SD Cross Silhouette MS-06 Zaku II

This humble model represents two milestones - my first SD Cross Silhouette kit and my first use of lacquer paints. 

This is actually a Char's Zaku II Custom which I repainted to the standard Zaku II green color. Why? I had purchased the Char version shortly before the 40th anniversary SD Cross Silhouette RX-78-2 / Char's Zaku II Custom two-pack was announced. Wanting to represent both a regular Zaku and Char's custom red version, I pre-ordered the anniversary set and decided to alter this one to be a regular Zaku. 

The only real customizing I had to do was to fill in the hole in the forehead where the Char version's fin would sit. That was a reasonably simple job which just required some Tamiya putty and sanding. 

As for the lacquer paint, there is simply no going back. I found it to be better in almost every way - easier to mix, easier to spray, quicker to dry, more vivid colors, more even finish, AND you can panel line directly on top of it without a clear coat! The colors here ended up a bit brighter than I originally intended - I would have preferred a more muted military green rather than this vivid color. 

I don't normally like to do a lot of seam line removal (I'm not great at it), but in this case I felt compelled to at least fuse the seams on the spiky shoulder pauldron. I'm quite happy with the results, as you can't see where the parts connected at all!

I absolutely love the optional missile pods on the legs. The slightly darker gray used there and elsewhere on the kit was hand-painted with Testors enamels, as were the red missile heads. 

Closeup of the Heat Hawk (axe). I tried to do a white-to-clear gradient paint effect as I've been able to successfully pull off on beam sabers, but it didn't quite work here due to the much shorter span. 

The bazooka as a pretty cool accessory, and I think the little details I added made it pop nicely. 

I'm not sure if it was the lacquer paint, the lacquer clear coat, or just the colors, but the transparent stickers' edges are much more noticeable on this kit than on others I've done. 

Against convention, I used lacquer paint to hand-paint the bright pink of the weapon lenses. It was a challenge since lacquers dry so incredibly quickly, but it was the only paint I had that produced such a nice bright pink. 

I accidentally broke the neck peg while assembling, so unfortunately the neck (and subsequently the mono-eye) are stuck permanently in this position. That's ok though, as I'm not one to re-pose my kits much once I find a stance that I like. It's a great little kit and I had a lot of fun learning the art of lacquer painting!