Exia was a favourite from the moment we first saw it on screen! But the 1/60 (I like big kits, but the RG kits have certainly educated me that small kits can be great too) took a while to come in off backorder at Hobby Link Japan, so when it arrived I was really ready to begin.Exia being a “no grade” doesn’t have that much detail, but it’s decent enough build, and I got to practice my airbrush shading techniques almost everywhere. The white armour is white, transparent black shading and Createx pearl white on top. This adds a metallic sheen which I think works better than just a plain shaded white. The swords are all Alclad chrome. I had immense bother with the masking on the shorter swords, necessitating multiple removals of paint, sanding smooth and starting again. I wanted to differentiate the chrome edge from the centre white section, but every time I tried something went wrong. Eventually I achieved a reasonable result.There’s not much red on the Exia, but I used the Createx pearl red with Tamiya clear red over the top as it just looks so rich.I used two Tamiya blues for the blue sections, blending and shading with them to add depth and interest to the model.GN Drives emit GN Particles! Looking forwards to building the PG 00 one day!The Exia is a great looking kit once complete. The design is different enough from other Gundams to make it interesting, especially the centre chest section and GN Drive.