Kantai-Collection-Bismarck-Kai-Good-Smile-Company-04

[View the review for this figure here.]


Although assembling this figure gave me some serious trouble (you can read more about that in our review), I can’t help but be impressed with this one. I’m not really into KanColle (the one time I did look into playing it, I found that there were a lot of hoops to jump through) but Bismarck is certainly a stand-out design. Between this and Mauser Kar98K, you might have got the impression that I’m quite fond of the German military aesthetic, and you’d be right – they weren’t what you’d call nice people (understatement) but they really did dress well. But that’s beside the point.

This photoshoot made use of three diffused lamps – one red light on the left side of the set, and two white lamps on the right. One lamp was placed further back and behind the figure to subtly light up some of the darker parts at the back of the figure. The other was placed closer and in front – a flag was used to keep the black card backdrop dark, better allowing the red lamp to create the dramatic red glow you see in several of the photos. A reflector was also placed on the left side to help balance the lighting a little. The result turned out really well – I’m pretty chuffed with this set, on the whole.

Bismarck herself is a pleasure to shoot too, with plenty of dynamic angles to work from. As you might expect, shooting her from the sides or back can be a little tricky, and her forward lean does make her better shot from lower angles – however, it was quite an easy and rewarding shoot to do overall. The end result is one of my favourite sets of photos to date – I hope you like them too.


By Scott Bennett

Artist, writer and photographer. I review anime figures over @WaifuWatchBlog. I like gacha games.