I was supposed to post this within February, even took photos after the first batch of partial painting sessions. But I wasn’t able to for reasons.
After completing the HG Gundam Naion in January, I wanted to follow it up with the HGUC Gundam F91 because of how similar the Naion’s Vajra and the F91’s VSBRs are. That said, I got sidetracked with the HGUC Nu Gundam thanks to Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe dropping in Japanese theaters. Now that I’ve went ahead with the HGUC F91, let’s just say they have similarities.
Much of the color correction needed for the HGUC Nu Gundam, which is addressed in the Entry Grade version, are the orange thruster details and parts of the Fin Funnels. Now take that large mobile suit, make it much smaller, and have even more recessed thruster details needing orange paint. What you get is the color correction for the HGUC Gundam F91.
Fortunately for me, I shifted from spray cans to Dspiae’s wash free airbrush system back in December. It’s far from being the best airbrush system in the market, but it’s perfect for my use case. I was able to have better control to paint the small details on the F91, in contrast to the paint you’ll waste painting the same details with spray cans.
Masking these areas aren’t the most difficult since most of them are regularly shaped like rectangles and triangles. The most challenging ones are the Beam Shield generators and the head vulcans since they’re really small. Not to mention I need to do these twice since I’m doing a double build for this kit.
Why am I building the HGUC F91 twice? Mainly because I’m not a fan of the slight disassembly needed to change the head to its open face configuration. I would’ve preferred to build two separate head units. But since I already have two copies, building just a head from the second copy would be wasting a whole kit. So, I just opted to build the one to represent the F91 when the Metal Peel-off Effect (or MEPE) phenomenon is triggered. This includes the head with the split face plate and the deployed cooling fins on the shoulders.
For this double build, I decided to go first with the “MEPE” F91 to get familiarized with the assembly and all its nuances. I should be able to complete the standard in the upcoming weekend, bringing me to yet another selection of which kit to build next.
EDIT: I wasn’t able to complete the vanilla F91 build last weekend, but I’ve started yesterday with the assembly and I’m not seeing any reasons preventing its completion within this week.
