MG Johnny Ridden's Customized High Mobility Type Zaku II Ver. 2.0 Part 2

I like gold, but I like red too, what to do?
Turning my attention to MG Johnny Ridden's Customized High Mobility Type Zaku II Ver. 2.0 this time.

Not exactly too different from the work on MG Gundam Mk. II Ver. 2.0 shown last night, since I'm starting off this kit by working on parts for its legs as well. Then again, when it comes to the level of complexity...

As mentioned before, this is my favorite Zaku II variation, so I'm devoting a lot more attention to the details on this kit. ^^


Repeated parts used on both legs that need to be painted.


The design of the backpack thrusters is the same as the ones for the leg, so I'll just throw in those 2 so that the whole batch of thrusters can be painted in one go.


To make them look outstanding (and to complicate the work for myself as usual ^^;), 2 colors are planned for the thrusters.
First color: gold for the innermost portion of the nozzle. Hand painted using Mr. Metal Color 219 Brass, which was first used on BB Senshi Sangokuden Choko Zaku III.


Second color: red for the outer layer including the mouth of the nozzles. Hand painted using Mr. Color No. 158 Super Italian Red Gloss, recently used on MG Shin Musha Gundam.


Cleaned off the excessive red paint outside the nozzle by swiping it off using a cotton swap dipped with thinner.


Paint result before the next step.


Reapply panel lines inside the nozzle when the paints have dried to separate between the gold and red areas.
Just like the work on MG Shin Musha Gundam's backpack thrusters, it's not an easy task panel lining the interior of a thruster nozzle. ^^;


A lot of repetitive work panel lining the details for thrusters' exterior, but it's the last part of the work on the thrusters.
I really like how the thrusters turn out through the 2 painted colors. They are larger than the usual thrusters on other kits, so they can be considered as very important components for display. Some level of details given to them would be nice to bring out their interestingness. I'm not content with just a single color this time and went for 2 instead. ^^ But I do like the paint result very much, and since it's working for this unit, I think I will repeat it for the thrusters of another Zeon boss unit in my collection - MG Char's Gelgoog Ver. 2.0. ^^

Not so soon of course. ^^



Painted gold and silver for the fixed hydraulic pipes on the foot parts using Gundam Marker Gold and Pilot Super Color Silver Extra Fine.


Painted gold and red for the thrusters following the standard set by the 8 thrusters done before this.
Painted using Gundam Marker Gold and Red.


Result after cleaning off excessive paint and reapply panel lines.



Gold and silver for the fixed hydraulic pipes on another sets of parts for the feet.
Gold is still from Gundam Marker, silver is from a normal pen this time since the areas to be painted in this color are very small.


Sets of hydraulic pipes for the ankle, heel and knee.




The ankle set.




The heel set.





The knee set.
All 6 sets are painted using Gundam Marker gold, Pilot Super Color Silver Extra Fine (for small areas) and Zebra Paint Marker Silver (for majority of the pipes). Not much explanation given to them for the images shown above, but the entire work is very slow. Panel lining the borders is one thing, painting the different sections is another, waiting for the paint to dry before applying the next layer of paint is very important too. All in all, patience is an invisible tool that dictate the outcomes of all the paint work, regardless of how great the painting tools used. Working at snail speed is too common for all my model kits, so a lot of waiting is no problem-mo for me at all XD

Too much delicate work on Gunplas for a while already. A bit of mood change is required (again) XD

MG Gundam Mk. II Ver. 2.0 Part 2

Good old friends as helpful as they can be
Started working on MG Gundam Mk. II Ver. 2.0 introduced on last Saturday.

No better component to start with other than the very intricate legs I suppose. ^^


Panel lining for the major joint parts.



Abundant as they are, the details on each part are actually simple enough to be done using a normal panel liner. There's no hard to reach corner or deep valley that requires special treatment, which is something I'm deeply grateful of. ^^


The 4 main leg frame parts are a bit hard to work with, especially the ones shown on far left and far right. Some of the spaces in between the elevated parts are too narrow for my panel liner to reach.


Panel lined the parts using the method shown with MG Infinite Justice Gundam. The color used is the same as well: Tamiya Color Acrylic Paint XF-1.
More of a combination of methods actually: hard to reach spots are done using the paint, while other details are done using the "conventional" panel lining method in my book. ^^


Painted silver for the different pipes.


Added gold for the connecting points of those silver pipes on each part.


Cleaned up the parts by scratching off excessive paint around the intended areas using a knife and reapply panel lines to those spots.


As usual, me like bling-bling parts on me Gun-pu-la XD


It's been quite a while since I last used them (for this much), but they are very handy markers with great results: Super Color Extra Fine Gold and Silver, which were first mentioned in the work for BB Senshi Sangokuden Shiba-I Sazabi back in January 2009. ^^


Painted the edges of the hydraulic pipe's hosts in gold using Gundam Marker Gold, but the color turns out to be quite murky. ^^;
Time for some shaking exercises for the marker. ^^


Very tempted to paint the entire host in gold, but I like the result of this part shown in the manual, so I'll keep it this way then. ^^


Simple panel lining for the many leg armor parts.



Out of the many parts, the rear face of the ankle guard has the most amount of details. When compared to the inner frame parts though, well... ^^;


Very simple looking details on the larger armor parts, which are all designed after the Perfect Grade version.


No work on the rear face of all the armor parts.


Panel lined the yellow vents using paint before cleaning them up using toothpick to reveal the lines of the fins.
And then repeat everything for the other leg. ^^;

Will switch to work on another kit for a change of mood then. ^^