MG Char's Zaku II S Completed

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ulnhyrr
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MG Char's Zaku II S Completed

Edit: Finished the sucker: >>Click here!<<

It has been 5 months since I last worked on the kit; but this past weekend saw a good amount of work on the resurrected project...
http://www.gamerabaenre.com/zaku2_0_progress.htm

This is the first time I'm using these aftermarket parts from Adler's Nests. Pretty damn nice stuff. The metal beads are from Michael's Art stores...

A few things of note so far:
Mono eye modification
Adler Nest's Armor Spikes
Backpack modifications
Last edited by ulnhyrr on Thu Dec 06, 2007 5:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
ulnhyrr
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Finally, an update!

Monday saw most of the exterior armor sanding. Tuesday was primer day. And last night I was able to lay down the orange red base coat followed by a custom salmon pink for the secondary:
Base coated then preshaded

I like the metallic properties of the spike, so I just painted them using clear red to keep them metallic:
Shoulder spikes
More pictures here: http://www.gamerabaenre.com/zaku2_0_progress.htm
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SNT1
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I actually liked the spikes kept in its original state :/ ah well.
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SNT1
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I liked the bare metal spikes.
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ulnhyrr
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Ah, ok. I just thought the bare metal stood out a little too much. *shrug*

Another update: I was at this point after Wednesday night:
Completed 1

However, when testing the paint adhesion, all the parts were showing signs of paint chipping off with the masking tape. Problem is that I didn't wash the kit after I had finished sanding. This isn't overly important with a kit fresh out of the box; but I had snapped the sucker back in May, and from then until now, me and several people had handled the sucker, dust collected, etc etc... enough oils and crap has built up on the kit such that there were several spots where primer didn't stick too well..... So I spent Thrusday night stripping the paint and primer effectively undoing everything done the previous to days.

Early Friday morning I finished painting all the parts and about 6 hours of Friday was spend masking:
Masking Parts

12AM Friday night, all the parts were clear coated and ready for decals. If it were not for the lack of forethought to wash the parts, I probably would have made the MMC deadline... *sigh*
Clear coated

A few more close up pictures:
Close up 1
Close up 2
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Koshernova
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That looks great ulnhyrr! Your models always look good, but this one in particular looks fantastic.

The hands look a little big, are they the original ones, add-ons, or is it simply the picture distorting them? I'm mainly talking about the first picture from that forum you linked to.

Two, I like the shoulder spikes, they look damn mean. However, I'm not sure about the color contrast with the rest of the armour. You see, if they were the same colour of the armour I wouldn't think of it, but now they make the rest of the armour look a bit too "pink". A bit less Char Custom, bit more Lunamaria Custom, if you catch my meaning.

Otherwise, it's a magnificent piece and you do well to be proud of it!
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Blade of the Red Comet
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Kosh wrote:The hands look a little big, are they the original ones, add-ons, or is it simply the picture distorting them? I'm mainly talking about the first picture from that forum you linked to.
Those are stock hands...and I agree that they're a bit on the big side. But great job, ulnhyrr, as usual its another fantastic piece of work!
ulnhyrr
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Thanks guys! Yeah the hands are a bit big, especially in comparison to the feet, as they've shrank from the first Zaku II MGs.

I thought about keeping the spikes the same color as the armor, but thought it would have been a bit of a waste for the metal. Originally, I had the base parts of the spikes primed and painted in the original armor color, but I didn't use a metal primer so the primer just flaked off, so I decided to leave the base the raw metal color. The spikes I pained with a clear red to so that I could maximize the metallic properties of the spikes. I was also trying to avoid getting too much of a Johnny Ridden feel to the shoulder spikes.

The initial red for the armor was pretty dark, and since I wanted a dual tone to the armor parts, I went with a lighter color. The actual color I used is call Salmon Pink and when I first looked at it for order, I thought it was perfect for doing Char's MSs. The photos are a bit over exposed so it doesn't look overly pink (lLunamaria) in person :lol:

Yeah, I went with the longer spikes since the base of the longer spikes were narrower it gave a little bit of a lip to the spike base.
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SNT1
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Yeha. I'm a sucker for the metallic trims and tidbits. And good job using a metal thruster set that doesn't look 'ricey', for lack for a better term.
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V2
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one of the best works on a zaku 2.0 i've ever seen.

looking forward to more!
badarsemother3k
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You did an awesome job. Seriously it looks really nice. Everything you did seems to work well.
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Koshernova
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ulnhyrr wrote:The initial red for the armor was pretty dark, and since I wanted a dual tone to the armor parts, I went with a lighter color. The actual color I used is call Salmon Pink and when I first looked at it for order, I thought it was perfect for doing Char's MSs. The photos are a bit over exposed so it doesn't look overly pink (lLunamaria) in person :lol:

Yeah, I went with the longer spikes since the base of the longer spikes were narrower it gave a little bit of a lip to the spike base.
Hey, you did good, don't get me wrong!

Remember, Salmon Pink is basically Char's colour in the original series. Forget this "Red comet" nonsense, look at the animation and you'll see all his MS are... pink! :)
ulnhyrr
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My previous "Char" style paint jobs were usually very red since I didn't care much for the pinker styling. But there was a competition that I went to about 3 years ago and saw an amazing Char's Zgok painting in pink, and that pretty much changed it for me. :D

If I didn't already know that the brand of paint I use was made specifically for car modelers, I would have guessed that the salmon pink color was specifically designed for Char. I have a full bottle of the stuff, so I'm gonna have to do more "One Year War" Char themed kits. I have two more of these Zaku 2.0 kits, a Char and a green one, so maybe I should make a weathered and beat up Char's as a nice little contrast to this blinged up version. :shock:
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