The progress is not surprisingly slow on the big Neo Zeong. There’s lots of masking involved as the large pieces are just crying out for the added detail that I can bring through selectively painting different sections.These are from the front of the kit, and I used Alclad aluminium for the main section, then masked off the various elements to put down Tamiya gunmetal and then Tamiya smoke, followed by a coat of Alclad flat varnish to enhance the contrast between the shiny metal and the darker surrounding pieces.  The Alclad copper on these joints that hold on the large thrusters on the base that the fuel tanks connect to came out great. Strangely to my eyes, these pieces are moulded in brown plastic. Yeuck! But Tamiya gunmetal goes great on the inside, and on the outside, I went over the gunmetal with Tamiya clear red. This gives me a red with the same hue that I’m using throughout the kit, but a bit darker for contrast. Much better than brown….  Masking tape is coming off…And some light wet sanding with wet’n’dry paper just to tidy the surface before we begin. And even after all the work filling in the seams, there was some touch-up work to do. I had to go over with the black undercoat another couple of times just to get it as good as it was going to be.More pieces getting prepped, and a couple of “brown” pieces getting Tamiya gunmetal with a lovely coat of Tamiya clear red on top.  And now the painting begins. Over the black / grey undercoat goes a very light coat of Createx pearl red. When that settles on the black you get a really deep dark purply sparkly red. On the grey undercoat, the red comes through much stronger. I needed many light coats to get the density of the pearl red right. And these large pieces need to be painted in sections so that dry parts can support the piece while the other parts dry, and also to give me something to hold while painting. The darker red piece goes at the front of the kit and has small details that I did in Alclad chrome and masked. It’s “brown” so it got the same gunmetal and clear red treatment. I can never get Tamiya gunmetal  to come out the same shade each time, so this piece looks a bit darker. No worries though – it’ll look great. Finishing off the Createx pearl red/And when dry, you can see how nice it’s beginning to look.  Now for the Tamiya clear red. This not only gets the colour the right hue, but also works with the Createx pearl red to created a semi-metallic red that’s not too strong like a traditional candy coat, but still interesting. The contrast between the sections with the different undercoat is amazing. This all worked so well on Sazabi, I’m happy it’s looking good here. I’ve never attempted such a paint effect on such large pieces before. And while drying, you can see the great shine that’s developing. And finally the fuel tanks have their first coat complete. The skirt section has dried, had a go over with Tamiya polishing compound, and is now getting a second coat. Even with one coat, this detail is looking great. And the pattern leaves a great spot to put the one water-slide that comes with this kit.This pattern joins through onto the side pieces. I really hoping it’s going to work well when the parts come together.