dizzyfugu's photostream  

Even though you will find lots of anime model kit pics here (both mecha and character figures), I'd rather call myself a fan of Japanese pop culture. The kits are a part of this fascination.

Originally, I come from small scale military model kits in small scales (mostly 1:72 scale planes, and some tanks). The "Japanese derangement" and the consequential passion for the weird(?) started with mecha kits in the early 80ies, when I even did not know that these giant robot kits were actually Japanese animation merchandising! The designs caught my heart (esp. those from Shoji Kawamori for Macross), and this fascination is still burning and keeps me inspired.

As a result of multiple model kit building phases, some of the mecha kits shown here come from this early/initial era. Some of the shown mecha kits are also re-builds of these early workst. Most more recent kits are (relative) rarities which I hunted down all around the globe - the Internet has made this possible.

In the late 90ies, I also tested my skills with large scale anime character figures. This was a big step for me: a (fictional) person, the bright colors and the relatively huge scale were quite an experience and a very special challenge. Something completely different from what I have done before - but I love to catch the character, vivid spark and expression of a certain figure, and transfer a 2D character from book or screen into a convincing 3D figure.

When you take a look at the kits you will still see my small scale military roots, since I keep applying "proven" techniques and materials and do not use an airbrush at all - what might explain a certain painting an finishing style, even concerning the character figures.

Personal "career hightlight" was the invitation Germany's biggest anime convention, the "AniMagic", where I took part as an exhibitor and model kit workshop instructor/demonstrator from 2001-2005 (a respective album has been added).



Me, at Animagic 2001 in Koblenz, Germany (Model kit workshop/corner), working on a visitor's resin figure kit and trying to repair some damage.

Only recently I started delving into other realms of model kit building, e .g. doing individual conversions of stock military plane models (building planes that existed but are not available as a kit or even aftermarket material) or building whiffs from scratch. I even try myself at true SF, with a Venator class Star Destroyer for a group build.

Almost all pictures were taken with a (simple) digital Kodak CX 7330 pocket camera, with improvised lighting, self-made dioramas or settings, background posters and growing experience with photo editing software.
Some of the very old kits were scanned from paper pictures, though, and uploaded here in order to complete the albums.

Anyway, thanks for dropping by and reading that far. Please have a look around and explore the galeries. If you have questions, feel free to contact me or post comments.

Enjoy! ^^

Famous last words...
This photo collection is intended for the personal enjoyment of users. If you want to grab a photo for your private collection feel free. If you want to publish it in your personal web page / blog etc. please add to it proper credit / link to the source flickr page. If you want to publish it in any other form (magazine, book etc.) please contact me via FlickR Mail.

17th of March 2012: Celebrating half a million views!