1/72 Zoids Zero Liger

I got the Zoids Zero Liger 1/72 kit a while back and it’s been sitting there tempting me to build it.dsc02510 I started with the red pieces, and I used my now classic combination of Createx pearl red with a top coat of Tamiya clear red. I always love how this combination comes out.dsc02511 For the brown pieces, I went with Alclad copper with a top coat of Tamiya smoke to darken them down a bit.dsc02512 I didn’t want the gold pieces to be too glitzy or bright, so I went with Alclad pale gold and a top coat of Tamiya smoke.dsc02513 These pieces are blue plastic, but I went with Alclad polished aluminium for them.dsc02514 dsc02515 dsc02516 dsc02517 Here’s the assembled claws with the polished aluminium contrasting nicely with the dark gold.dsc02518 Next I cut out the white pieces. Now I’d been thinking since I bought the kit that I didn’t want the Liger Zero to be white. I don’t know why, but the white just didn’t appeal to me.dsc02519Given the pieces I’d already painted and my desire to do the frame in gunmetal, I went with Tamiya dark grey for the armour pieces.dsc02520 With a top coat of Future Finish, they took the black oil paint panel line wash really well. The panel lines are very nicely defined on this kit.dsc02521 dsc02522 For the panel lines on the polished aluminium I went with some carefully applied Tamiya smoke.dsc02524 With the frame I’m going with Tamiya gunmetal. It works well, and takes the panel line wash of black oil paint without me needing to do a Future Finish top coat, which certainly saves time. It also acts as a nice base to paint in some gold and Tamiya clear red details by hand.dsc02525Here’s more pieces with their oil paint wash drying. Once dry, I’ll just use my thumb or a cotton bud to wipe off the excess.

6 thoughts on “1/72 Zoids Zero Liger”

  1. I should do an oil wash tutorial!

    It’s quite simple though. I take an old Tamiya paint jar and clean it up so I can use it for oil paint. I add about 3 or 4cm length of black artists oil paint squeezed from the tube, and then fill the jar about half full of mineral spirits. You can get both the paint and the thinner from any artists shop.

    Then you have to mix them thoroughly. You don’t want the end result too thick. It has to be able to flow freely along panel lines, but also have enough pigment in it to leave a continuous trail when dry.

    You then just use your paint brush to fill panel lines. This Zoids kit had really well formed panel lines so it was easy to do. For the most part the paint flows for you as you just touch the wet brush to one end of the line. There’s usually no need to trace the line with the brush.

    Then you have to let things dry. This is going to take a few hours for small lines and maybe overnight for larger areas. Once dry you can use your thumb to wipe off any excess paint, or a cotton bud. If you let the paint dry too long and it’s hard to remove, use a cotton bud dipped in mineral spirits but be careful not to rub hard, or to use too much mineral spirits as that will just wet the paint so much you’ll suck it all off, not just the surface excess.

  2. How do you clean off the tamiya smoke when panel lining on top of the aluminum alclad?

    I used tamiya clear green to color a bit of a part that was covered in alclad chrome. To clean the overspill off water didn’t get it all off and x-20a did but really dulled the chrome to a flag gray in small parts.

    Did you top coat it with pledge/future first?

  3. First I try not to have to clean it off! I dilute the smoke a little with tamiya thinner, and let capilliary action take it into the line. If it goes over, I wipe it off quickly with my thumb and with luck, it’ll be ok.
    I don’t think I coated the Alclad parts with Future on this build, but I have done that in the past.

    1. Thanks for the replies, I just tried testing tamiya clear colors over the ‘pipes’ of a HG Lupus over tamiya gunmetal for detailing and it looks amazing.

      Well Red, Green and Blue do. Yellow seems to be a bit light to really come through over it, though it still adds a nice tint I guess, I don’t have orange yet. I’ll try adding a bit of smoke to the recesses to see how that does.

      I gotto say though I never get tired of seeing this build, I’m a real sucker for greyscale metalish schemes like this and this is easly my favorite zoid one. I’d be tempted to try a blade liger in a similar scheme if he didn’t fall apart all the time due to being an early koto zoid .

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