RG Exia has been a fun build so far….
The torso is very different from other Gundam. It has a circular theme around the GN Drive. 
The legs are unique too, with their large knees for the GN Condensers.
You can’t have a good kit unless it has good feed. Exia’s feet are typic RG with good articulation. 
And here’s the GN Drive.
Which can even open up slightly.
The legs have silver stickers, which go behind these thin iridescent semi-transparent strips. They’re a touch fiddly, but the end result looks good.
The feet get their white armour pieces added. 
And a clear green plastic cover over the sticker as part of the GN Condenser. The design of the legs is nice, but the knee sections were tricky to snap into place.
For the central section of the torso, there’s a green sticker that has some slits cut in it to facilitate it going onto the curve.
It’s quite nice how everything builds around the circular frame.
It’s also interesting how the yellow vents form the structure to hold their blue armour pieces that come across the chest.
From behind you can see the three arms that will hold the GN Drive.
But the GN Drive was a very tight fit and very tricky to get into place.
And the front skirt section was the trickiest part yet! Because you build the skirt onto the bottom of the torso, there’s no way you can pre-assemble it and then add it to the torso, which means you can’t even get your fingers easily into place to snap the sections around the small articulating arms. My trusty tweezer/pliers did the trick, but it wasn’t easy. The read skit was a bit easier, but still very fiddly.
The shield and swords went together well. It’s nice that they came as chromed pieces which really makes them stand out.
And here’s the remaining painted pieces, ready to be assembled.
Arms go on next. They’re quite simple, but still a touch tricky…. (And I forgot the darn stickers so I’ll have to take another look at them later)
The shoulders didn’t seem to want to go together all that well, but the plastic film wasn’t too bad to connect over to the tops of the arms.
And the little clip just needed the pliers to snap it into place.
The white pearl finish has not come out as nice as expected. The Alclad satin varnish didn’t protect the pieces well.
But mostly compile he’s looking good.
And although he’ll be requiring a bit more work to fully complete, it does look quite a nice kit. It’s probably the trickiest RG I’ve built!
I agree the front skirts, are a touch on the fiddly side, but once on work really well.
Nice paintjob as always. How do you pose your completed kits without scratching the paint job? I finished a kit and when I tried to pose it, the paint keeps chipping
I actually find assembly harder on the paint job than posing. They key thing is just to top-coat the pieces and make sure they’re thoroughly dry and cured. For some parts that are really tight, I’ve had paint scratch off, but for the most part, I’ve not had too much problems there. I think the acrylics I tend to use are not the strongest of paints. I can get quite hard on the Alclad white and grey undercoat with little sign of damage for instance, but the red or blue or white Createx pearl paints really need some strong top-coating and a good undercoat to keep them safe. But they look so good when finished so I continue to use them.
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