Falling down and maybe getting back up.

So far this year, I've really wanted to just focus on building and maybe reviewing (but not so much because it's already a pretty saturated topic), and not much happened that I thought would be worth writing about. It's been mostly personal issues the last year and half since the MG Zaku II. But I'm coming back and I'd like to think that it's with a stronger passion for what I'm doing.

Shady days (Week 6)

Between last week and today, I got a lot done actually. I managed to get a few painting sessions in despite a full weekend. I decided to go with a Johnny Ridden color instead of the test orange and stripes, mostly due to how much I wanted to accomplish on a "first" paintjob back into the hobby. Between a first time attempt at preshading and masking simple stripes, I figured getting a consistent look would be pretty hard for a beginner. I remembered the advice for preshading/shading with yellow was to go with an orange. Shading on black would then be the next problem. I'd have to go in with a darker black, and then highlight with a lighter black. The work process would've been something along these lines: shade with orange, paint with yellow, mask, shade with darker black, color with lighter black. This is if I disregard the rest of the part that doesn't have the caution stripes. Though, I would probably just paint that whatever color I wanted in between the yellow and black shading. It was a lot more work and time than I had to dedicate to this, so that's why I decided to change plans last minute.

Moving along at a steady pace (Week 4+5)

It turns out posting on time has been a bit harder than expected. I'm technically a week behind, but I got more done between this week and last week, just haven't had the time to log it.

So, let's jump right into this week's update! Hi-Mock is fully primed and ready for the next stage! That means this week's assignment is to finalize a color scheme and a game plan to paint and mask properly to avoid extra work. Proper planning is the key to success here.

Technical Difficulties (Week 3)

This week started off with a lot of technical difficulties, mostly my fault though. As I noted last week, I had finished snapping together the Hi-Mock, but when I went to go paint, I forgot about the seamlines. If I was going to make this my testing kit, I knew I had to do it the right way. No cutting corners, no shortcuts. So off I went to get the cement and start knocking seamlines out. Luckily for me, the Hi-Mock's limbs are easily disassembled so I didn't have to trim any of the pegs or parts for the joints to slipped in and out easily. No need for extra masking to get the job done here!

Quick shot of all the pieces with seams that had to go. Looks pretty messy...

Finishing up "Project Mock-up" (Week 2)

Week 2, and life decides to blindside me already... I'm already falling behind my schedule! I finally got the Hi-Mock fully built, though. It's still a bit rough with all the sanding marks, but hopefully, with a nice coat of primer/surfacer, it should look pretty good.

Hi-Mock is ready for action!

Getting back into the game! (Week 1)

Oh man! It's been sometime since I've had a chance to even build, let alone paint, blog, or anything. Sometimes life has to take priority, and there's really not much you can do but to do your best to keep your head up and ride it out until things settle down. Figured now that things have slowed down (dust has not quite settled yet), and it's a new year, so it would be a good chance to get back into the groove of things.

Back at it again! MG Char's Zaku II WIP Pt. 2 (took 3 times as long to get back to writing this post!)

Got a bit sidetracked by life since the last post... but I'm back and ready to continue the write-ups! Last time we left of I had just finished the torso and head. Actually, as of right now, I've officially finished the entire inner frame, detailed up, dry brushed, and topcoated. In the interest of length and time, I think I'll just cover up to the arms and waist in this section.



From where we left off last time, I learned that I was too eager in drybrushing and it ended up hiding/covering most of the bronze and gold, notably on the head. I decided to go back and touch it up and then do a light drybrush to blend it in a little.

Gold and copper looking better and not all washed out.