HG Banshee Destroy
This was a very satisfying build. This was a previously built kit by my friend @pazrul. First, I soaked the kit in simple green for several days to help remove any stickers and paint completely.
Next, I primed the kit using Mr Surfacer 1200. After that, I painted most of the body using tamiya acrylics. I used german gray and black for most of the kit, and a custom 70% gray for the joints and a few accents. I also painted in the insides of the thrusters and the eyes red.
The gold was painted with Testors Gold. This super cheap paint leaves a surprisingly brilliant finish, but I didn’t consider how this would adversely affect applying washes. I applied a coat of Pledge “Future” Shine over the enamel paint, but my lighter fluid and enamel wash ate through the parts I tried to wash almost instantly and I would up having to repaint them. Because of this, the gold parts don’t have a wash applied.
I applied some third party decals from ebay to this model. I’ve had mixed results with cheap decals, but a smooth finish mixed with decal setting and softening solutions worked very well.
The most tedious part of this build was achieving the mixed finishes. Because I didn’t plan out the placement of the decals I wound up reassembling the entire kit 3 times. The final product is pretty stellar, though. The gold pieces have a vivid shine and the rest of the body pieces have a matte finish that gives a pleasant contrast.