Hi Everyone,

Here is my review of the Ronin 3D bust by Hellbender Museum, printed and offered by El Greco.

Detail of the release

Title: Ronin 3D Bust
3D Printable STL file: Hellbender Museum
Scale: 1:9
Printed by: El Greco under licence from HM
Material & no. of pieces: 5 dark grey resins
Order from: EL Greco

The Ronin 3D bust from El Greco arrives in a brown sturdy cardboard box with parts housed in zip lock bags and bubble wrap pouches for protection. It consists of 5 dark grey resin printed parts: Body, 2 hands, sword and a plinth. The height including the plinth is approximate 140mm.

Here are the printed parts.

Parts View

Head and upper body

Continued in the next post..........

..........Continued from previous post

Hands arms and katana

The plinth

Final thoughts:

The 3D printed bust by Hellbender Museum is superbly sculpted with great detail and likeness of Japanese actor Toshrio Mifune in the movie Yojimbo and Sanjuro. There are only a couple of inaccuracies in the sculpt. The left thumb should be on the side of the tsuba as shown in my references otherwise the thumb will be sliced when drawing the blade as indicated in the bust and also the saya/scabbard is a bit too long.
The kit is excellent printed by El Greco. The parts are sharp, smooth, crisp and clean and are perfectly snug fit together and no moulding line to clean.
3D printed figure kits are hollow inside with small parts printed in solid. Since it is hollow the bust is light in weigh and feels like a styrene plastic kit. They are more brittle and fragile than casting parts. My kit arrived with a broken wakizash handle. While taking pictures for this review I accidentally snap off the katana tsuba in half. Personally I would not purchase any small scale 3D printed kits.
Overall a beautiful impressive looking kit and good value for the money. You can order the bust directly from El Greco.




My Rating Summary:

A short video of the 3D Bust

To view full screen, click on the vimeo logo to access full screen

and then click on the full screen icon.

Thank you for looking!

Cheers!

Felix

References:

Great review and useful references Felix.

This is the first 3D print I have purchased and agree it seems fragile. Not sure I will get it painted without having to stick something back on but we'll see. Good bust for a reasonable price.

Bill

hello
very sweet modelling like it cheers

Excellent review…hits all the right buttons for judging purchase

Gorgeous bust and one hell of a review as usual by Felix.

Oda.

Thanks Felix for another colossus review. Nice short video on "How to draw the katana" explains where the left thumb should be on the tsuba.

Excellent review, thank you so much Yellowcat !!

I am impressed by the hair detail, I think it´s awesome, great face and other details.

Military miniatures painted by Eduardo Garcia

In the video, the thumb is shown in that position, to initiate the movement of removing the blade from the scabbard (Apologies for using the incorrect terminology). Maybe that's what the sculptor tried to depict.

Hi Henk,

Thank you for your comment regarding the thumb position in the video.

In the video it shows the thumb is on the side of the tsuba while the kit's thumb is in front of the tsuba and center on the saya.

In order to illustrate this, I took some screen shots from the video and also I took some pictures with my katana to compare with the kit.


Screen shots from the video. Thumb is on the side of the tsuba.




The first row of pictures are taken from the kit. When compare with the second row with my katana with same thumb position as the kit, the thumb will be sliced when the thumb push forward in order to unsheathe the katana.
The third row of pictures indicate the correct position of the thumb that is on the side of the tsuba. When the thumb push forward to unsheathed the katana the thumb will not be sliced.

Yes, Thank you for the detailed explanation Felix. As a self confessed rivet counter on Armoured Vehicle models, I understand and appreciate your dedication and efforts.

( I was most unimpressed when Dragon released a new Pz.Kpfw. IV variant, and molded the proud sitting, square headed bolt heads that bolt down the transmission cover, as flush fitting, slot headed screw heads... )

Please keep up your sterling work.

Henk

Hi Henk,
This is in point of fact on kenjutsu Japanese swordmanship and nothing to do with rivet counting.