HG OZ-06MS Leo - Mobile Suit Gundam Wing [WIP: Painting tiny parts and slightly bigger sub-assemblies]

 While there is no denying the very thought of a Gunpla painting project usually gives rise to a sense of trepidation in me, it is however becoming less of a concern the more I attempt such projects. My biggest headache has always been in planning how to most effectively paint the Gunpla, in other words how to get the model kit looking its best in the shortest time possible. Of course what one considers as best can be subjective so I'll just define it as minimizing the plasticky toy-like look of straight-out-of-the-box builds. In the case of the Bandai High Grade 1/144 scale OZ-06MS Leo, this meant painting almost off the model kit's individual parts or sub-assemblies.

Individual parts and sub-assemblies of the HG 1/144 OZ-06MS Leo; painted and panel-lined

 Before painting even started, first I had to work on the Leo's mono-eye in order to make what I believe to be an essential improvement to a prominent detail on the grunt suit. The objective was to place a layer of reflective material behind the clear yellow mono-eye piece. This is done in order to increase the level of reflectivity when light lands on the mono-eye piece, which in turn makes it look like the Leo's eye is shining from an internal power source. It's like a poor man's LED lighting kit. And while I could've painted a metallic chrome to act as the reflective layer, I instead utilized the shiny foil sticker from my earlier Toy Story Woody project (see below).

Step 1: Evaluate the size and shape of the eyepiece's background area behind the lens

Step 2: Select material of choice to be used as the background area behind the lens

Step 3: Paint or in this case cut out an approximate size and shape to constitute the eyepiece's background behind the lens

Step 4: Place the clear eyepiece over the newly created reflective background, and check if it works

 In cases where it couldn't be avoided, I had to paint individual parts that were tiny in size. But whenever I could I would always try to put the parts together in a larger sub-assembly before painting them. Doing the latter saves me the trouble of having to handle and fumble with tiny parts. It also helps to not paint areas where painting isn't needed. Sometimes this can be hard to visualize when you are painting pieces that make up a greater whole. But before the first coat of paint was even applied, I airbrushed a thin coat of light gray primer using the Mr.Finishing Surfacer 1500 Gray.    

Parts/sub-assemblies to be painted with the primary color were primed with the Mr.Finishing Surfacer 1500 Gray

Primary color of the OZ-06MS LEO comprised the semigloss Mr.Color #320 Dark Green

Parts/sub-assemblies to be painted with the secondary color were also primed with Mr.Finishing Surfacer 1500 Gray

Secondary color of the OZ-06MS LEO consisted of a brownish olive green hue

 For the Leo's primary color I used semigloss Mr.Color #320 Dark Green. For its secondary color I used a mixture of semigloss Mr.Color #43 Wood Brown, semigloss #15 IJN Green, and gloss #1 White to create a kind of brownish olive green hue. While the primary color covers almost all the armor pieces that cover up the Leo, the secondary color is focused on sections of the feet, knees, shoulders, and wrists (see above). Meanwhile, the only other non-metallic color used was the reds on the sides of the Leo's head. In this case I mixed up a combination of glossy Mr.Color lacquer paints such as #79 Shine Red, #3 Red, and GX4 Chiara Yellow for a vermilion-like hue (see below).

Parts painted in metallic hues as well as the sides of Leo's head painted in a vermilion-like red

 For the metallic sections, I first primed the parts/sub-assemblies using Mr.Finishing Surfacer 1500 Black before airbrushing them with Mr.Color SM203 Super Iron 2. Following this, all the metallic and non-metallic parts were then panel-lined using Mr.Weathering Color paints. Different panel-line colors were used depending on the main color in question. For example, black was used on the metallic and brownish olive sections while dark brown panel-lining was used on the dark green and red areas.

View of all the Leo's painted parts and sub-assemblies painted but yet to be panel-lined

 As of the time of writing, the parts/sub-assemblies have been readied for assembly process. While I'll be posting closeup photos of the aforementioned parts/sub-assemblies, the actual assembly process itself will be a FourEyedMonster YouTube Channel exclusive, and links to the video will be provided once it has been uploaded to my channel. For now it's time to end yet another blog post and bid you farewell for now. As always be useful, be well, and most importantly be happy!