Project - Asami Yamazaki (from Audition) - Thu May 07, 2020 7:20 am
ukshaun wrote:
Audition (1999)
I figured Asami Yamazaki from the 1999 movie Audition was never in the same league as Freddie, Jason, when it comes to popularity, thus would never be made by the likes of Sideshow, Hot Toys etc.
During the COVID-19 lockdown, I gave the idea some thought, and set about creating a 1/6th scale figure inspired by Asami Yamazaki.
Audition - Asami Yamazaki - Fan Art
Asami Yamazaki is slowly coming together. But what I thought would be quite straight forward has proved difficult. The original plan was to assemble the figure using various off the shelf components. Time and time again, quite what I wanted, did not appear to be available? Needless to say, my Asami Yamazaki is never going to match the might of a Hot Toys product.
Another thing, I found many of the items I wanted to be located in China. For some reason, shipping from China takes ages?!
The first item I ordered (which I am still waiting to arrive) is an Asian portrait.
I searched and searched and searched, and it was difficult to find what I wanted.
#compromise became a key word.
Key features included:
Long black straight hair (that could be cut to correct length)
Non smiling mouth.
Asian style eye’s.
Many of the portraits I found featured smiling faces. The eye’s failed to look Asian. The nose looked too pointy.
I found an Asian portrait by Kumik. Using Photoshop I re_imagined the portrait with lips repainted a different colour and made slightly wider. Nose spot added. Slight darkening under the eye’s. The Kumik portrait has a lot of black eyeliner. That might need toning down.
Coming from China, will I receive what is in the photo? ..or a low quality fake. Time will tell.
Asami Yamazaki (left) Kumik Asian Headsculpt (centre) Photoshop Mock-up (right)
I guess further down the line, it might be possible to obtain a custom head sculpt. The Kumik solution will do for now.
i bought the same Kumik head and have to warn you that I was very disappointed in the quality. First off, what passed for a neck joint was just a ball of some hardened putty with a hole drilled in it. Not only was the hole off center, it didn't go in deep enough to allow the head to be pushed down all the way on the TBLeague steel head peg. To boot, the TBLeague figure was one of the smaller S24's with a shorter and narrower peg. I had to take a power drill to drill down into the putty just to be able to get the head on the body. It would have looked nice with that smaller body, had I not discovered that just handling it wore the paint off many of the edges...nose, brows, ears.
So my suggestion to you is that if you get this head, be prepared to do a bit of work to fit it on whatever body you place it on and be prepared to completely repaint it then coat it with a finish that won't wear off. Like I said, it l seemed to look right on the smaller TBLeague pale bodies, but that's subjective. It might also look right on a larger one. I personally, would look for another head sculpt if I were doing the same project.
