Mobile Suit Wing Gundam Custom XXXG-00W0

I bought this kit a year ago,and was hoping to modified its wings and add more details.But it didn't end up as the way i thought so i return the kit back to its original form.

For the color scheme of this kit,i took some ideas from Wing Gundam ver. EW because i thought the original color scheme is kinda plain,and I was quite happy with the final results.I used gun metal color for the internal frame,and for the weapons i spray silver on them first then used black pastel to polish so as to get a rusty metal effect.This is the first time i use this method which i found on the web(pardon me for forgetting who and where i saw this from),that guy used graphite instead of pastel however i got the wrong grade of graphite(i think it was 6B or higher),so i tried pastel and the result was still ok.But i will try graphite next time.

After seeing the final product,i was glad that i didn't continue modifying despite some early failures as it would just make it more complicated and maybe uglier.Thats why sometimes i say "simple is better".

So this was how the kit looked straight out of the box,before i did any modding.

I completed this diorama a couple weeks ago,however i wanted to wait for the completion of the gundam wing custom before i post photos of the gundam on it.However,as you can see i still haven't put the gundam on.This is because i could not decide whether i should use it,after seeing how the model turned out.Maybe it would be a better choice to make a land gundam for it,what do you guys think?

How to do pre-shading and highlight on your gundam

Before applying any color paint be sure to spray a coat of primer(i use mr hobby 1000 grey primer),this will help the paint to stick better to the surface and also reduce the risk of "flooding"(too much paint at one area causing thick and ugly paint marks).(Primer also help to find faults on your model)

Base paint-This will be the first layer of color paint and it's usually a darker tone of the final color.For example,if you want to paint light green on your model,your base color would be dark green.

For this piece here,I used dark grey as base because I will spray dark blue next.

Shading-How well you shade,comes with practice.The more you practice,the better the result.Shading is basically leaving a darker color tone on the edges.Make sure that the top color is vivid.(For example,when spraying white,there will be a lot of instances when the white is a little grayish. Thats because the white coat is not thick enough or the base coat was too dark causing the white parts to look like very light grey parts.)

Blending-This is an important step to blend the darker parts with the original color,and to do so,we need to thin the main color more by adding thinner.Spray it at a distance,and see the base color getting closer to the main color but still remaining its darker tone.

Highlighting-Add white paint to lighten the color tone more.Lightly spray this at the center of the pieces,do not go too close to the edges or it would erase the effect of the previous shading.