Hi everyone! Welcome back. We’ve got a lot to update on today!
The Moon Gundam is done! You can see pictures of it and my thoughts about it over on it’s page! I wound up liking this kit a lot by the end of the build and have started reading the novel for it. It’s pretty enjoyable so far! I’m excited to see what happens as I get further in the story. It’s been a pretty long time since I read a Gundam series!
Longtime readers might recall my working on an RX-78-2 3.0 kit back around 2013! The initial concept for it was “Crimson Blitz” because I was listening to a song from the FF13: Lightning Returns soundtrack and just…really really liking it! Unfortunately, aside from painting the Gundam two shades of red in addition to the white I was never able to really come up with anything that made “Crimson Blitz” more than a moniker so I scrapped the idea and let the kit languish in my backlog.
It sat there for 7 years, and then I finally got a great idea for this thing. I got to work right after I finished up the Moon Gundam- the chest and arm parts were already cut out and a lot of the parts I had original intended to color red were already painted! Thankfully the coats were nice and light and I did the clean up properly all those years ago so there wasnt much to correct on those parts. I did some general surface prep (sanding with 800 and then 2000 grit sandpaper to make sure the surfaces were smooth) and got to work!
And I mean really got to work on it.
June 8th-June 16th WIP photos:
June 8th: Main body snapped together, all parts sanded. I’m getting in to the habit of just snap fitting my kits first to find out where there might be friction once things are painted and what gate marks will be visible on the final product.
June 9th: everything got primed! I’ve stopped priming pieces on at a time and instead now spray everything down by section. The general method is take the kit apart in sections and prime them still assembled. I break it down as such: the left arm/right arm, left/right shoulder, head, chest, waist, and left/right legs and the weapons. This stops me from putting too much paint on the undersides of parts or overspray making the kit harder to get apart/put together after painting. Priming the kits like this definitely feels much more efficient than doing everything individually.
June 10th-June 12th: Paint! Paint! and more paint! I had wanted to use this colorscheme on something for so long!! I love blues and purples together- it’s got such a nice feel to it, you know? Some of the parts were still drying and I needed to paint the gold for the arms and legs still….but I was able to test fit the waist together and oh my GOD I got so excited when I saw it all together. It really motivated me to get going on the gold parts so I could see this thing together.
June 13th-June 14th: Finished up the gold accent parts for the arms and legs and got the work done on the shield! The first pictures of this kit gloss coated turned out great!!
June 17th. You can see I took a day or two off from this thing to figure out the best way to bring the theme for this kit home. I flatcoated the kit with Mr. Color’s Super Smooth Clear paint and that flat top coat (used after a suggestion by Goodguydan) looks absolutely fantastic. This is definitely my go-to flat coat now and I’m stoked to pick up some gloss from the same line.
The ‘icing’ on the shield was done by mixing some Vallejo water effect mixed with some deep sky blue paint. I mixed it together it a little sandwich bag and then cut the tinest of corners off of it and squeezed it on to the shield. It’s not perfect but I think that’s one of the best things about it- it looks like it was iced like a pop tart! Perfect!
I felt very reminded of when I built, painted and decaled a master grade Banshee over the course of three days. It felt great to go on an absolute tear and rip right through building and painting this kit. The pictures are coming soon but I gotta flat coat the shield and get a few props for the pictures too. This kit came together so fast because I’m trying out this whole ‘hobby streak’ thing and we’re up to 13 whole days! The two day gap in the construction of the RX-78-2 was because, as you might’ve noticed, I picked up the MG Barbatos! The frame for that is all done and I definitely suggest following me over on Twitter to see that kit come together because I promise you it’s going to be one for the ages. 🙂
This kit was the first time I tried using a blend of shading techniques different from the ones I used for the Miria Rex (I haven’t forgotten about it, but I want it to be truly finished when I take pictures of it and that means YOU ALL GET TO WAIT FOR THE FINAL TOUCHES! and I have no idea when I’m gonna get around to that) and oh man, I’m so beyond sold. I don’t think I can go back to painting kits the way I used to, literally ever. The mixture of using preshading, MAX, and Saint-ism‘s technique of adding white to colors turned out some truly wonderful results. The blue and white parts are far and away my favorites to look at. Nazca blue fog white as the preshade color and nazca’s steel white over that will be the combo I use for almost any whit eon a mobile suit going forward. I could see myself picking up some of the warm gray as well! I’m really excited about the next project that I do where I get to use and refine these skills even more!
There are still a good number of things coming to the blog soon and I’m excited to tell everyone about them! Please be patient while I get all the ducks in a row but it’s gonna be pretty cool, especially if you’re a fan of my work!
‘Til next time!
Luper-pla!! 