Zaku Warrior – I complete my 1st (barely) airbrushed Gunpla Kit

I custom painted and weathered this Zaku Warrior with the intention of entering it into the Queensland Model Hobbies Expo (QMHE) competition. The Gunpla model kit used was the High Grade (HG) Gunner Zaku Warrior, released by Bandai in 2005.

My objectives for this build were to experiment with physical damage, achieve realistic chipping, and create a worn paint finish. To accomplish these, I sought inspiration and examples from the internet

I found examples of chipping from Hi Arc Foundry (HAF) (HAF-YouTube, HAF-Instagram). From the example this method of chipping can be controlled and uses Acrylic paints which I have on hand.

For a worn paint finish I new immediately where to look and found an example from Lincoln Wright at Paint on Plastic (YouTube, Instagram). It will be hard to emulate this finish exactly but I’ll also aim for a similar colour scheme. A challenge I see is getting a mottled look with enough poke through chipping using acrylic paints.

Roughing Out

The large gun in this Gunpla kit is definitely a highlight, and the final pose should emphasize it. Conversely, there are parts I wanted to conceal, like the shoulder joint for the shield. Since I can’t 3D print flexible filaments, I couldn’t find an alternative way to recreate this joint without using the original poly-caps.

This left me with a pose where the mobile suit is landing or hovering, looking like its about to take aim. Having the mobile suit in this pose also meant I could be flexible with my ideas for the base.

Clean Up

Being a HG Gunpla kit, the usual cleanup was needed on the calves, thighs, forearms, and shoulders. The seamline on the calf runs around to behind the knee armor, making it difficult to clean up. Apart from this seamline, Tamiya Extra Thin Cement and scribing chisels handled the remaining seamlines effectively.

However, they did not take care of assembly, so when you glue your shoulders on wrong, its time for the saw blade. A silver lining from this mistake was having to make the shoulders “c-clip” connection to remove them. Which allowed me to paint the shoulders separately.

Customizations

Customizations were not the focus of this build as I concentrated on enhancing details already on the kit. HG kits tend to dial back pointed details so I enhanced them with left over runners, Tamiya Extra Thin Cement and superglue.

After sanding everything thing back to a point, I found that the helmet visor looked bland in comparison. So to accentuate this feature, I added plastic plate to the underside and sanded it back to create a more exciting detail.

I created the physical damage on the kit using a soldering iron, then applied Tamiya Extra Thin Cement to smooth out the stringy and wispy bits. To maintain control, I used a narrow tip on the soldering iron. I limited the physical damage to six specific areas, focusing heavily on and around the shield.

3D Printing

The base for this kit was made from a recycled plastic lid, which had a typical grip pattern around its circumference. But don’t worry, 3D printing came to the rescue! I designed a base rim to fit over the pattern and cover it up.

The 3D printed part needed sanding to remove the layer lines, but this was light work when compared to the heavy sanding or grinding required to remove the grip pattern.

Painting

Painting the Test Pieces

To begin emulating the worn paint finish I made a custom mix of acrylic paint that was translucent enough to allow the base colours to show through. I used an old paint pot to store the mix and wrote down the approximant recipe.

I made three test pieces so I could vary each step starting with the primer colour. The next step was stippling on colours that would poke through the custom mix. Finally the custom mix was then applied with more stippling to avoid brush strokes.

The custom mixed dried too opaque on the test pieces. So moving forward onto the kit I used a heavier application of colours and applied the custom mix with multiple thin coats.

Painting the Zaku Warrior

The kit was primed grey using rattle cans before I got my first taste of air brushing. I airbrushed the brown under coats on the kit and the dark grey on the gun, backpack and joints.

For weathering and chipping the joints and backpack, I researched a third example from Jon Bius’ video and blog, ‘Painting and Weathering the Maschinen Krieger SAFS “Rabid” Raccoon.’ I used techniques from the ‘Detailing and Weathering the Engine’ section to give the impression that these parts were made from a similar material and weathered differently from other parts of the Mobile Suit.

I applied the chipping example from HAF on the gun and shield. With this example using a littler shade and a dark colour to create the chip, it builds the impression that these parts have been painted.

Trusting the process and test pieces was key to getting the base colours and custom mix applied. Using multiple light coats for the custom mix allowed me to go back a forth and tweak base colours where needed.

Painting the Base

I recycled a work holder for the base using an old spice jar and some double sided tape. The lid on the spice jar was not as deep as the base so I could unscrew it and sit the base flat if I needed too.

The texture on the base was built up using gap filler. I choose shades of grey for painting the base aiming for a Luna surface. Lighter shades of grey were dry brushed on followed by a black wash. High spots were then highlighted with white before a top coat was applied.

Final Photos

Here we are, the final photos!

Reflecting on the build objectives the finished kit achieves all of them in my eyes. Areas I want to improve on for future builds are the lens, and adding dust and dirt effects to tie the model into the base more.

Head onto the gallery to check out photos from the entire build process!

Photo Gallery