Rurouni Kenshin Garage kitbash: 1/6 police officer Saitou るろうに剣心 ガレージキット 斎藤 一警察官ver

This is my Kitbash or Kit mod of Saitou from the Anime and Manga Rurouni Kenshin. A kitbash/mod is when people will use an existing model kit and then modify it in same way into another character. I find that these are the hardest to explain to non-modelers. I say I painted my model kits, and sculpted my sculptures, but it gets too wordy for kit mods.  I feel that it’s hard for someone to visualize how much or how little I changed a kit without showing them what it looked like beforehand.

Materials used:Sand paper 100, 220, 400 grit,-Hobby knife with blade size 11 and 2 -Clay shapers flat chisel firm type (in black color) size 0 and size 6 -Magic sculpt -nitrile gloves – needed when handing epoxy putty -Vaseline- needed to keep parts separate while puttying -Water- needed to smooth magic sculpt -Brushes- needed to smooth magic sculpt -16 gauge wire- used for arm armature -Paper towels -Base model (1/6 Squall)

Anything that is in pink or gray is what I sculpted with magic sculpt. Anything in off-white is the original kit and not sculpted by me.

This one came about because I had purchased this Thai recast of Squall from FF8 from ebay years ago. Realizing that I was never going to build it I decided to modify the existing kit. I understand it is not so clear cut to understand the difference between originals and recasts when you are young or just starting out in the hobby. I recommend for modellers to buy original kits only. I see true collector value in them. I always did. I used to view recasts as being the next best thing. Now I do not feel that way anymore and would rather go without a kit than to acquire a recast.

I think a lot of modellers tend to get recasts kits, or bootleg figmas or nendoroids for custom figures instead of working off of an original. It is actually better (easier) to customize original kits, or original figures for customs, because bootlegs are made of inferior material. There is much more labor involved with sanding, etc. Bootleg material is potentially much more hazardous than the official material as well. The resin smelled terrible during  sanding and carving T_TI start working on the nose. The head was tilted too much down, so I sawed it off with my dremel and reattached with magic sculpt. Next I worked on the hair. Followed by the I worked on the shirt. I added details to the shirt. I wanted it to have folds but it was getting too thick. I worked on the neck muscles. I think this part came really good.  Next I work on clavicles. I added another layer to the shirt, so it had the appearance of not being completely flat against the chest. I work on the pants. A lot of sanding was needed. With this project, I did not work from one reference so I did not have a set pose in mind as I was working. I added folds to the pants. Again I wasn’t too sure what I wanted at this point. So there was much going back and forth between sanding and adding more magic sculpt to get something I was satisfied with. The original kit arms were beyond workable, so I scratch build the arms. The face came the best on this project and everything else does not look so good unfortunately. even so, I think its best to have a completed project on my self than to have a forever lost cause project hiding in the corner. I used my dremel to saw off the arm, as it was way too long. After a few months I resume working on this project. I think the arm positioning is good, but the arm is just out of proportion.I don’t think this arm looks bad either. But attached to the main body, this arm is way too big and out of proportion.

Even though the arm is too big, I like how I sculpted the hand. I started to realize to use tin foil to bulk up the part.  But my first projects doing so (Saitou and Orihime) actually turned into a worse mess because used too much tin foil and I ended up having to remove some of it. It was getting in the way of sanding. I used the mononofu mini shinsengumi swords, and actually Saitou’s from the set. They are 1/6 scale and this model was 1/6 scale, but in all honest I just can’t tell if they are in scale to each other. For the bangs, I used fully cured magic sculpt and just glued them into place after. The face is definitely the best part of this kit. 

Sculpting time was a little over a year, finishing in May 2008. I would have finished a lot sooner but the arms were bothering me. I just couldn’t do them good. Even in the end they look rather strange. Still I like this one. It was an experience making and I learned a lot from it, sculpting wise.

Though an actual person, this rendition of Saitou is copyrighted to Nobuhiro Watsuki.This is a Fan Sculpture.