(site went down as I was typing this out the first time; hope it goes better now...)
I already have my kit picked out for the current Cohost Build Club theme, which I'll reveal later. In the meantime, there's been a few other kits I'd been wanting to knock out beforehand, the first of which is Figure-rise Standard Fumina Hoshino. Fumina is a personal fave character, and considering this kit's features, I figured she'd make good practice. I finished her up today; was good this time and waited a whole day for the topcoat to cure instead of completing assembly a few hours after application 😅
One of the main reasons I built this kit now is that it comes with waterslide decals, which I'd never used before, in addition to stickers. Yup, I'm a waterslide n00b! Fumina comes with waterslides for her three faceplates, and with spares for every detail except the blush on the cheeks. This gave me (some) wiggle room to mess up as I set out on my waterslide adventure.
That said, does anyone actually enjoy applying these damned things?! They look great afterwards, but god damn are they a pain to get on. Trying to figure out the best approach to sliding the decals off the paper and onto the faceplates was a pain, to say nothing of figuring out when and how to apply Mr. Mark Softer. In addition to a few eyes, I screwed up one of those irreplaceable cheeks and half-assed a paintjob for those on the shocked face instead. I also had so much trouble getting an eyebrow onto the (raised!) part of a faceplate where it was destined to go, that I decided to paint all the brows instead. I hope Kotobukiya, MS General, etc. figure kit decals aren't as much as a pain, because holy shit. Perhaps I'll get better with practice?
Aside from that, it matched my previous experience with Bandai kits. The joints are either just tight enough or a touch too loose, the joint articulation ranges from decent to bad (Fumina's wrists are an embarrassment), and I ignored most of the stickers and painted a lot of little details instead (and the hair). This kit came with a ton of unused parts-- and I ended up building everything that the instructions called for. A little research led me to realize that most, if not all, of these extra parts were originally designed for Ayame, from Gundam Build Divers. It's such a waste, especially when it comes to the clear yellow runner where the only piece Fumina's instructions require is an extension for the stand that she doesn't really need. I'm kind of tempted to try assembling the hair parts on that runner and see how they look on Fumina, but not today.
While finishing up this kit, I realized that I was getting low on topcoat, and glossy topcoat in particular, so I ended up taking advantage of sales at a couple of online Gunpla shops and picked up some cans. I also bought some weathering pigments/pencils from one of those shops as well as a more traditional hobby store. Between those and some earlier purchases that are pending in, I hope I'm done with buying new supplies for awhile.
There's another figure kit, and an accessory pack, that I want to put together before starting my Build Club entry. Maybe I'll do those this coming weekend; we'll see.