Valvrave I

Valvrave I has been an interesting build…. by which I mean a rather frustrating build. The actual plastic and assembly is great, but the stickers and their use are frustrating. I like to paint wherever possible, not least as I love to experiment with various paint effects, but on this kit, the red and white pieces are so fiddly to do right, and the stickers for the Valvrave logos have red or black backgrounds rendering them useless for going on painted pieces.TGN_0832So here’s a size comparison with 1/144 RG Strike. The Valvrave I is a bit bigger, but not as big as a normal 1/100 size Gundam.TGN_0835 Now even with the frustrations of the paint job, the finished result looks great, capturing the anime mech’s form very nicely. TGN_0836 I really like the effects parts for the whoosh from the fist and the sparkle from the heel.TGN_0838 And the clear green of the sensor parts / bunny ears / wings looks great and stands out so nicely against the red, black and white of the model.TGN_0839 For the “whoosh” I used the Tamiya clear red and faded it out towards the edge to give it more of a sense of motion.TGN_0841 The gun was a simple built, but rather interesting in it’s design especially with the clear part at the front. For that I used some black, hand-painting in the area where it joins to the gun and then blending that into the clear with Tamiya clear smoke. I masked off the top section for the red, and used the same formula as for the body – Createx white, Createx pearl red, Tamiya clear red. I then did a Finish top coat before hand painting on the white details.TGN_0843 TGN_0845 TGN_0846 TGN_0847

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