PG Strike Freedom - Frame Painting Details

Backtracking a bit as I'm trying to get the files on my computer a bit more organized.  I did take some more detailed pics of the frame earlier and it's about time to show them.  Unfortunately I didn't take proper before and after pics but you can kind of get an idea of what the original frame looks like here and here.  This blog also did something similar to myself with a good comparison of colours.  I did basically the same thing but I didn't learn about that blog until today for the record. I thought of painting the frame this colour on my own.  Just saying.

First off, I didn't paint everything because I thought it was unnecessary.  I left the plated parts as is, along with some of the gold parts. ASM took some great photos and he hasn't done anything to his frame yet so I'll be using him as a point of comparison.  These are his unpainted legs.  I elected to only paint the section below the knees because it was the most blatant offender (to my eyes).  I didn't go "all in" on the frame because I thought about ease of painting and the amount of time it would take.  I balance these considerations to get an acceptable effort/effect ratio.  The lower leg seperates easily below the knee.  I masked the feet and just sprayed it with Tamiya Acrylic X-12 Gold Leaf.

The arms were a little bit special.  I disassembled them, removed the plated parts, re-assembled and then painted as one piece.  I didn't paint the pieces individually.  I painted them as a whole.

Helmet, shoulders and torso were done.  I didn't do the chest vents.  I left that as is.  Yeah I'm burning candles in the background.  Don't you like to put on some incense, burn some candles and have a romantic evening with your Gundams?!  Haha jk I'm burning them up because I was moving out and wanted to use them before I left.

Entire waist/hip area + upper leg joints were done.  You can see I left a bit of the yellow on the knee caps.  Too small to be fussy about + I wanted to leave a bit of the yellow in just to break up the colours and add some separation to the parts.

I didn't bother with the feet.  Too much of pain to disassemble plus there isn't that much of that yellow to warrant me going through the effort.  There's enough plated gold there to balance it out.  Gotta think about the E/E ratio!

Rail guns turned out better than I'd hoped.  You can see a bit of yellow at the muzzle section.  That's where I held the part for painting.  Not being a perfectionist for this.  Just want to get the basic frame gold on principle.  Most of it is going to be covered up so I'm taking some short cuts.

Shiny gold body and flat light grey boots.  I like the contrast!

People have asked me "Why paint the frame?" and I can't really give a good answer.  It's just a compulsion to finish something that is unfinished.  And I believe the stock kit, fully assembled and finished is, indeed actually unfinished.  Yes, most of it will be covered up later but some of it will be exposed between cracks in the armour and I can tell you now, with the current paint scheme, the painted gold frame really paid off.  It's shiny in the places where I wanted it to be so I'm happy I did it... AND it didn't really take that much time or effort to do.

If you're the type of person that cares about that stuff I'd highly recommended doing it the way I outlined here.  It's low cost, low risk, low effort but high return.  I DO recommended using acrylics because you don't want to risk enamels or lacquers eating away the plastic (if you're not priming).  Trust me.