Now that my parts are ready for the all-new all-different Gatlings, I need to disassemble the kit a bit to repaint some parts I messed up. There are three on the top of my head : the elbows (I messed up the chrome), the knees (same problem) and the shoulders (I really want to add some red lining to the side vents).

Now, I don’t know if you guys have already tried, but taking apart a painted kit is a nightmare. I don’t know, maybe I’m not spraying enough clear coat when I’m done painting, but my kits scratch very easily. I’m not really keen on having to repaint a part (primer – (base) – main color – clear – decal – clear) so I’ll be reaaaaaally careful. I still managed to scratch a part, mind you, but it was easily fixed.

Anyway, here’s the new look of the elbows :

I ditched the Alclad chrome for some Tamiya flat aluminium. Dunno why, I felt it would work better here. I don’t know if it’s “better” but it’s definitely “good enough” for me !

Now, I should have done the knees in the same session, but the truth is I’m afraid to take apart the legs. The elbows were fairly easy to get to (only needed to remove 5 parts on the way), but the knees look like a hell of a lot of work for a barely noticeable result. For the time being, I’m leaving it at that.

The red on the elbows is on standby too, for another reason. The vents are very easy to get to (only one part is covering it, though I would need to remove the arm to get the shoulder piece out), but the actual masking is very hard to make. At least, I’m having troubles and I know for a fact that the red paint will bleed over the chrome. So, while I’m waiting for the issue to fix itself, I’m going to paint the Buster rifle, Gatlings and knife.

Here’s the painted Buster Rifle :

Only a clear gloss coat and some decals left. That part was pretty uneventful. The same can be said for the gatlings, since I’m spraying Tamiya’s Dark Iron on everything 🙂

For the gatling visors I used some stickers I’ve had for a while and boy do they look good !

Here’s the stuff I’m using :

I’ve already used it for the eyes of my 00Qan[T]. I think you can use some aurora film instead, but I don’t know if I’d be able to cut it right. So I’m settling for a (much) more expensive solution instead…

Now, onto the combat knife a.k.a the masking of death :

So I thought “Wouldn’t it be cool to get a combat knife in dark metal but chrome the knife’s edge ? It would be cool, but probably hard to pull off. Nah, it can’t be that hard, right ?”.

Right.

You already know I suck at masking, so I don’t know why I keep doing this to myself. Anyway, it took several tries with the masking tape but I got a somewhat decent shape. So I crossed my fingers and sprayed away.

Success ! Yeah, the red is messed up, I touched it up later with a paint brush. But the main event, the chromed edge doesn’t look half bad ! The pic doesn’t give it justice, this is bona fide Alclad 2 Chrome on a gloss black base here, so it’s really as shiny as a metal part, I’m quite happy with it.