This build was undertaken during a month of very rough weather, which is why, during an unusually warm Saturday in mid-January, I grabbed all of the Mk. II’s weapons - and its head - and took them outside to be clear coated.
This initial round of spraying led to so-so results. A slight breeze made application difficult, and some clumsiness on my part forced me to spray the shield multiple times just to get an even coat. It didn’t really work in the end: there’s a sort of “dark spot” where you can tell there was less paint applied. You can’t really notice it unless you examine it under just the right lighting, but this makes the second shield in the row which didn’t take well to being painted.
The head gave me another kind of heartache. I was hoping that it would give me a feel for how the rest of the body would look with clear coat. But when the paint dried the results were … inconclusive. The plastic had a nice look and feel, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that the color took on a purple hue. I worried that the same would happen to the body, but I had a lot of work to do before I would be able to find out.
Little did I know I would have to wait even longer. I actually finished construction on the model over a week ago, but a barrage of snowstorms made it impossible to spray down the body. I was thinking I would have to wait until the Spring to do so, but the snow just cleared out of the backyard a few days ago, and the weekend offered a brief taste of higher temperatures. And so there I was on Friday evening, just as the sun was fading, spraying down every remaining piece of the Mk. II under a dim outdoor light. The next morning I went back out to do some touching up, and found myself with just enough paint left in the can.
Speaking of which, I ended up using not only the entire can of spray paint, but also the paint leftover from OG Gundam (about a quarter of the can, give or take). This was entirely due to the model’s numerous extra pieces. In addition to all the Test Suit parts, the Mk II. comes with several alternate hands (even more so than the previous two models). These pieces, while small, still required a healthy spray or two to cover; I won’t even hazard a guess as to how much paint I “wasted” this way, but it had to be done.
Looking back, spray painting on Friday night wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but it came out okay! There aren’t any bare spots, and the blue plastic looks great when clear coated. The next post will be the penultimate in the series, where the finished Gundam Mk. II will make its first appearance.