Remember what happened the last time...
Work will begin with the upper legs first. Parts of the legs were split into their respective boxes according to the color they will be sprayed in. I started on the gold parts because they were the least amount of pieces to work on.
Gold pieces for the upper leg
Some minor detailing, panel lining and a layer of Future was applied to pieces when the paint was dry.
Gold pieces of the upper legs waiting for the Future to dry
A thought crossed my mind when I was panel lining the last gold piece. Instead of using black for the panel line, I should have used brown instead. At least the panel line won't stand out too much. I guess I can do this on the next gold parts which will be the upper legs and hands.
Now that the gold pieces are done, the next part to tackle will be the pieces which will require the Gun Metal color.
Pieces de-nubbed and waiting to be sprayed
Work was started on the Light Gun Metal pieces as well.
Pieces de-nubbed and waiting to be sprayed
Once all the pieces are ready to be painted, they are skewered on a bamboo stick and sprayed their respective paint color. A total of 3 coats of paint was applied to all the pieces.
All the Gun Metal and Light Gun Metal pieces waiting to dry.
Once the pieces are dry, they were separated into their respective colors before screening through to see which of the pieces requires any detailing work.
Left: Light Gun Metal color pieces
Right: Original color pieces
Left: Gun Metal color pieces
Right: Original color pieces
The only pieces which was not given the sprayed on was the polycaps and the die cast pieces. Since this is a Red Frame, I wanted the red of the die cast to show when it is sandwiched between the Gun Metal pieces.
When the layer of Future is dry, some minor detailing was done to the pieces. Following in the footsteps of the detailing of the feet in WIP 3, all the pipes are colored red and some of the pieces had some gold treatment given to them.
Pieces with which received the red and gold treatment
The gold used is from a Gold pen from Artline. There is also silver version of this pen in my collection. The tip of this pen is fine enough for detailing small parts and the color is very shiny. The red used is the normal Sharpie red. Since the Sharpie head is slightly thicker, extra care must be used when using it on small details. With enough patience, the work can be done with little mess.
Artline 999XF Gold pen
Once the gold and red is dry, the pieces were given a layer of Future to protect the paints and panel lining was done.
Left: Panel line using Tamiya Panel Line Accent (Black).
Right: Excessive panel lines were removed
Do take note that when panel lining pieces with a layer of Future, more panel line solution is required for the solution to flow into the grooves if compared to bare plastic. Another method is to remove any excess solution from the application brush and brush the solution following the grooves instead of dropping the solution in one spot. The latter method might result is some dirty looking parts if you are unable to remove all the excess panel line solution. Either method works fine for me.
When all the excess panel line solution was removed, all the pieces were lined up in preparation for the assembly of the upper leg inner frame.
All the pieces for both sides of the upper leg inner frame
Some of the panel lines were done with the panel line marker after cleaning up. Following the instructions in the manual and with all the required pieces lined up, the upper section of the legs was completed with a breeze.
The only problem I encountered was the 2 back gold pieces at the top of the leg. The pieces was hard to connect at one of the leg. It resulted in a bit of paint chip but that was easily rectified using Tamiya Gold Leaf marker.
Completed upper legs inner frames
Now for the simple comparison of bending mechanism of the legs.
Right: Bending of the thighs.
Fully bent knees and thighs
No matter how many PGs I've built, I'm still amazed with how the mechanism work. I guess this is why they call it Perfect Grade. The mechanism is totally different than the MG and RG model. Every section working together for the model to move like our muscles and tendons.
While bending the knee section, I was extra careful to not let what happened the last time happens to this kit too. The joints were very tight and each time I was bending the knees, I always have the feeling at the back of my head that the part will break. Let's cross our fingers and hope that it won't happen to this kit.
Due to work and family commitments, I only have the time to complete just the inner frame of the upper legs. Work on the armor parts will be done at a later time. Next up will be the inner frame of the lower legs and the assembly of the entire leg.
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