. Her body can be fitted in about a day but her hair is driving me up to the wall. It took me a week to get it done!

Also note that my previous completed kit is sized at 1/7 and 1/8. This is my first attempt building a bigger scale kit. Therefore, I got a few things pre-plan.

Firstly, it is her flesh tone. it is a bigger kit and I planned to have a deeper contrast and a more anime-like color. Secondly, it is her hair. It is safe to say that sculpt mainly focus on her hair and getting an impressive color and toning is crucial to bring out the beauty of this kit. Thirdly, it is his bikini. I feel that the flat white color scheme as shown in the painting guide is too simple. I like to spice it up and yet not to lose the innocence. Fourth, it is her sweet looking eyes and I am not confident in my hand brushing skill. Lastly, it will be the display base for her. I have never made a base before for my kits and it will be impossible to display her without pinning her leg to a base.

The following are the summary of how I plan to face the challenges.

Mix redder skin color.
Apply Max Technique (pre-shading), a skill learned from Gunpla, on her hair.
Apply blue pearl on top of the white bikini to make it more elegant without losing the actual color scheme.
Try airbrushing the eyes
Make a simple sandy base. Use Tamiya Putty to create the texture. A technique learned from Gunpla magazine.

For the details on how I attempted to tackle those challenges, please refer to my construction process page at "The Making of 1/7 Kazami Mizuho White Bikini".

There are also a few lesson and mistakes learned from making this kit. It is listed as follow.

Sanding her hair is hell. It has a bad casting. I have worked on it for a week and that is the best I could do. I am yet to achieve a perfect surface.
There is a gap on the back of he right shoulder. That place is hidden under her hair but it is still visible from certain angles. This is owing to her hair does not fit properly during final assembly and it pushes the right arm slightly outward resulting a gap that cannot be completely sealed.
The white highlights on her eyes are suppose to be on upper left corner since light should come from between the hair parting. I overlook this factor while painting her eyes. However, her head tilt higher to the right and it can be theorized to have the highlight on the upper right.

This kit is bought from e2046.