Hello everyone ,

continue to add interesting and different pieces to their ever expanding series of resin releases, this time they have really chosen a different subject , it depicts a Japanese female in full traditional costume writing.

Calligraphy

The sculptor has depicted the lady , sat cross legged on a large cushion in full flowing robes proudly displaying her work ( the characters mean "Tradition" )

Calligraphy (shodo: "the way of writing") is the art of writing beautifully. Most children learn calligraphy in their first school It is a popular hobby among adults, too.

A calligraphy set consists of:

• Shitajiki: Black, soft mat. It provides a comfortable, soft surface.
• Bunchin: Metal stick to weight down the paper during writing.
• Hanshi: Special, thin calligraphy paper.
• Fude: Brush. There is a larger brush for writing the main characters and a smaller one for writing the artist's name. The small brush, however, can be used for the characters, too.
• Suzuri: Heavy black container for the ink.
• Sumi: Solid black material (charcoal) that must be rubbed in water in the suzuri to produce the black ink which is then used for writing. Of course, "instant ink" in bottles is also available nowadays.

The strokes of Japanese characters have to be drawn in the correct order, not arbitrarily. When you learn Chinese characters, you draw one stroke after the other. This is called the square (Kaisho) style of writing kanji.

This style of writing kanji, however, is rarely used in everyday life. Instead, there are two faster styles of writing, in which the kanji become a little bit less legible, just like when writing Roman letters in a fast way. These two styles are called semi cursive (gyosho) and cursive (sosho).




Kaisho:
Square style
Gyosho:
Semi cursive style
Sosho:
Cursive styleHeres some great pictures of patterns for the clothing and Calligraphy being done Book of clothing patterns Calligraphy items Here are a couple of English Language books on the subject also a soldiers diary showing calligraphy

Continued in next post


Nap

Onto the box and resin now:


Details:

Title: Calligraphy

Reference: F-75-006

Scale: 75mm ( 1/24th)

Material: Gray Resin

No of pieces: 15

Sculptor: Ella Mazurenko

Box Art: Mila Kern


The sculptor and box art has been done by 2 lovely lady artists from St Petersburg , its good to see their work

As with all of the Altores releases the model was received in a strong white box with a full colour version on the top .

Looking inside the pieces were in plastic bags and carefully positioned to avoid damage packed round by foam.

Pieces consist of the main figure, a small table , the 2 sets of legs , scroll, all the writing items , hair pieces and 2 hands with a large oval base.

Prep

Main Figure...remove 2 supports from under hanging sleeve and a fine casting line to sand away up figure sides, tiny amount of flashing by the neck.
Table ...remove top and legs from formers and put together
Writing item..remove from former and position in place
Hair pieces and hands ...remove and fit accordingly
Base ...remove the 3 casting plugs

All very easy and simple to do as with all of Altores releases I have looked at

Looking at the Main Figure now , the first thing to mention is that this is a full one piece casting ( less hands) , she is depicted knelt down on a cushion , there are a mass of folds on the clothing and I say WELL DONE to both the sculptor and the caster for this .

The figure as its female looks delicate and how she should be , as I said the folds in the clothing are a mass of undercuts and cloth all sitting very naturally on her body , draped at the back on her cushion .

She is in full costume all reproduced in great details and skill as indeed is her hair style , this shows nice texture and a lovely knowledge of hairstyles as well , there are locating holes for the 4 tiny hair pieces.

Her kimono is plain with no pattern on , a good move as this allows the painter total freedom to do as they wish.


Facial features are nice with the face being fully exposed with the hair held back tightly.

The cushion has the surface work like she is kneeling on it , a tassel are at each corner


The Table ...consisting of 3 parts the top and the 2 sets of legs , these legs are nicely shaped
as seen in many pictures the top has an edge to it , casting again is clean and it all goes together nicely

Also in the pictures we have the Scroll , rolled at each end it fits well into her hand.

The Hands are separate and easy to fit in position , the left is outright holding the scroll and the left sits nicely into the clothing sleeve and is holding a brush which is put in place by the modeller, must admit Altores get these features right .and hair pieces are very small so be careful when fitting otherwise that carpet monster will raise its head!!! , Altores thoughtfully provide locating holes in the hair itself.



The Writing items , must admit I do like these , 2 brushes , a rest for these , a stand fro the ink , 2 small containers .


Finally the Base...simple and oval in shape and very suitable for the job or you could discard it and put onto a lovely base perhaps made from bamboo.

Final Thoughts

A really delicate subject choice showing both skill by the sculptor, box art and also the caster . yet again Altores continue to provide a very interesting range of subjects , this one is a painters piece for sure and would make a great companion piece to one of the many samurai on the market.

A thumbs up from me

Lets have a couple of pics from the website



E-mail: altoress@mail.ru

Website: www.altores.com

They are also a member of FaceBook and the forum here on PF

Thanks to Altores for the review piece

Also to you all for looking in

I will be looking at more releases soon

Nap