Objective:
To complete the biggest Gundam model in HGUC range - Dendrobium Orchis.
Duration: 3 days (painting + decal + assembly)
Updates: The planned schedule was overrun badly due to my oversight on how big this model is. To be exact, to shade it took me 2 full day and my index finger was numb by holding on the airbrush trigger! At times I had to switch to use my thumb instead... In the end, it took me 1 week to complete! 4 days late.. But 30 mins before the New Year 2012!!!
The Shading:
I do not have any pictures of it being in process of how I shade it as I was really rushing for time to complete the painting before my son comes back from his grandparents place or I wanted to spend precious time with my son during the weekends.
Anyway...
For the outer chassis:
Default base colour I used Mr Surfacer's original colour (similar to Neutral Gray)
Second coat, I used both Gaia Note's White + 20% Cobalt blue.
Third coat, I used second coat + 5% more white.
The results is fantastic. It was nice to even look at each individual parts!
For the inner frame:
Gaia Note's Gun Metal for all internal frame.
For Thrusters:
Step 1 - Tamiya's Matt Black Spray
Step 2 - Rub the metal power
Step 3 - Top coat
Step 4 - Gaia Notes Chrome Silver.
Note: During the shading, I find that the hardest shape to shade are those cylindrical parts (the main gun barrel). To keep the shading consistent, I must keep the airbrush steady and on the other hand rotate the parts consistently and at the correct speed. A mistake in the rotation speed, the shading will be irregular. To overcome this, I do very light shading throughout, then spot the irregular shading part and compensate it. Tough but worth it!
The Assembly:
Assembling the Orchis is pretty straight forward... if you see the instruction manual carefully... (probably its been a while since I build a Gundam). Made a few mistakes along the way and had to disassemble some parts to correct it. Some mistakes that are worth mentioning are:
Mistake #1:
The worst part is assembling the 2 huge weapon pods. Pay special attention on how the "female" joining parts are fitted into each pods. There are contours that should match the "male" part. A mistake here can lead to disassembling the entire pod to correct it. And this is what happened to me here. And I was lucky to be able to correct it. *pheww!
Mistake #2:
The plates that holds the weapon in place (look at the picture above. Ignore the missile pods) Each plates are perfectly shaped to hold specific weapons. For example, there is a plate that holds the Stamen's gun only. Or a plate that holds the foldable shield. They are not interchangable.
To rectify this, I had to disassemble the pods, re-match the plates with the weapons and shield, then assemble back.
The Conclusion:
Other than the above 2 major mistakes, the entire build was pretty straightforward. Assembling some parts, especially the rear chassis, do requires some effort as some of the parts do not fit very well with each other.
Enough said, let's look at the completed model!
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