After an extended archiving period, Cohost goes offline for good tomorrow, January 12. This post is dedicated to the makers and users of Cohost, as well as its adorable mascot, Eggbug.
Last year, I wrote a long and detailed review of the plamo I built and related tools I love on MFC. I started drafting something similar for 2024’s kits, but found the work on that post draining, so here’s a shorter piece.
New-to-me tools I liked in 2024
GodHand Ultimate Nipper 5.0: As good as its reputation implies, but takes a bit of getting used to. My bonds nipper is still my favorites, but these are a nice backup. TwoAi’s chosts on the Ultimate Nipper are required reading if you’re thinking about getting these: 1 | 2
Popondetta Pointed Precision Cotton Swabs: Really excellent little swabs for detail work and cleaning narrow spaces. Hobby Search sells them in packs of 200; they’re worth it.
Butusdori Note: These are photography background notebooks which I relied on quite a bit this past year when taking pics of finished kits. I wrote a review of three of them on MFC.
AK Interactive Weathering Pencils: Tools of the year. I love these so much. They can be used in multiple ways (wet, dry, straight on plastic, with a palette and brush, etc.) and the results are fantastic. 2024 was the year I finally got proper weathering pigments, and though Tamiya’s palettes are decent, they didn’t impress me as much as these pencils did. I just wish they came in more colors!
Plamo I built in 2024
Sousai Shojo Teien Koyomi Takanashi (Summer Uniform)
Sousai Shojo Teien After School Short Wig (Type A)
M.S.G Expansion Armor E
M.S.G Heavy Weapon Unit – Wing Edge
Finished May 19, while I was procrastinating with my next kit. The M.S.G bits are fun, and Sousai Shojo Teien is the most beginner-friendly line of plamo I’ve seen from Kotobukiya thus far.
HoiHoi-san
Finished May 24. My entry for Cohost Build Club #3, which had the theme of Mass Production. HoiHoi-san was my final attempt at getting good gradient results with painting. Said results ended up being mixed. However, she was also my first attempt at using spray primer, on the katana and broom, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the results, especially on the former. This is an old kit, both in physical age and design; no snap-fit parts, so posing can be a pain.
Figure-rise Standard Fumina Hoshino
Finished July 8. I don’t really recommend this one, either. This was my first time using waterslides. Although I can’t blame the kit for the difficulty I had in working with them, I will note that having raised eyebrows on the faceplates, coupled with tiny little eyebrow waterslides, was a bad idea on Bandai’s part. I ended up painting the eyebrows on. There’s also an entire runner where all but one piece is used in this kit—pretty wasteful.
Sousai Shojo Teien Saeki Ritsuka (Summer Uniform)
Finished July 17. I used this kit in putting together a plamo tutorial. As with the Koyomi kit, I have no real complaints. It’s a good ‘un all around.
Sousai Shojo Teien After School Umbrellas
Figure-rise Standard Suletta Mercury
Finished August 8, with some fixes made on August 10. My entry for Cohost Build Club #4 (theme: prototypes). Suletta’s facial waterslides were much better than Fumina’s, with each eye paired with its eyebrow on a single decal, and no extraneous raised bits on the faceplates. The engraving stickers were a pain to get on, but the results are (mostly) fantastic. I also liked that both engraving stickers and decals came with extras for most of them, and that there’s practically nothing wasted for the parts on runners. The Haro gave me a hard time, but that’s all on me. As for the umbrellas, painting was a bit finicky, but it worked out in the end. Not a great kit, but a good concept.
Arcanadea Yukumo
Finished September 16. This one was troublesome. Lots of painting needed, ridiculously long waterslides for the sleeve stitching (and poor instructions for their application), a broken ball joint for the stand (fortunately, I was able to replace it with a peg-based alternative part), stress marks on the tail, and overall, some odd design decisions. While putting photos together for a potential MFC post, another one stuck out at me: a long peg holding the front bangs to the head means that swapping faceplates is much harder than on other kits. Can’t really recommend this one.
Raider of Shadow Yin Hu (Suit Mode)
Finished October 1. I love the manual on this one. Like those for modern Bandai kits, it’s multilingual, but there’s also an info box for each section telling you which runners you’ll need! The kit itself is okay, made from plastic that isn’t as high-quality as in Japanese plamo. The silver and gold parts are prepainted, and nub marks aren’t always well hidden, so some extra work is needed to cover those up. I only built half of this kit, with Yin Hu in her waitress outfit; saving the armored mode for sometime this year.
Frame Arms Girl/Sousai Shojo Teien Aoi Gennai (recolor)
Finished October 4. Another Sousai kit, but a somewhat unusual and sub-par one. The faceplates seem to use the Frame Arms Girl standard, so forget about using Aoi’s hair with other Sousai faces. Also, there’s the fact that the color of her jacket in the promo art/pics is very different from the real thing.
Sousai Shojo Teien Madoka Yuki (Summer uniform ver.)
Sousai Shojo Teien After School Cafe Table
HoiHoi-san and HoiHoi-san Mini (Alice Color ver.)
Finished October 24. I ended the year with three (four?) kits built at once. Madoka was as good as other standard Sousai kits and may in fact be the most beginner-friendly of the bunch—though painting her hairclips is definitely tricky. The table and chairs were okay, and the table is too top-heavy, but I did have fun doing the detailed painting for the included crepes. The HoiHois came together in one set and included pink and blue dress parts for each. Unfortunately, although this is a newer release, it’s the same old designs; no snap-fit meaning that their front bangs risk falling apart any time I want to swap the eyes out.
That’s it for this past year’s kits! I plan to get started building again in April or May, getting back to the mecha after all this bishoujo. For more photos of 2024’s builds, which include some details not in the pics above, check out my MFC Kits&Customs gallery. Wish me good luck with 2025’s plamo, and, if you’re also a builder, sending the same to you!