I was just looking at my RG Strike for ideas and I noted the gold stickers on the arm joints and how much I liked that detail so I decided to make similar details on these Strikes.
I used my stick aluminium foil and cut stickers just the right size, carefully placed them on the arms (4 stickers each arm) and then added a drop of gold Gundam marker.
The red and blue colours I’m going to use are an easy choice, but the “deactivated” colour scheme is much trickier! I decided to mix up my own colours using Createx white as a base and adding Payne’s Grey (which is a blueish black) until I got the shades I wanted. I did add a couple of drops of blue too.
These dark blue/grey pieces have just had their second coat applied. Once they dry they’ll look a fair bit darker.
These are the light blue/grey pieces and their second coat is in the process of drying and judging by how the first coat looked, they’ll go a little darker too.
For the second Strike that’s getting the normal colour scheme, I have the parts prepped, undercoated (with Alclad grey primer) and waiting. They’ll get Createx pearl red and blue, with a top coat of Tamiya clear red and blue respectively.
Here’s my first look at the colour schemes together. 
And even on these small detail pieces the contrast is nice. 
I’ve not detailed up the blue pieces at the back yet and they’re just loosely in place.
I did detail up the darker Payne’s Grey one though, with small amounts of Tamiya smoke to add depth to the edges.
Adding in the detail piece the back really starts to come together.
Adding the front section proves to be tricky though. It’s very tight and the dark grey is dry enough to take some finger pressure, but the blue is not, so I’ll leave that a while to really harden up.
That’s basically the trickiest part of this kit so far – the fit on the parts is way too tight.
Update
Here’s the chest with the rest of the blue armour in place. I finally got it on without damaging the piece.
Put a few dabs of paint on the eyes. First I painted the whole of the section with Tamiya clear yellow. Then, once dry I very very carefully painted Tamiya black around the raised eyes, careful not to stray over onto the eyes themselves. Then when the black was dry a drop of clear yellow on top just to add a touch more density to the yellow.
Here’s the painted parts assembled into the inner of the head. Now onwards to cutting out, trimming, undercoating, masking and painting all the white armour pieces!
Great job once again. If I were to use pearl white, do I need a white as base or any color will do? Thanks.
The Createx pearl white I use is pretty transparent and really works best over a white or very light grey background. It really doesn’t have good covering power so you’ve got to be careful that the background is not too far away from white and that it’s very clean without any imperfections that might show through.
A lot of my early kits used the pearl white, and when it works well I love the look of it. Sometimes it doesn’t seem to work all that well and hence I experimented with different whites to get the effect I was looking for. Currently my formula is to mix the Createx white (not pearl white) with a good amount of Future Finish and then thin it with Tamiya acrylic thinner. I put this on over Alclad grey primer and maybe use 2 or 3 thin coats of the white. The result is quite special to me, reminding me of fine quality white paper once the flat coat is applied. Perhaps the best example of a kit I’ve done using that white is the RX-78 v3. I’ll be using the same formula on these strikes, so we’ll see how it comes out again. I do think that substituting one of the layers of the white with a similar mix using pearl white might work well too, but it’s not something I’ve tried.
Thank you for replying to kaboku’s commen. A very good explanation of your paint process, for that particular colour.
Thank GN for the quick reply and helpful hints about the paint process. another question if you don’t mind. When you painted the eyes clear yellow, do you thin the paint first or just use it straight from the bottle?
For hand-painting details with the Tamiya clear paints I generally use them straight from the bottle, going for good coverage in a single coat and not wanting the paint to flow where it is not wanted.
Further to our discussion above on pearl white, I decided to use pearl white on one of the strikes. One set of armour is in white and grey, the other in pearl white and grey just as I outlined above. I painted both sets identically in the beginning – Alclad grey primer, a single coat of the Createx white thinned with Future Finish and Tamiya acrylic thinner. Then for the final coat I did the same white again on one set, but for the other I made up some Createx pearl white thinned also with the same mix of Future Finish and Tamiya acrylic thinner.
The result of the pearl pieces is gorgeous. They’re drying now after a top coat of Future Finish to protect them. I think this is the best I’ve had that particular pearl paint work for me.
Can’t wait for your next post to see the pearl white. What do you do with leftover thinned paints? Do you store them in a bottle or dispose?
I wash out used Tamiya paint bottles and use them for mixing up paints. So far I’ve found the Createx paints mixed and thinned as above store pretty well.
I’ll have to try to get some pictures done today of the pearl and normal white.
Thanks for your reply. I’m planning to start hand brushing details and have a go at oil washes when I had a thought on what to do with leftover thinned paints.
I’m not using oil washes (yet, perhaps) on this project. I’m using thinned Tamiya smoke for the panel lines, and it’s going good, but I have to be extra quick to wipe off any excess before it eats into and sticks to the Future Finish gloss coat. Results are good though! I may find I want to make some lines actually black and then I’ll dig out my oil wash.
I took some photos comparing the pearl and plain white pieces. The difference is appearing subtle, so we’ll see how the photos come out when I write up the blog post, and also how things look at the end of the build when I’ll flat-coat the white armour parts.
There’s great scope for detail painting on the armour. I’m doing double masking on some pieces to get grey, white and aluminium, which are going together rather nicely, especially with the smoke on the panel lines between the shades.
I’ve got the last white runners undercoated, and as the masking is quite fun on them, I’ll probably take photos specifically to illustrate the masking process.
Hi gn. Nice blog n being helpful replying comments so fast. Want to ask: Is it ok to pre-mix oil washes n store them then use when u want to or better to mix as you need the colors n keep the leftovers for future? Jz started getting more serious in the hobby so sorry for the newbie questions.
I use some recycled Tamiya paint jars for my oil washes. They seem to keep for ages and ages just fine. If they get low I just add a bit more oil paint and a bit more mineral spirits, give them a good mix and shake and all is good.