BB Senshi Sangokuden Koumei ReGZ Part 2

Painting and repainting
Back to Koumei ReGZ ^^

The new parts painted this time (not finished from Part 1) are Koumei's body and waist, and panel lining a few parts I missed previously.


However, when I revisit some parts I did from the first round of painting, their colors don't look so appealing to me anymore as compared to how they seemed to me back then. I found some unpainted spots for the parts in gold, and the parts painted in white are mildly showing the color beneath them. Those are flaws I can't ready make myself say, "OK, just leave them like that." ^^;

So, those parts get another round of painting.

That's the challenge of BB Senshi Sangokuden models I think. Easy to assemble, but to get the colors exactly like how it's shown on the painting guide isn't easy. I'm quite particular about which parts should be painted in their exact colors, and which are up to my preference.

And you'll see both cases in this review ^^


[Body] Three colors needed: white for the neck and waist, red for the chest and gold for the emblems of course. I painted at least three layers of white for the neck to cover up the blue base color.

For the chest, red goes first, as the bits spilled over to the surrounding that needs to be in gold can be covered up by that color. All was well planned of, but things didn't happen the way I want they to be actually :( Turns out the layer of red I painted was a little too thin. When I wanted another round of painting for that part, I already did the golden emblems. ^^; After the second round of painting, the red painting on the chest is not even anymore ^^;

Should have painted more layers of red before moving on to the golden emblems.


The back, with and without the backpack. I can't really think of any color variation for the backpack, so I just panel line that part and leave it entirely in its original color.



[Waist] Red for the deco in the center of the front skirt armor, white for the side skirt armor and edges of the front, gold for the emblem.

The red spot looks like (:P) XD

The larger parts in gold are done using Gundam Marker, while the smaller (tinier) emblems like the dragons are from Pilot Super Color Gold Extra Fine introduced in the first review about Shiba-I Sazabi.

The rear skirt armor isn't shown anywhere on the box, so the colors you see in the picture above are my preferences. ^^


Unfinished white painting of various parts? Those are parts that would be hidden when the model is assembled, so I'm not too particular about them.


Gray for the thruster-like design in the rear skirt armor is my homage to the actual ReGZ from Char's Counterattack.
Since I'm using a lot of Gundam Markers for this review, I would like to share with you my experience in using them:

(1) Shake well - Gundam Markers are convenient painting tools. So convenient we often forget that the paint inside them needs to mix well before we can get really smooth color, particularly after a long period of not using them. I would give them cha-cha for around one song's duration (about 4 minutes). If you shake the marker well, you should get the paint flowing out when you start using them, and you don't need to push the tip of the marker inward to get the paint.

(2) Never land first blood paint on the actual part to be painted - Really, I haven't learn the skill to listen to the marker to see if the paint has mixed well, so I don't know when the paint coming out is good. So, try painting on the runners or the interior of a part that would not be shown first. It's an insurance.

Imagine a wave of watery red paint coming out on a small white part. Cleaning up the mess is not going to be pretty.

Testing out the color on paper will not give you an accurate indication of whether the marker is ready.


All the interior of Koumei's parts turn into my paint tray ^^;
(3) Paint with fury ^^


Because painting jaggedly is too 婆婆妈妈 (sissy) ^^
(4) Straight painting vs toothpick - Paint straight using the marker for large area, or if you don't mind the spill over. With steady hand, you can also maneuver the marker's tip on smaller parts as well. But if you're not confident, or when you're dealing with very tiny spot your markers can't reach, don't force the marker onto them. You'll get ugly paint. You'll need to squeeze some paint onto a tray or something and use a toothpick to apply it to the part you want.

Can be wasteful sometimes, but much better than forcing the marker onto those spots.

(5) Wait - Never attempt another round of painting on the same spot unless you're really sure that the part has dried. Waiting seems to be something I'm very good at, so usually I leave the part painted for half an hour or longer before returning to them. On the same part but different colors, don't start painting the other if it's too close to the first one. You just might 'drag' some color from the first spot and get an ugly mix-up ^^;

Patience my friends, patience. ^^

(6) Multiple layer of paint - If you're painting white on black part, or yellow on blue part - light-tone color on dark colored parts, more layers of paint is often a must. When the first layer dries, you'll find the base color showing off near the edges of the part. So leave it completely to dry, before moving on to another round of painting. Repeat if necessary.

Metallic color seems to be fearless against dark colored parts though. One round of painting is often sufficient, from what I see on Koumei ReGZ. ^^

(7) Gundam Marker is very good, but not the best - Other markers can be used as well, not just to compensate the colors not available for the series, but sometimes you'll find that other colors are much better. Red normal marker for clear part will preserve its transparent quality, and silver marker shines more on hydraulic pipes than what Gundam Marker can offer.

Tamiya has a series of paint markers as well I think, but I'm really not quite sure about that.


[Shoulder Armor] Gold for the edges and red for the lines on the armor pieces. Not too hard.

And parts that go through second round of painting:


Golden emblems for the legs


Another layer of white for the feet.


For the name of the character molded on the heel, the "secret weapon" as introduced before isn't needed this time XD as the tip of my panel liner can go through the slits to paint the black base.
In blue, the characters don't seem quite visible so I painted gray over the top to distinguish them from the darker colored surrounding.


Another few layers of white for the two arms.



A bit of gold here and there for the shoulder armors.



Panel-lining the name on the forehead.



A bit of repainting for the fan/falcon.
The real progress for this round is the body and waist, the others are redos. But after this, only one color remains for the whole work to be done. Why didn't I just finished it right now? Will tell you in the next part ^^