MG 1/100 Shin Musha Gundam by Ban Dai

[strawnobi]

I painted this last week. It's the 1/100 MG Shin Musha Gundam. I actually have two of these. One came with the stand. I bought the one without the stand because it doesn't use the gold chrome. I wanted to paint the entire thing. I bought the one with the stand about 7 years ago. And I think I bought the other one about 5 years ago. It then proceeded to sit on my shelf unpainted for a long time. Just a couple of notes:

1. I black based the entire thing in semi-gloss black including the gold. I use the standard method of alligator clips and sticks during painting.

2. The inner frame is painted silver and a wash applied. Although you can't see it.

3. The gold is Mr. Color gold.

4. The red is Mr. Color Shine red which is a nice red to use if you are black basing.

5. Some of the plastic is rather soft. Ban Dai plastic tends to not react well to certain lacquers and soften up. So be careful when you are painting. Give the paint adequate time to dry before reassembly and you should be fine. The gold piping in particular can be a bit fragile in a couple of spots even without paint so care is needed.

6. Since I had two sets of weapons I painted them both. I put wood effects on one of the guns. On one of the swords the gold part of the hilt disintegrated on me due to softening. I was able however to glue it back together no harm no foul. Again, watch out for this.

7. The decals are dry transfers that come with the kit. Dry transfers are also included for the Katoki version.

8. The blue Gundam is Musha Gundam Mark 2. I painted that one with rattle cans about 7 years ago. It's held up well. However it has the gold chrome parts on it. It's also a very fun kit. Shin Musha is based on the RX-78-2 which is the orginal Gundam. Of course Musha Mark 2 is based on the Mark 2.

All in all it's a fun build. It has a lot of parts, but it is glorious looking when it's done. I recommend it as well as the Mark 2 to anyone with just a little experience. It was really fun to paint. And it's a great one to rejuvenate your mojo with.

Questions, comments, criticisms are always welcome.
Cheers and happy modeling from Japan!

Matt