Kit Information :

Scale : 1/144

Grade : HGUC

Made by : Bandai

Begin Build : 3rd July '08

Completed : 24th Aug '08

WIP FORUM TOPICS :

@ Plamo

@ Fichtenfoo

@ Gamerabaenre

@ Zero G

@ Bakuc

completed page

photo gallery

In-Progress : Marasai

12-07-08 : Hopefully this will be a second entry for Plamo's WOOB...

There is still a little time left before this years Plamo WOOB competition closes so why not enter a second kit?

Here's the test fit pics :

I'm doing something a little different this time around, I've got the base fully ready before actually building anything.

I got the circuit board out of an old computer DVD drive which I stripped apart for a tutorial in the DIY section. When I pulled it out of the drive, first thing I thought was 'that would make a great base' so I got some metal stand-offs that are usually used for lifting computer motherboards off the metal cases and put one in each corner. Three of the corners had hole so the last one needed to be drilled before mounting the leg.

As you can see from the picture above, the Marasai will be standing on the board in a half aggressive / half defensive stance.

This build will be a 'high-shine' one - also known as tricked out with metal option parts and a metal paint job with Alclad Chrome and Clear colors (orange, red and green - OOB colors).

Next up, I drilled out the center of each of the rear and leg side thrusters and mounted small IC pins into them for some miniture thruster bells :

Finally, the chest looked like it was going to be a bitch to paint without serious masking so a little modifications were made to allow for easier painting.

This is how the Chest piece looked when first assembled. It is a simple contruction of the two orange parts put together then the two red parts put over the orange piece and snapped together. This was going to be an issue when painting time came as one color needed to be masked then the other.
These are the two pieces. Ideally, the orange piece needs to go inside the red without pulling apart the red ones.
I took a saw and cut the orange piece in half, then I cut away the pegs and sanded back the top of the bottom section as this wasn't sliding into the red piece at all unless the piece was made smaller.
After the cut and sand, the parts were put together and now they look exactly the same as they did at the start but now I can paint the chest much easier.

Doing this also lets me rid the pieces of seams without worry of damaging the surrounding pieces.

Finally, the backs of the knees were filled in with styrene and adjusted so some small lengths on snake chain could be run down each side. This chain will be painted chrome and topped with clear green to match the OOB colors that I will be painting in.

28-07-08 : Adding some bling....

Small update since last time. Painting has progressed quite a bit. Each piece has been primed, sanded and re-primed, then given an enamel Black Gloss base coat. Once the enamel layer had cured enough, I gave everything a coating of Alclad II Chrome (except the joints and such, which were given an Alclad II Steel coat) to get some bling on the go.

As you can see, the chrome becomes highly reflective when layered on a Black Gloss base (you can see me taking the photo if you look close enough). I will be posting a tutorial on the full process towards the end of the build, so stay tuned for that one.

I also took the time to test fit the power conduits for the waist area. I got these from Akohobby and come with a mounting spring for the piping units to go over.

The spring will remain silver, but the piping will get a Clear Green coat.

Next up is to add some Clear Red and Orange to the chrome pieces and mount some more springs and stuff.

03-08-08 : Painting the clear colours....

The Alclad has now been painted with clear colours to give a metallic chrome finish. The Green and Orange went on perfectly but the Red proved to be a real pain in the arse. I had to strip it back a few times on some parts as the Clear Red decided to 'Orange Peel' on me. It was strange as the Orange and Green went on with no problems, but the Red didn't want to apply correctly. I ended up doing up to 6 light coats on some pieces so as to get a deep red colour while at the same time keeping it from orange peeling and running.

I also applied the Clear Orange on the outer thruster bells but it came out more like yellow than orange, so I lightly coated them with Clear Red to make it more of an orange colour.

I have also added a small green dome lense for the mono-eye to match the power conduits, which I have also painted in Clear Green.

Next up is to tidy up some of the painting (painting this way can lead to parts getting scratched very easily) and get it ready for decalling.

16-08-08: Decalling and detailing...

Got my decal order a few days ago from Samuel Decals. Once again, Samuel has supplied me with some top notch decals and delivered in super fast time. If you are are looking for decals, I really recommend his service. Anyway, here is a pic of the Marasai from one side with some of the decals applied :

My only gripe is some of the decals have a very visible edge on them and on one spot the decal softener decided to dissolve the paint a little.

You might also notice the small metal 'screws' over the kit. These are actually dry transfers which I purchased from Akocreations a while back. They are raised metal and apply just like a dry transfer would :