Booth Bunny Companion Girl A [WIP - Assembly]

 Okay, so I know I mentioned that this was going to be a 'simple and uncomplicated' project. Well the assembly of Booth Bunny Companion Girl A was all that, and at the same time not that at all. You might think I'm springing a Schrodinger's Cat situation on you, but I'm really not. It's more a case of the words 'simple' and 'uncomplicated' being mutually exclusive. In other words, the assembly of Booth Bunny Companion Girl A turned out to be uncomplicated but difficult. Let me explain. 

Hasegawa 1/24 scale Booth Bunny Companion Girl A work-in-progress: fully assembled

Booth Bunny Companion Girl A closeup; a slightly angled view from her left

Booth Bunny Companion Girl A closeup; a slightly angled view from her right

 Upon a cursory glance of the instructions laid out for the assembly of Booth Bunny Girl A, the steps looked straightforward and uncomplicated. However, the actual assembly process turned out to be difficult because none of the parts fitted together as say wood joints do. Essentially the separate parts 'fitted together', and I use those words loosely, by contact alone. What this means is that the parts had to be held together in place precariously by hand as glue is simultaneously being applied. Getting parts into their correct positions require feel, visual checks, and pure dumb luck.  

Assembly instructions for the Hasegawa 1/24 scale Booth Bunny Companion Girl A

Pieces of the Booth Bunny Companion Girl A prior to the assembly process

 For example, attaching parts A12 and A13to the main body or A7 (see above) turned out to be a complete nightmare. No guiding grooves existed to ensure the said parts fitted together accurately. Moreover, trying to hold such tiny pieces together while gluing it, and also making sure they were correctly positioned, all at the same time, was nigh impossible. Meanwhile placing parts A9, A10, and A11 onto A7 was slightly easier, helped primarily by the existence of visual cues such as surface details. Lastly, attachment of part A8 to the main body was helped by having part A11 already glued on. Having one leg already attached allowed it to act as a positioning guide of sorts. 

Mr.Hobby's Mr.Cement S was essentially to the assembly process being successful

 Assembly of this figurine would not have been possible without the use of thin plastic glue in the form of the Mr.Hobby Mr.Cement S. There were two reasons for this: one, a thin, watery consistency allowed the glue to seep into the joints during application. This helps greatly when one is trying to hold two tiny parts steady in the correct position while applying glue at the same time. Two, plastic glue is essential in that it serves to melt the plastic pieces together, thus covering over obvious and unsightly gaps when two parts come in contact. These gaps were consistently present prior to gluing. 

To enable the secure positioning of the figurine onto a base for painting ...

... a 0.8 mm hole was drilled into the figurine's foot ...

... and a 0.8 mm brass rod was then inserted to act as anchor of sorts

 An added step was carried out to enable me to paint this figurine without being obstructed as well as to prevent damaging paint already layered on.This step involved anchoring the figurine securely to the base using a brass rod. To this end, I drilled a 0.8 mm hole into the base of the figurine's right high heel, deep enough to insert roughly 2 cm of a brass rod of equal diameter. The rest of the brass rod was secured onto a lump of adhesive tack on a hand-sized container. Although using cork material instead of adhesive tack would've been better, I didn't have the former so I made do with the latter.  

Booth Bunny Companion Girl A; fully assembled [front view]

Brass rod secures the figurine to the base without obscuring any painting surface

Booth Bunny Companion Girl A; fully assembled [side view, right]

Her posture looks a bit stiff, not unlike some models you see in real life car shows

Booth Bunny Companion Girl A; fully assembled [back view]

Positioning of arms and feet turned out well although it was touch and go at times

Booth Bunny Companion Girl A; fully assembled [side view, left]

Figurine has good details and at this scale should present a fair challenge to paint 

 So that's one half of the Bunny Girl duo that has been assembled. With both the help of the missus and a great deal of luck, this particular assembly went as well as I could've hoped in my wildest dreams. In some instances, I held two tiny parts together in my best assumption of the correct positioning while the missus help me apply the initial smattering of thin plastic glue to the joint. While the glue was drying, and with the separate parts still pliable (but attached flimsily together), I then further manipulated the positioning as well as added more glue where needed.

 

Details on her hair look a bit faded in places, but this can be rectified through paint

Booth Bunny Companion Girl A closeup; back view

Another way to add detail back into the hair could be to carve or sculpt it in

 Before I end this post, I would like to apologize to you, dear readers, especially those you who have been taking the time to comment on my blog. You may have noticed by now that your comments aren't being published instantly as they used to be. Instead comments are now moderated before being uploaded. Again, my apologies for this inconvenience. I had to take this drastic measure because the comment section was becoming inundated with fake messages that caused Google to temporarily  block my site. So as a precaution to prevent it from happening again, I'm moderating the comment section. On that same depressing note, I end with news that the pandemic situation in my country is the worse it has ever been. Only thing left to say is stay safe everyone!