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.

Doll X Gundam

During this time of transition in my life I have been hard pressed to find a place to display all my plastic. Luckily for me my mother is also a collector... of dolls!  Barbie dolls mainly but she likes many kinds.  She has some nice cabinets to display her collection too.  I can really appreciate them more now!  Like mother, like son I guess.  Take a look.

I elected not to put them in her cabinets because I have other plans regarding my boys and I need them to be mobile. She gave me some shelving racks that I can assemble and I'm probably going to use them in basement "den" which will become my new "lab". Right now she's just using it as a storage room so I'm going to be fixing that up. It will be pretty nice by the time I'm done with it.

But for now this lot is going to be staying here. I may bring the 3 Mark 2's into my room along with the Titanium Finish RX-78. I still have a couple more guys in a box here but I'm not going to bust them out until I get the display situation set up in the basement. After that... wait until March for the remaining troop reinforcements and then take it from there.

Still feels weird to be living at home again considering I've been on my own for nearly 15 years.  However... my life has never been this cheap and carefree.  Say what you want about independence but it does come at a price.  I've done enough in the past decade to warrant a bit of a break so I'm going to take it!

Resurrection Process

I spent a lot of time packing them up and now I have to bring them back to life again.  Here we go!

On the kitchen counter.  I have a kitchen counter now!  And it's big enough to assemble Gundam's on!  Sometimes it's really good to be home!

I don't have a place to put them all right now but luckily for me my mom is a doll collector and she has some beautiful cabinets for them so I put my Gundams there for now, in front of the dolls. Guarding them if you will.  That made her happy for some reason.  She called my Gundams "cute".  >_>

I tend to do the reassembling/building stuff when other family members come over and hang out to chat. I just make something while they're talking. It might seem rude to do this while someone you haven't seen in a while is talking but they aren't talking directly to me.  They're just talking.  And eating.  A lot of relatives come to my house just to eat (my mom always has a lot of left overs in the fridge because she cooks a lot), so they eat and talk. I build and talk.  That's always been my way though, even in Japan.  Building was/is a social thing for me if I have the chance.  When any of my assistants were over we'd chat while building.  It's just reinforced behavior.  Kind of like Pavlov's dog. 

Gotta live authentically.  This is me.  You don't have to understand it but you have to accept that this is what I do. Besides, my family is totally used to me doing two/three things at once.  I've been that way since I was a child.

Anyway, I think my next project is going to be getting the Titanium Finish RX-78-2 done. There will be heavy documentation of that build process.