This kit has waited patiently to be built. It’s had to wait because first I had to track down the P-Bandai expansion pack, and I was lucky to get help there from a Japanese friend. And then I got hold of the metal parts pack.
And then I had to think on what to do about the paint! And that’s hard because I don’t like the “purple” colour it comes with and I’m not about to use those massive decals.  So here’s some paint test experiments. They’re a bit rough….. I was thinking of the Createx pearl blue which I just used as the main colour on the MG Gouf, but I wanted to try the iridescent blue that I also used on the Gouf. But the iridescent paint just doesn’t go on well, and as it’s semitransparent, it really doesn’t look that good. However, it does go on top of the pearl blue very well, so I can either use the pearl blue as-is, or layer on the iridescent on top. I need to decide if I’m going to do all the blue colours with the dual layer, or if I’m going to use the iridescent blue for colour accent only. Either way, I think it’s going to work. While I was figuring out the paints for the armour, I started on the rest of the pieces. I’m using Alclad grey primer and Alclad aluminium for the rear of the shield. The main frame is Tamiya gunmetal. There’s not much colour on the armour, so I decided to use Vallejo signal red as an accent on the frame, and some small areas of gold paint from a Gundam marker. Here you can also see the metal parts. The metal parts went on reasonably well. In places I had to carefully trim pegs (or remove them completely) to get them in place. In others I had to drill holes. I’m using super-glue where appropriate, and also dabs of Future Finish to hold the friction-fit metal parts in place. More accent work on the frame! For the leg sections with the hydraulic piston I had to cut off the plastic piston parts and drill tiny holes for the metal parts to attach. I used super-glue to attach them and then had to use my craft knife to scratch off the excess super-glue that spread and clouded the metal. The back of the legs has a nice detail that I painted with Tamiya white.  More metal parts on the arm joints. The metal thrusters look excellent.  You can just about make out the metal parts on the shoulder joints. The arm gun has the tiniest metal parts yet! 4 small gun-barrels that fit at the end. To get them in place I drilled out their holes a little more and then just pressed them firmly into the painted part. They’re in snug. More metal parts for the knees. These tiny screws will go on the funnels. I used drops of Future Finish in the holes and dropped the small screw heads in. Once in place I used the edge of my craft knife to rotate the heads so that they all lined up.Lots of blue parts with Alclad white primer on them, ready and waiting for me to make final decisions on the blue paint to use!