Geara Doga is perhaps the Gundam kit I’ve had the most fun with so far! Why? Because it’s well engineered and goes together really seamlessly, it’s a large kit, and, well….. it just looks great.Here’s the shield, and I’ve done the Tamiya Weathering Master kits around the edges, first using the “oil stain” to darken all the edges and especially around the articulation points, and then hints of “light gun metal” for some of the highlights. Because I’d pre-shaded with black I only had to do a little enhancement to the bolt points with my black pen.  Here’s the colours I mixed up to make the dark green colour for the rest of the armour pieces. It’s basically the same recipe as the light green, using all three greens – the pearlized lime, green and transparent, but adjusting the ratio of black and white so as to make a really dark shade. I still added white just to reduce the green saturation a little. What’s not pictured though is the Createx transparent blue that I added a few drops of. For the small pieces, I used my usual trick of putting some masking tape onto my box and sticking the pieces down. And the larger pieces were gripped with the pliers while painting, and then transferred into the egg cartons to store them before being placed onto the model. Because the dark green pieces are so dark, I didn’t pre-shade them at all. I’ll instead add some highlights with the Tamiya Weathering Master later on. Here’s the chest section. The method of attaching the shoulder articulation is great, and the details on the frame came out nice with the dark-grey over black. I dry-brushed the Tamiya Weathering Mater light gun metal all over, and that really brings out the detail in a plausibly metallic manner. Here’s the legs mostly complete. I painted the hydraulics with chrome and some copper for the end pieces, to keep in with the “orange” theme of the details on the kit, rather than going with a more usual gold. The frame still has a fair bit of work to be done with the light gun metal, especially on the knee sections. Here’s with the arms and thrusters attached. I kept working with the light gun metal all over until I had enough to protect with a light coating of Future Finish, so it’s off to the spray booth. Although the Tamiya Weathering Master does stick really well, it will eventually come off on your fingers and leave prints, so I like to spray a varnish to seal in what I’ve done. The light coating of Future Finish won’t turn the kit into a plastic gloss, but the shine works very nicely for the metallic sections. You can tell I really like the detail sections on the legs. Not only is it quite clever how they go together when you build it, but the end result is also really nice looking. Seeing all these painted details together I’m pleased I went with a consistent colour scheme for them. I found the flexible rubber pipes a little tricky, so I did resort to glue to ensure they stayed in place as I didn’t want to have to dis-assemble the model to re-attach them.Here’s the head. These pipe were the trickiest. I ended up re-painting them as my man-handling of them to try and get them to stick in place rubbed too much of the paint off. I didn’t use the sticker on the mono-eye, but used a drop of Tamiya transparent red instead. The weathering effect on the edges of the green really works. I only added a little bit along some edges with my black pen. Now he’s protected with the Future Finish, it’s time to start adding more pieces.  The thrusters with their orange cones are one of the nicest pieces of detail on this kit. Here’s the interior of the skirt armour, liberally brushed with the light gun metal, and then carefully pen-lined. I think the effect is excellent. Adding the skirt section rubber pipe was rather easy, and it stayed in place without glue.  Here’s the feet getting their armour pieces. It’s got to be the best part of the build when you’ve got all the pieces pre-painted and you’re just assembling. I loved how the legs built up. They went together smoothly, and because I’d written the piece number on the inside of the armour sections I wasn’t confused about which piece went where. I did that on Sinanju and it saved me a lot of bother here too.  Next came the arms with their armour sections. The arms are pretty simple for the most part, but that’s just fine. I like the wrist details though, again painted chrome and copper like the similar hydraulics in the legs. As you build up the arms with the shoulder sections, they really do begin to take shape and move beyond ordinary. The inner frame for the shoulders is simple, effective and very good looking. And now we get to add the shielding. I rather like the asymmetry of this kit. And the spikes on this shoulder are really cool.  Now Geara Doga is just about done, waiting for the stickers and dry transfers. I used the Alclad “Light Sheen” varnish, which I find is aptly described and goes on very easily to protect the surface and the stickers / transfers. Stickers and dray transfers went on smoothly, and were not so large in number that you felt overwhelmed!