RG Exia - WIP 1

An old highly anticipated gunpla

 

Decided to start on another RG kit since the completion last RG kit was in March and I feel of having an OOB built to distress from working on the PG Red Frames. Was looking through the backlogs to see which kits I would keep and which to sell. That was when I saw this RG and decided to build it since it was famous for being the First RG to have plated weapons. Do you know which RG I'm referring to? It is none other than the RG Exia.

 

Manual and tools prepared for the build

First thing first is to show some of the new runners and parts:

 

Clear green parts for the head, arms and legs

 

Plated weapon parts and blue strips

 

First work to be done with any plamo model is to remove them from the runners into their individual boxes.

Parts sorted into their individual boxes

 

While removing the parts from the runners, I have forgotten how small the parts are especially for the head. I was afraid of parts being flown away while removing them from the runners so I did it slow and held on to the parts before they were fully removed from the runner.

 

The first thing I built is of course the leg.

Parts of the leg before assembly

First thing I noticed is that the inner frame of the leg is different than the RX 78-2. For the RX 78-2, the inner frame comes in one piece but the Exia has 2 different pieces. You will have to connect additional pieces to the frame to complete the inner frame.

 

With the inner frame (and some parts of the armors) done, we can look at the articulation for the leg.

Left: Leg in a straight/default position

Right: Articulation for the upper leg

Left: Articulation for both the upper and lower leg

Right: Articulation for the lower leg

Assembling the leg lets you put on 2 blue strips. The first is on the upper leg and the second is on the lower leg. Before the blue strips can be attached, a silver sticker is placed at the back where the strip will go on. I guess this is for the reflectiveness of the sticker to show through the strip thus making the strip look reflective.

Front and side view of the blue strip on the leg

The blue strip on the lower part of the leg is meant to be straight until you put on the armor to hold it down to the curve shape of the leg.

Next work to be done to the leg is panel lining the armor pieces. Here the Tamiya's Panel Line Accent Color (Gray) was used for the white pieces.

White parts being panel lined

 

For the red parts of the feet, a new color was used. Introducing the Tamiya's Panel Line Accent Color (Dark Brown). I got this color a few moons ago and was wondering what color pieces I should use this on since I also have the Tamiya's Panel Line Accent Color (Brown). I decided to use the Brown for yellow parts and dark brown for darker parts like red.

 

New Tamiya's Panel Line Accent Color: Dark Brown

Panel lining Tamiya's Panel Line Accent Color (Dark Brown) on the feet

I feel you can really see the dark brown color on the red compared to the brown which I used on the gold pieces for the PG Red Frame. The dark brown really blends with the red to make it look muddy or stained with mud if you are planning on doing weathering.

 

When the panel line is dry, they are wiped away with a cotton bud soaked with Zippo lighter liquid.

Excess panel line cleaned off

 

Just to show some of the items used for panel lining and decal process:

 

The jam jar contains the Future solution. The bottle is too big and impractical to carry along and it is hard for me to dip the brush into. So I ransacked the house to find this small jam jar which does the job nicely.

 

Before finishing up the work for the leg, decals are placed in their respective location. After this, the same work is to be repeated for the other side of the leg (which will not be shown) and then on to the next part of the build.

Pieces for the leg