Slowly this kit is coming together!This is part of the waist. Getting the screws in was hard.Eventually it all came together and is solid.  This section for the chest was also tricky, but the end result is not solid. I had to use glue to get it assembled and even then the side sections are a touch wobbly.  I painted in the details on these metallic pieces before assembly.Now for the hips.  I did the blue and red details with Tamiya clear paints. Getting the two halves of the hips together was very tricky. The polycaps are so stiff that even screwing the plastic pieces in to them didn’t make them flush enough. Eventually with some polycap shaving I got it all together. I then glued it together and clamped the halves tight together while they dried. Next up was the first of the photo-etched parts. The parts are nicely etched, and don’t need snipping off the metal which is nice and gives a very smooth finish.However, when removing the top sticky plastic sheet you can see residue on the metal pieces. This is not so nice.  The photo-etched parts go into the yellow sections reasonably well, but not really tightly enough so that they won’t fall out. I dropped some Future Finish onto them to hold them into place. I like the details on this piece, but I’m still a touch concerned over how it’s going to assemble and it might need more glue at that point. Here’s some more gunmetal parts ready for detailing. They’re painted with Tamiya gunmetal and have Alclad flat topcoat on them to take off the shine. For the gun barrel I did the two snap-on side sections in Alclad aluminium to add a bit of interest to the part. Here’s a bunch of those pieces getting detailed up with Tamiya smoke and clear red. These sections are for the shoulders. Warning – the instructions have you assemble their parts in the incorrect order. The small part at the back that slides down into the sides cannot actually do so and must be assembled into the sides as the first step. I like how the Tamiya smoke brings out the depth to the details on these parts. This section with the red part is for the backpack. I’m waiting on batteries arriving before I assemble the large metal thrusters so I stopped at this point.Although the moulding and edges are not that sharp, these parts have good details on them that are simply brought out with a few drops of Tamiya smoke. Lovely details on the leg side sections that will be covered up and never seen! The yellow vents had poorly placed nubs on the sharp corner. You can’t really see it, but with only one side facing out on the finished model you’d have thought they could have placed it better. I put a drop of Future Finish in each one to hold the photo-etched part in place. These are some of the pad-printed parts. The printing really is quite nice. They still need detailing up with some panel lines though! Yellow vents inserted and glued in place. There’s four inner leg pieces…And two outer leg pieces. Because we’re on bare plastic I could use one of my fine marker pens to do the panel lines, but I have a q-tip damp with isopropanol ready just in case of a slip.  Completed sections in the box awaiting assembly. Starting with the legs, taking care to keep right parts on the right leg and left parts on the left leg… The computer is at hand because of the rather daft DVD-ROM based video manual. The backs of the feet needed gluing in place and are rather roughly designed. More photo-etched parts for the legs. Here you can see how the panel line details are working on the white pad-printed parts. I think it’s looking pretty sharp. The leg is really coming together now. Some of the parts seem a little strange, but it sorta works andI’ve only had to use a little glue to hold things in place.  One leg done! The Tamiya lemon yellow on the accent parts looks so much better than the awful yellowy-orange they came moulded in! Similarly the red accent parts are so much better done in my favourite red of Createx pearl red with a top coat of Tamiya clear red. I’m ok with the blue, but even if you’re not going to paint because of the pad-printed parts you’re going to really want to do something about the rest. The leg frame looks pretty good. Here’s the left leg awaiting its armour parts.The pad-printed parts still needed de-nubbing. Although this plastic they use is quite awful and soft, it does have the advantage that denubbing it is pretty easy and generally leaves a very clean result. For the soles of the feet I went in and added a good dose of Tamiya smoke. This leg is ready for the earlier assembled blue side sections.  The design and appearance of the legs is pretty good More nice detail on the inside of the large outer blue sections. Two legs all done.Hopefully the rest of the build will go reasonably smoothly.