Along with completing the Patlabor build, I’m also experimenting with a new lighting set up for the photos. I think it’s working well.I’m really happy with how the weathering came out. I used the Tamiya weathering master sets, with oil stain and orange rust, with some silver on some of the metallic edges. I used my tiniest paint brush I normally use for hand painting details, a dab of water then onto the weathering palette. I dabbed on edges then dragged the paint down with my thumb to get the streaks, letting it dry before layering up either another colour or building more density to the streaks.   I put the clear parts and gold badge on after the flat coat.The goal on the weathering was to copy the box art. I did a bit more of the rust as I liked the look of it, and I really enjoyed painting on the oil stains along the horizontal panel lines on the legs.  The feet on this kit are not the most articulated, and don’t like to lie flat. The hand has typical MG articulation with separate thumb and forefinger, with the remaining three fingers tied together. It holds the gun reasonably well. The shield just clips onto the back of the arm.I dry brushed the silver Tamiya weathering master onto the plastic sleeves to bring out a bit more dimension in them. They go quite stiff after flat coating, but seem to allow reasonable arm and leg movement, and although tricky to work with, do look good once complete.

Conclusions

Patlabor Ingram 1/48 is an interesting kit with tonnes of lovely exterior armour and cockpit detail. What it lacks is a proper inner frame and the kit, being half-way between a typical Gundam 1/144 and 1/100 in size, it’s a bit on the small size.

For the most part the construction goes well but the design has some unnecessarily glaring seam lines that really must be dealt with, further complicated by the need to build in the knee joints and their plastic sleeves. There’s a few stickers for the kit that would be been better handled with a few more plastic parts.

The abundance of visible details calls out for extra work on the finish, and I’m very pleased at how well this kit took to the weathering I applied. I like the little clasps moulded into the armour that look as if they’re there to hold various sections together, but with the ability to remove them easily for engineering maintenance.

What this kit really needs is a 1/24 scale Perfect Grade! As a PG we’d get the level of articulation this kit needs, along with vast amounts of fun frame detail and gimmicks that are so fun to build and paint.