In tonight’s update: a new try at a light box, May editions of Dengeki Daioh and Tech Gian, a lick, and a promise.
I spent the last week being sick, playing Diablo II, taking care of some personal business (a new bike and some badly needed shelving), playing more Diablo II, opening countless Firefox tabs in preparation for tomorrow’s ominbus post, and working on a new lighting setup. It still needs work, but I’m rather pleased with what’s come out so far:

There will be time to tweak it in the coming weeks as the school year is coming to an end, spring break bringing a brief reprieve from the day job (banzai! banzai! banzai!) and more time to commit to hobbyistic pursuits and insanity prevention, coinciding as it does with the launch of one of the most massive new anime seasons on record. Lord help us.
I picked up May’s editions of Tech Gian and Dengeki Daioh today, the former containing a few items of note that will be elaborated on tomorrow – a full-fledged Murakami Suigun eroge, for instance. Anticipation ++ in certain quarters…

and extras, with Itou Nouiji getting love from both sides of the aisle (a Nanatsuiro Drops novel and a Shakugan no Shana preview DVD):
Tomorrow is one of Japan’s freak national holidays, and I’m setting it aside to get caught up with things here. Will that actually happen? …ask again later …. signs point to yes. The 8-ball has it, folks. Until tomorrow!
neat stuff and nice new set up. i can’t believe you’re still playing D2. i haven’t played that game in years. my highest was a level 98 sorceress. good ol’ cow runs…
Y’know I always thought the “studio”-like shots of figures made by most figure-collectors were done in really big spaces/rooms. I never thought of doing something ingenious like what you have before.
>>baka
my setup is quite similar except i use a simple poster board instead of cloth for the bg. most set-ups are actually quite small unless we’re taking pics of giant statues or replicas.
>>Shingo
Wait.. you’re a school teacher. Somehow I had it in my mind that you were a programmer/IT person and you needed a break because you couldn’t stand to look at a monitor after work.
Q: How would you know that Shingo is alright?
A: When he talks about eroge. XD
>>Diablo 2
Ah, fine times. Moo moo moo moooo.
>>Firefox
I tried using Firefox but it seems that WinXP hates it, so it randomly ruins it. Opera has been more stable for me and prefer its tabbed browsing shortcuts a bit better than Firefox.
Back to grind for me. See you at your next post!
>>Lik
I’m not “still playing” D2, really – it was the most convenient thing I had laying around in legit form and I didn’t feel like warezing something newer. Still surprisingly fun, though.
>>bakaboobie
I’m taking my cues from this (thanks to Fred for the initial tipoff). Seems like a pretty smart way to approach the process without shelling out megabucks.
>>LK_LoA
Yep, I’m one of the many saps leeching off of the wacky world of English education in Japan. For now. If I was an IT type the site would be seeing far more frequent improvements than it currently is… -_-
Re: Firefox, I haven’t had many problems with it in XP at all (until I’ve had 300-400 tabs open for about a week, when it starts to fall apart at the seams). Usually does the trick, though.
Wow, Shingo. You really do take photographing your models seriously. Perhaps this is a precursor to the new reality series. JAPAN’S NEXT TOP MODEL. Only here, having plastic components is an actual requirement…
I’m so evil…
>>Agent Wax
yea, if Shingo didn’t have nice pics, i don’t think i would’ve gotten interested in his site in the first place ^^
That site is really helpful. Now I actually want to go read the manual on my Canon Rebel XT. ~~
Thanks for making this post. After reading it I placed an order with Amazon Japan for my Dengeki Daioh May 06 issue. I need that Shana cover. Damn they don’t sell melon bread over here.