PG Red Frame - WIP 8

Missing caps here and there

 

I know I mentioned in one of the previous post that all work on the Red Frames will come to a halt. I figure I might as well complete what I was working on before my work schedule went bonkers. This way in future I won't have to try and figure out what I was working on and what was my idea for this kit when I decided to stop. I know that I should be working on the smaller kits instead but I promise that after this, I will either concentrate on them or start another small kit. Why another small kit? Well, if you compare any other kits (other than Mega Size) to this, all other kits are small. ^_^.

 

Back to the main purpose of this post. Since the inner frame of the upper legs was completed, the next work to be done will be the inner frame of the lower leg.

Parts of the lower legs separated into their respective color boxes

The first color I tackle is gold since it has the least amount of parts to work on. First thing is to remove the nub marks and prepare them for their 'bath'.

 

Pieces after their first layer of golden 'bath'

A few thin layers (about 3 layers) were sprayed to prevent over-spraying. From my experience since I started spraying my kits; using the HG Astray Red Frame (Flight Unit) as test subject; I found out the hard way that you need lots of patience. When I first started spraying, I was impatient and wanted to save on paints and money so I thought I could cover all the pieces in one go. This lesson should have hit me when when I read about Ngee Khiong's experience. I had limited time to do gunpla and was eager to finish painting and assemble them so I can start on the next kit. I guess I'm the kind that needs to experience it myself before I learn.

While waiting for the parts to dry, I started working on the pieces for the next color: Gun Metal. Started to do the usual removing of nubs, sanding to smoothen the pieces while checking on the gold pieces.

Gun Metal parts de-nub and waiting to be sprayed

Once the gold pieces are dry to the touch, I took them in and left them on the table for the paint to fully cure before starting to put a layer of Future and start panel lining them.

 

More waiting required for the paint to fully cure 

 

While waiting for the gold pieces paint to cure, I started painting the Gun Metal pieces and started working on the last batch of pieces: Light Gun Metal. This batch has the most pieces among the three. I just found out that I currently have a bit of Light Gun Metal spray left. Let's pray that I have enough paint to finish them.

 

While waiting for the first layer of Gun Metal to dry and taking a break from removing nub marks from the Light Gun Metal pieces, I took a peek at the gold pieces. They seem to be dry enough to be kept together without having any paint being scratched when pieces rub against each other.

 

Gold pieces kept in their box until further notice

 

Now that the gold is done, time to check on the Gun Metal pieces to see if the second layer can be sprayed on. Once another layer is on, back to removing nubs from the final batch. Back and forth I go between these 2 batches like a ping pong ball until the Gun Metal pieces are done (3 layers) and ready to be left out for the paint to fully cure like the gold pieces.

 

Gun Metal pieces waiting for the paint to cure

 

While the Gun Metal parts are left to cure, the pieces for the Light Gun Metal parts are being prep for their painting process.

 

 Pieces being prep for painting process

 

Mentioned earlier that I have limited paint for the Light Gun Metal. I called up some hobby shops near my area and I was told that the next stock of this paint will only come on Tuesday. With that in mind, I decided to spray selected pieces with Light Gun Metal first and when they are done, another batch will go in until the spray finishes. The remaining pieces (if the paint finishes) will be sprayed in a different; either silver or chrome. That is why if you notice in the picture above, the pieces are somehow divided into 3 different groups.

 

Remaining pieces waiting their turn

First layer of Light Gun Metal for the first batch

 

In between coats of the Light Gun Metal, I checked on the Gun Metal pieces. Once they are dry and the layer of paint cannot be scratched out when kept together, they are kept in their respective box until it is time for a layer of Future and panel lining.

 

Before (left) and after (right) the pieces have their color changed

Since I didn't have enough Light Gun Metal, I substituted a few pieces with chrome instead.

Light Gun Metal and Chrome color pieces

 

While waiting for the paint of the last batch of pieces to cure, detailing work has begun for the gold and Gun Metal pieces. The usual work is the piping which will be red and gold and some silver and gold here and there. I also used a brown panel line pen for the gold pieces, I think this looks better than black which I have been using all this while.

 

I was too engrossed with the detailing, panel lining and Future-ing until I forgot I did not take any photos during the process until I finished. When all is done, pieces were left for the Future to fully cure before the start of the best part: assembling.

 

All the pieces lined up after a layer of Future

 

When the Future is fully cure, pieces are then sorted out into their respective boxes: left leg and right leg...

 

Look at how colourful it is

 

...and then taken out to be arranged for easier assembly and access of parts.

 

Left and right leg pieces laid out

 

I was enjoying the assembling process until I couldn't find a polycap. Work has to stop until I find the polycaps. Dire consequences will happen if they are really missing for good.

 



Progress for the inner frame before being halted

 

The missing polycap number shown on the instruction manual:

 

Missing polycap: T30

 

I thought the polycap fell out of the box so I emptied out my bag to look for them.

 

Must have missed this polycap (T30) when I was removing all the pieces from the runners. I guess it will happen when there are a lot of pieces to find and remove from runners and having to do 2 sets at once. Either that or I'm just careless and didn't double check the pieces properly.

 

These are the two missing polycaps:

 

 Missing polycaps: T30

Once the polycaps are found, the assembling process can resume:

 

 

 

Nearing the end, the assembling process has to stop because of another 2 missing polycaps. This time instead of looking for it in the bag, I went straight to the T runner to check if it was still attached. Lucky for me this is another overlooked case. I really need to start counting pieces for each section after removing them from the runners.

 

Missing polycaps (T31)

 

When they are found and removed from the runner, the assembling process can resume and after a attaching a few pieces here and there to the inner frame, the lower leg inner frame is complete.

 

Completed lower leg inner frame

 

With both the lower and upper leg inner frame done, the entire inner frame can be assembled:

 

Leg's inner frame in sections before putting them all together

 

I just noticed I forgot to snap some pictures of the assembling process of the hip joint. The assembly process is simple and very straight forward. Now for some 360° pictures of the completed leg inner frame:

 

360° view of the completed inner frame

 

Now to take a look at the articulation of the inner frame:

Upper portion with a maximum of 45° bend

Lower portion with a maximum of 90° bend

 

From the pictures above, the articulation for BanDai and Daban are the same. With the articulation and inner frames for both legs covered thus concluding the part which I was working on for the Red Frame before my work schedule went bonkers. This has been a long post and I do hope you enjoyed it. Now that this is done time to put this kit aside and concentrate on other smaller kits.