MG Sinanju 1/100

I eagerly awaited the arrival of this kit after watching the mech in action in the Gundam Unicorn anime. This was my first MG kit since the RX78 V1.5 and Zaku II I’d built way-back-when, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, or what I’d be able to achieve…TGN_0161But I shouldn’t have been concerned. To say that this is an excellent kit would be an understatement. It’s not a perfect kit, and could easily be improved through a double moulding of the sleeves so that the raised areas could be airbrushed without masking, and I’m not that happy with the stiffness of the articulation (because of no polycaps?).TGN_0163But as you can see, the end result is a really superb looking model that stands out, even when sited next to a couple of Perfect Grade kits on my desk.TGN_0166This is the newly released OVA version, so it comes with the superb bazooka, which was painted mostly Alclad Gunmetal, with the shells in Alclad pale gold, and the main barrel in Alclad chrome.TGN_0169 TGN_0170 TGN_0173I didn’t like the white parts to remain white. I thought as white they stood out too starkly agains the red, black and gold, so I painted them Alclad chrome.TGN_0176The head is nicely detailed, but as many have pointed out, you can’t really see the eye. I carefully lined the contours with my Rapidograph pen (the india ink is “blacker” than the ink of the Micron pigment pens, but it’s a much harder to use pen).TGN_0177The wonderful gold markings on the kit were painted ever-so-carefully, and it took quite a bit of time to make them work right. I used my airbrush to put down a base coat of Alclad gloss black, and then sprayed the Alclad pale gold on top. I then hand-painted the black back in with Tamiya gloss black, thinned out so I could let it flow over the surface rather than leave visible brush marks.TGN_0181I normally ignore the tiny figures that come with the kits, but for this one I painted both the seated figure in the cockpit and the small standing figure. They’re tricky, and I used my airbrush to put down a base coat of white, and followed up with my airbrush acrylics hand painted on top.TGN_0182All the sleeve markings came out much better than expected, and were not too hard, just fiddly to do. The shield, however, was a disaster! I used the stickers to act as precision-cut masks for the airbrushed red over gold, but the centre emblem just wouldn’t work. I must have sanded off my failed attempts (and re-masked) about five times before it all worked, and then the centre emblem still looked rather rough, so I went for one final go, this time using the water-slide for the emblem, and it worked wonderfully well.TGN_0183I was very happy with the red paint effect, but it’s actually very hard to see in the photographs. This shot shows it up great. With my previous kits I’d experimented on how to get a very deep red that also showed a metallic (rather than plastic) texture to it. On the PG Astray Red Frame I used Tamiya clear red (mostly un-diluted) over Alclad chrome, and although it works well and looks superb on that kit in contrast to the white of the armour, I thought it would be completely over-the-top for this almost all-red Sinanju. I’d initially bought the Createx pearl red paint thinking it could be used as-is on models, but the red colour appears too pink to my eyes. Adding thinned Tamiya clear red over the top solves the pink tint problem nicely and leaves the pearlescent effect preserved under the surface.  I wanted an even glossier finish than normal, so I took brave experiment and thinned the Tamiya clear red with Finish floor polish, and although it was quite a messy process with the many multiple coats necessary, the end result was just superb. I’m not going to recommend this though as although the Finish took on the red tint from the clear red paint, it left some of the bulk of the colour behind and that hardened into a jelly in the pot and could be sort-of reconstituted with Tamiya thinner.TGN_0185All the verniers were done with Alclad gloss black, then chrome, then Finish, with some Tamiya clear blue on the insides for detail.TGN_0186I hand painted some Tamiya clear blue and clear red on the visible hydraulics.TGN_0189 TGN_0190 TGN_0191 TGN_0193 TGN_0194On top went a number of coats of Finish floor polish for the extra-glossy look I was going for. This is a stand-out kit that deserves time and attention to detail, but will reward you with it’s handsome looks.

UPDATE:

I’m getting better with my photography setup, so here’s a few more pictures.

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