HG 1/100 Astray Red

Mecha
HG 1/100 Astray Red
Colors Used
Mr. Color: White (01), Metal Chrome Silver (211), Gloss Black (2), Clear Red (47), Metal Dark Iron (214)
Alclad II: Chrome, Gloss Black Base
Completed
September 2010
Mecha #11

WIP Available Here

Finally done. This one took a while to complete since I had to take a 3 month break while I had an internship in another state and didn’t take my equipment.

Originally this was a relaxed build where I wanted to focus on texture. I aimed at creating ‘heavy iron armor’ (white parts) that attach to the smoother metal inner skeleton. This gave me some different texture between the pieces, and I think it worked out well. However, as I got into weathering the model towards the end, the different between the two sort of faded as weathering made it look a little more uniform.

Pretty much an OOTB build with little modding. I added a couple pla-plates to the feet, which now I think look stupid and were poorly done. Lesson learned: If you aren’t going to go all the way with pla-plating and spend time to make sure it’s done properly, don’t bother at all.

I also tried dry-brushing at the end of the build. I had never heard of it before, but I realized that dry-brushing offers the look that I wanted. I think it turned out pretty good in some places but worse in others. I still need a lot of practice dry-brushing….I can’t decide if it looks like the weathered effect I wanted, or if it just looks like an older model that is roughed up from bumping it on stuff too much…

Another new thing I tried was going for shiny “candy red” colors by using gloss black, topped with silver, topped with clear red. However, it was all done with Mr. Color colors, which did not have quite the same effect that other people have had when using Alclad II paints (which I didn’t have when I first started this build). Thus, the red seen on the kit isn’t really candy looking, because the chrome silver beneath it wasn’t glossy and shiny enough.

Later on I ordered and used Alclad II paints for the first time (only a little – chrome silver on the sword and mid section). I love that paint….Originally I had Mr. Color Metal Chrome Silver for everything, but it’s definitely not as shiny. It was used for the silver detail parts here and there seen (everywhere except sword and stomach area).

Things I learned from this build:

1. Texturing can add nice variety to a kit.  I like the way the white parts turned out as far as texture goes.
2. Don’t bother doing pla-plates if you are only going to do it half-way.  Either do it right or don’t do it at all.  This probably applies to most techniques!
3. Dry brushing can add nice weathering if done properly.  However, it can also be overdone and just look cheap in some cases too.  Personally, I’m not so sure I like the way the dry brushing turned out on the red parts.  I think it turned out better on the black feet.  I think some parts were overdone, while other parts were not done enough.  As far as the technique goes, it takes time to figure out how to leave the right amount of paint on the brush before applying to kit.  I’m still working on this – sometimes I apply brush to kit and it still has too much paint, whereas other times it hardly has any paint and doesn’t do anything…
4. I think photos might look better on a black background.  For taking photos, have a few different backdrop colors available.  Right now, I just have white, and it’s starting to get a little rough and needs a new sheet.  However, white kits on white backdrops may not be the best choice.  Color would be nice sometimes!