HGUC Geara Zulu Part 3

More normal than the last one
Going from one model kit to another for review since late November, here's another one after the review on HGUC Unicorn Gundam [Destroy Mode]. ^^

Then again, this isn't exactly a new kit because it was actually done back in July 2010, and was featured in the previous posting too. ^^


HGUC Geara Zulu from "Gundam UC". This is my second attempt on the same kit actually as the first one was a done without any detailing. I just love the kit so much when it first came out I got two in one shot. ^^ One of them was built right away and is currently a display unit in my office. ^^ It's the one that made various cameo appearances every once a blue moon on this blog. ^^ It's also a very special kit in my collection, alongside HGUC Sinanju as it was one of the very few recent model kits I built that didn't feature any detailing work. ^^ I never deliberately discard panel lining or painting on any of my kits after I discover my first panel liner, so those two set some special records in my collection. XD

My second HGUC Geara Zulu will get a full detailing treatment though, so I'll get to experience all the work needed which was skipped back in the previous straight assembled version. It's the "normal" work you would expect on my model kits. ^^

Since the kit content was introduced back in Part 1, I'll skip all that and jump right into action on specific parts.


Parts that require white paint for some of their protruding details.
The Sleeves' emblems for the chest and wrist parts are obviously some of most important highlights of the kits.


Painted the targeted areas white using Gundam Marker.


(Left) To refine on the emblem details, the borders between the emblems and sunken background are drawn using panel liner. Some excessive white paint on the parts can be seen immediately.
(Right) For tight corners on the parts, excessive white paint can be covered up easily by painting it black using a panel liner.


The wider background area is painted using Gaia Color 022 Semi Gloss Black.


When the paint has dried, the four line details on the white area of each wrist emblem are panel lined carefully. ^^


Done for the five emblem parts.


Painted the dots on the spare magazine sets using Gundam Marker White as well.
Panel lines are added when the paint has dried.


Next batch of parts targeted for detailing: all the thrusters. ^^


(Left) Using paper clips and Tack-It adhesive to hold the parts for the paint work.
(Right) Painted the thrusters' interior using Gaia Metallic Color No. 122 Star Bright Gold.


Excessive paint around the parts is wiped off using cotton swab with thinner.


Panel lined the thrusters' interior when the paint has dried.


Panel lines added to the entire sole parts.


Using paper clips with double-sided tape to secure all the backpack thruster parts so that the line details on the surface can be panel lined.


Panel lines added to the parts. ^^
Even more parts that require white paint:



Chest details and collar emblems.




Vents on both sides of the leg armors.



Knee vents.



Round details on the front and rear skirt armor parts.



Round details on the forearm armor parts.
All the parts shown above were painted using Gundam Marker White. It's a mixture of easy and difficult paint work I think - the collar emblems were easy to paint, but the sunken side vents on the leg parts involved some very messy paint result as the targeted area was hard to reach. Will wait for the paint to dry more before continuing with the follow-up work on these parts.^^