There is a good set of water-slide decals with each of these kits.
The decals went on smoothly. 
On the shoulders, the decals have to go over an edge, but they conformed well to the underlying shape. The decals are not yet complete. I like to do decals in stages and do a top-coat of Future Finish in-between to firmly fix them in place. As with much in modelling, it’s best not to rush!
While I put decals on both kits, I started with the Launcher paint and assembly. The backpack was done with Alclad chrome over Tamiya gunmetal. I then masked some sections and airbrushed Tamiya smoke.
For the main parts of the Launcher, I had to mix a green paint. The goal was to match the dark blue of the deactivated Strike, but with a green tint to the hue rather than the blue tint.
The formula for the green paint was to use a base of Createx white, and enough black paint to get the grey dark enough. Then I added Createx transparent green until I had the desired tint. I thinned the mix with Future Finish and a little Tamiya acrylic thinner.
The wings were painted with Tamiya gunmetal, masked, then Alclad grey undercoat to go under the green I’d mixed earlier.
For the yellow parts, I simply went with Tamiya lemon yellow. The gun section was done with Alclad chrome, with some drops of Tamiya smoke in the recesses to add depth and dimension.
The launcher gun itself is enormous!
Here’s the Launcher next to a leg so you can see the size.
Here’s the support arm. I painted the cylindrical sections with Alclad chrome and masked to allow me to paint the support structure in Tamiya gunmetal with a coat of Tamiya smoke on top to darken the parts down.
Now after a black oil paint wash, all the parts need a good top coat of Future Finish to seal everything in and protect ahead of decals.
Although the Launcher is highly detailed, it’s construction and fit is not as strong as the main Strike. The plastic quality remains high, and there’s good use of under-gating on the parts, but they’re often a very tight fit needing significant force to get some of them firmly together.
This looks amazing. Makes me want to get the model. I’m just starting to build (Only done an SD and working, slowly, on a HG Strike Rouge). I’m trying to just build the HG and then move on to some MG models and really try painting/making it look “good”.
You should think about posting more tutorials, they’re fun to read and they are giving me ideas/showing me things I didn’t think were possible.
Thanks for the feedback. I’d like to write more tutorials, but it’s ideas of what you want to read and see that really help there. Next time I pull the airbrush apart to clean it I’m going to photograph it to show how easy they are to keep clean as I know that I was certainly concerned to pull it all apart the first time I did it!
I’d not really recommend this particular kit if you’re new to modelling mechs. Although it’s good for a 3rd party, it’s not the standard of the proper Bandai kits and you’ll find some of the part fitting issues (especially on the weapon packs) rather frustrating….
Well not 100% new, I built whatever the grade was way back in the day (10+ years ago), but literally just right out of the box. Now I’m doing it again but attempting to paint as well. I’m starting with some HGs and I have a few MGs to move onto (eventually).
Right now I’m going to paint with spray/brush.
I have wondered about air brushes though, cleaning and actually using.
As for tutorials, I guess how you clean your parts, how you sand, anything really. The tutorials you have up were super helpful and actually fun to read, as are your WIP updates.
I’d wanted to get into using an airbrush for long enough, and as luck would have it the local art shop had a sale on…. The learning curve isn’t too bad, but where I fell down was knowing how and when to clean, and of course, as soon as I got into regular full cleaning the performance really improved. It’s an enjoyable way to paint though, although to get the best out of it you’ll be doing a fair bit of experimentation into paint mixes, thinners and the like, as well as the effect of the primer you use.
I’m not one for cleaning parts. I’ve never found the need and of course if I ever notice primer not sticking to the plastic, it’d be something I’d try to see if it helped.
For nub management I like to use my scalpel to gently smooth off the nub, shaving thin layers of nub plastic until it’s smooth, taking great care not to cut into the body plastic. It’s not the safest method, but well done it’s quick and effective. If you muck it up, it’s fix-with-putty time.
When I get into sanding, it’s mostly for when I’m doing seam-line removal. I hate doing this, so try my best to pick kits that don’t need it, however with a kit like the Patlabor that looks fantastic but has awful seam lines, it’s an absolute must. I’m not too fussy on what sandpaper I use, usually some fine wet-n-dry. Using a good primer really helps there and I’m finding the Alclad grey primer excellent because if you spray it on a little thick it does good gap/scratch filling.
I like doing the WIPs, especially going into what I’m up to with the painting and mixing colours, and it allows me to show off a lot of the frame details that you don’t generally see on the finished photos.
I’m going to try to do more tutorials, but this time of year is really busy on business so it’ll be probably be a bit later on in the year before I get to more.