HMM Z-Knight - WIP 3

 Something With The Factory Color?

With the head completed in the last posting, this post will work on the chest and waist.

[Chest]

There are a lot of small pieces for the chest and has no way to clip them with the crocodile clips for painting. One of the examples are the sensors(?) on the chest

Decided to attach the sensors to the main frame and paint it as one piece

All the pieces with the nubs removed and waiting for painting. 3 colors will be used for the chest: A.E.U.G.'s MS Blue, Super Italian Red and Metal Black.

   

Can't seem to pinpoint the reason why the blue would not stick to the parts. This is more obvious at the chest piece (bottom image) where one can see where the blue just does not stick to it. This is the same as when I was working on the head but dismissed it as thought it was the paint ratio that I got wrong but can't be the same thing happening for the other blue parts. Had to go over 2 more layers to make the piece acceptable. No issues for the other color parts though which is very strange. Maybe I might need to prime the part before painting?

Trying the Vallejo Dark Aluminum this time round 

   

Was contemplating of the color to be used to make the piping stand out. Originally was supposed to use aluminum but the color would be not stand out for the shield

The Z-Knight core(?) was painted using the Gold marker and Mr White Base 1000 was used around the vents area similar to the D-Style Shield Liger

   

A comparison between the factory color and the A.E.U.G.'s MS Blue. The missile pods and sensors have been painted red as well

All chest parts completed with the painting works. This kit seems to require little to no panel lining

Completed chest armor

   

   

Kotobukiya has some out of the box designs for moving parts. The chest armor is able to swivel up to reveal the inner frame and core but it all hinges on the red part

There is a broken piece when trying to place the peg into the hole but that made the swiveling so much looser. Will not be moving the armor parts too much as I do not want to risk making it worse

The upper and mid-section of torso are connected with ball joint

   

Completed chest with the armor in both the down and up position 

With the armor in the up position there is a small tab to pull down to expose the core

[Waist]

   

Sections of the waist painted, and panel lined. Used Aluminum to panel line the blue parts


Parts of the waist waiting for the assembly line. 

Did a rookie mistake of placing the waterslide decal onto the skits armor before assembling. The area for the waterslide is sunken in and the waterslide did not in properly. Thought it would be okay after the layer of Pledge has dried but that was not the case.

Missing waterslide

Think the staff at Kotobukiya knew this would happen and provided a spare waterslide

Managed to push down the waterslide this time round and prayed that it stayed. Worst case scenario would be to paint the entire area in red

   

Completed waist section

This wraps up the chest and waist section of the Z-Knight. There will be a short break from this kit before tackling the rest of the build. Somehow this kit has gotten me stumped of why the blue does not stick to the pieces which made me a bit frustrated. Will be starting a new kit for the time being.