Introduction:

Kit Talk:





Photos:

Detail Photos:

Action Poses:

It's been a really, really, long time since I have done any sort of "build off" type event with anyone else in the community. I'm not a super competitive person by nature and I don't consider modeling or art in general to be competitive activities. However, I find a build off and a hard deadline can help me try new things and focus my attention.The HG Barbatos is undeniably an amazing, inexpensive and modular design. However, that doesn't mean it isn't without it's pitfalls. This kit has a lot of hollow areas and it definitely requires some modification, masking and detail painting to get it looking right.From the outset I knew that I needed to do something beyond my normal clean built style. The 6th form of the Barbatos is probably the least popular version of the HG Barbatos. The HG version of the 6th form is weirdly out of proportion; the shoulder and chest armor is too large and chunky. The blocky forearm armor looks like the mobile suit is wearing cardboard boxes, and the high heeled feet are the absolute worst incarnation of this design; blech!In a very broad sense, my modifications were based on the design of the Hi-Resolution Barbatos 6th form. The Hi-Res version of the 6th form is absolutely gorgeous, and I have seriously been considering picking it up!I used the HG Barbatos 6th form as a base and pulled components from the 4th form and Barbatos Lupus.For paint I chose to use a off white, slightly de-saturated color scheme. The 'white' used on this kit is Gaia Color Neutral Gray #1 and each of the primary colors has this color incorporated into it to tone the color down.This build features way more hand brushing than any previous build. The symbols on the chest and knees, details on the face, backpack, weapon, feet, side skirts, etc, etc, etc all feature some amount hand brushed vallejo details.The decals are leftovers from the sheet included with a copy of Model Graphix. I purchased this decal set to complete the Ryusei-Go earlier in the year.If you haven't already seen the work in progress posts you can check them out here:These WIP posts will get into the meat of the modifications performed on this kit which will not be present in this post.Here you can see the inserts I made for the heels of the feet.I added a vent into the main thruster as it is normally hollow.I added this strip of pla-plate to the back on the waist to represent a data line.The design of the 4th form forearms must be modified to fit the outer 6th form perfectly.The WIP posts go into detail about modifying the shoulder armor.I modeled the scribing detail on the chest off the Hi-Res version.The red in the leg and chest symbols were painted by hand using a mix of red and silver vallejo paint.This was also used in many small details throughout the kit.