K-2SO

This is my first "large-scale" Japanese figure kit and it was both a pleasant, and frustrating, change of pace from the kind of stuff I normally do. The neck, arm, wrist, hip, and leg joints are all fully poseable; except for the feet, which I glued to the base to keep the figure stable since its quite top-heavy. I assembled this in smaller sub-assemblies at first to make it easier to prime and paint.

The thing I like about Star Wars is the grittiness of it, so I really wanted to make this model look worn without getting too far from the source material. As such, I primed the model in Krylon grey spray primer, hit it with a few coats of hairspray, and then airbrushed a 50/50 mix of Tamiya Black and Sea Blue. Once that dried, I used water to add a chipped paint effect along edges and points of articulation.

I picked out bare metal parts in Vallejo Oily Steel with a light wash of Secret Weapon Soft Body Black. The lighter and darker grey areas are Pewter and Pavement Grey, respectively, with the "warning" areas being Tamiya Lemon Yellow, with a slight coat of hairspray added between each layer to give it a mottled, worn effect. Weathering was done almost entirely with oil washes. To replicate the buildup of dust and dirt in crevices, I added dry pigment to the oil wash. The base itself was from an old Dust model - I ripped out the plastic bottom, glued in a metal washer for weight, primed in Krylon Rust Red, hit it with some hairspray, and then airbrushed it Tamiya Flat Black. I added the caution markings and script decal from an ancient Robotech model (the Star Wars universe has a funky alphabet and that came close enough).

Gold, Figures Category - NIMCON 2021