So, does this kit need color correction like it’s other Cross Silhouette brethren? Yes, of course. I’d be shocked if it didn’t.
But it turns out it’s not nearly as bad. I managed to get most of the work, including painting, done in a single long build session. In my experience that’s usually not possible if the build needs a lot of color correction, since at a certain point you need to stop and let things dry.
In fact, I’d say that this was one of the most pleasant and rewarding build processes I’ve had in a while. one that served as a needed palette cleanser after my most recent debacle.
The Stickers
Everything I said about the relative ease of this build assumes you’re going to use all the stickers. Compared to most SD’s they’re really not too bad, nor are there all that many of them:
I’ll also add one additional caveat, which is that cheap paint pen I got a while back was very handy for this build:
It may take a few coats, but the white paint from this pen is very good at looking opaque, even against dark plastic.
Beam Rifle
This is a nice looking rifle. It’s not that far off from the Gundam Mk II’s, or other similar mobile suits.
Color Correction
The barrel and the energy pack are supposed to be blue, to match the body. There’s also no stickers for the camera sensors, so you’ll have to paint those green (or any other color you’d like).
Beam Sabers
These are a bit rough to work with. They’re white plastic, but the tops and bottoms are supposed to be blue, and there’s a “button” that’s supposed to be yellow.
Even still, they’re quite impressive. They’re actually made of multiple separate parts, which is something not even most High Grades can boast of.
Head
I was disappointed that, for whatever reason, SD Calibarn was designed so that it was very difficult to swap between the two sets of eyes. Thankfully that’s not the case here; like other Cross Silhouette models, you can easily pop off the helmet and switch between them as you see fit:
Color Correction
The only thing you have to do is paint in the white stripes that are on its head antennae.
Chest
The Chest itself isn’t terribly complex, though there’s some cool piping running along the bottom that I didn’t notice before.
Color Correction
You’ll need to fill in all the white chest vents, as well as the beam cannon in the center. I feel like they could have easily included decals for the former, but it’s not too bad to paint either way.
Lower Torso
Pretty good detail overall. I debated whether to add some metallic highlights to some of the studding in the front (and I may still end up going back and adding it before I get to the photoshoot).
Color Correction
This is where things get challenging. The white part of the front skirts is made from big wraparound stickers. I know most builders hate them, but I found that they weren’t too bad here (and look pretty good if you’re careful).
But then you get around to the rear skit. It’s supposed to have the same white vents, but we get no stickers to help us. If you want it to look right, you’re busting out your white and grey paints and doing it yourself:
I will point out though that, since it’s the backside, it doesn’t have to be perfect. Just good enough to convey the idea.
Then we move to the side skirts, which are supposed to be white at the top. You know what to do:
With my paint marker all of this was fairly easy, but without it I imagine I’d be grumbling about this part.
Backpack
There’s actually two layers to this. The first one is this thing right here, which is clearly inspired by some of the Crossbone Vanguard designs from F91 (including but not limited to the Vigna Ghina). Considering the film was only a few years old when the Tornado Gundam was created, this isn’t surprising.
Then there is the rest of the backpack. Here we can see that we embed a few small white stickers on the inside of each thruster:
Which leads to the nice color layering we see when it’s assembled:
There are also large yellow wraparound stickers for the lower thrusters, the biggest by far on the entire model. But again, they aren’t actually all that hard to apply.
Overall, I think the backpack looks great, save for this one major flaw: the lower thrusters are hollow on the inside:
I understand that this is a thing with a lot of SDs, and if you have to do it, then this is probably the best place. But it’s still unfortunate.
Color Correction
The only painting you have to do here is in that first layer (aka the “F91 Layer”). The tips of each thruster are supposed to be white, with the tiny little thruster openings being grey or black.
Admittedly my paint job isn’t perfect here, but when it’s finished you can’t really see the front or back of this thing very well. As long as the sides pointing outward look good, that’s what matters.
Legs and Feet
This is the only part of the build that has truly bad stickers, in the way that wraparound SD stickers tend to be. You’ll find them right on the knee: this is two yellow stickers lined up with each other, and two grey stickers above and below:
It … doesn’t look great, no matter how many times I tried to move and reapply them. If not for the fact that this model uses a very particular yellow, I may have very well tried to paint this. In the end I kept the stickers, because my hope is that the other parts of the body are what I (and you, the viewer) will focus on when all is said and done.
Color Correction
In addition to the stickers on the knee, there are little red marks that are supposed to be on the ankle armor:
And there’s a tiny indent in the foot that you can color in if you’d like.
Shoulders and Arms
These are both good and bad. There’s a lot of parts here, including white, yellow, and red plastic all across the shoulder, and both grey and red plastic on the arm.
However, they still need some work …
Color Correction
These black lines along the shoulders have to painted in:
As do these yellow marks on the forearms:
Whereas this red part here is a actually a nice sticker:
And if you really want to go for broke, toss some gunmetal onto the arm guns:
It’s a lot of different individual bits to paint, and not all of them are necessarily easy.
Hands
Would you look at how many hands this thing comes with?
It puts most modern High Grades to shame!
Color Correction
The backs of all the hands have to be painted blue.
Finished!
Whoever worked on this model really must like Tornado Gundam. Even with the hollow thrusters, it feels like a ton of love was put into this thing. Between the accessories, the color separation, and the smart, measured use of stickers, it feels to me like they went above and beyond even other Cross Silhouette models.
It was a joy to work on this, and I’m looking forward to shooting it.