HoiHoi-San is the tiny and unbelievably cute anime robot bug killer, and also a 1/1 scale model kit from Kotobukiya. It’s not a kit where painting is a necessity because all the parts of the main model come correctly pre-coloured, and really the only parts you need to paint are the weapons. I decided to paint the black parts (because the black plastic just wasn’t that black), the weapons (because they need painting) and the hair. The box art shows pink hair rather than the more strawberry blonde of the plastic, and I wanted to get some shading in there. Here you can see the plastic under-skirt I made for her dress (which you can see in the box art, but isn’t actually a part in the kit). I had just received some paper-thin plastic sheet, so I figured out the shape and size of circle to cut, designed the pattern in Adobe Illustrator, printed it out, traced it onto the plastic and very carefully cut it out. The kit is pretty simple and an easy enough build other than the tricky shoulders. The parts go together well and sometimes a small bit of glue is helpful in ensuring they stay nicely together. The plastic sands well to remove nub marks and the sculpting is great. The hair comes in sections and are somewhat movable to where exactly they go. The bunny ears are adjustable and the articulation is good enough, although the kit is top heavy and tricky to balance.  The sword is painted with Alclad chrome and pale gold, with a black oil wash for the handle detail. The gun is Alclad gun metal and then masked to allow the white to be added.