SD BB Senshi NZ-666 Kshatriya

The Kshatriya is my favorite mobile suit design of all time. Its incredible launch and combat sequence is the first thing you see in Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, which was in turn the first Gundam series I watched as an adult. I instantly fell in love with its huge, chunky design with the massive modular binders and its unique funnel weaponry. 

I struggled to find this SD kit but eventually managed to get my hands on one when it was briefly back in stock at U.S.A. Gundam Store. With my mini display case full and all my SD goals otherwise accomplished, this will likely be my final SD kit. I didn't originally plan on painting the full thing, but ultimately decided to give it all the love I could. 

• Fully Painted - Gaianotes lacquers for all airbrushing; Testors / Model Master enamels for hand-detailing and reverse wash on black/white detail areas.

Turnaround shots. This was a tricky kit as it has a low piece count and not a lot of color separation. As such, there was a lot of tricky masking (tricky for me anyway) that I had to do, with mixed results. The "eyes" on the binders are pretty jagged around the edges - the result of me not being able to get a clean mask between the white and green areas, and trying to touch it up by hand. 

I did a lot of scribing here. The binders were difficult and I made a lot of mistakes, particularly in the long horizontal grooves. After feeling like I butchered the grooves on the rear two binders, I opted to leave the front two alone. At least they're symmetrical!

If you look closely at the rear-left binder you'll notice that it's a slightly cooler green than the rest of the light green armor. I'm not totally sure what happened, but clearly my paint mix was off when I sprayed that piece. 

I am quite happy with the black and white detail areas, i.e. the chest and sleeves - once again the reverse wash technique comes through with great results. I opted to mask and spray these parts with a gloss topcoat, which I think adds a nice contrast with the surrounding flat-coated armor. 

Detail of front body. I'm pretty satisfied with the look of the mega particle cannons on the chest. The white details on the skirt are a bit sloppy, but not the worst. 

Detail of head. It's tough to see in the narrow visor area, but I performed a candy coat on the mono eye - silver base with clear red and a little bit of clear white to give it a pink/magenta hue. 

Rear details. I opted to include the Marida Cruz pilot sticker on the back collar. 

Sub-Arm poses. The interior of the binders don't have much detail since this is an SD kit (i.e. they left out the funnel chambers) but they do at least have the extendable Sub-Arms - well, they're less "extendable" and more "reversible". Still, a nice touch. 

Beam Saber shots. The Kshatriya sports no weaponry other than its aforementioned funnel system (which, again, isn't present in this SD kit) and a pair of beam sabers. I like the dual sword look. I used clear Fluorescent Green on top of a white base to achieve the gradient effect. 

Final product box shot - an awesome, if challenging to detail, chunky little kit!