HMM Zoids 1/72 Red Horn Part 8

Invisible vents and fake beam cannons
Continuing with the work on Kotobukiya's HMM Zoids 1/72 Red Horn after the previous posting: ^^


(Left) Forgot to add these two large vent parts from the backpack to the paint work in Part 5.
(Right) The image in the instructional manual seems to indicate that the vents should be painted gray.

More parts I forgot to include in my previous batch of paint work: a couple more mesh pipes that should have been painted in Parts 6 (gold) and 7 (gun metal).


(Left) The vents are painted using Gaia Color 074 Neutral Gray IV.
(Right) Tamiya's Panel Line Accent Color (Black) is added to the parts to panel line the slits between the vent fins.


With excessive panel liner solution rubbed away using cotton swab soaked with thinner.
In dark gray, the vents are hard to see, but the paint result is "accurately" vague and matches the manual image. XD


As with the others, the two sets of latecomers are painted gold for their bases (using Gaia Metallic Color No. 122 Star Bright Gold) and gun metal for the pipes (using Gaia Metallic Color No. 020 Gun Metal).


The pair of large knob-like parts at the base of the tail are Tamiya's Panel Line Accent Color (Black).
The sunken area is painted black using normal marker to ensure that a black base is shown even if the smallest of slits is exposed when the buttons are attached to the knobs.


Two disc-like parts to lock on to the hip joints are panel lined normally.


Tamiya's Panel Line Accent Color (Gray) is used to fill up the slits inside the block of vents on the large tail parts.


With excessive panel liner solution on the edge rubbed away using cotton swab soaked with thinner.
This can be considered a "reversed" detailing method, as my usual approach would be to paint the blocks gray then panel line the slits black. ^^


A pair of vents near the base of the parts can be painted as well to emphasize their details, but knowing that they and most of these two parts' details are going to be hidden/blocked by other parts of the model when it's completed, I opted to just panel lined them. ^^;


These three parts are going to be clearly seen on the tail, so a little more work is planned for them. ^^


For the bottom tail plate, the vents are painted red using Gundam Marker, while the two protruding spots are painted silver using a Sharpie marker.


Even though I have a whole bunch of Sharpie markers of various color in my collection, this is actually the first time for one of them to be used in my plamo work. ^^


Touchup on the paint work, more panel lines are added to the part as well.


Interestingly, the top face of the part, which is going to be hidden inside the tail when the model is assembled, has quite a bit of mechanical details molded on it as well. Even though most of them are not going to be shown in the end, they are still been panel lined. ^^


(Left) Metallic green foil stickers from my spare sheet collection are added to two targeted spots on the side pieces.
(Right) Tiny metallic silver pieces are added to two spots behind the side panels.


All the detailed mechanical parts of the tail.


Test fitting the detailed parts to see how the tail skid would turn out when assembled. ^^


Panel lining and cleanup for the detailing on the various parts painted gray just now, which is almost a carbon copy of the whole work I did in Part 5.


Many of the parts, including these two large side body plates are repanel lined using Tamiya's Panel Line Accent Color (Black).


With excessive gray paint on some of the parts scratched away using a knife.


With some of the other molded details on the parts panel lined the usual way.
Detailing using a normal panel liner helps to enhance the look of the vent details which Tamiya's Panel Line Accent Color (Black) seems not dark enough to reveal.


Closeups on the detailed parts.


Done for the detailing on this second batch of painted parts.


Like the leg armor parts completed in Part 5, some of the body armor parts have indents on their sides that are panel lined as well.


Excessive panel liner solution on the tail mounted-AEZ 20mm Beam Guns is wiped away using cotton swab soaked with thinner.


The pipes behind the beam guns are painted silver using Sharpie marker.


Touchup on the paint work, more panel lines are added to the part as well.


Consisted of eight parts in total, these are not beam cannons but the four head-mounted All-Weather 3D Radar Antennae.
Then again, some of their details, like the obvious pipes ...


... and vents are going to be painted like similar components on other parts of the model kit.


The vents are painted red using Gundam Marker Red.



The pipes are painted using Gaia Metallic Color No. 122 Star Bright Gold and Gaia Metallic Color No. 9 Bright Silver.


The molded details on the exterior of the eight antenna parts are panel lined using Tamiya's Panel Line Accent Color (Black).


With excessive panel liner solution rubbed away using cotton swab soaked with thinner, and with additional line details added the usual way. ^^


Test fitting the detailed parts to see how the antennae' pipes would turn out when assembled. ^^


The minor molded details of the vents are also panel lined after the paint has dried.


Simple panel lining for the antennae' connectors.
Not done yet with the entire work, but I think I've spent too much time working on this kit in one go. ^^; It would probably be good to leave it for a while and review some other stuff that I have which have been neglected all this while. ^^

Or to start on another plamo project that isn't as complicated. ^^

Anyhow, I'm saving the rest of the work on Red Horn till another time. Maybe by then I would have even crazier ideas on how to give it more colors and details. ^^