Completed Build - SD Knight Gundam - Full Metal Custom

This is my last completed build of 2016. I love the look of combining Gundams and knight armour so I decided to try and do a full repaint to give it the metal look it deserves.

Name: BB Senshi Knight Gundam
Grade: SD

Build:

While I would have liked to try hand painting a candy coat, my experiments on spoons quickly shot that idea down. I just couldn't get a consistent layer without brush marks. Therefore, I went the lazy route and just got a bunch of metallic paints.

• Vallejo Metal Color [Duraluminium]
• Vallejo Premium RC Color [Metallic Blue]
• Vallejo Premium RC Color [Metallic Red]
• Vallejo Liquid Gold [Rich Gold]
• Reaper MSP HD [Umber Brown]

Everything was first wiped down with alcohol and then brushed with Vallejo Polyurethane Primer [USN Light Ghost Grey]. Once that dried, I painted as normal. I really do love metallic paint as their pigment is very dense and can generally cover very smoothly on thin coats.

Weathering:

After the colours were applied and dried, I went over all of it with a DIY ink wash to give the metal a subtle tarnished look. This ink wash proved much more effective than the paint wash I tried to make when I was painting the mini Amuro. Since my wash was made using future as a medium, it saved me a lot of time since the ink wash also ended up doubling up as a protective gloss coat.

For the cape, I applied a layer of Vallejo Polyurethane Matte varnish and then lightly weathered it using some make up pigment. My wife had extras around so I took a few to test before deciding if I should even bother with real weathering pigments or pastels. The end result seems ok to me and I'll probably write up a small article on it later.

Issue/Hack Fix:

As a side note, I got careless during the parts removal phase and ended up tossing a runner with a crotch piece still on it... I paint very slowly and in sections and didn't realize it until it was way too late. 

As an emergency fix I ended up using some regular kid's air drying modelling clay that I had around. The better option is to obviously use some kind of modelling putty but I was lazy and was interested to see if this would work. The quick answer is it doesn't really. Filling in the shape by hand is easy enough but it never dries hard enough to allow smooth sanding. In the end I just left it with bumps and creases and painted over it.

Other than the mishap, it was a pretty straight forward, small, fun build. I can't imagine repainting a kit that is more complicated than an HG 1/144 by hand though. The prep work involved would drive me crazy.

Enjoy the rest of the pics!