One of the prizes for the Summer War contest was a 1/550 HG Val-Walo, a Zeon mobile armor from 0083 Stardust Memory. Seeing as how this wasn’t an actual mobile suit I was left bewildered on what to do with it, But after getting the Sinanju’s and noticing its red color I thought this would be a great chance to test out a few things.

First and foremost I wanted to try a reverse wash. So I painted the stand black and let it cure, painted the Zeon symbol gold and let that cure, and finally painted it with semi gloss enamel. Surprisingly the removal of the wash was quick and easy giving me confidence in tackling the various gold trims of the Sinanju.

Once that was completed I moved on to the real undertaking, the metallic coat using enamel black. I tested out enamel gloss black and lacquer gloss black on spoons a few months ago and even with polishing the lacquer black’s shine couldn’t come close to the enamel’s, so I realized it was worth the hassle. Thus after priming I sprayed the enamel black on all the red pieces, gave it 2 days to cure somewhat and sprayed Alclad chrome on it. The result was great although slightly inconsistent.

Once the chrome had cured I sprayed a coat of clear red on top, which led to quite the disappointing development. First of all the thing I hate the most about painting clear coats happened once again, they ended up in different shades of red.

I assume this occurred from the inconsistencies in the enamel which was enhanced by the chrome or that I had to mix a second batch of clear red and somehow it ended up looking darker.

The other problem is that most of the shine that made me choose enamel over lacquer black was lost the second I started spraying the clear red on top. It still came out metallic but the mirror finish of the chrome was gone making me wonder if I should just use lacquer black for the Sinanju.

On a happier note the Val-Walo comes with a miniature Gundam GP01 FB and a Gundam GP02, and while I was waiting for the paint to dry on the Val-Walo I hand painted them.