Ron Bauer

I was already planning to do this build as my first attempt at kitbashing before I heard about GWCC. Choosing to participate and use this as my build pushed me to try many other firsts as well. This was my first time working with polystyrene sheets, my first time applying gold leaf to anything, and my first time designing custom decals. If I hadn't chosen to participate I don't think I'd have pushed myself to try so many new techniques. Were I to do it again, there are several things I'd do differently, but learned a lot from this experience and look forward to applying that to future projects. This has been a great experience, and it has been awesome to watch the projects everyone else has been working come together as well!

As there is no Zero Shiki model kit, I also had no Zero Shiki specific decals. So I designed and ordered a sheet of some simple decals (I also filled some empty space with decals for other projects I have planned). I added a couple other decals from a generic UC decal sheet as well, namely the AE and AEUG logos. Next I added panel lines using Tamiya black panel liner. I also spent some time doing minor touch-ups to blemishes in the paint or detailing.
Lastly, I realized I forgot to paint the saber handles, so that needed to be fixed as well.

I lost some major updates in the security wipe, which is somewhat of a bummer. I would, however, like to commend those who responded to the breach. I don't know the details, but it seems like they addressed the issue swiftly and effectively. I also appreciate their communication about the issue and consideration for those affected.

When I wrote my previous updates I had considered saving a copy of each post, now I wish I had. Instead, I'm going to try my best to remember and recap as much as possible.

I had wrapped up (pun intended) applying gold leaf to all the parts that needed it, and topped them off with a coat of Kaleido Clear Red, followed by a gloss top coat. After that I worked on assembling all the pieces. I also coated the "visor" piece in coat of chrome paint before layering a mixture of clear orange and yellow over it to help make it stand out against the red. I also applied this process to the "cameras" on the front and back of the head unit. I should have made note of the ratios used as the resulting color was very appealing. I believe it was roughly a 3-1 ratio of orange to yellow.

I painted the back unit's joint pieces and internals in Gunmetal, as well as the lower torso. The thruster nozzles I painted in Chrome. The larger pieces like the back and upper torso were painted in Zirconium Black. Of. Once all the paint was dry I applied a gloss clear coat to everything. Later I did some detail work on the back and torso pieces. Primarily adding panel lining and minor pops of chrome or gold where appropriate. Once done, I assembled the pieces of the back unit. I'm very happy with the way these colors look together.

I also spent some time painting and detailing the various pieces that go under the armor, but are still at least partially exposed. The majority of pieces were painted in Gunmetal as well, which has become my color of choice for exposed frame pieces. The exposed hose parts I brushed more chrome onto. I thought it would be more visually appealing with this build than the white hoses depicted on the original design. I also applied the same Chrome to the visor piece, which I intend to later cover in a transparent orange.

I had initially planned to document each stage for all the pieces across the board, but as there are more pieces than I have alligator clamps, I've chosen to shift my focus. I'm instead going to focus on documenting the completion of the model section by section, starting with the thruster binders.

I've included some highlights of my initial attempts to document various stages of painting and applying gold leaf.

For the thruster binders I started by priming, painting, and clear coating. I used Valejo black primer, then Kaleido Gun Metal and Zirconium Black for the inner and outer pieces. Then I applied the gold leaf to the inner piece, and coated it in Transparent Red. Before assembling the pieces I took the time to brush paint some minor details, like adding chrome to the thruster nozzles and more Zirconium Black to some recessed sections. I had intended to panel line as well, but decided to do that after another clear coat once the decals have been applied.

I sanded the paint off select portions of a trio of parts to prep for a different "base coat" (paint update coming soon!).

I wanted to do a candy red as the primary finish, but wasn't thrilled by my available base coat options. I wanted something that would make the red really POP! I decided to go out of the box and try something else I've never done before: Gold leaf!

I've finally started priming the parts and will be moving on to the phase I've been looking forward to the most: Painting! I'm excited to watch this piece come together.

I expect to be posting more frequent updates going forward.

I'm eager to begin giving this project some color, but first I needed to spend some time cleaning up some of the rougher cuts and reinforcing some connections. I used Mr. White Putty as well as some sanding to smooth several places where previous cuts had left the plastic fairly jagged. I also took the opportunity make the binder arms much sturdier using Mr. Cement.
I added some thruster vents to the shoulder housing by recycling the pieces from the Hyaku Shiki shoulders.
Unfortunately my attempt to glue the Nemo side skirt pieces to their new waste unit's poly caps was not very sound. To amend this problem, I drilled a 2mm hole in both the armor piece as well as the poly cap. Next I cut a very short stub from a 2mm plastic rod and cemented it into the skirt armor, creating a peg that the poly cap could better attach to.

So far this build has really forced me outside of my comfort zone to try new techniques. I've been learning a lot as I go, and if I were to start again I'd certainly do some things differently, but I'm happy with what I've created so far. I'm looking forward to watching it come together.

While I hate to discard all the work I put into the original set of thruster binders, I'm not happy with them. I've decided to switch to the binders from the High Grade Gaza-C. I've added some small thrusters from the back unit of a High Grade Hizack and used parts from the Hyaku Shiki shoulders to create a "housing" of sorts for the thrusters.

I wanted to change up the Nemo shoulders somewhat. I used my new calipers to measure the dimensions of the side vents before cutting some pieces of thin polystyrene sheets. I cemented the pieces to the shoulders, creating an additional thruster housing. The sheets I used were extremely thin, so I'm concerned about their sturdiness.

I also needed to add new side-skirt pieces since the HS ones had been reused for the leg thrusters. I took the Nemo side skirts and trimmed the connectors off of them and glued them to HS's side skirt polycaps.
These were the final major modifications I planned to make. Next will be some minor fixes and cleaning up in preparation for paint!