BB Senshi Sangokuden Sonsaku Physalis Gundam Part 2

Gold, gold everywhere
Starting to work on BB Senshi Sangokuden Sonsaku Physalis Gundam after the introduction in the previous posting. ^^

Omitting the foil stickers, gold and red are the two major colors missing on this kit. The amount of gold needed to realize the intended color scheme for the shoulder armors, which also form Sonsaku Physalis Gundam's basic armaments of a pair of short but oversized tonfa-like melee weapons called Sotorasenkon (双虎旋棍), and legs is pretty incredible. ^^; Besides those parts, there are also large V-fin and feet parts that need to be painted. Even though they are molded in orangish gold, much like all the other kits in the same series, the color isn't going to match the paint and will create different shades of gold to be seen on the kit, and that's obviously something not favorable. ^^;

A list of parts to be painted in gold:


There are actually a couple of other parts I forgot to include in the image above, so amazingly, save for just a few, the color gold can be found on every part in this kit. ^^ It's very more impressive given that Sonsaku Physalis Gundam is larger in overall volume as compared to most other BB Senshi Sangokuden kits. ^^ There are going to be plenty of bling-bling to be seen on the kit when it's completed later on. ^^

More details regarding the paint work needed for the different parts:


Large and elaborate details on Sotorasenkon (双虎旋棍).


Since the inner side of the parts are going to be painted black, there's no point leaving labels identifying the side in there just to be covered up by black paint later on. ^^; The polygonal tabs to connect to the end segments of Sotorasenkon, or the clear blue parts in Assault Form (強襲形態) are small, but has sufficient space for me to write on to indicate the side that the parts are for. ^^



Feet and leg armors.


Connectors on the clear blue parts and large rings on the handle component of Kyoshu Gekikokon (強襲激鋼棍).


Chest armor.


The slot right in the middle of the chest, which is meant to mount one of Shuu Neue Ziel's (蚩尤ノイエジール) armors when Sonsaku Physalis Gundam is possessed by him is not available on the boxart character illustration, but understandably so. The connection isn't natural, so the character design of Sonsaku Physalis Gundam shouldn't have a feature that would seem to be "preparing" him for that dreadful encounter. ^^;


Optional paint work: collars and chest vents.
With so much gold on the rest of the body, I figure it would be appropriate to have that color on certain areas of the main body as well, for balance. XD


Multiple colors needed for Koteitou (虎錠刀). ^^;



The helmet parts require a fair amount of gold paint for their sideburns, but that color should come after the stripes/sunken areas are painted red.


The connectors and slots behind the parts are chipped to allow loose assembly of the helmet during this whole detailing process.



Details on the front and rear skirt armors to be treated the same way as those on the helmet parts.


As with the shoulder armors.
The small round dot on the edge of the protruding segment can be painted (gold) first, since it sits on an area that needs to be painted white.


Optional paint work to be applied for the backpack part.


Panel lines are applied to all the selected parts before the details are painted.
While the curvy elevated details are shown to feature no outline on the box side images, I panel lined them anyway to make them stand out more, on the final model when it's assembled later, and during the paint work itself to ease identification of the segments to be painted. ^^




Other parts that are panel lined.


Underside of the skirt armors are panel lined using a combination of normal panel liner, and Tamiya's Panel Line Accent Color (Black) to reach all the tight corners. ^^


Plenty of paper clips mobilized to hold the parts for the paint work. XD





All the parts are painted using Gaia Metallic Color No. 122 Star Bright Gold.


The rear face of Koteitou's cross guard is painted as well.


All sides of the V-fin and feet are painted.


The round dots are just the first of the four paint phases required for the shoulder armors. ^^;



Test fitting the parts to have a very early look at how they are going to turn out on the final model. ^^
Just one posting seems to be enough to prove that this BB Senshi kit does require more detailing work as compared to Kotobukiya's D-Style line it seems. XD

Looking at it from another perspective, it seems unfair comparing Sonsaku Physalis Gundam, a warrior-type character wearing body armors with elaborate details with D-Style Ingram Unit 1, a police mecha designed with a sense of realism and practicality that has no such details. The foil stickers included for the former is Bandai's method to cover all the details not available on the parts, as compared to the pre-applied paint and tampo print on Kotobukiya's kits. There's a 900 Yen difference between the two kits as well, which I'm sure is a huge factor in the different treatments given to the parts and runners. So, despite being kits in deformed scale, there are plenty of differences between the BB Senshi line and D-Style in terms of their production design, at least between Sonsaku Physalis Gundam (released in November 2009) and D-Style Ingram Unit 1 featured in this comparison.

More detailing and paint work on this kit coming up next. ^^