WIP: 00 Gundam Seven Swords | Titanium Finish

This kit has been hanging around for quite sometime. Bought it way back 2012, was able to snap build the upper part and leaved it stalled for 4 years. While I was browsing for concepts on which color tone will I apply. I stumbled upon a post in Gundam Guy modelled by a fellow Filipino. I must say that candy tone looks veerrry yummy in the eyes.

First step is to snapbuild the kit to check for the articulation and which area should I be careful on when the paint is applied to avoid chipping the paint job. 

Next stop is to disassemble the kit and prepare to sand. The armor pieces are then dry sanded with 800 grit and 1000 grit sand paper.

The sanded pieces are then washed with a mixture of water and soap and cleaned with a toothbrush. This will get rid of the residues left on the sanding process as well as to help the primer adhere better on the plastic.

With Soap

Rinse with Water

 The pieces where then primed using Bosny Grey Primer.

After the primer was cured, the armor pieces are then wet sanded with 2000 grit sand paper. I don't normally do wet sanding on a primed piece but since the kit will receive a multiple coats of paint I'd like to make sure that the pieces are smooth as possible.

Got a gift from my wife last Fathers day, she bought me this neat Tamiya Pinvise at Lil's Megamall, also grabbed a drill bit set and a couple of IC Socket pins bought from Alexan Megamall branch.

Normally this process should go first prior to sanding the kit, since I got a strong urge to try something new I've decided to explore the joy of drilling a hole to the kit. I've then drilled a couple of holes where the IC socket pin should go.

I'll leave the sanded pieces for the mean time, I separated all the plates in accordance to their respective parts. 

This leaves me with the inner frame. Checked a couple of spots where I could potentially encounter problem on painting, since dissembling the whole inner frame is quite a pain, I only dissembled those parts with joints attached to them. I then cleaned the pieces with soap solution and with a toothbrush. 

Next is to prime to whole frame, since I've red somewhere that painting the frame directly is risky due to the plastic used on the frame itself. 

After all the priming is done the kit was then assembled again for snapfitting purposes, for a final feel on the model before painting.

Final Test fit to check the articulation.

Painted the whole thing with Alclad gloss black, Alclad Chrome and Tamiya clear colors. Was too lazy to document the process though. 

There and Back...

And so I decided to pursue my quest on the hobby that first I loved. Been quite sometime since I last built a kit. Had a couple of things that I need to resolve during the past 3 years and now I can say that hopefully I can muster time to engage on the hobby once again.

In the past few weeks I've dug my old tool box, having to find a couple of cobwebs and dust.. Luckily I was able to scavenge some of my old tools and paints. Decided to get a new tool box with a couple of new tools, I also purchased an SD Exia just to pump up my mojo on the joy of building a kit.

Was staring at my display cabinet the other day and I've asked myself, why not step up my hobby? Before I was satisfied on building and putting top coat on my kits, but now something in me triggered to explore the technicalities in modding and painting a model. Did a couple of reading online blogs and tutorials for my reference and I was really pumped up to explore the possibilities on advanced modelling. 

And so I got the idea, the inspiration and my mojo back, its too early to say but It's nice to be back! :)