Johns Zaku Painting Showcase Entry

After all that paint was dry I sort of went and finished the whole thing..

Basically I went in with Pigments for the dusty, dirt paths, a little touch of light green paint for the Rice plants. flooded the paddys with gloss varnish for a simple water effect and some cruched up sponge and flock for little bushes and a small hedge. And then glued the Zaku down and HEY PRESTO.

This might well be one of the best paint jobs I have ever done. And I feel that no matter how the results of the Showcase go, I have something I can be proud of.

Short answer yes! Long answer, I am waiting for some 1/350th scale soldiers to add a little more drama to the base and to help elevate the story of “why” this Zaku is charging into rice paddys with its axe powered up.

If the models arrive with enough time left before the deadline I will add one or two and if not, then I am still more than happy to consider the project finished.

Basing. Something the rules for this Painting Showcase are fairly loose on…

“Secnic basing is allowed” ………Yep. That’s it.

Ive sene some incredible work, some outlandish basing and scenery, but I think a “Grounded” realistic paint job needs  “Grounded” er… ground!

Wiht that in mind, the show the inspired this approach has Urban and rural settings that are rich with ideas and colour. So I chose a Rice paddy.

……And here’s how it goes!

Step one: Cut foamboard into the shape of the base. then add height with another two layers to form a stepped hill.

Step two: Carve the edges unevenly and a spot for the Zaku;’s foot where it’s weight will be collapsing the edge of the ridge. Then lightly stipple those carved edges with wall filler.

Step three: Some fine sand added to the top two ridge layers to give an uneven surface.

Step four: Using air drying clay I scupted the basic shape for the paddys and a raised earth path to divide two paddys and along the base of the lower ridge.

Some Matt Varnish and I have finally completed the subject itself.

I cannot express how much fun and how much of a challange painting this model has been. Do I want to do all my Gundam Assemble collection to this level? NO…But something tells me I may linger of a few of my favorite models a little longer just to make them stand out like this fella does!

With some more weathering, yes…more..I know. And painting the eye, I took no pictures sorry, it’s just AP Pure red in four layers, adding more orange until the final bright dot in the centre.

ANYWAY….. Onto the Axe or the “Heat Hawk” as it’s known. The key is in the name, it’s a HEAT weapon, and glows in the shows. So, I have to (begrudingly) try my hand and a hot metal glow effect.

I started with painting hte blade white (5 layers)

Yellow ink for the base colour.

Yellow and orange ink 50/50 in patches, slowly working to pure orange around hte edges before switching to red ink mixed iwht orange until the very edges of the blade where red ink was the only colour, with a final touch of little spots of Strap Grey  to give a cooler look around those very edges.

I was inspired by another painter who did the same effect and thought to myself “That’s what I want”

I think overall, the effect is solid, and adding a finaly little touch of pure white back around where the blade meets the rest of the weapon to try and denote that being the most heated area really helped. Something I was very nervous of doing, but very happy with the result!

Next was three coats of gloss varnish. I used Citadel Ardcoat thinned and appliued through an airbrush.

Once that was dry (and it took a while) I gave the model a pin wash with GSW Transparent Brown Ink. Trying to warm up the shaded areas and make the panel lines look a little more prominent.

There’s a lot to explain here. I did a lot of steps between photos so here we go..

used Rinox Hide as my chipping colour of choice and applied it with a 5/0 brush. I then took all the battle damage areas and used Strap Grey to paint them in.

After that I mixed 50/50 Strap Grey and Gunmetal to fill the majority of the damaged areas before using straight Gunmetal to add a little bit of a bare metal shimmer.

I then started putting on some enamel washes.

AK Atmospheric spaceship dirt was applied all over and allowed to settle to add some dust and dirt buildup.

AK Fresh mud on the underside and sides of the feet.

Some Pure Red on the inside of the backpack thrusters with some Slaughter Red Speed Paint to force some shadow into the thrusters.

What I have now is something that looks more heavy and used. I can;t wait to paint that red eye lense…but that’ll be my reward for the next few hours of layering in some highlights and tightening up some of the chipping effects.

Im glad, at this point, that all my preshading work wasn’t obliterated with my generally hamfisted airbrushing! So I have a good looking base to work up from.

Using Army Painter Historical “Strap Grey” watered down and applied thinly for the mechanical and trim areas gave a nice, soft finish, and adding Worn Stone to the colour to bring up my highlights, which also “warms” the colour and softens the contrast.
After that, the same process was done with the brown armour areas, using Army Painter Air Leather brown and, yep oyu guessed it, Worn Stone to mix up the Highlights.
All highlighting is done in three layers, going sharper on each step. I could do a third, but I feel my “realism” idea would start to look cartoony.

I really wanted to have this tiny model carry some markings, so using Army Painter Brainmatter Beige to create some linework and some very small “warning” markings on some areas on the model gives the Zaku more life to it. And because I wanted to punish myself, I have also given the markings some vauge highlights with Matt White.

I am starting to see where I’m going more clearly, and my confidence in the end result is slowly growing. but since the model is for a competition, I am having to draw myself back and really think out my next steps, from fear of just going ham and making a mess!

I decided to go grey for my base as it wouldn;t be as stark as black or white, and I feel that it is less cold than either of the colours, and should allow me to control the tone of the base coats going forward.

What was important to me was ensuring that shadows and shading were punched harder than the drybrushing highlight. I wanted the Grey to help form the neutral shade/shadow with the deeper areas on the model having a sharp black to give more contrast in these areas.
At least at this point it looks cool!

I’ll worry about the basing later, but I have some ideas, again using episode 8 as my guide. Now off to splash some paint!