WiP: HGUC Kshatriya #5 (Final)

So, the HGUC Kshatriya.  Otherwise known as the Green Beast.  This ended up being a huge kit, and for those who aren’t familiar with things, could end up assuming this was an MG due to size alone.  As mentioned in the previous WiP, the Kshatriya took around 9 hours, or if you added in actual painting time, around 12 hours.  While not having an inner frame comparable to an MG, there are quite enough parts to snip out and clean up. 

As for colors, I had not planned to paint it originally, but towards the end of the build I figured what the hell, and well, you see what happened.  In actuality, not  the entire kit was painted, I didn’t paint the white and yellow parts, but for everything else I used the following paint:

Light green parts: Tamiya TS-20 Metallic Green, followed by TS-13 Glossy Clear
Dark green parts: TS-43 Racing Green, followed by TS-65 Pearl Clear
Black parts:  TS-40 Metallic Black
Blue parts: TS-64 Dark Mica Blue
Trim: Plated Silver Gundam Marker
Mono-eye: Fluorescent Pink Gundam Marker

I had mentioned before that I had thought the paint job didn’t come out as well as the Sinanju.  Mainly I say this because I moved from doing Gunpla in our living to our spare room, and with that I’ve vacated the balcony for painting.  So I tried spraying out the window, which while is good for top coating and clear coating, I found it harder to gauge the distances, which meant I oversprayed on a few parts.  However, the more I look at it, the more it looks like it came out fine, and for the most part you can’t tell.  As for color choices, the metalillic green was of course a no brainer.  The bigger problem was the dark green parts, and there are no metallic color sprays out there that would cover it.  So I went with Racing Green, and sprayed liberal coats of Pearl Clear to give it that flake/speck style that metallic colors give.  It came out fairly decent, albiet hard to see on pictures perhaps. Other than that the other colors worked out nice, and definitely gives the Kshatriya more life.

In regards to posing, the Kshatriya does end up being top heavy, depending on which way you pose the giant wings.  In fact, it’s so heavy it can tip over an action based depending on the postioning.  However, the wings give it considerable length, which ends up being bigger even than my poster sized piece of paper that I’m using for pictures.  The beam sabers can somewhat fit in the extending arms, but it’s more of a balancing act.  Unfortunately, since you only get two sabers, you can only go so far with multiple beam saber madness, unless you scrounge up some sabers from other kits.  Still, when paired with the upcoming HGUC Unicorn kits, I can imagine some great photo shoots will be appearing in magazines and online.

Overall, I found this to be a great kit, both to build, and pose.  It has near MG quality design and quality, and comes highly recommended.   I personally like the designs from this era of UC, and I will be looking forward to the Zulu and other forthcoming kits in the Unicorn Gundam series.

So, enough text, here’s pictures for you.  Questions, comments, and scathing criticism is always appreciated.