With only a few more months in the year I thought it I should start working on the Sazabi Ver Ka I got for the HLJ competition at the beginning of the year. When a new kit like the Sazabi is as popular as it was you become inundated with various builds using various schemes and modifications. So because of that I kinda felt obligated to do something extra.

After doing the Sinanju last year I had left over silver base and candy red Alclad paints so I thought a metallic candy red coat for the Sazabi was the route I should take. Now if you have read the posts I made a year ago about the Sinanju you would know that it wasn’t a enjoyable build and the candy coat was partially responsible so I had some misgivings about doing this again but the Sazabi on a whole is a better kit so I felt any frustration would be put off by the build itself, and for now that is the case.

Before starting I redid some of the candy tests from last year and found that I should have applied more coats of the red as my Sinanju tends to not look as vibrant in low light. I also decided on trying to maintain the 3 shades of red with the metallics.

During the snap fit I did notice a few seams on the weapons but what surprised me was the large sinkhole on the commander fin, it was large enough that I was surprised no one has ever mentioned it. I filled them both but that sinkhole seemingly wasn’t cleaned up as well as I thought it was.

While spraying the spoons I also tried to figure out what a base coat of Alclad black primer instead of enamel gloss black would look like and while the shine wasn’t as good it was very close. With that in mind I primed the medium and dark reds with black Alcald primer, the light red in white Alclad primer, and then once cured covered everything with a coat of silver base.

I gave both the white primed pieces and the medium shaded red pieces 2 coats of candy red, while giving the darker red only 1 coat. The new light red is brighter than the rest but doesn’t have a deep shine. On the other hand the new medium and dark red both share a deep shine with the dark red being more of a ruby-red.

With the outer red armor done this is where I have to stop for now as I have finally gotten my first commission and it’s on quite the short schedule so I am shelving this build for about a month or more, at least that will give the enamel plenty of time to cure.