With the major painting complete (just really doing touch-ups, or adding detail as I see where the pieces go when assembled), progress is good, although slower than with other kits due to the complexity, the screws and the sheer number of parts on the internal skeleton. These sections join the legs onto the hips. The “wrap-around” part comes moulded with articulation built in, on the same runner as the fingers.I added some bands of Tamiya clear red around the ends of the hydraulics, and the pistons moulded into the inner part got some details added with the clear orange I’d mixed up for the rest of the hydraulics. This is the sub-assembly for the top of the legs, and some of the hydraulics for the knee. The knee sections use use gigantic polycaps!  Putting the knees onto the lower legs. I can now also see where the hydraulics for the foot will join. Adding more bulk, the legs are looking really good. You can see me adding more details with the Tamiya clear red as I go along. It looks great on top of the Tamiya smoke (over Alclad chrome). Now I get to add on the vernier rocket sections I’d built earlier. These legs are impressively detailed. Now the chest section begins with the energy pipes. Each element was shaded with the Tamiya Weathering Master oil effect as they were added to the chain. Getting all the elements on with the spring stretched was a challenge. Getting the screw safely without all the pieces falling off was an even greater challenge. It’s at times like these that extra hands would come in useful! Here you can see how the energy pipes attach with a small screw. Earlier this small detail piece at the back was chrome with details. I decided to go over the chrome with the transparent orange I’d mixed up for the hydraulics. Now we get to see some of the detail section in place. The hydraulics are a little tricky to get on because the side panel has a small tab that holds them in place. The upper section of the hydraulics went on great on this side, but on the other I took about three goes to get to top bracket to hold onto both the shoulder joint and the wall it latches onto. Now with the lower sections added, we can add this armour piece to hold the energy pipes properly in place. I despise the small energy pipes on the 1/100 scale models like the Sinanju and Zaku II, but at 1/60 they’re bulky enough you can hold them to de-nub and sand them properly and to give them a decent paint job and details. I really like how the shading and mild weathering on the armour sections is working. Here with the top section in place, I really am going to enjoy how this model looks before all the armour gets added. Now even more pre-prepared detail sections can be added. These main backpack rockets are great pieces in themselves, but they also look really good in place on the model… …and from all angles. Here you can see the shoulder joint brackets that gave me such bother to snap into place. Again, I’m very pleased with how the chrome / smoke looks on the metal. It looks metallic without being over-the-top, and the smoke adds a lot of depth to the pieces, bringing out their detail. This was a tricky to build section, but as you can see, now complete, all the effort into the detail sections was worth it, and with the design of the kit, they’re also pretty visible when complete too.

It seems that while building you place a number of polycaps to facilitate how the outer armour joins onto the skeleton. I think this is great as it’s going to mean I can display the kit with or without armour and not have to worry too much about damage when removing the armour. On the more modern PG kits I have, I find that the outer armour can be very very tight when joined onto the skeleton and a great pain to remove.

 These hydraulics even have springs in them. The waist section panels are quite simple, but I like the small detail piece that holds the polycap in place. I followed through with the red theme on the axel joint details. This is where the hydraulics with springs end up – front and back in waist section. There’s a cut-away panel to see one of them which is quite nice, the other visible end on. The waist section looked more complex in the instructions than it’s build. It went to together easier than I thought it would. Now that the waist section is done I can join together the components of the skeleton. This is an impressive kit!