I really hate painting SO-DO weapons!

https://i.imgur.com/xCbdgy4.jpg

Well here's a whole set of them! I mostly just painted the edges of the swords. I still need to add white paint to the Fourze Barizun Sword, but otherwise I'm complacent with the way these turned out. I actually already have a few of these- they are the same that came with their equivalent figures. Like SO-DO Chronicle Gaim and Den-O. I also plan to turn the spear into a weapon for Durendal.

Also not Toku related but I'm testing out painting some Transformers and I started with a small Spychanger. A little before and after pic:

https://i.imgur.com/fFA1xUx.png

Fire Convoy is one of my favorite Transformers. They take paint better than I thought they would, but it's unclear how well it will hold up.

Your painting all looks great! If I'm interested in trying it, do you have any resources I could use to learn?

Well my style is a little different from a lot of the guides out there. Candy toys are so small and simple that I only use paint markers and hand paint everything with an occasional airbrush. Most collectible toys or model kit painters will use a higher end airbrush or spray cans.

I've covered a lot of my techniques here in this thread and I'm happy to answer and questions you might have. Honestly, if you just dive right in on a practice kit, I think you'll find that it's all easier than you think.

Wanted to pop in and say that both this thread and the Figure-Rise one have actually been pretty great resources for certain aspects to kit building/painting. I actually recently painted up a kit for the first time(Faiz Axel), and the chrome pen you recommended was a great tool for it.

Figure-Rise Standard Kamen Rider OOO

https://i.imgur.com/lzPyI2R.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/XI2vITf.jpg

Another great Figure-Rise kit!

Lots of great detail, but even though the chest emblem is pre-painted, there is a ton of missing colors (namely black on the yellow parts). I never built the MG version, but I can see some improvements on this kit over the MG.

The painted areas:
Chrome silver behind the eyes.
Black paint on the shoulder pads, forearms, and OOO scanner.
Yellow paint on the chest and the 4 pairs of hands
I repainted all the silver on the belt, repainted the coins, gold trim on each coin and the scanner.
Black panel line throughout the red and green parts.

Overall a great kit, though all the parts fit a little more loose than other FRS kits resulting in joints that aren't as tight. Surprisingly, there is little to no wrist movement unless you extend the hands out a really far amount at which point they are prone to falling out entirely. You get a lot of hands and they don't even bother with stickers for them at all. The "neutral" hand is a little more claw-like than previous kits. Speaking of claws, the Toraclaws have a lot of filler in between each blade. It makes sense but really looks odd. Maybe I'll drill them out in the future.

This kit is definitely ready for some other forms, but I'm surprised we haven't seen any yet. I haven't shown the effect parts but they actually look very good when painted.

Amazing, your work always impresses me! Even giving the medals gold rims.

They have in fact announced Tajador as another form this can form swap with and it's out next month I believe

Bunch of new SODO figures came in recently. Basically took me a whole day to do 4 and a half figures. First up Kamen Rider Naki.

https://i.imgur.com/eeij0nU.jpg

Lots of silver and white paint. This is actually the last figure I did for the night and I was really burning out so the paint is a little sloppy. Cool figure but wow I forgot how loose the Zero One SODO figures are.

Next is Kamen Rider Espada and Kamen Rider Calibur.

https://i.imgur.com/LpDClry.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/luFjiht.jpg

Saber suits are just so damn good. They really exemplify the detail of the line. Espada's Lamp Do Alangina side is a beautiful shade of gold with splendid detail including a nicely molded chain and even eyes inside the lamp lid. Calibur on the other hand came with a decent amount of paint application and the silver really pops. It's strange how his chest pieces are a little sunken. Perhaps a side effect of the molding process. I consider these two suits tied for best looking in Saber and it's great that they both come in the same set.

Finally, Kamen Rider Jeanne and Lovekov.

https://i.imgur.com/4cpsedP.jpg

I really wanted to paint the orange on this figure but I could not get a decent and consistent match for the prepainted parts. I did manage to hand paint the emblem on her chest, avoiding the awful included sticker. A blue Gundam marker came in with a perfect match (look at the upper parts of her hands- what a clean match!). Jeanne is a very impressive figure with a wide range of shoulder motion I have not seen before. Lovekov is Lovekov. We love Lovekov and how the figure barely fit into the SODO box.

So now we have the Reiwa women of Kamen Rider.

https://i.imgur.com/ma0V1NB.jpg

And an even more expanded team!

https://i.imgur.com/uob1VKI.jpg

I'm gonna have to be on the lookout for a Zero Two figure now.

And if you've been keeping track of my Saber SODO collection, I now have the full team (though notably it's the upgraded Blades).

https://i.imgur.com/g0ZSt4i.jpg

I have the base Blades suit coming the mail; he was kinda hard to track down. Also I went with the first appearance Saikou as that is my favorite of his forms and I thought the team needed a black colored rider. Wow I really just started with Saber and Buster then slowly picked up more until I just had to complete the team. Speaking of Buster, his color is starting to look very off. I may have to return to him with some improved paint someday.

The SODO set with Jeanne came with Kamen Rider Amazing Siren which I may attempt to repaint back into Eternal Phoenix. All the original mold lines are technically there but orange is still a bit of a tough color to do.

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/ka...0/Saber_45.png
https://i.imgur.com/Th7zVm1.jpg

Also check this guy out

https://i.imgur.com/DyrBzMQ.jpg

No bike for Revice so a skateboard will do.

Now unless Revice comes out with a totally stunning suit I don't think I'll be doing anymore SODO for a while. Other than that, Figure-Rise Standard Kamen Rider Ghost will be next!

Heya! I don't post much at all in this thread but I always enjoy seeing your photos and the work you do on them!

Although, I do want to comment about the one picture, your expanded women rider team of Reiwa. If you didn't know, Naki's gender within the 01 show itself is never confirmed one way or another, but the actor who plays them has stated they are meant to be non-binary! Just wanted to let you know that.

Thanks! And yeah I'm aware of Naki.

Kamen Rider Blades

https://i.imgur.com/WPhpknG.jpg

I actually forgot to take more pictures of him by himself.

Blades is a very simple SO-DO with minimal needed paint. Mostly just the silver of the sword, but I also added gold to the lion eyes and red to the belt. I'm surprised at how good the cape parts look- they connect to the back but sit inside the collar! The trio really looks good together.

Kamen Rider Falchion

https://i.imgur.com/bqIR8Nw.jpg

So this is a completely repainted Amazing Siren. Amazing Siren has all the original mold lines for Falchion so it wasn't too bad. The only off parts are the Wonder Ride Book and the sticker for the base.

I couldn't get a good orange color going so I ended up doing a double coat of light orange and then metallic orange. It actually worked pretty well! The hardest part was recreating the eye sticker using a combination of flat paints, transparent paints, and metallic paints. I also had to hand paint the white lines on the chest and that was agony! It looks decent from far away, but if you get close you can see how thick the white paint is compared to the other colors.

https://i.imgur.com/3G51YUN.jpg

The poseability of SODO is always surprisingly good.

Okay so now that completes my Saber collection... well actually I just ordered the SODO accessory pack that comes with Durandal's Kaiji Spear. Once I get that, I'll take more pictures of the whole gang.

Just some more SODO pictures

https://i.imgur.com/2jFuwJS.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ykyo20O.jpg

I'm really happy for the SODO line as I really love the Saber suit designs and there's no way I would have been able to collect them all in SHF.

https://i.imgur.com/Uzw0DIo.jpg

Here are all the main SODO chronicle figures. To date there have been 6 and even from the first one (W) to the most recent (Ryuki) there have been a bunch of improvements. It feels like as the line continues they'll keep revisiting older releases, which is already being done with W. Each subsequent release has added some subtle innovation. With Ryuki we now have soft-plastic holding hands, which helps alleviate that awkward short hilt syndrome that plagues the Saber swordsmen.

Here are some musings on my experience with the SODO line:

General thoughts: First of all, SODO is undisputed in suit completionism. It really strives to cover every suit that comes out in the show regardless of screen time. I'm particularly thankful for the female rider suits which are almost always PBandai in the SHF line or entirely non-existent in other lines.

My figures have definitely gotten weaker over time. I store my SODO in plastic bags and then sorted into a plastic bin out of any sunlight. While the stickers are holding strong, I have noticed that the joints have become very lose. Den-O is among the loosest, despite not being the oldest.

SODO takes paint very well. Candy toys have every reason to be lackluster in detail but these figures almost always have amazing details which get covered in stickers. People online do full repaints and remolds of SODO which is a testament to their quality.

The weakest point for SODO are probably the shoulder pads and lack of closed fists. The open hole holding hand is the most glaring toy-like aspect in an otherwise expressive 4 inch figure. The Chronicle series has shown a lot of good improvements in this area.

A divisive point for which I am in favor is the durability of the designs. Parts like helmet antennae and spiky armor parts are reinforced with extra plastic for child safety reasons but that also makes them very durable.

Best figure: Gaim. Gaim is a hard suit to make look good but they've succeeded here. There's so much detail in this one from the shoulder armor mold, to the bumps on the chest plate. Angled sword hands and different holster options make this a top notch figure. I've not messed with it, but the arms change gimmick looks to work much better than the Build or Den-O gimmicks. The general SODO design of removable chest pieces just fit Gaim really well.

Most expensive figure: OOOs. He takes 3 boxes and is pretty sought after due to popularity. It ends up being just an ok figure. It's strange to see prepainted parts that don't cover neighboring areas that would be the same color.

Best value: Blades King Lion Daisenki. In terms of raw plastic, this figure is up there, but it also has decent paint and details. To my total surprise, it has paint that goes past the halfway point of the figure and onto the back! Feels like a SODO first!

Worst figure: Slash? Okay there are some truly horrifying figures that are sticker hell like Build Genius and Another Zero-One, but I never built those. Slash feels like the worst because it takes a truly amazing suit and just can't do it justice. There are a ton of stickers on curved parts and it just looks off. It was always gonna be a hard suit to do, just look at the Slash RKF.

Best engineering: This is easy. The Rider Machines and Mecha. SODO is one of the few places we get the Kamen Rider bikes and they just sorta work without breaking the bank. The mecha on the other hand really showcase just how much love the designers have for the toy line. There's no reason to increase your box size that much just to fit multiple robot parts. King of Arthur was an absolute feat.

https://i.imgur.com/PhHOTFE.jpg

SODO has been fun. I cannot wait for Kabuto. It's my favorite series and I love that we're getting all 5 of the riders. I was afraid that the SODO line would discontinue before they finished all 20 Heisei riders but now I don't even care. It's been good and I hope we see even more improvements.

Thank you for reminding me I should paint my slash soon... also my other sodos tbh.

Edit: also your paint jobs look fantastic, I should probably have mentioned that earlier.

The spear came in.

https://i.imgur.com/ksOw6dc.jpg

It's a lot longer than I expected and indeed longer than it should be.

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/ka...eanhistory.png

I might try to cut it down some. Due to the sticker and the tightness of the grasping hand, he's unable to hold the shaft. I may try to drill out the hand a little more to make it possible.

I've really been enjoying Avataro Sentai DonBrothers. I picked up the Change Hero Momotaro Alter and the Don Momotaro Vinyl figure.

https://i.imgur.com/8Vz4Ilj.jpg

I just did a little painting here. White on the top knot, black on the thigh joint parts, and some black and gold on the sword. I have to wait for some yellow spray paint to do the sword, as its a relatively large part and its black. I also clipped off the little parts on the shoulder pads that hold them together for the peach mode. They get in the way and you only need the one on top at most.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/13...g?v=1640362110
https://i.imgur.com/COLYX9g.jpg

For the vinyl figure I repainted the belt in a metallic red, added silver to the wrists and ankles, white trim on the shoulder pads, and repainted the peach on the helmet to metallic pink. In keeping with the spirit of sofubi, I only painted the font half of the figure for all the paintwork.

I'm skipping most of the Minipla for this series but I did preorder Minipla Don ZenkaiOh and I'm interested in the Don OnitaiJin, but will have to see in action.

I think the next kit I'll be building and painting here will be the Ryusoulger Minipla!

One of my favorite hobby experiences is painting Gashapon toys. A little paint really brings out their fantastic details.

This year the DonBrothers gashapon were really ugly. They have completely flat faces that you put a sticker over. I was definitely disappointed but when you consider that these toys sell for 200 yen, suddenly they are kinda cool. Anyway, I painted some of them up.

https://i.imgur.com/ZGGfHnz.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/e15dOuP.jpg

Only took me an hour.

I'm still waiting on my FRS Ghost kit as I pre-ordered it alongside another kit that got delayed. The SO-DO hiatus continues until probably the next Kamen Rider. But I did pre-order the Onitaijin Minipla kit which is due out in a few months so that and Ghost will be next!

Some new additions to the SO-DO collection.

Kamen Rider Zi-O and Ridestriker
https://i.imgur.com/TCli6uy.jpg

It's always a little charming to revisit these older SO-DO kits. While Zi-O isn't necessarily bad, the improvements over the year really make this feel like a true candy toy. The head being fully composed of stickers is probably the worst part, but so also is the chest sticker being a giant silver sticker covering the lovely watch band details.

Silver paint really makes the suit pop. As for the Ridestriker, it's another neat rider machine that works surprisingly well in SO-DO form.

Kamen Rider Zero Two
https://i.imgur.com/hXVEhI5.jpg

To add to my women of Reiwa collection, we have Zero Two ver Izu. It's the dynamic posability of SO-DO that really allows the suit to look like Izu. Flat hands would be ideal, but these open hands work in a pinch. The only thing I painted on this one were metallic red on the hands and some black paint to cover the tops of the thigh armor. Those two small touches really make all the difference.

Thanks to Kamen Rider Die for the hookup on these figures. I will be doing one of my all-time favorite suits next, Kamen Rider Birth.

"Now then, let's start earning!"

Kamen Rider Birth
https://i.imgur.com/tXaZ2vC.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ms2WLBC.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Itoca3p.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Rayw92P.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/EYA59up.jpg

What a great suit! I love Gachapon toys and a Kamen Rider with a Gachapon motif is truly awesome. That it is one of the closest things we have to a Metal Hero suit is even better.

With all the clear parts on the suit, this is clearly a premium Bandai product. Though I'm surprised the hands are still the old peg type. But we do get closed fists hands, which are just the best.

As for paint, the Birth suit was painted with gun metal on the belt, gold on the wrist, ankles, and belt, and just a little panel lining on the helmet. Surprisingly little paint needed for this one.

The Birth CLAWs on the other hand I used metallic paint in each of the colors and gunmetal on the Caterpillar Leg threads. I actually fully painted the guns but they didn't look so great, so I used stickers on top of them. It's a great effect that I've used on previous SO-DO weapons so it matches fine. Also while taking these pictures I realized the Breast Cannon handles could be safely drilled out so I drilled out the handle section and you can just barely fit his thumb in there. Also also the cannon barrel was drilled out. There's definitely a peg there, so I had to use a little glue to keep it together.

Such a great suit. Now if Bandai could hurry up and make a Birth suit in the Converge line. Oh and a Seihou. I would buy those.

I never thought about it like this before, but now you've said this and now I've been watching a lot of Gavan I can really see it! All it needs is a lot of 90s tech detailing on the chest lol.

Great job as always! It's always cool to see when they don't need much paint, it certainly helps justify its Premium Bandai pricepoint.

Good news for you, by the way -- you apparently weren't the only one who wanted Converge Birth, as popular request is getting us this in November's retail wave!

https://cdn-ak.f.st-hatena.com/image...0713154010.jpg

No Proto Birth, but this line still does chase figures, right? So I assume that'd be this wave's one

Haha oh wow of course Bandai announces this the same day I ask for it! It's as simple as that!

It's a truly great looking figure and I can't wait. Proto Birth is definitely gonna be the chase. Which is kind of a bummer because they did the same with Meteor and Meteor Storm and that just made it hard for me to find just Meteor. With the CSM Birth Driver coming out this year, it looks like its a... Birth Year.

Nothing new to show just happy with how this photo turned out.

https://i.imgur.com/dOJfvHj.jpg

Shodo-XX

https://i.imgur.com/aY7OKCX.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/adOloW1.jpg

Kamen Rider Generations

Yikes, these are some awesome looking figure. Kuuga in particular really shines with that metallic red paint.

https://i.imgur.com/L5I98mK.jpg

It was hard to color match Zero-One's color but it turned out okay- it looks a lot better in person.

https://i.imgur.com/6nDoOY6.jpg

I wasn't really planning to collect Shodo/Shodo-XX but since I already had Ichigo, I figured I would grab Kuuga and Zero-One for a first of the generation display.

Also here is Black RX, who I normally love but this figure just feels a little off and I'm not sure why.

https://i.imgur.com/AUOLaXe.jpg

Anyway, Shodo-XX looks quite good, though the articulation is a little loose and inconsistent all over. Zero-One's left ankle joint keeps wanting to set itself. And while I do think the shoulder pads look excellent, they definitely limit the movement and poses of the arms.

Many thanks to Blade Raider for helping me acquire these figures.

Kaigan! Ore! Let's go! Kakugo! Go Go Go! Ghost!

Figure Rise Standard Kamen Rider Ghost appears out of nowhere!

https://i.imgur.com/gXNNWk7.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/M2lnjOD.jpg

Maybe it's because I haven't built one in a while and forgot how easy they are, but this kit was completed shockingly fast. It was over before I knew it and the mostly black design meant zero panel lining was needed.

Because I don't have a good orange, I opted to use the included stickers. Thus, for paint:

> Shine Silver on the jacket buttons, shoulder strap clips, areas of the driver, and in small areas where the silver parts are cut from the runner.
> Gunmetal Grey on the inside of the driver. I also used ceramic polish to make the shell of the driver a bit more transparent.
> Metallic Orange on the edges of where the orange stickers go on the jacket. This is most noticeable on the hood. Painting these edge areas help the stickers out a ton and does a good job of covering up the stickered look. Orange on the driver handle and belt straps as well. (I'm glad the suit jacket hides the belt straps because I could not get it to look good with metallic orange paint).

Speaking of stickers, the "thick stickers" used all over the body of the Ghost suit are actually quite good. They are perfectly fitted into the recessed portions of the suit and I honestly think they are superior if Bandai tried to pre-paint the same parts.

Another interesting thing to note is that the A runner where all the clear plastic parts are uses a much softer plastic than normal. It's really great at stopping cracks and chips in the parts. Though, if you understand plastics, you'll know that these parts have the potential to become "sticky" if they aren't able to breath. I won't be surprised if this kit has sticky residue developed on some parts after sitting on the shelf for years unopened. It's not a huge issue, you'll just have to wash the parts.

Overall, while Ghost is one of my least favorite shows/suits, you cannot deny the quality of this kit. There are many places Bandai could've cheapened out, like the use of two separate blacks for the hands and the aforementioned stickers. There are also many places where this kit is superior to the SHF in my opinion. In the end I'm thankful there was very little extra work I needed to put into this kit.

As far as negatives, oh boy this kit has very limited articulation. Just the nature of wearing the hoodie, which hinders the arms movement, the leg spread, and ab crunch. And that hoodie loves to get dislodged while you're handling the figure. This is fine for me as I am all about the static pose, but do keep that in mind. Ghost was the FRS kit I thought would be dead last in the FRS line, but now this kit gives me confidence that they can do Wizard with some justice.

https://i.imgur.com/FxQvljT.jpg

15 Riders!

I will also add that FRS Ghost uses some newer parts techniques I suspect we'll see a lot more of in the future. The simplified knee joints may not be as good as the previous style, but they get the job done in less parts and the joint will stay tighter longer.

A lot of the Kamen Rider FRS kits have something technically unique to them and I think that really helps bring out the personality of each suit.

Lastly while bringing out all these kits to pose for the group shot, I noticed that OOOs became looser than some older kits already. Kabuto has the weakest joints but that was the first one I built and possibly the one I posed the most so that adds up. I now feel that Kuuga's shoulder pads are too bulbous.

Glad to hear he worked out so well for you!! Especially on the sticker front, it's really cool to hear that someone who customises as much as you thinks the stickers here are really good and that you didn't need to use as much paint. He's one of my personal favourite FRS kits so far; though I admittedly do like both the show and the suit a lot.

I noticed you didn't note a blue paint for the horn; did you opt for the sticker there as well? I think that might be the one sticker in the kit (well, on Ghost himself anyway) that didn't feel good

Indeed, I opted for the sticker there. You are right in that it didn't feel good and it doesn't seem like an exact fit for the spot. That is a particular type of sticker in a kit that I usually keep: prominent placement, somewhat unique color, recessed but in a place that if I decide to paint it later, it would be easy to rectify.

Haha I really tried to do as little as possible to the kit!

The only real flaw on the Ghost kit, in my view, is that it doesn't have an Eyecon. Unless I'm mistaken every other character's henshin gimmick has been removable and holdable in the FRS line until now.

The ridewatches on Zi-O are molded into the driver

Ah, alright then. I don't have that one and may have forgotten that it existed.

ShiShiLeo can you post what the inside of the driver looks like?

Yeah, the lack of eyecons was a shame

Looks great, I suppose you had to cut out the sticker?

Yep, I am a fan of mutilating the stickers. I do it all the time with SO-DO. I use a a "spudger" tool and pointed tip cotton swabs to help apply stickers.

Heh, I did the same thing with my Ghost Driver. Really strange that Bandai didn't even give an option for a separate eye sticker.

Long time no post.

I've built both the Onitaijin and Daizyujin & Dragon Ceasar minipla. I'll just give some quick thoughts.

https://i.imgur.com/K9IZfeK.jpg

The Mini-pla line continues to be great. Onitaijin is big, bulky, and really grabs attention. The articulation is excellent and the stickers are very serviceable. Mini-pla kits in Japan are something like $20 and for that price, they are some of the most fun model kits you can buy. By the time they get to the west they look more like $40, for which the recommendation will have a few caveats. But if you like the suit, they are absolutely worth getting.

So let's move on to the Zyuranger mecha.

What can I say, the Daizyujin robo is perhaps one of the most iconic giant robots in history. Side by side with the Super Robot Chogokin release, the proportions start to look really off.

https://i.imgur.com/9mYu6Tt.jpg

That chest piece is really massive, and right behind it is a somewhat skinny looking frame. I also find the SaberTiger's head to be too long- it sticks out way too far, and I wonder if its to better hide the long fore legs.

Still the engineering on the kit is very impressive for the size. You just will never find a combining mecha at this size with this articulation.

Yes the stickers are still a bummer, but you know what, the original DX toys had stickers too, these kind of toys aren't meant to last forever. That's just part of the charm.

If you're wondering how I painted the kit. For efficiency's sake, I actually take out all the silver runners and spray paint them with some Tamiya Silver. I keep all the parts on the runners but remove as many runner points as I can. You want to try and remove the ones that will show, and keep the ones that will be hidden on the kit.

https://i.imgur.com/XNMFWtL.jpg

This saves a bunch of time and ensures a somewhat even color consistency across all like parts. The downside to this is, unless you cover some specific parts, the paint makes them ever-so-slightly thicker, resulting in very tight joints. This may actually be a good thing, but on my kit the joints ended up being so tight, I was worried I was going to stress the plastic.

https://i.imgur.com/95QElEz.jpg

As for Dragon Ceasar...

https://i.imgur.com/AaxeyCW.jpg

This is clearly a premium product. The parts separation is much better than your average Super Mini-Pla, and even some of the gold parts are nicely plated.

For this kit I got to try out the new Gundam Marker EX Yellow Gold. The result are amazing! The original Gundam Gold marker has always been kind dull and dark, and this new one is a great match to a lot of the gold paint used on Bandai kits. We finally have a good gold marker!

In the end, are these kits still worth getting? I think so. Despite the flaws the kit is still one of a kind for the moment. Out of the box, the kit is great. With some paint and detail work, it's even better. I would have liked to see alternative hand parts.

So what did I paint?

For Daizyujin:
Gundam Marker Black paint on the head's "cheek armor", various small areas on each of the mecha, the wheels on SaberTiger.
Tamiya silver paint on all silver parts.
Gundam Marker EX Silver on various small areas of each mecha, triceratops feet, saber teeth.
Gundam Marker Blue on the waist piece, middle of the chest.
Gundam Marker Yellow on lower chest area.
Gundam Marker EX Yellow Gold on the sword.

For Dragon Ceasar:
Gundam Marker EX Yellow Gold on gold runner parts, each tail segment, should hinges, green knee pad parts.
Gundam Marker Black on various areas: upper thighs, gold arm pieces. The guide area for this is embossed so the paint is a little sloppy.

Thank you for sharing these! I picked up Daizyujin pre-owned/pre-built but unpainted, so I appreciate your breakdown of your approach. While I agree the sabertooth foot looks a bit off, I actually like the wide chest. It makes it feel more robotic and less of a stunt suit. I wish I had gotten the chance to build it, but I did have fun snipping off the nubs the first owner left behind

By the way, can you share if this new EX Yellow Gold is similar to the gold paint on So-Do Gaim?

In terms of the paint that's already there, I think EX Yellow Gold is a good match for the gold on the head. SO-DO Gaim already has some gold on the legs which are little more dull than the head ornaments. So EX Yellow Gold might actually be too bright and shiny.

If I were to do it again, I would probably paint the shoulder feathers in Yellow Gold but keep the other gold areas as I have them. OR I would paint all the gold parts with Yellow Gold and repaint over the prepainted gold on the legs.

I picked up a whole bunch of SODO figures all at once recently. Here we go!

"Subvert Up! Wow! Just believe in myself! Kamen Rider! Ah! Aguilera!"

Kamen Rider Aguilera

https://i.imgur.com/M2gHQY7.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/IAwRtEB.jpg

This is actually a full repaint of Dark Aguilera from Geats SODO ID04. I ended up sanding down her face stinger thing to make it more sharp looking. It looked like a silly nose previously. Another one for the Women of Reiwa collection. Aguilera ended up playing a much larger role in Revice than I expected.

https://i.imgur.com/rh7wDeI.jpg

I realize I didn't even put Na-Go in here. I'd really love to track down a SODO Poppy now.

I haven't kept up with Geats but I do enjoy seeing all the suits. Geats in particular is most excellent. Perhaps my favorite Reiwa suit following Zero One.

https://i.imgur.com/3a0pSKp.jpg

Here I've got all the "base" forms of the main riders. It's unfortunate that they don't come with their respective weapons. Hopefully there is eventually a weapon pack for all of them, but right now you have to grab the Lower parts of each form to get the weapon.

The SODO line is slowly getting bigger and bigger. The Geats line figures stand a little taller than previous figures from Saber and Zero One. The Geats suits in particular are very complex (especially with the lower legs), but it was nice that all the legs were simple with very little added paint. All the heads breakdown into two pieces, the helmet and the jaw. Though I will probably never take advantage of it, there's a ton of mix-and-match playability here.

Geats and Na-go seem to suffer a bit from shunken chests making them look oddly flat. Na-go has an interesting parts swap to achieve her bangles, I would have definitely given that up for her Guitar weapon.

These definitely look like the most video game suits since Ex-Aid. Hopefully that wraps up my SODO Geats collection, as these things are getting harder and harder to obtain.

https://i.imgur.com/4BY1NXu.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/fGzd2FF.jpg

I still want Geats' bike though.

Cast off, change beetle!

Kamen Rider Kabuto
https://i.imgur.com/bexaDSX.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Is2vVyV.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Xx74MSY.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/W2C2w36.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/t4KGxfl.jpg

Arriving at hyper speed, Kamen Rider Kabuto joins the SO-DO Chronicle line. Kabuto is my no. 1 favorite Kamen Rider suit. The SO-DO version is not bad. Although the detail is there, however the silver stickers are not as shiny as they appear in adverts or on the box.

It's neat that they were able to do the Cast Off gimmick but the process to do it is actually pretty cumbersome. Doing it too much will definitely wear at my paint job, so I'll likely never use the option.

For the paint, Gundam EX Silver on all the grey/silver parts (jaw, shoulder pads, wrists, ankles, boots, belt, ribs). Flat black on the chest piece, rear chest armor, and shoulder pads. The Zector was painted in metallic red, gold, and gunmetal. I did not paint any of the Masked form armor, but I will probably go back and add silver to the all the hand guards.

Kabuto's horn and holding hands are made from a soft pliable plastic. These swappable hands combined with the various weapons really set the SO-DO Chronicle line apart from the regular SO-DO line. Those weapons really start to look goofy without hilts and handles.

The Kabuto suit looks really dynamic and agile, but ironically he has one of the stiffer fighting styles in all of Heisei. The SO-DO incarnation has a very good waist joint, a clear attempt at giving him his signature Ricker Kick pose, but it still doesn't come off looking good.

I now have Kabuto in SHF, Figure-Rise Standard, Shodo-x, SODO, Converge, vinyl, souchaku henshin, keychain, and various gashapon. I will have to do a size comparison soon.

That are amazing customs, I love what you did !

What's your next project ?

I definitely agree with this. In the comparison shot, the SRC does look a bit more "natural," but I think it's because it has a more human proportion, based on the suit and not the overall design.

A great example to explain is LiveBoxer - the SMP release is super chonky, which some people have said looks bad. But if you watch the transformation sequence, up until they swap it out with the suit actor at the end, they're showing a LiveBoxer that's just as chonky. Meaning, that's what the official design is, they just had to slim it down for the suit. At least, that's how I interpret it.

Anyways, all these painted figures look great. I'm especially impressed by the Ghost Driver - it's easy to forget how much detail is actually in these figures when everything is covered up by stickers, and you brought it all out.