Strike Freedom

 

I wanted to take a few minutes to share some photos and some thoughts for a quick build I put together. The fantastic GoodGuyDan is having a Unicorn build off this month and as I have a unquenchable thirst for Unicorn kits I had to participate. Instead of building one of the several RG 'corns that I have waiting for love, or the MGEX that just came in, I figured I'd help an old boy out. Specifically, this one,

After four months of paint, tears, and more paint... my black Perfect Grade Strike Freedom is complete. For those of us with ADHD I'm going to kick things off by posting all the pictures. From a technical prospective they're rather 'blah' due to the small size of my studio and the humongous span of this kit's wings, among other reasons. You can read more about that, along with very little detail about the build, after all the pretty pictures.

 

The Pictures

 

Click to Enlarge | On Flickr

 

So at long last the body of my PG Strike Freedom is complete...

 

Click to Enlarge | On Flickr

 

Can you spot the issues? The silvering on some of the decals is painfully evident in this shot. I can also spot at least three areas of unfortunate paint transfer via parts rubbing. The clear pieces on the wings, which normally would have had a sticker applied to them, got a coat of clear red followed by some dull coat for frosting. Probably the only aspect of the kit that turned out better than expected. Though it does clash with the rest of the design. Sadness.

 

It's been awhile since I updated with my progress on this guy...

 

Click to Enlarge | On Flickr

 

She's certainly been giving me some heart burn for a while. What's been killing me mostly are the decals and the dull top coat.

 

The kit is slowly moving along. Following the issues chronicled in my last update a lot of pieces have now been repainted and received new decals. Now I await some 60 degree days to give them a good top coat. I do have some some other pieces finished though. Unfortunately there's some silvering/air bubble issues on the shoulder armor. Oh well. Not much I can really do about it without delaying the whole project yet again to order more decals.
Click to Enlarge | On Flickr

It's been a while since I updated the progress on this kit. I ran into issues last week during an unexpected temperature drop. I didn't notice that the temperature had dropped ten degrees from the previous day to the high 40's. That difference in temperature was just enough to ruin the dull coat on a dozen or more pieces that I had spend the previous weekend applying decals on. An example below. The blotchy piece on the left was coated in the colder weather, the piece on the right the day before.
Click to Enlarge | On Flickr

Behold, the long awaited decals!
Click to Enlarge | On Flickr

Click to Enlarge | On Flickr

Click to Enlarge | On Flickr

Click to Enlarge | On Flickr

After some work I've completed the wing structure for my PG Strike Freedom, and painted 'em. Instead of a blueish-black they're now a flat black (with a bit of temp gloss coat to protect the paint for the time being). The gold bits have all been repainted and they look fantastic. For comparison, a straight build shot from Dalong...
Click to Enlarge | via Dalong.net