Sometimes, all you need is a good sculpt to make you like a figure regardless of how you feel about the character. That’s pretty much how I found myself in possession of this kit of Dead Master from BRS. The fact that this kit was from Kiking and is one of only 3 or so [...]
Sometimes, all you need is a good sculpt to make you like a figure regardless of how you feel about the character. That’s pretty much how I found myself in possession of this kit of Dead Master from BRS. The fact that this kit was from Kiking and is one of only 3 or so kits he released before he was picked up by GoodSmile Company China and that it was kind of a bitch to obtain also helped her case. Very few people have her and she’s not on recast sites either (surprisingly enough)
For those who don’t know, I loathe Black Rock Shooter and pretty much everything to do with it. It’s a sign of one of the main bad things going on with the japanese otaku culture right now (vapid, soulless figures being spawned without any real plan and an anime which developed afterwards in an attempt to give the characters backstory and character (And failing miserably)) and even the original song was kinda pants! Still, back in his GK days, Kiking had a knack of taking characters I was apathetic about (at best) and make them at least interesting! I still have his “World is Mine” Hatsune Miku to build as well!
But there was something about this dead master kit which made me think that I would have a lot of fun building her, and I did! She hasn’t made me a BRS fan but when a sculpt is good, it’s good! It’s just a shame that Kiking seems to have lost a little of his spark since he’s been put under the GSC umbrella. Perhaps the restrictions of the PVC market has dulled his edge?
Anyway, here’s some shots of Dead Master by Kiking!
I spent some time playing with my camera settings for this shoot so they may not be as sharp as usual. They’re also darker as that was the effect I was playing around with but let me know if any of them just plain suck!
A complete front shot along with the base! The base was really well made and stuck together very well. Just needed to spray the rocks dark grey and then drybrushed the whole thing with a lighter shade. I played with the idea of making the white tiles look more brown to show more decay but after giving it a show, the white looked better so I just stuck with that.
A closer shot of Dead Master. Making the whole thing darker made her look a little more menacing.
The flame parts on the skull were originally completely transparent. I tried my best to keep the effect as I painted but, like with KOS-MOS ver4, I wasn’t able to retain the overall transparent look. Heck, it took several goes to get it to this stage!
Strangely enough, a slight change in lighting is enough to give a completely different facial appearance! A lighter setup gives her a melancholic expression…
and a darker one gives her a more evil, brooding look! I never noticed this until I started taking the photos!
The base of the scythe has a bone motif going for it, but it would look rather odd if it didn’t match the rest of the weapon, which is why I kept it a rather boring dark colour.
I did play around with the scythe itself a little though by giving the bladed part a metallic sheen which fades as you get to the top (blunt part) of the blade.
The body of the scythe was actually rather detailed but didn’t really lend itself to much tinkering with the colour palette. In the end, I drybrushed some shades of grey onto it to bring out some of the details but that’s about it.
Back shot of the kit! Despite not being the most detailed kit, Dead Master does stand up pretty well.
Side shot. You can see the effect on the scythe a bit better here.
Not too often you come across a figure which is so photogenic at so many angles!
A few close up shots of the base. Fancy bases seem to be a staple for Kiking, one he tries to keep up with his PVC works as well, to varying degrees of success.
I can safely say that if this figure came out only as a PVC figure, I would walk past and not even give it a glance. But since it was a GK, and a difficult to obtain one at that, the builder in me was tickled interested. And after all that, I can’t deny that building her was a lot of fun. The kit was build so amazingly well that the quality puts many japanese makers to shame. And sometimes, it’s just nice to do something different from the norm.
Has this Dead Master changed my mind about the BRS series? Hell NO!! Has it given me a greater appreciation for the character designs in the series? As if!! What it did do, however, was to provide me with some fun time spent building and painting a superbly made and fun figure. But I don’t see myself jumping onboard and grabbing another kit of the character anytime in the future.
