Remember this guy?

No?

That's okay. It was my very first gundam and the one that got me hooked. The reason he is making an appearance again is a long story, so pull up a chair.

I was speaking to the guy at work who takes the photos of the stuff for our site and we were discussing how angle, lighting, and pose is important. (See his photos in the Shin Matsunaga and Minelayer galleries linked on the right) He picked up Mr. Shin Musha here off my desk and played with him until he was in a cool pose. And it did look cool. He suggested we take pictures of the Shin Musha sometime for the site, but I didn't really want to as I feel that this kit was done poorly.

Then I had an idea.

Why don't I take the guy home, take him apart, paint him, apply decals properly, weather and battle damage him up a bit and bring him back for pictures.

I bought a spray can of Tamiya Pearl White as I was planning on using it for the fuel tanks on the Hi-Nu anyway. I also bought a couple cans of a colour called Mica Red. I also stopped at the Toys backwards-R Us near my place on the way home and found some Gundam decals.

I will post my running diary of my progress.

7:20 - dinner is in about 10 minutes. I have time to start taking him apart.

7:25 - Dinner

7:55 - Dinner is finished and I have some time (but not much) before bathing the baby. So I divide the pieces of into different groups for painting purposes.

8:00 - Bath time

8:25 - Baby's bedtime. This lasts until 9:15

9:16 - I decide to start with the few pieces that will need to be painted white.

9:18 - What the $&"$?! Seems this pearly white doesn't cover well. I prime the face part because of the previous poor panel lining.

9:20 - What the hell! This pearl white isn't white at all. It's just a shiny gloss type coat. Argh. Tomorrow I will get some matt white from work.

9:25 - Don't feel like looking at the Hi-Nu yet. There's too many mistakes to fix on that tonight and I am not in the mood. I know, I will see how this Mica Red paint takes hold. If it works well, I won't have to prime.

9:26 - Works really well. Sexy, too.

9:28 - Wait a second. This doesn't cover old panel lines, either. Hmm.. Well, I shall keep going.

10:40 - I am working pretty quickly. I have a piece of 400 grit sandpaper and I am taking down the old sprue nubs and old dry transfer decals. I won't bother using the 1000 or 1200 grit as I plan to scratch this up anyway.

11:20 - Almost there! Do I have enough space or sticks to paint all of the Mica Red pieces? I dunno, but I don't wanna stop.

11:35 - Finished! All pieces in Mica Red. I used almost the full can. Perhaps I will need to recoat some pieces but that's okay because I have another can.

My sandpaper is a usless mess now. I will discard it and start a new one tomorrow when I either paint the white and 'other' on the Shin Musha (probably) or start again on the Hi-Nu (probably not).