Friday, May 8, 2026

Samurai warrior doll

Some blog visitors have been asking me about the two sculpted pieces that I showed in my Baking Super Sculpey article. 

I also collect and restore antique Samurai warrior dolls. Those sculpted pieces are for some missing parts for a Samurai warrior doll. This doll is 74 cm tall, which I purchased it some years ago. The doll Kabuto's dragon maedate only comes with one front left foot and the tail is missing as with the two kuwagata. 



The dragon feet are sculpted and cast in Super Sculpey. The tail has been re-sculpted according to a similar dragon maedate and the repaired dragon maedate is painted in gold enamel. 


The repaired dragon maedate is painted in gold enamel.



The two missing  kuwagatas are cut from some brass sheets from a template that I have made.








Thank you for looking!





Can you believe...

Saw this on ebay. I cannot believe people can sell or buy this kind of crappy stuff. The Kabuto shikoro (neck guard) is placed upside down ??? 




Friday, May 1, 2026

Samurai with Strong Bow, 13th Century A.D.

Hi Everyone,

Here is my review of another rare Samurai kit by Seil in 90 mm white metal. A mounted Samurai with Strong Bow.

 



Details of the releases:


Title: Samurai with Strong Bow, 13th Century A.D.

Manufacturer: Seil Models Co., Ltd.

Scale: 90mm (1:20)

Sculptor: Figure sculpted: by Kim Dong-uk, Horse sculpted: by Zlobov Sergey

Historical point of view supervised by: Dr. Mitsuo Kure

Material & no. of pieces: 81 white meat parts, 1 resin base, 6 etching parts, 1 photo-etched name plate, 2 pieces of wire and some strings.

Box art painted by: Kim Man Jin

Cast by: ?

Order from: Historex Agents many years ago.




The Seil Samurai with Strong Bow was purchased from Historex Agents when it was first released by Seil in 2007. The kit comes in a sturdy black rectangular cardboard box with parts housed in between thick pieces of dark grey foam and with some other parts in sealed plastic bags. A superbly sculpted figure kit by Kim Dong UK and a horse sculpted by Zlobov Sergey and from a historical point of view this figure was supervised by Dr. Mitsuo Kure, of a 90 mm mounted Samurai warrior figure kit in the 13th century during the invasion of Japan by the Korean and Mongol allied forces. He is wearing his O-yoroi armour (大鎧), carrying his tachi sword. He is turning upon his mount, while in full gallop, to fire a shot from his bow towards his enemy. 


Here are the cast parts.

Parts View




Head and Kabuto Helmet View





Upper, Lower Body, Arms and Legs View



Horse and Sealed Parts View






Name Plate and Base View





Assembly, Painting and Historical Guide






Final thoughts:

The Seil mounted Samurai with strong bow is a magnificent kit. It is beautifully sculpted with loads of detail and well researched parts where the historical point of view for this figure kit was supervised by Dr. Mitsuo Kure. The horse is a Japanese pony sized horse for the period. The metal castings are sharp, crisp and clean. The white metal is of superior quality with lots of delicate parts. The overall quality is exquisite. The kit was listed as 90mm, but it looks small to me, more likely to be a little bigger than 80mm. An superb kit for the advanced modeller. Outstanding engineering involved to minimize join lines and mold lines and minimal seam lines to remove. Highly recommended.
Seil had also released the horse as a single figure, which I have in my grey army. I am going to use the horse for my future project, a mounted Tome Gozen.




About Dr. Mitsuo Kure: author of several Samurai books, he reconstructed full-size samurai armour and started what is now one of the premier re-enactment groups in Japan. His group is currently one of the leading organizers of samurai battle re-enactments in Japan.


My Rating Summary:





Thank you for looking!