Model Customization: Starscream-themed Gundam

I usually like to have two crafting projects going at once because if I’m painting a miniature and I’m waiting for it to dry or if I just primed something and it needs a day to cure, I might as well work on something else if I already have my newspaper laid down and my painting supplies out. Along with miniature painting, building and customizing inexpensive snap-together model kits was another thing I started getting into during the pandemic and I had a Gundam model sitting around that I bought on the cheap a while back (a Gundam FG 1/144 RX-78-2 Model Kit, to be exact).

I should preface this by saying that while I am a bit of a mech-head, the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise was always one that eluded me for one reason for another. When it came to giant robots, I was all about Transformers, Robotech/Macross, Patlabor, Tetsujin-28, Mazinger Z, and Getter-Robo among others. So obviously I don’t consider myself any kind of a Gunpla builder (those guys are too hardcore for me), let alone a serious one, but I do have quite a bit of respect for MSG and its influence on the genre.

That said, this is what the RX-78-2 looked like after I put it together:

I knew I wanted to give it a custom paint job, so I coated it with a flat gray primer and set it aside until I could decide exactly what I wanted to do with it. When inspiration finally did strike me, I had my Reaper Learn to Paint kit already out and realized that I had all the colors I’d need to paint it up like one of my favorite Transformers, the Deception Air Commander Starscream (G1 style, of course). Its beam katana, rifle, shield, and the V-shaped antenna attachment all ended up in my bits box for what will certainly be a future kitbash or scratch build.

Figuring it would be a fun exercise to apply miniature painting basics to a 5” tall plastic model (basecoat, wash, drybrushing), I set about selecting my paints. For his light gray coloring, I would use a mix of Pure White and Mountain Stone. His hands and feet would use Dragon Blue (with a droplet of Pure White), the “cockpit” Candlelight Yellow, Pure Black and Blade Steel for his head and metallic details….but it was the red areas that proved a bit tricky. I still didn’t have a solid red color aside from my Citadel Blood for the Blood God, which I decided was much too dark and not really something I’d feel comfortable using as a base (though I would end up using it for his eyes and it turned out better than I’d expected). Begrudgingly, I resorted to using a pot of cheap red Testor’s model paint which I mixed with a little Blood for the Blood God for the basecoat.

The real struggle with the basecoat was the yellow, where I learned the hard way that yellow doesn’t cover worth a flip. I honestly lost count of the number of coats that I applied. While the yellow was thinned with a droplet of water and a wet brush, it was still considerably thicker than all the other coats I used on this build. So after struggling with that for longer than I care to admit, I managed to complete the basecoat and ended up here:

The colors were every bit as vibrant and instantly reminiscent of the various Starscream figures I have on my shelves and I probably could have just touched up the rough areas and left well enough alone. But this being a practice project first and foremost, and with a nice new bottle of Nuln oil just sitting there right in front of me, I decided that I was in an experimental kind of mood and coated him in a wash that turned out to be a tad thicker than I’d have liked (using a larger brush than what I use for my minis, it was bound to happen sooner or later).

I let him dry for a couple of days and, in the process of painting another miniature and waiting for that one to dry, I decided to finish the job and see what happened when I added some more Pure White to my established base colors and drybrush over the areas I so gleefully dirtied up. It took a few layers on each area, but I eventually got to the point where I felt like everything was sufficiently brightened up and blended together. Per its intended design, the Nuln Oil pooled into the various cracks and crevices, even bleeding through the dry-brush layers to maintain a weathered, dirty look that I was quite pleased with.

Even after dry-brushing, I was still kind of on the fence about this project and ultimately I decided to spray him with a clear coat. For some reason, the Krylon Crystal Clear’s glossy finish really tied the whole thing together for me. Granted, there’s still the hole in his head left by the absence of his V-shaped antennas which I kept putting off filling in because I was having such a good timing painting. Next time I make something out of my 2-part Apoxie sculpt or moldable thermoplastic beads, I’ll be sure to dab a little bit into his gaping head wound and go over the entire thing with Pure Black. But until such a time, this Starscream-themed Gundam can wait patiently in front of some books.