No.6 for 2024 - HG Huckebein MkIII (Patreon)

The Huckebein is one of the GOAT Katoki designs in my opinion, in my eyes it's the most perfect Not-Gundam out there that dares to even usurp the very series that it's based on. After the hype and dissappointment of the Mk2, I was cautious but somewhat optimistic about the MkIII when it was announced.

So how does Bandai's attempt this time go? Well it's certainly better than the Mk2 (which I have almost given up at this point with it's crazy number of seams), but it's still not quite the pants-off build I was hoping for. There's two major seams on the PT itself, being on the top of the shoulders and at the back of the calves. Is is an easy fix though?

Not quite, for some reason Bandai have again decided to make all these yellow parts on the shoulders and legs as a single piece that acts as a pseudo-internal frame. In a rare case where I actually do modding, I ended up having to saw off all the individual pieces so they could be inserted after painting. 

Even after that, the frame of the shoulder and knees still had to be painted first, sealed in and masked off before the seams could be fixed.

Happily, the mods worked out in the end and the yellow parts went in and sit there (with some blutack behind in some cases), however some of them are a bit more sunk in than usual because the saw I was using wasn't exactly the thinnest. 

Apart from that, both the Photon and Graviton Rifles have a big seam going down the middle and all the nooks and crannies did made cleaning those up very unpleasant experience.

All in all, I'm glad I could finally build a goddamn Huckebein and while it did make me a bit anxious during the process it wasn't the end of the world. I will probably do another one down the line in the default colors, but that will be a few months down the line.

Painting

I decided to experiement on the Red for this build by going back to grey primer. My reasoning was that painting the red over the grey would create a natural shadow before doing a yellow pre-highlight then covering it up.  The overall result...is okay, definitely faster than the Hull Red preshade method but at the same time a bit duller. Needs more experimentation.

Dark Grey - Grey primer -> Phantom Grey + bit of Black base coat -> Zeon MS Grey highlight -> postshade blend with original

Black - GX Black base coat -> Phantom Grey + bit of Hull Red + bit of Zeon MS Grey highlight -> postshade blend with GX Black

Yellow - White primer -> Orange preshade -> Starter white (Yuupa White) -> coat of Orange Yellow + GX Yellow -> add Yuupa White for highlight -> postshade blend with Orange Yellow

Red -  Grey primer -> GX Hermann Red base coat -> GX Yellow highlight -> Cover with GX Red, cover again with GX Clear Rouge

Frame - Gaianotes Gunmetal

Weapons - Phantom Grey + Black base coat -> Neutral Grey + GX Black highlights -> postshade blend with original