While the RX-78-2 is an old Perfect Grade with a pretty bad seam line on the rifle and somewhat questionable proportions I loved working on this kit. It’s simple outside and PG level frame gave me a great canvas for detailing.

As with most areas of this build I made changes along the way as I began comparing this kit to other PG RX-78-2 builds that I found. After some inspiration I went with different shades of white on the outside and various shades of gray and metallic on the inside. For the inner frame I used Alclad Black Primer, Steel, Jet Exhaust, Chrome, Pale Gold, Aluminum, and Mr. Hobby Clear Blue. The gray was a custom gray mixture of Plamo Colours White and Dark Gray. The pistons were coated in chrome out of the box while the various light gray bits shown on the inner frame are actually poly caps which this build had an extremely large amount of. For the outer armor Alclad White Primer was used on the white plastic, Mr Base White on the red plastic, and Alclad Black Primer on any piece that I wanted to look black. Since the black primer was so smooth and clean I just used it as the paint for the black armor. The red was painted with Plamo Colours Bright Red. The yellow was a base of Plamo Colours Bright Orange with a post shade of Plamo Colours Golden Yellow. The white was a pre shade of Mr. Color Gray FS36320 with Plamo Colours White on top. The gray was Mr. Color Light Dull Gray. Finally the beam rifle lens was Testors enamel Gloss Black, Alclad Chrome, and Tamiya Clear Yellow.

Since the RX-78-2 and the Nu are both Amuro Ray suits the decals and details of the two could be combined in ways which felt natural. I studied the decal placement on the Nu ver.ka and tried to replicate them using the smaller red decals which were mostly from a 1/100 MG Victory Gundam decal sheet. The larger decals were custom and really were designed to be the focal points of the kit especially the shield but became more of a way to break up all the empty space found in the gray sections.

This build went down to the wire as the Playing with Plamo 2013 contest entry deadline was quickly approaching and the decals were stuck traveling in the mail (since it was the Christmas season), but instead of settling and having a situation like the Zaku Shiki where a rush to finish on time cost me I held out for the decals and came away with a build that was not just a winner but one I was really proud of.