Meteor Unit 1/144, RG Justice, RG Freedom

After watching Gundam SEED, we just loved the Meteor units! But the Meteor Unit kit came with a not-so-good Freedom. Fortunately the new RG kits of Freedom and Justice work just great with the Meteor Unit.DSC07164

DSC07166I was incredibly happy with how Justice came out. The design of the RG kits really facilitates a superb end result due to the very nice colour and part differentiation.DSC07167Yes, all the missiles on the Meteor Unit were painted by hand – the outer sprayed black, then Alclad chrome for each missile top. A thick black wash was hand painted to tidy up the edges as I’d not used any masking for the chrome spray. I carefully handpainted the Tamiya clear red to finish off the effect. Although I didn’t use masking for that particular task, there was an awful lot of masking used for the rest of the Meteor Unit bodywork.DSC07168The wings of the Freedom were done with Createx Pearl blue, with the shiny edges in Alclad chrome, with Tamiya clear blue over all. The end result really works as it emphasizes how the light catches the edges while not being so completely over-the-top flashy.

The red elements of the Freedom are Createx Pearl red, with Tamiya clear red over the top. These experiments with the red details on the freedom lead me to the final paint effect I chose for MG Sinanju.DSC07172Justice also used the Createx Pearl red, but as the red colour is a touch “pink” I was able to utilize that to go with the differentiated colour scheme of the plastic parts. Only the more “red” parts got the extra coat of Tamiya clear red (which is a very “red” red, and takes away the hint of pink of the Createx). The end result retains the cool colour differentiation of the kit, and works great with the light.DSC07173White parts were sprayed white, and then Payne’s Grey (a blue / black) was added in increasing amounts to differentiate the kit’s grey parts. I like how the blue tones integrate the colour scheme design. I took this look even further with the RG Strike.DSC07175 DSC07176The Meteor Unit is a massive kit, and I really think the Tamiya Purple worked well for the detail sections. Masking and detailed airbrushing, with free-hand shading, was used in preference to the stickers throughout.DSC07177The same Tamiya purple was used on the Justice backpack wings, and with a darkened version too for the shading. I was particularly happy with how the shading worked and how it added a realness to the model. The backpack was a great built too!DSC07183

13 thoughts on “Meteor Unit 1/144, RG Justice, RG Freedom”

  1. I hate sanding! I’ll only do so if necessary. If the piece has a visible mould line, I’ll sand the line out. If a nub doesn’t come off clean with my scalpel, I’ll sand it. Otherwise, I’ll just leave well alone. For the most part, Bandai kits require little sanding.

    However, if I’m doing an older kit or have to fix a seam line, then I’ll be sanding again!

  2. I think there’s an aspect that if you’re going to enjoy model building, you have to build models in a way that allows you to enjoy the hobby. If you don’t like filling seam lines, buy kits that don’t have any/many. If you don’t enjoy painting, then do unpainted builds. If you can’t abide sanding, learn where you can get away without it and just do any small bits that are necessary.

  3. hi, i want to ask, how you did the red dots on the “gun” i guest on the meteor unit?
    the original one is all in dark grey color, isn’t it?

  4. one more thing, how do you do the weathering or the dark shadow?
    is it require a premier paint?

    the thing is i never use painting tools before? i just do straight build and GM lining. and for the red dots on engine, what and how did u do it.
    hope you could explain to me thanks.

  5. The red dots were tricky to paint. I painted the whole piece black, and then carefully airbrushed in some aluminium just on the areas of the dots. Then I carefully dropped some Tamiya clear red paint over the aluminium. Now I cleaned up the black surrounding the dots by hand, making sure all the aluminium was covered.

    For the dark grey I used some pre-thinned black acrylic paint in the airbrush, set the pressure low and gently built up to the desired effect.

  6. Sorry I don’t. I’d built the Meteor unit before I started blogging builds so I don’t have any intermediate photos. From memory I masked some of the panels on the cylindrical engine sections at the back (the elongated hexagons), and I also sprayed (very gently, low pressure, low amount) on a bit of black paint into the recesses of the kit and some panel lines just to darken them down a bit.

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