Im a passionate figure collector who not only puts the figures on the shelf, I also like taking pictures of  them. I always think about a fitting setting for the pictures to put them in the figure reviews afterwards. Sometimes I also get so so results, that are barely acceptable for me. Especially when looking back at older pictures I sometimes feel a bit dissapointed with some works, be it bad lighting, crappy white balance or a setting looks not as appealing as expected.

Well, everybody started at a certain point and due to improvement trough practical training, it can’t be helped to be slightly dissapointed when looking at earlier pictures. Even nowadays I won’t always created the results I wanted to get. Sometimes I feel the urge to think about better ideas of a setting for a certain figure, finding ideas can be pretty easy or give you a headache.

Between preparing reviews with pictures and text, finding time to take pictures of past figues often comes a bit short, but with the right idea in mind, it can be a rewarding time investment.

At best looking back at a figure and taking her for a new shooting can bring you the joy of trying something new and getting better results compared to the ealier ones. It is a lot of fun.

About the model

Momohime was sculpted by Fukumoto Noritaka, the figure is nicely detailed and has many interesting aspects. I would say Momohime is one of my prettiest figures, her head has a nice shape with a sweet face  and very expressive eyes. This figure convinces in her traditional japanese appearance, her colorful Yokata looks beautfiul. These armor on her give her this light martial touch, I really like the contrast between the petite, pretty girl and rough armor parts.

The idea

The idea behind this shooting was to create something like a Japanese bamboo forest with Momohime walking through a dried out riverbed. The previous indoor shots had a quite artificial look with weird white balance and so this time I aimed to get something more natural.

 Used Materials and Preparations

I already had a few things at home like the little white stones and the pebbles. I only bought the grass and the two foam blocks at an arts and crafts shop. The foam blocks were cut in shape, after that they were wrapped with glue and paper and painted in earth and swampy colors.
A few pebbles received the same paintjob treatment to match the base of Momohime.

After everything dried properly, the foam blocks were ready for step 2, the previously cutted grass was pushed in the foam blocks in a tight pattern. Then I placed everything where I wanted it to be and pinned white and transparent green fabric at the wall behind.

Technical Equipmet

Comparing the new pictures with the old ones is a bit unfair from technical point of view, I guess I even had no flash at that time. For a little fill light I used my trustworthy 60×40 Walimex softbox, for some spotlight I used a bright led bulp. My two wireless flashes were placed randomly, it’s still some kind of gamble for me how the flashes will work in the pictures, even though the new one has a manual mode, one of the flashes was placed high above from behind.

The summary

After weeks of thinking about an idea for a better shooting or better said setting, I finally gathered all needed parts and motivation to get started to let Momohime shine again.
Im quite satisfied with the outcome of my reshoot, it was fitiing surrounding and the light setting helped a lot with creating the desired more natural look in terms of lighting and colors.

Overall aside from all the hassle, it was an rewarding task and Im glad that invested my time to achieve better results than 2010, check this “updated” old post for reference

What not worked in this setup was the fog effect, the little fog machine had no sufficent output to create the desired effect in the rather bright setting, when I think about it, I could have flooded the “riverbed” with water, but water in a room is no good idea and I have no idea how to clean up such a mess. Maybe I will try this in another shooting.

see you

Momohime’s origin is the popular Wii Game Muramasa, the story centers around the princess Momohime, who was accidently posessed by a warrior spirit, whose target was another person. But the possession can’t be undone until the warrior spirit fullfilled it’s mission. A pretty sad destiny for the cute princess Momohime, but at least you can give her figure a good home.

I haven’t played the game, so for getting more infos you can visit the Muramasa webpage.

ALTER did a great job with turning this character from an 2D Game into a 3D figure, what I really like about her, is that she looks a lot different than figures which are based on anime or visual novels. Thanks to her detailed and vivid characterdesign ALTER could go all out on Momohime.

Hair & Face

She has a detailed mouth and the oval shape gives her face a nice look. Her ears are also very well sculpted, lately I paid more attention to the ears of figures. What I also like about her is the fancy twintail like hairstyle, with these very detailed strands, furthermore she has blossoms at the left and right side of her head and a red comb with nice ornaments on top.

Outfit & Body

Another great element of her is the outfit, I like the contrast with the colorful Yukata and armor plates, her clothes look nice and have nicely sculpted wrinkles. The waving sleeve-extensions have some nice flower ornaments and a gradient effect. The armor plates have a metallic looking texture and overall an realistic feel to them. The figure also has very nice stockings with awesome shading effects, I really like the purple color with the black on top. Her footwear looks also quite good the shoe sole is pretty interesting. At first it looked like if she would wear no panties, but  in the end she has underwear. Her white slip is skimpy and reveals her sweet buttocks a bit when looking from a lower angle.  Aside from that she’s a real classy figure.

Even though she wields a comparatively huge katana and has armor plates, her appearance is that of a pure bishoujo girl. She has a beautiful face, great clothes and a petite body. Momohime has really nice and detailed sculpted hands, every single finger has three sculpted phalanges and the fingernails are painted.

Display Options

The figure  is designed for having several options for being displayed, she comes with a additional right hand and a second left sleeve. You can decide between; drawn sword with scabbard in the hand, drawn sword without scabbard in the hand and unsheathed sword. The interchangeable parts are fitting firmly in their place, and there are no loose parts which tend to fall off every second. At the part where you can change the sleeve is a small gap, which got some critique. For me its just a minor flaw which didn’t influence my positive impressions of her at all.

You can see that the pose is very dynamic and Momohime looks good from almost every angle. ALTER put a lot of effort into the base, which resembles a riverbed with green stones and risen water, the base is small, but heavey enought to support the one legged pose very well.

Final words

Even though my expectations of ALTER’s Momohime were high, I was very impressed that this figure and the level of detail paireswith such a perfect sculpting quality. Sheis a beautiful figure, her outfit combines warrior elements and traditonal japanese female fashion very well.
Im very happy about Momohime’s purchase, she is among the close favorites in my collection.

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