I started on some more of the sub-assemblies. Due to the vast amount of tricky decals, there’s no way I can wait until the end to do them. Even the instructions advise doing some of the decals during assembly as you’d not be able to properly fit them afterwards.The legs and arms went together pretty well. I used Alclad metallics on the knee, arm and leg joints – aluminium, and some brass for the ankles.  The ankle joints are nicely detailed. The mix of the aluminium and brass worked really well, and ties in with the brass on the feet. The legs are looking great. The larger frame pieces were done with Tamiya gunmetal. The arms are quite simple. You’ve just got to be careful for orientation on the elbow joint.Next up are the missile pods. I did a black wash and some Tamiya smoke around the missiles so that they’re no longer siting on a completely red background. 
 Even though the sides of the legs are a bit darker than the front sections, that doesn’t seem to matter and the effect is great. I like the interlocking panels on the front and they went in nice and easy. The kit comes with stickers for the sides of the missile pod lids. I didn’t like to use them, so instead of darkening down the sides, I brightened up the front by gently brushing all over with the Tamiya Weathering Master silver. The effect is very much like brushed aluminium and contrasts nicely with the rest of the pod. On the pod itself I used the Tamiya Weathering Master oil stain to add a bit of weathering. Now you can see a lot of the decals going on. The SMS logo is split for you, which makes it easy to get into place, just following the contours of the split armour part. Looking good! I put some more top coat on the nose cone section. These pieces are getting their decals top coated. The wings work well, and need to be fully finished before you assemble.  The hexagonal decal on the shoulder was rather tricky…. I had to carefully use the Tamiya X20 thinner to help me adhere it to the sloped sides.