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.

Building of the arms was a very straightforward process. Nothing proved to be tricky or finicky. Everything snapped together quite nicely. The arms were where I discovered how much potential detail existed on the inner frame.

The shoulder had "pistons" where it connected to the body. The shoulder itself had what looked like bolts, the bicep had more pistons and the elbow had two pistons would only show up if the elbow was bent. I love those mechanical designs! The more I looked, the more I found. Side of elbow, front of elbow, front of forearm (one of my favorite minor details), side of forearms (my absolute favorite detail on the arm).

I also learned from this grueling detailing process (took about 3 hours for a single arm) that it really burns you out fast if you're not careful and taking breaks. As a result, I ended up taking some time off of detailing the left arm, and that's where I ran into trouble. I couldn't remember what the right arm looked like. I couldn't remember which parts were gold, where silver was supposed to go among other issues. I remember looking at the arm and adding details that I assumed were on the other side, then when I went and reassembled everything, that's when I realized I had put more detail into the left side than I did the right. That meant going back and adding those in before drybrushing and top coating.

 

Both sides should  be the same at this point...

On a side note, I really like the inner frame for the shoulder armor (where the spikes are), so much that I'm still trying to figure out a way to display it with the inner frame armor showing. I think I have a final idea, but I'll have to try to see how well I can actually execute what I want, but more on that when we get there.

The hands were a little annoying to build for me, mostly due to it being the first time I've build individually articulated fingers. (Believe me though, I was looking forward to building a set so I could do all the fun poses with them.) The fingers are small and are made of 2 smaller pieces, all of which had to be carefully cleaned. I almost lost a few fingers just due to the size of them, especially when trying to put them in the palm section. This was the only time I felt that the armor was necessary because I didn't want to lose the fingers. Also, the fingers came as a 1:3 split that you'd have to manually cut, but all I had on hand (pun definitely intended) was my hobby knife. Not the best for cutting... unless I wanted to cut my own fingers... (I did eventually separate the fingers at the end of the build though!)

Before photo.

Best thing about the waist section? There aren't a lot of parts. Symmetry exists, but at least it's all on the main part. I'm pretty sure I got really carried away while I was doing the painting portion here. I pretty much filled up any grooves/recesses on it. All the recessed round parts were filled in with what I deemed an appropriate color to balance and separate the metallics, the raised circles obviously couldn't be left untouched. That'd be silly of me.

When I reassembled everything, I started to realize there were a lot of missed opportunities on the backpack and torso of the inner frame. Too bad I already cleaned my brushes and put my paints away. I opted to wait until the next time I did detail work to just hit the "boring and plain" areas with some color.

Well, sorry if this post seems very short and rushed, but that's exactly the truth! It's been too long since I've worked on those pieces that I can't remember them clearly! The legs on the other hand (foot?) are a recent item and oddly, the only parts I did extra work on, though if anyone's actually reading this post, they probably got here from my Instagram, so they already know exactly what the legs look like... Regardless, I'm thoroughly enjoying the build and I can't believe I'm getting so much mileage out of a single kit! I also took a day off in between all of this to paint the HGCE Strike Gundam's other arm, and looking back at it... man, so many details that could be added. I don't think I can ever go back to a "simple" out of box build... Either way, as long as I'm enjoying myself, I think I'll just keep Goufing Around!

Bonus photos! Cleanest masking job thus far!

Here's how far I am for the HGCE Strike.

PS: Looking at the dates for these photos... They were taken in mid May. 3 months since I've looked at this so you can't blame me for not remembering!