And the Lord Spake: Let There be Detail Painting!
The MG GP-02a is many things, not many of which are particularly outstanding other than bulk... The shield, were it made today would be retcon'd for sure to have some sort of support apparatus. It would have ducts and vents, piping and mesh and a full on internal frame all it's own. But alas, this kit was made way back in the day when two giant clamshells snapped together was good enough...
There it is, in all it's glory, a big plain beige lump of plastic! It's huge and heavy and the Physalis can barely hold it up, but I like the concept of it as the MS's cooling system. I've never been able to figure out how all of the heat from the MS is transfered to the shield, but whatever.
Anyway, it's plain, really plain. It does come with some stickers, the clear kind, but I like to paint where I can.
And the back, yeah, also beige. Why oh why Bandai couldn't you have molded the back piece in gray?
First thing I did was paint the red emblem and the triangle. I filled in some gray details as well.
You'll have to excuse the red paint. It's old and acted funny, if I thinned it, it wouldn't cover AT ALL. So I left it un-thinned and it kind of globbed and streaked. I also took care of the two triangular ports above the emblem there.
Triangle Man, Triangle Man... (I hate that song, BTW).
Next up, I painted the back GRAY!
Took a Gundam Marker to the ridged section on the "caps" on the shield ends.
Then I took the same Gundam Marker and went over the support beams.
Then I painted all of the rivets silver.
The arms were a bit boring as well. So...
I painted the shoulder joints as they can be seen. I was going to paint the pipes as well, but ended up leaving them as is.
The beast is almost done at this point! Expect more updates sooner.
Until Next Time: Happy Building!
The detail you did to the shield is awesome. I like the multiple tones of gray giving it more layered appearance.
ReplyDeleteAs much sense as it would make for those hydraulics to be silver, I don't think it would look right. Good call on leaving them as-is.
About the shield designs: do you know about the knife-scratch technique?
I thank you, sir, for the feedback. I was going for exactly that with the different tones of gray. As for the arms, I looked all over the internet and didn't find any shots of a modeler having painted them gold and silver, so I just could bring myself to do it. I think they look just fine.
ReplyDeleteKnife-scratch?
Cleaning up excess paint with the blade of a hobby knife? Sure do! and panel lining usually takes care of the rest that's too close to scratch. These aren't finished pictures, that will be one of the next postings.