A Whole New World (except old, because weathering) Pt. 1

So it's been quite a while since I've had time to just sit down, build, try something new, or learn, let alone write a new post...which really sucks, but that's all part of life. Growing up and learning to manage the responsibilities as well hobbies. I had to put a hold on the little scratch building I've been trying out due to not having enough time to commit and reach a product that I'm happy with. Instead I took the little time I had and devoted it to working on a MG, more specifically, Char's Zaku II. I figured this would be a good chance to not only build a Zaku, but to detail it up like all the pictures I see floating on the internet. A little time is all I need to sit down and brush on some metallic paints, right? Wrong. Hand painting the details opened up a whole new world (cue Aladdin song) in terms of dry brushing, detail work and weathering. I have never been a fan of weathering, not that it looks bad, I just prefer my kits to look brand-spanking-new.

Box Art for the MG

For this project, I decided to just focus on one part at a time. No more building the entire thing, and trying to find time to go back. That mentality would leave me with a OOB MG Zaku. Following the instructions, the chest comes first, then backpack. Nothing too complicated here at all:

I figured the inner frame, with its pistons, would be a good place to practice hand painting, and maybe even a little dry brushing. Worse case scenario, it'd be covered up by the armor, or I can just strip the paint and move on. And so begins my journey down the rabbit hole. First attempt was with the Gundam Markers I bought when I first started, just because I didn't have time to go buy paint. Let me just say this: Gundam Markers are good in a pinch, but the silver is just atrocious.

I decided it wasn't turning out as well as I wanted and waited till after I got my hands on some paint. This was the detail work so far, and as a first time, I was easily amused and quite satisfied with what I "accomplished." Fast forward a day or so, and I start retouching the pistons with Tamiya metallics, decide to give dry brushing a go and I. Was. Hooked. Watching the silver paint build up slowly as I brushed the parts, watching the the plain plastic come to life with depth and character, I finally started to understand why so many people take the time to learn to weather. It brought out all the grooves and lines of the frame that would have gone unnoticed otherwise. The extra detailing adds so much to the overall appearance with very little work.

Granted, I do feel that I got way too carried away with it. "Oh, it could use some more silver here. Oh, but now it's uneven here. Aaaaaaaand now we have too much silver everywhere." Satisfied with this, I began building the lower torso and backpack. Here's where I got this "fun" idea. Thruster bells tend to get burnt and ashy due to the nature of what they do, so why not add some copper in there and make it look a little used? Added a bit to the vents under because that made sense. Also, fun fact: the Zaku comes with a little power generator that you essentially never see, so it was a great piece to just practice on. Look at all those extra details from the dry brushing! Are you looking?

Put everything together, and decided, why not add some copper to the rest of the body too? The thursters look damn good with that extra touch of depth. And so begins the process of going back and adding that little detail everywhere. This was going to be a trend for this build, I just didn't know it yet. This rabbit hole is pretty deep, and here are some more photos of me being jacked up on adrenaline and excitement and touching up everything so far:

The left picture shows the copper/burn/wear around the vents and thrusters, and the right just shows the extra gold/silver details on the backpack as well as the copper striping. At this point in the game, I was just going everywhere and hitting all the "obvious" detail points and decided I was done. Spoiler: I wasn't. As the build progressed, I kept going back and adding more. But at the time, I decided I wanted to get ahead with the build and work on the head (pun intended). I was aware the Zaku came with a gear mechanism for the monoeye and the head would provide a lot of opportunities for detailing judging from other modelers' works.  

The head actually took a few tries before I was happy, partially because I didn't understand how each part/molded detail would look/function. I couldn't tell if they were acting as pegs to keep things from sliding off or actually visible pistons. This was my fault because I decided to squeeze in building the head and only managed to finish the neck before I decided to detail it.

The neck bolts were sloppy, and the silver pistons in the middle picture were actually done after I finished the head. It was finally on to completing the head, full with monoeye action. I decided to snap a quick pic to better illustrate the massive difference before and after dry brushing/detailing. Afterwards, I (stupidly) rushed to detail the head and dry brushing, leaving a thumbprint and brush strokes covering the gold and bronze details at the top. I decided that this was a good sign to stop. Any more "progress" and I'd have to start soaking things in Purple Power. And that's a good place to end this rant-y post.

Above are pics of the newly built head

and below is the "finished" product. 

If you notice the top views, there's hardly any detail that I mentioned. That's because dry brushing over partially dried paint ruins things. You can still make out that it's bronze and gold. I won't tell you which is which, but that's just to illustrate how bad and dumb of a mistake it was.

Gunpla is freedom, and every day is a new learning experience for me. Dry brushing and hand detailing are a blast. I don't know about you guys, but I'm definitely having a great time. So keep on learning, keep on enjoying everything this hobby has to offer, and most importantly, keep Goufing around!