WIP: Kit-bash conversion Asuka --> Nana Osaki

Recently I got hooked up with "Nana" by Ai Yazawa. I had never liked much her style, but Nana is such an incredible story and the characters are so likable that in a little while I got the manga, the anime and even the 2 movies.

One night I couldn't sleep (nothing unusual here) and, tossing in my bed, I started thinking about random stuff. And BAM! I got hit: I needed to convert this Asuka into Nana Osaki!






I have 2 versions of this Asuka: I got the first one when it came out, but when the second version, complete with decals and more clothing accessories, came out I had to get it again. And I'm glad I did, because the leather jacket will be perfect for Ms. Osaki! \(^o^)/ With all the spare parts I'll still be able to build Asuka, if I ever feel like.

The clothes were already pretty fitting for the purpose, the most obvious correction to be made was, of course, the hair.
At first I thought about using this Rei's hair, since I'm going to use her stockings and her microphone anyway:




But it turned out to be not the best idea: somehow Rei's hair, all nicely butchered up, seemed to be out of scale here, definitely too bulky:

So I decided to start from scratch!
First attempts:

But something still was not working right. After hours and hours of sanding, remodeling, sanding more, remodeling (you get the idea!) I got at this point:






Much better, no?





While I was on a 2 weeks vacation in Austria, I kept thinking about mods I could make. I decided that Nana doesn't need to hold the guitar. First thing, in the story she never actually play it on stage (at least up to the point of the story I reached) and by removing it, I'd also sort out the problem/mystery that has been tormenting me since the beginning: the guitar is too short and doesn't reach her hand!

So I chopped off the hand at the wrist:

I reattached it at a different angle and made her hold the microphone and the cigarette instead of the guitar (which will go on a stand next to the ampli... yes, this is a very ambitious project, ahah!):





Next, stockings and garter belts. I also started priming in black hair and leather jacket, to check the general effect:





Rummaging through my brother's left over crap, I also found something that I can mod into an ampli, saving me at least a little time and effort.. lucky day! (^_^)/
Front hair part, my worst nightmare!! But even this is getting done, slowly but surely! Well, not so surely, but slowly, yes! (^_^)'








More work is required on the bangs, but as I said, I'm getting there I think!
So this is where I stand right now:







This is it till the next update! (^_^)