I'm about 18 months in. Mostly collecting parts. Every few months, I get motivated to build and catch up. The bottom is mostly done and it's time to start laying down paint.

My quick review. The kit is mostly awesome, though overpriced. Hard for me not to think that when you consider what you can buy for $60 in a hobby store vs what you receive each month. The only negative about this kit is battle damage. Easily fixed though with some putty, elbow grease, and dremel. That having been said, I don't regret the decision to dive in. It's nice to be close enough to see the finish line.

I likely won't do any weathering until everything is painted, because it's important this is consistently done throughout. I'm painting this the same way I would a tank or plane or jet. I'm a big believer in pre-shading. I use Tamiya's rattle can primer, and everything else is via airbrush. I pre-shade. Then I lay down thin coats of the base color until pre-shading is subtle to my liking. I then mix some white with base color and make some panels slightly lighter. I want each panel to have a slightly different hue, but I don't want it to look like a checkerboard.

I like the shading. Which paint are you using for the base coat? I am still considering a change and am curious what other builders are using.

Hi mbl,

I'm pretty much at the stage you're at, (Issue 55) and I'm conflicted as to whether I should wait until I've built the base of the top hull and the mandibles before I start adding preshading, and weathering so that I can keep it all consistent. Issue 56 talks about painting and gluing in the actuators for the thrusters (those T shaped bits at the back)and I'm worried about doing this. So do I go for it and fully paint the bottom hull (currently it's primed with Tamiya insignia white but that is all)or do I keep building but not gluing any details on either hull until they are both basically complete and I can shade / colour / weather them together?

I'm as good as a newbie on this - I last painted a model when I was 16, I'm now 52 and coming back into the hobby.

I'm afraid that because I'm new to all of this (I've just bought an airbrush and compressor - still in the box), I'll forget down the road how I achieved certain effects if I do the top and bottom hulls separately and end up with a mismatch. Or am I worrying about nothing?

Are you in Richmond, Surrey? If you are, I live in Kew and would love to have a chat about your work-flows etc if you wouldn't mind?

best

Ravi