This is my third sci-fi subject to date and I've finally started to accept these kits for what they are - warts and all - and understand that it is less about the building and more about the painting when it comes to making them work.
With all the nice big chunky pieces the build proved to be a relatively straight forward task, whereas the cleanup on the other hand was quite fiddly and time consuming. Because of the latter I decided to add a set of Para Grafix etched hull inserts, which are a big improvement over the kits hull bays and hide some horrible gaps in these areas. Although they required a bit of care and effort to fit in are well worth it in the end.
With construction and cleanup completed the model was then given a coat of Citadel Chaos Black primer, followed by a coat Gunze H307 Gray overall. Raised areas were then sprayed with a very dilute highlight of Gunze H308 Gray, the engine bays with Gunze H317 Gray and individual panels done free hand (no masking) with Gunze H306 Gray and H337 Grayish Blue. The areas for the red bands were then masked and sprayed with Gunze H327 Red.
With painting completed, the model was then given an overall coat of Future and the single upper fuselage decal was then applied. A variety of washes from both the Vallejo and AK Interactive ranges were then applied along with some scorch marks using the sponge technique and Vallejo 70822 German Cam Black Brown. The base for the stand was then painted free hand using Games Workshop Shining Gold.
I enjoyed this subject because of its ease of construction, the lack of restrictions when it came to painting it and because it was a nice break from the more complex builds that I normally do.
