PG Char’s Zaku II part 5

Now that the major work and painting on the armour is complete, I began on the internals. There’s going to have to be some touch-up work, but I find it much easier to paint all the small pieces on the runner, then tidy up afterwards.SAM_9970The verniers are Alclad gloss black, Alclad chrome, then a drop of Tamiy clear blue in the centre to finish them off. SAM_9972I painted the large boosters in the feet the same was as the smaller verniers, although I’m a bit unhappy on the look of the section that joins them onto the sole and I’m not quite sure what I want to do there yet. SAM_9973The runner of hydraulics was painted Alclad gloss black, Alclad chrome then a mix of Tamiya clear red and Tamiya clear yellow on top. The mix produces a nice brass / bronze metallic look that I think will go very well with the metallic look of the inner skeleton and not stand out agains the armour either.SAM_9974 While I was on with the Tamiya clear colours I painted the lenses clear red.SAM_9975 The internal skeleton parts all had a good base coat of Tamiya gun metal, but I thought it looked a touch plain. I went over with some Alclad chrome, and then started using Tamiya smoke as a wash on the recessed areas. This added a lot of depth to the parts and made the exposed shiny chrome parts look ever more special. The picture above is just the beginning as I went back a number of times to build up the effect I wanted to achieve.SAM_9976This part of the gun also got the same treatment. The darker sections where the smoke has been hand painted in really help the shiny chrome parts stand out and the overall effect is very metallic without looking too “bright”. SAM_9977 The Heat Hawk is still going to be purple, but I want the pipe sections to be the Alclad chrome. I’m not sure yet if I’m going to use a flat purple for the handle and head, or to mix up the Tamiya clears and go for a metallic purple.SAM_9978 Here’s a lot of runners getting chromed up!SAM_9979And I also painted up the bullets for the gun. I know you’ll never really see this, but this is a PG kit and really deserves the attention. SAM_9981 These are the hydraulic sections for the foot and you can see what a difference the Tamiya smoke makes. I thin it slightly with the Tamiya thinner and let capillary action take it along the detail.SAM_9982 I was lucky enough to find the necessary LR43 button cells at the local dollar store, so I thought I’d begin with the head and it’s light mechanism. This turned out to be rather a tricky build because you have to run the wires down through the model to the base of the head so as both the head and the eye can articulate independently.SAM_9983 SAM_9984 At this point I noticed I’d not done panel lines on the ring of detail just inside the clear visor, so I disassembled it and used the Rapidograph to put them in.SAM_9985 Here some of the internal parts where I’ve worked on them with the Tamiya Smoke and I’ve used some Tamiya clear red too for the pipes and small details.SAM_9987 Finally I got the head built and believe it or not, the LED lit first time. I was pleased I did a nice heavy coat with the Tamiya clear red for the lens as it looks great.SAM_9991 On these sections I added some Tamiya clear yellow as part of the detail work. I’ve still to do the clear red for the pipes.SAM_9994And here’s the assembled hydraulics for the feet. They’re chrome as they were not on the runner with the main hydraulics I painted with the yellow / red mix. Perhaps I’ll leave them or perhaps I’ll put a layer of yellow / red on the top section?

9 thoughts on “PG Char’s Zaku II part 5”

  1. Hi mate,

    I’m a newbie in the world of the great model, and actually I’m constructing a perfect grade ms-06s zaku II too. I found difficulties to make its eye light up. I have followed the manuel to build the circuit, but unfortunately, it seems doesn’t work.

    Could you teach me how to fix the problem ? or would you like to take a tutorial video for teaching how to construct Zaku’s head ?

    Thank you so much !

    Cheers,
    Tony

    1. I just followed the manual too on the head. It’s tricky! What I’d recommend for any electrical work like this is get a multimeter and use the circuit continuity function to ensure at each stage the various connections are working correctly.

  2. Sorry for the disturb…u really did a great work…may i ask u, how did u apply smoke after painted with chrome color..?Using hand painting..?And beside thin it with tamiya acrylic without other resolution like retarder?

  3. Yes, I just use a fine brush to hand-paint the smoke in. I thinned it a little with Tamiya acrylic thinner to help it flow nicely into the recessed areas.

  4. this is awesome skill, i wan to try it…previously i spray it using airbrush…but now, i think using hand brush much better…Thx man

  5. I think you’d be on years trying to mask those details to airbrush them! Although I airbrush most things, there are details like this that are just perfect for hand painting.

  6. There is one thing I wan to ask u, I have try to make pre-shading…I try to spray fine line… but every time I spray with low pressure less than 7 psi , the paint would’t come out… after more than 7 psi, the paint was splash… can u let me know how u adjust ur equipment and wat paint u use to make shading… and ur misture?

  7. I’ve only ever really done pre-shading on a couple of kits – Exia 1/60, and the recent MUV-LUV ALTERNATIVE SHIRANUI STORM / STRIKE VANGUARD.

    For the Muv-Luv, I used Rowney airbrush paint, in grey and black, and these paints are very thin in the bottle. They work at low pressure because they’re really thin, but you’ve also got to not pull back too far on the trigger or else they’ll soak the piece and the paint will run.

    What I found for the shading was you had to go in light, in layers, and use not just pressure and the fall-off radius of the airbrush to make the effect smooth, but also the colour of the paint you’re using. It’s quite reasonable to go in on an edge with black paint, and then back it off with a lighter grey a little bit in from the edge to help blend it. You can see some of the pre-shading (and weathering) work here: http://www.graemenattress.com/muv-luv-alternative-shiranui-storm-strike-vanguard-part-2/

Leave a Reply to alexCancel reply