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Rei and Asuka sofubi figure set complete

Here they are. I had to buy more 2mm brass rod because the length I had in Asuka’s leg wasn’t long enough and she began leaning forward. I removed it and put in a longer segment and now there’s no more problem. I’m still thinking that I might paint the base and print out a custom decal for it.

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A look at modeling magazines and books at Bookman’s Academy in Maebashi

On the last Friday of June, after dinner in Maebashi we went to Bookman’s Academy, a nice two-story bookstore on the road straight south from the sushi restaurant we ate at. This bookstore not only has a great selection of modeling magazines, but upstairs in the “subculture” category, there are many books about modeling. First I’ll show you the magazine section.

Here you’ll see Armour Modelling with Umi Shinonome gracing the cover with her own color of paint (as shown above), Artpla, a Model Art mook on painting, Model Cars, a mook on modeling tools (I believe by Model Art), Figure King (covering pre-painted figures as well as kits), Macross Mechanics (a mook devoted to Macross modeling), a mook on painting techniques for WWII camouflage patterns from various countries, and something about the Yamato. To the far right you’ll see a couple of magazines about firearm replicas, which I am really not into. Looking down, you’ll see this:

Here are issues of Hobby Japan, Model Graphix, Scale Aviation, and Model Art. Oh, but that’s not all. I actually didn’t show you the row of modeling mooks on the shelf between these two pictures.

Here is a look at the Macross Mechanics modeling mook. This is the summer issue. Alright, now let’s head upstairs to the subculture section. This should blow you away.

Here are the magazines along the top. Gundam Archives is put out by Model Graphix magazine. These are mooks that are collections of Gunpla builds featured in the magazine. They also have Macross Archives and Votoms Archives that I’ve seen. In the middle is the SD Gundam Perfect Modeling Manual, and to the right is one on Ultraman models.

Look at all of these Gunpla modeling books! Here they have the Gundam Sentinel book, a compilation of the Sentinel articles once featured in Model Graphix magazine. Lots of other stuff too, like Hobby Japan Vintage, Hobby Japan Extra (these are mooks focusing on different subjects), more Gundam Archives issues, a book on Gundam MSV, and I spot a Scope Dog Votoms book. Looks like it might come with a model, the way it’s in a box like that.

Lots of other stuff, too! Model lighting, AFV, a book on building an F-14 Tomcat which actually covers the work of an American modeler building Tamiya’s Tomcat, various 72nd scale plane modeling books, and so on. This is the store where I bought the book showcasing modeling workbenches of several famous modelers, as well as the model lighting book by Dorobou Hige.

Here’s the Votoms Archives mook I mentioned, with a look inside. I love the paint scraping detail on the legs, from the armored skirt. Fantastic detail.

Here’s a book called “Soul of the 1/72 Scale” (ナナニイの魂) which covers multiple plane subjects in that scale.

Bookman’s Academy has such a fantastic selection of modeling books. I always enjoy going to this store with my family.

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Evangelion trio iron beads sprite

I made this for a teacher I work with. Evangelion is his favorite anime. He suffers from epilepsy, and the stress from work is once again keeping him from doing his job. He came back last year and did well, but this year has taken a toll on him again, unfortunately.

I used Perler Nano and Iron de Beads (local Japanese iron beads company) mini beads for this. Shinji’s fleshtone is Perler Nano Sand, Rei’s is Nano Cream, and Askua’s is Iron de Beads Fleshtone. Rei’s hair is two tone Iron de Beads Aqua. These colors matched her hair perfectly. Iron de Beads are slightly taller, but they melt well and I like them way better than Hama Minis, which are too small and cause problems.

This is where I got the pattern from. It was done in Lego! I found this image on Pinterest.

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Pearl-clutching nincompoops on Pinterest’s comment section on Evangelion art crack me up

So I guess no girl is safe from exploitation until cartoon girls are safe from exploitation? That seems to be the philosophy of these goody-two-shoes commenting on Evangelion artwork on Pinterest. Nevermind that there are countless American teen movies like American Pie centered on “getting lucky” with plenty of T&A. I was a bit disturbed watching the second season of Stranger Things because it features high school kids having sex. But here’s Evangelion, a show I don’t even really like, although I do like the character designs because I am a fan of Sadamoto’s art style. I do not care what the arbitrary age of the fictitious Evangelion characters are, in the same way that I do not care what the arbitrary age of the characters in those teen movies are, who are portrayed by young adults posing as teenagers. Here we have drawings of girls, voiced by adult voice actresses like Megumi Hayashibara, yet these goofballs are acting as though actual children are being exploited. Yet these same people most likely watch Hollywood movies featuring people who were at Epstein Island, and vote for politicians who are complete pedos like Joe Biden, the Kid Sniffer In Chief.

So above we have a picture of Asuka laying in bed, playing with a puppet. It’s cute and charming. It’s sexy, but not sexualized. Did this happen in the show? I don’t remember. I leave snarky responses to these people. Stuff like, “That’s actually not Asuka, but her 24 year old cousin Shirley.” Why do these people pretend to give a crap?

Holy crap, it’s just a drawing people. If you don’t care about the context of the show, some arbitrary age doesn’t really matter to you. I must say that there’s a difference between sexy and sexualized.

This is just Asuka wearing the suit she wears in the show. I don’t even see why anyone would object to this.

I tried watching the reboot Evangelion movies, but gave up after the second one. So I don’t know why there is a long-haired Rei, or why Asuka has an eye patch, nor did I even know that there’s a 28 year old version of Asuka. You can see here that she’s certainly not built like a 14 year old. Some in the comments are pointing out that she’s 28. Either way, I don’t care as she’s just a drawing. Stupid.

This only seems to be a thing with Evangelion. I saw Ranma 1/2 first when I was in college. Plenty of nudity and shower scenes. It’s just a part of the show, and not once did I think “Oh my gosh, these are teenagers! This is wrong!” It’s just a part of the story. It’s not like they’re having sex or anything. Again, sexy but not sexualized. I haven’t seen the reboot of Ranma 1/2 that’s on Netflix, so I don’t know if the nudity has been toned down. I imagine it probably has. And no such comments on images of Lum from Urusei Yatsura. Or perhaps the sexiest of such schoolgirl anime characters, Madoka from Kimagure Orange Road. Her character is the type of beautiful, unattainable girl with a fantastic body from your school days. There are so many sexy images of Madoka, and so many of them are not as a junior high student, but as a young adult. None of these pictures on Pinterest have any stupid, “OMG she’s only 14” comments.

Seriously, I’ve seen some pretty disgusting stuff while visiting various anime shops in Tokyo and such that are definitely aimed at chomos. Stuff involving naked girls whose years are in the single digits. That’s just disgusting. But speaking as a father of a teenage daughter, there is nothing that these self-righteous internet commandos posting self-righteous comments on Eva girls on Pinterest that would keep her safe. They just post this crap to feel good about themselves.

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Lea from Crosscode iron bead sprite complete!

I finished this one rather quickly. I wasn’t timing myself, but it was under a half hour for sure. For the reds, I used Iron de Beads’ red and dark red. While they look different in the bag, after ironing they don’t really stand apart from each other very well. At least not to my eyes. Iron de Beads is an iron beads brand I’ve found at Tokai craft stores here in Japan.

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Iran, North Korea… the same pattern is used to control normies.

“OMG, Iran is just weeks away from having a nuclear bomb! Be scared!” Nutty-Yahoo has been saying this since the ’90s. So has all of the Zionist Neocons in the US government who get plenty of funding from AIPAC. All they want to do is imbue a spirit of fear and they use a Bible verse written thousands of years ago (Genesis 12:3) out of context to deceive Christians into pledging allegiance to the modern-day government of Israel. It’s absurd.

So this week, some bombs were dropped and the Iranians were given advanced warning so that they could get their people out of harm’s way. And just as Mike Adams said in his tweet, Iran got to fire missiles at some American base in Iraq or somewhere in retaliation to get it out of their system, nobody would get killed, and then there would finally be an end to the conflict. So, Iran gave advance notice of the attack on the US airbase in Qatar, and there were no casualties. Iran and Israel have now agreed to end military action.

It’s all bullcrap. Enjoy the show. I believe Iran’s leadership has already been put into checkmate internally. Now Israel can shut up about Iran being “weeks away” from having a nuke, lest they call Trump a liar and expose the whole charade. I heard that over 55,000 mosques in Iran have closed down and that Muslims are actually a minority in that country. The Ayatollah Kakameme and the “death to America” chanters are a minority, yet that is what gets put on TV to scare people.

Hopefully now there will be a genuine regime change in both Iran and Israel. All the people claiming that Trump will lead us into another quagmire war can shut up now. Netanyahu can shut up, too. Persian women are so beautiful and it’s a waste to subject them to the crap that they have to put up with in Iran. Make Iran Great Again indeed.

And Iran… Iran’s so far away…