Comments on my first Custom Berserk kit/statue

Hey ya'll,

I've bought a lot of garage kits in the past from the Wonder Festival in Japan, but I never actaully got them put together.

Recently, though, I met someone through a friend at a local comic book shop.  He offered his services and I let him to do my first kit.  Please let me know what you think.

This kit is a original custom garage kit of SkullKnight by HEADLONG.  From my sources, it appears somewhere between 20-30 of these were made, so it's pretty rare.  It's not the ART OF WAR model, though the pose looks very similar to theirs.

This is a stock photo of the kit on HEADLONG's website:


Here's how mine turned out (updated the pictures 12/04):






What's crazy is the guy had to cut off and glue every spike on Skully's armor/neck/head/legs, etc etc.

Anyways, I plan on doing business with him again, in fact, he already has my BERSERKER garage kit.  But I would really like to know what you guys think of his work.  Granted, the pictures aren't the best, but it's the most accurate I could get them to look next to the real thing.

looks g00d...

That's pretty fucking amazing.

Thats fuckin bad ass dude

cant say i every remember seeing skull knight get blood on him no matter what he does >.o even if he is chopping up creatures... BUT! none the less thats beautiful

Looks very nice, though SK's not the type to get all bloody.

although I haven't seen Skully being bathed in blood... the detail of the "bloodshed" is very good. I like it

Looks tight as hell, I can't wait, and I mean it, I CANT WAIT TO SEE THE BERSERK ARMOR!!!.

Perhaps we should start a new topic on the theories thread "Why doesn't Skullknight ever get blood on him self?" -Jk-

Wow, great! I'm happy that so far all of you think it turned out well =). I was really nervous about it. I didn't know what to expect.

And about the blood, yah... I guess now that I think about it, I've never seen him covered in blood. I just thought it'd look cool since he's so badass. But then again... as far as I can remember, the manga hasn't really shown him fight too much yet. Hopefully he'll get some blood on him sooner or later so my statue will stay true to the story. =P

Venus™ said:

although I haven't seen Skully being bathed in blood... the detail of the "bloodshed" is very good.  I like it

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what she said

NICE!

Since this is a thread on "first custom Berserk kit" I thought I'd post mine.
I did it myself with a paintbrush so its not as good as it would have if it would been airbrushed
Great looking Skully DK!
http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/drunkmonk223/detail?.dir=/58e9&.dnm=bad1.jpg

DosU2Death said:

NICE!

Since this is a thread on "first custom Berserk kit" I thought I'd post mine.
I did it myself with a paintbrush so its not as good as it would have if it would been airbrushed
Great looking Skully DK!
http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/drunkmonk223/detail?.dir=/58e9&.dnm=bad1.jpg

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OOoooh!  Upload a larger picture!  I can't see it in detail but it looks good!  It looks HUGE too.  How tall is it?

And what else you got back there?  Hehe, I see God Hand Limited, Zoddo, Guts Lost Children, Griffith MF Horse =P, etc etc.

BERSERKER completed Kit

Well, I got my Berserker kit back tonight (also done by HEADLONG).  I got the same guy who did my Skullknight to assemble and paint this one too.

I asked him to put blood in all the cracks and edges of the armor because of that one scene in the manga when all that blood is seeping/spraying out...


Anyways, lemme know what you think.

(stock pic)


(my kit - updated pics 12/04)

I can't believe I missed this thread! My reaction to seeing the Skullknight was only about how bad-fucking-ass that thing is.

p.s. The profanity was needed for added emphasis.

Looks very nice, I'd just reproach two things: first, his cloak should be black, and second, his "eyes" shouldn't be the same color as the blood, imho.

Dude that kicks ass! Tha man is right that the cape should be black but it doesnt really matter, actually the red cape looks pretty cool anyway so Id keep it like that! Nice touch putting him on the black swordsman stand like that!

Re: BERSERKER kit finished!

Aazealh said:

Looks very nice, I'd just reproach two things: first, his cloak should be black, and second, his "eyes" shouldn't be the same color as the blood, imho.

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Those were my exact thoughts when I saw it.  I asked him how hard it would be to repaint the cape black, but he spent a good amount of time shading the brown on the cape... so I felt bad asking him to repaint.  He would have to snap off the cape too, to repaint it black.  I'm still tempting to ask him to change it though... do you think it's a big problem?

As for the color of the eyes, I even thought about that too!  Haha, that I think should be easy to fix.  I'll tell him about that.

[quote author=DosU2Death] Dude that kicks ass!  Tha man is right that the cape should be black but it doesnt really matter, actually the red cape looks pretty cool anyway so Id keep it like that!  Nice touch putting him on the black swordsman stand like that! [/quote]

Thanks!  Yah, I had a spare toycom release black swordsman base lying around, so I figured might as well put it to some use.  Actually, I think it matches the brown cape sorta =P (but maybe i'll change the cape back to black) but yah, if I keep this base for it, I'll probably go to a trophy shop or something and change the nameplate to say berserker or something. =P

Re: BERSERKER kit finished!

DirectDK said:

Those were my exact thoughts when I saw it. I asked him how hard it would be to repaint the cape black, but he spent a good amount of time shading the brown on the cape... so I felt bad asking him to repaint. He would have to snap off the cape too, to repaint it black. I'm still tempting to ask him to change it though... do you think it's a big problem?

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Well, I'm picky and would prefer it black myself, but really, it's already good as it is and the guy obviously took a lot of time to make it (looks great), so if he needs to snap it off and such, it may not be worth the trouble... Just do as you like, it's your kit .

DirectDK said:

As for the color of the eyes, I even thought about that too! Haha, that I think should be easy to fix. I'll tell him about that.

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I like the way Lithrael colored it, maybe you could ask him to make it like that ?

That's damn good ;D
Isnt the berserkers armor darker though?

Well since the manga is all B&W its anyones guess what colors Miura had in mind. But the PS2 game has Gutts on the front wearing the berserk armor and the cape is red!

DosU2Death said:

Well since the manga is all B&W its anyones guess what colors Miura had in mind.   But the PS2 game has Guts on the front wearing the berserk armor and the cape is red!

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Yeah, but look at the cover of vol. 27. The armor is dark, and that replica of the berserk armor was black too
but the silver armor still looks nice

Hey everyone,

Thanks for all your comments!  Yah... the colors of both the skullknight and berserker might not be the most accurate to the manga (though sometimes it's hard to tell since the majority is b&w).  The thing is, the guy that's doing my kits has never seen/read Berserk before, so it's sometimes hard for me to relate the information/descriptions to him.

I showed him various reference pictures of both characters and told him my preferences too, but I also want him to do what he's comfortable with, and I don't want to completely restrict his artistic freedom.  After all, I don't know shit about painting.

But, after looking at both kits longer, I'm gonna get a few things changed.  I dropped off the skullknight earlier today so he can fix some of the spikes on his shoulder armor (some of them aren't completely flush) and I don't know if anyone noticed but there is also 2 long slits in the cape (one on left and one on right) that shouldn't be there.

With the berserker kit, although I like how he painted the cape, it's bugging me that the cape isn't black as I imagined it to be.  And I also want the eyes to stick out more... and so I'm going to get it change to more of a firey orange/red color (also so the Z-shape of the eye is more noticeable)

Anyways, I actually got some comments about the berserker kit from another guy online, that thinks the berserker kit was very poorly done. =(  He didn't like the colors that were used, the sword, the blood, and said there was not enough attention to detail in the armor (very flat looking, boring)...  I guess everyone has a different opinion about these things, because it seems like the majority of you people dig it, and I'm definitely quite pleased (minus the brown cape and eyes).  But yeah, it definitely put a slight damper on my excitement.

i finally got a chance to see it,

pretty damn cool  :)

sorry im late  :(

- c

ps. still really cool  ;D

DirectDK said:

Anyways, I actually got some comments about the berserker kit from another guy online, that thinks the berserker kit was very poorly done. =(  He didn't like the colors that were used, the sword, the blood, and said there was not enough attention to detail in the armor (very flat looking, boring)...

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Well, it's easy to criticize something, now to make something better is another story. That Berserk's armor painting has some defaults, the armor color should be much darker, the eyes and the cape, the blood could be re-done, and it lacks some details, but to say that it's "very poorly done" is a bit too harsh, imho.

I've seen all of AoW's Berserk statues, and none has a much better painting than your kit... Plus what details is there to add, anyway ? Look at the recent Grunbeld statue and its price, honestly, AoW could have put more effort in it.

Now, it depends how much you pay that guy for it... Anyway, I think you shouldn't hesitate to ask him to re-paint it partly if that's how you feel.

DirectDK said:

I guess everyone has a different opinion about these things, because it seems like the majority of you people dig it, and I'm definitely quite pleased (minus the brown cape and eyes).  But yeah, it definitely put a slight damper on my excitement.

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Bah, I've seen a $700 statue of a "Bloody" Zodd that looked like it had taken a ketchup shower, and that didn't prevent its owner to think it was the best... It's just a matter of personal taste I think, people have a different level of "tolerance" when it comes to that.

again... Im no artist but the "bloodshed" is a good quality in my opinion :)

Aazealh said:

Well, it's easy to criticize something, now to make something better is another story. That Berserk's armor painting has some defaults, the armor color should be much darker, the eyes and the cape, the blood could be re-done, and it lacks some details, but to say that it's "very poorly done" is a bit too harsh, imho.

I've seen all of AoW's Berserk statues, and none has a much better painting than your kit... Plus what details is there to add, anyway ? Look at the recent Grunbeld statue and its price, honestly, AoW could have put more effort in it.

Now, it depends how much you pay that guy for it... Anyway, I think you shouldn't hesitate to ask him to re-paint it partly if that's how you feel.



Bah, I've seen a $700 statue of a "Bloody" Zodd that looked like it had taken a ketchup shower, and that didn't prevent its owner to think it was the best... It's just a matter of personal taste I think, people have a different level of "tolerance" when it comes to that.

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Haha, a ketchup shower???  That's hilarious (and I know exactly what you mean too).

And thanks for the kind post.  You made some very solid points.  I appreciate the time and thought you put into it.

So yah, I already talked to him about fixing up both kits a bit here and there.  I'll post a few more pictures after I get em back.


[quote author=Venus]again... Im no artist but the "bloodshed" is a good quality in my opinion[/quote]
Thanks to you too =)