Kimonos, combat boots and Kamiko: A test shoot with my new Asian style backdrop

Inspired by many of the talented modelers I've seen here who've built elaborate sets and backdrops for their figures, I recently decided to start my own, which is far from complete at this point, consisting only of a backdrop wall and a floor.  Additional walls, and I hope a little furniture will come later.  The back wall consists of bits of bamboo from a dollar-store table mat on top and a woven vinyl table mat painted yellow-brown glued to a piece of 3/8ths" foam core.  The floor is 1/4" plywood covered by bamboo beach mat.

The Asian flavor is because it seems appropriate for Kamiko, who is Japanese-American and who along with her Japanese born friends Gogo and Miyori, have striven a bit to give their post-apocalyptic home a bit of Asian feel despite being stuck in New Mexico.  

Please fee free to comment and critique as to how effective the look is.  I appreciate your feedback.  A couple more photos are on Flickr that I would not post here.  


20190612_0009-2 by Gary  Menten, on Flickr
Kamiko means business.



20190612_0014 by Gary  Menten, on Flickr
But she is also very sexy...


20190612_0015 by Gary  Menten, on Flickr
And knows how to have fun


20190612_0026 by Gary  Menten, on Flickr
Gogo and Kamiko are very close.

20190612_0029 by Gary  Menten, on Flickr

When off duty, Kamiko usually likes to wear a very sexy Kimono.


20190612_0030 by Gary  Menten, on Flickr


20190612_0036 by Gary  Menten, on Flickr

But she sometimes wears it even on duty.

I wonder if the background is not just a little too civilized for a post-apocalyptic scenario, but I like what you have done. If this is going to be true to it Japanese origins, it should be exceedingly spare on furniture, but I suppose you have leeway. I also appreciate that whether by design or accident Kamiko's kimono has a red that matches her bow fairly closely.

The Japanese tend to consider themselves highly civilized, and though Kamiko is American born and has a lot of American habits, her cultural roots run very deep and so together with her friends Gogo and Miyori and her niece Michiko, they see their roles in this period of great anarchy, not so much as survivors of a nuclear war, but as protectors of civilization and everything it entails, including fashion and style, which they consider almost as important as law and order.  The see no point in living like animals.  Though they are in a hot and dusty place, they maintain a sort of Japanese fanaticism about regular bathing and personal hygiene.  

When Kamiko isn't dressed in camo, she's normally wearing a combination of red, black and/or white.

About the only clutter in the background would be their assorted collection of weapons and ammo.

Pretty cool effect. And I agree, it does seem a little too... what’s the word... clean? perfect? Maybe a little sections of the wall could have some broken pieces and a bit of weathering — like they scrounged the pieces from somewhere else (like a Japanese restaurant that was destroyed?) just spitballing, mind you. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want.

I like her ”kimini”, by the way.

Stryker2011 wrote:Pretty cool effect. And I agree, it does seem a little too... what’s the word... clean? perfect? Maybe a little sections of the wall could have some broken pieces and a bit of weathering — like they scrounged the pieces from somewhere else (like a Japanese restaurant that was destroyed?) just spitballing, mind you. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want.

I like her ”kimini”, by the way.

All suggestions are welcome as this is a work in progress. I do plan to include a couple of gun racks, a lot of ammo cans, and maybe some books or something, as there isn't much TV to watch in these times.

I think it's a very effective background, I can imagine some tidy weapon stands and maybe one traditional piece of art in the center, something like this:

I think the 'tidiness' makes total sense. If the place was not directly hit by the bomb(s...), or occupied by squatters, it can be in a good condition. If survival is secured, one can care about making their lives more comfortable. I like that it's not the end of the world, but just a major setback with lots of opportunities.






.

Ovy wrote:I think it's a very effective background, I can imagine some tidy weapon stands and maybe one traditional piece of art in the center, something like this:

I think the 'tidiness' makes total sense. If the place was not directly hit by the bomb(s...), or occupied by squatters, it can be in a good condition. If survival is secured, one can care about making their lives more comfortable. I like that it's not the end of the world, but just a major setback with lots of opportunities.






.

I love that artwork.  I might just have to use it.  I will probably also use a WWII Japanese Good Luck flag, reviving that tradition.  I haven't decided yet if this is their quarters inside the decommissioned Atlas F missile launch complex, or someplace outside of it.

I don't want their quarters to be as luxurious as Charton Heston's / Neville's in the Omega Man, nor as boring as huge underground survival shelters I've lived and slept in when in the Canadian Army. Note: except for the blast doors and total lack of windows, you could walk in the hallways and think you were in your old high school. They even had cafeteria/mess halls that looked like those in high school.

Love these!!! The bamboo backdrop is perfect. And on the subject of it looking too clean or civilized, I think your stuff totally works, and doesn't need to always subscribe to what we're used to seeing in apocalyptic fiction. I actually love the idea of their hideout being this well maintained oasis in the middle of the chaos of the wasteland.

I've been meaning to try something similar, and may need to soon. I have an almost finished Radio Kings character with a very Japanese aesthetic I'm going to need to photograph soon, and been thinking a lot about what to shoot her against. She's from a large settlement that's kind revived this Japanese feudalism, so everything has this wasteland take on that aesthetic. It's great seeing how well the bamboo works for this.

And Kamiko's new kimono looks awesome, and sexy as hell. Very fitting for her character and looks great.

ReverendSpooky wrote:Love these!!!  The bamboo backdrop is perfect.  And on the subject of it looking too clean or civilized, I think your stuff totally works, and doesn't need to always subscribe to what we're used to seeing in apocalyptic fiction. I actually love the idea of their hideout being this well maintained oasis in the middle of the chaos of the wasteland.  

I've been meaning to try something similar, and may need to soon.  I have an almost finished Radio Kings character with a very Japanese aesthetic I'm going to need to photograph soon, and been thinking a lot about what to shoot her against.  She's from a large settlement that's kind revived this Japanese feudalism, so everything has this wasteland take on that aesthetic.  It's great seeing how well the bamboo works for this.

And Kamiko's new kimono looks awesome, and sexy as hell.   Very fitting for her character and looks great.

Thanks. The best part of this backdrop is that it was slapped together with quite cheap materials from Dollarama. The kimono is very a close to a style my DAZ version of Kamiko frequently wears and I am quite pleased with it. Sadly, Giantoy pulled them (there were three designs) from their website not long after shipping mine. I still find them on ebay, but at higher prices.

The last member of Kamiko's primary group, which I have yet to model, is her vengeful and vindictive little niece, Michiko, who having seen her parents murdered by road bandits, is on a path of teenage vengeance. Unlike Kamiko, who considers herself American of Japanese Ancestry, Michiko's reaction to the murder of her parents has made her completely shun her American birth. She refuses to speak English, in which she was fluent, and speaks only Japanese, much to Kamiko's irritation, but to the delight of Miyori and Gogo. When not dressed for combat, she insists on wearing a Japanese school girl uniform, loves the katana and usually carries only suppressed firearms. She is a perfect ninja, according to Kamiko, who could sneak up on you in the middle of the desert and you wouldn't know she was there until her blade found your liver. She is fanatically loyal to Kamiko, her surrogate mother, and tends to see Miyori and Gogo as surrogate sisters, though she is younger than both of them.

ThePhotogsBlog wrote:

ReverendSpooky wrote:Love these!!!  The bamboo backdrop is perfect.  And on the subject of it looking too clean or civilized, I think your stuff totally works, and doesn't need to always subscribe to what we're used to seeing in apocalyptic fiction. I actually love the idea of their hideout being this well maintained oasis in the middle of the chaos of the wasteland.  

I've been meaning to try something similar, and may need to soon.  I have an almost finished Radio Kings character with a very Japanese aesthetic I'm going to need to photograph soon, and been thinking a lot about what to shoot her against.  She's from a large settlement that's kind revived this Japanese feudalism, so everything has this wasteland take on that aesthetic.  It's great seeing how well the bamboo works for this.

And Kamiko's new kimono looks awesome, and sexy as hell.   Very fitting for her character and looks great.

Thanks.  The best part of this backdrop is that it was slapped together with quite cheap materials from Dollarama.  The kimono is very a close to a style my DAZ version of Kamiko frequently wears and I am quite pleased with it. Sadly, Giantoy pulled them (there were three designs) from their website not long after shipping mine.  I still find them on ebay, but at higher prices.  

The last member of Kamiko's primary group, which I have yet to model, is her vengeful and vindictive little niece, Michiko, who having seen her parents murdered by road bandits, is on a path of teenage vengeance. Unlike Kamiko, who considers herself American of Japanese Ancestry, Michiko's reaction to the murder of her parents has made her completely shun her American birth.  She refuses to speak English, in which she was fluent, and speaks only Japanese, much to Kamiko's irritation, but to the delight of Miyori and Gogo.  When not dressed for combat, she insists on wearing a Japanese school girl uniform, loves the katana and usually carries only suppressed firearms.  She is  a perfect ninja, according to Kamiko, who could sneak up on you in the middle of the desert and you wouldn't know she was there until her blade found your liver.  She is fanatically loyal to Kamiko, her surrogate mother, and tends to  see Miyori and Gogo as surrogate sisters, though she is younger than both of them.  

Man, such a cool back story! Can't wait to see her join the group!

ReverendSpooky wrote:

ThePhotogsBlog wrote:

ReverendSpooky wrote:Love these!!!  The bamboo backdrop is perfect.  And on the subject of it looking too clean or civilized, I think your stuff totally works, and doesn't need to always subscribe to what we're used to seeing in apocalyptic fiction. I actually love the idea of their hideout being this well maintained oasis in the middle of the chaos of the wasteland.  

I've been meaning to try something similar, and may need to soon.  I have an almost finished Radio Kings character with a very Japanese aesthetic I'm going to need to photograph soon, and been thinking a lot about what to shoot her against.  She's from a large settlement that's kind revived this Japanese feudalism, so everything has this wasteland take on that aesthetic.  It's great seeing how well the bamboo works for this.

And Kamiko's new kimono looks awesome, and sexy as hell.   Very fitting for her character and looks great.

Thanks.  The best part of this backdrop is that it was slapped together with quite cheap materials from Dollarama.  The kimono is very a close to a style my DAZ version of Kamiko frequently wears and I am quite pleased with it. Sadly, Giantoy pulled them (there were three designs) from their website not long after shipping mine.  I still find them on ebay, but at higher prices.  

The last member of Kamiko's primary group, which I have yet to model, is her vengeful and vindictive little niece, Michiko, who having seen her parents murdered by road bandits, is on a path of teenage vengeance. Unlike Kamiko, who considers herself American of Japanese Ancestry, Michiko's reaction to the murder of her parents has made her completely shun her American birth.  She refuses to speak English, in which she was fluent, and speaks only Japanese, much to Kamiko's irritation, but to the delight of Miyori and Gogo.  When not dressed for combat, she insists on wearing a Japanese school girl uniform, loves the katana and usually carries only suppressed firearms.  She is  a perfect ninja, according to Kamiko, who could sneak up on you in the middle of the desert and you wouldn't know she was there until her blade found your liver.  She is fanatically loyal to Kamiko, her surrogate mother, and tends to  see Miyori and Gogo as surrogate sisters, though she is younger than both of them.  

Man, such a cool back story!  Can't wait to see her join the group!

It may be a while before Michiko joins the group, but for now, please note that the latest photos shot at the rock wall have been posted.

ReverendSpooky wrote:Love these!!!  The bamboo backdrop is perfect.  And on the subject of it looking too clean or civilized, I think your stuff totally works, and doesn't need to always subscribe to what we're used to seeing in apocalyptic fiction. I actually love the idea of their hideout being this well maintained oasis in the middle of the chaos of the wasteland.  

I've been meaning to try something similar, and may need to soon.  I have an almost finished Radio Kings character with a very Japanese aesthetic I'm going to need to photograph soon, and been thinking a lot about what to shoot her against.  She's from a large settlement that's kind revived this Japanese feudalism, so everything has this wasteland take on that aesthetic.  It's great seeing how well the bamboo works for this.

And Kamiko's new kimono looks awesome, and sexy as hell.   Very fitting for her character and looks great.

My take on this, which may be useful when it comes to creating your own aesthetic, is that the Japanese are generally obsessed with cleanliness and tend to be very austere and spare in their traditional designs. No clutter. On the other hand, surviving a nuclear war or other apocalyptic event, probably means you would be scavenging for just about anything you could get your hands on and stripping abandoned or empty structures bare, right down to their light bulbs. Where do you put all this junk?

I reconcile this by having the converted missile silo / launch complex as the basic home and base of operations. The silos for the Atlas F for instance were on the order of 16 stories deep, so that's lots of room. Moreover, on the surface there were usually one or two giant Quonset hut type structures that could be used as garages or for storage. So in my take, this fenced-in outpost becomes a walled fort after everyone emerges from the bunker as radiation levels drop, and the huge piles of scavenged tools, supplies furniture, even books and reading material end up being stored either in the silo or these giant Quonset huts until used for something or traded with someone willing to trade something more useful for them. The fort becomes a commercial trading post at first a camp, then a shanty town and finally a village of sorts grows up around it. The Pin-Up Patrol enforces law in the area, patrols the roads, escorts convoys and protects against wasteland raiders. They become the nucleus of a larger village militia as time goes by and population grows, mostly through migration.

The only think Kamiko and her friends have a lot of in their quarters, are weapons they've accumulated either from capture or looting, ammunition, and clothing items, with tall leather boots being top of the list and sexy or even traditional kimonos being second.

ThePhotogsBlog wrote:

ReverendSpooky wrote:Love these!!!  The bamboo backdrop is perfect.  And on the subject of it looking too clean or civilized, I think your stuff totally works, and doesn't need to always subscribe to what we're used to seeing in apocalyptic fiction. I actually love the idea of their hideout being this well maintained oasis in the middle of the chaos of the wasteland.  

I've been meaning to try something similar, and may need to soon.  I have an almost finished Radio Kings character with a very Japanese aesthetic I'm going to need to photograph soon, and been thinking a lot about what to shoot her against.  She's from a large settlement that's kind revived this Japanese feudalism, so everything has this wasteland take on that aesthetic.  It's great seeing how well the bamboo works for this.

And Kamiko's new kimono looks awesome, and sexy as hell.   Very fitting for her character and looks great.

My take on this, which may be useful when it comes to creating your own aesthetic, is that the Japanese are generally obsessed with cleanliness and tend to be very austere and spare in their traditional designs.  No clutter.  On the other hand, surviving a nuclear war or other apocalyptic event, probably means you would be scavenging for just about anything you could get your hands on and stripping abandoned or empty structures bare, right down to their light bulbs.  Where do you put all this junk?  

I reconcile this by having the converted missile silo / launch complex as the basic home and base of operations.  The silos for the Atlas F for instance were on the order of 16 stories deep, so that's lots of room. Moreover, on the surface there were usually one or two giant Quonset hut type structures that could be used as garages or for storage. So in my take, this fenced-in outpost becomes a walled fort after everyone emerges from the bunker as radiation levels drop, and the huge piles of scavenged tools, supplies furniture, even books and reading material end up being stored either in the silo or these giant Quonset huts until used for something or traded with someone willing to trade something more useful for them.  The fort becomes a commercial trading post at first a camp, then a shanty town and finally a village of sorts grows up around it.  The  Pin-Up Patrol enforces law in the area, patrols the roads, escorts convoys and protects against wasteland raiders.  They become the nucleus of a larger village militia as time goes by and population grows, mostly through migration.  

The only think Kamiko and her friends have a lot of in their quarters, are weapons they've accumulated either from capture or looting, ammunition, and clothing items, with tall leather boots being top of the list and sexy or even traditional kimonos being second.  

Yeah, that really does sound like an ideal place to set up. I like how the community springs up around it as they create a sense of civilization in the area. And it sounds like they have a lot more discipline as far as what they keep in their quarters. Saint Crow has a habit of accruing relics of the old world; books, magazines, but especially records. He's been nomadic for so long before settling in at Transmission Hold, he's a little intoxicated by the appeal of having a place to keep stuff.

I'll definitely need to work on defining my feudal wasteland aesthetic. Sooner or later I'll need to build some sort of scrap made samurai influenced armor. The 1st character is the daughter of the community's leader, and while he preaches the virtues of obedience, service, and duty above all else, she has been building her own secret collection of manga and Hello Kitty merch, and has grown skeptical about her father's values.

ReverendSpooky wrote:

ThePhotogsBlog wrote:

ReverendSpooky wrote:Love these!!!  The bamboo backdrop is perfect.  And on the subject of it looking too clean or civilized, I think your stuff totally works, and doesn't need to always subscribe to what we're used to seeing in apocalyptic fiction. I actually love the idea of their hideout being this well maintained oasis in the middle of the chaos of the wasteland.  

I've been meaning to try something similar, and may need to soon.  I have an almost finished Radio Kings character with a very Japanese aesthetic I'm going to need to photograph soon, and been thinking a lot about what to shoot her against.  She's from a large settlement that's kind revived this Japanese feudalism, so everything has this wasteland take on that aesthetic.  It's great seeing how well the bamboo works for this.

And Kamiko's new kimono looks awesome, and sexy as hell.   Very fitting for her character and looks great.

My take on this, which may be useful when it comes to creating your own aesthetic, is that the Japanese are generally obsessed with cleanliness and tend to be very austere and spare in their traditional designs.  No clutter.  On the other hand, surviving a nuclear war or other apocalyptic event, probably means you would be scavenging for just about anything you could get your hands on and stripping abandoned or empty structures bare, right down to their light bulbs.  Where do you put all this junk?  

I reconcile this by having the converted missile silo / launch complex as the basic home and base of operations.  The silos for the Atlas F for instance were on the order of 16 stories deep, so that's lots of room. Moreover, on the surface there were usually one or two giant Quonset hut type structures that could be used as garages or for storage. So in my take, this fenced-in outpost becomes a walled fort after everyone emerges from the bunker as radiation levels drop, and the huge piles of scavenged tools, supplies furniture, even books and reading material end up being stored either in the silo or these giant Quonset huts until used for something or traded with someone willing to trade something more useful for them.  The fort becomes a commercial trading post at first a camp, then a shanty town and finally a village of sorts grows up around it.  The  Pin-Up Patrol enforces law in the area, patrols the roads, escorts convoys and protects against wasteland raiders.  They become the nucleus of a larger village militia as time goes by and population grows, mostly through migration.  

The only think Kamiko and her friends have a lot of in their quarters, are weapons they've accumulated either from capture or looting, ammunition, and clothing items, with tall leather boots being top of the list and sexy or even traditional kimonos being second.  

Yeah, that really does sound like an ideal place to set up.  I like how the community springs up around it as they create a sense of civilization in the area.  And it sounds like they have a lot more discipline as far as what they keep in their quarters.  Saint Crow has a habit of accruing relics of the old world; books, magazines, but especially records.  He's been nomadic for so long before settling in at Transmission Hold, he's a little intoxicated by the appeal of having a place to keep stuff.  

I'll definitely need to work on defining my feudal wasteland aesthetic. Sooner or later I'll need to build some sort of scrap made samurai influenced armor.  The 1st character is the daughter of the community's leader, and while he preaches the virtues of obedience, service, and duty above all else, she has been building her own secret collection of manga and Hello Kitty merch, and has grown skeptical about her father's values.  

Kamiko is a big fan of manga, or she when she first came to Japan in her teenage years.  As a result, Miyori (AKA Pinky to Kamiko) often affectionally calls her Comic Book or Komikbook as a play on her name.  The thing is that there really are decommissioned missile silos and launch complexes that have been sold off to the public.  There's one in Saranac, NY, about 100 miles from Montreal, and another from the same wing that was until recently, used by the military for some purpose other than missiles since 1965 that's up for sale.  Another one, in around Champlain NY, 750m from the Canadian border and a 1000m from I-87.


These older launch complexes would make a perfect base of operations in a post apocalyptic area.  They and their silos were much larger than the later Minuteman complexes, having larger launch crews and the missiles being liquid fueled.  People have built comfortable underground homes in them, and they are designed to withstand anything but a direct hit from a nuke.

Your knowledge and background make that silo story much more lifelt/believable amd interesting.

And do the Radio Kings and
Pinup patrol live the same universe now?

Ovy wrote:Your knowledge and background make that silo story much more lifelt/believable amd interesting.

And do the Radio Kings and
Pinup patrol live the same universe now?

I am a child of the Cold War and spent much of my life worrying about they day the might drop the big one.  I never saw any of the silos on my trips, but passed close enough to Plattsburg AFB to count the tails of B52 bombers partked on the apron.

Sadly, the Pin-up Patrol and Radio Kings don't live in the same universe.  Their timelines are way too far apart. It would be fun however if they did and could be allies.  They would have a lot to talk about.

Ahh the Cold War. The "get under your desk" drills in School still make me chuckle (like hiding under a metal and wood desk was going to stop the Nuclear blast from turning you into dust). Spent my years in the Air Force at the tail end of the CW, first in Afghanistan and then in Germany when the Wall came down. Interesting times to say the least.

ThePhotogsBlog wrote:

Ovy wrote:Your knowledge and background make that silo story much more lifelt/believable amd interesting.

And do the Radio Kings and
Pinup patrol live the same universe now?

I am a child of the Cold War and spent much of my life worrying about they day they might drop the big one.  I never saw any of the silos on my trips, but passed close enough to Plattsburg AFB to count the tails of B52 bombers partked on the apron.

Sadly, the Pin-up Patrol and Radio Kings don't live in the same universe.  Their timelines are way too far apart. It would be fun however if they did and could be allies.  They would have a lot to talk about.  

If only they were closer in time! That would be a hell of a cool crossover! Yeah, I definitely think they'd make fast friends over a few drinks.

Stryker2011 wrote:Ahh the Cold War. The "get under your desk" drills in School still make me chuckle (like hiding under a metal and wood desk was going to stop the Nuclear blast from turning you into dust). Spent my years in the Air Force at the tail end of the CW, first in Afghanistan and then in Germany when the Wall came down. Interesting times to say the least.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times....

ReverendSpooky wrote:

ThePhotogsBlog wrote:

Ovy wrote:Your knowledge and background make that silo story much more lifelt/believable amd interesting.

And do the Radio Kings and
Pinup patrol live the same universe now?

I am a child of the Cold War and spent much of my life worrying about they day they might drop the big one.  I never saw any of the silos on my trips, but passed close enough to Plattsburg AFB to count the tails of B52 bombers partked on the apron.

Sadly, the Pin-up Patrol and Radio Kings don't live in the same universe.  Their timelines are way too far apart. It would be fun however if they did and could be allies.  They would have a lot to talk about.  

If only they were closer in time!  That would be a hell of a cool crossover!  Yeah, I definitely think they'd make fast friends over a few drinks.

They might be taken aback by Marrow's fashion tastes and makeup at first, but as soon as they realized what an efficient killing machine she is, they would want to be fast friends.

I'm just on my way home from visiting a couple of far relatives, one has two walls full of some old Japanese paintings. I don't know, maybe 70 or 80 year old replicas. I photographed this one, somehow had to think of your project.

Ovy wrote:I'm just on my way home from visiting a couple of far relatives, one has two walls full of some old Japanese paintings. I don't know, maybe 70 or 80 year old replicas. I photographed this one, somehow had to think of your project.

Thanks!

Very cool pics! Her background works for me, but constructive suggestions are always good too!

BAMComix wrote:Very cool pics! Her background works for me, but constructive suggestions are always good too!

That was the first background I built. I've recently started reusing it,

ThePhotogsBlog wrote:

BAMComix wrote:Very cool pics! Her background works for me, but constructive suggestions are always good too!

That was the first background I built.  I've recently started reusing it,  

It does make a great backdrop!