so when I saw that the theme for the first cohost build club was first mobile suits, I immediately thought of the Tallgeese since it's the predecessor for all mobile suits in the Gundam Wing universe. when I read further and saw "protagonist's first mobile suit," I mostly ignored it.
having just finished an MG Tallgeese, I decided to grab a RG to finally try out my airbrush on (I've been sitting on this airbrush for like 2 years). my original plan for a first airbrush project was going to be a straight paint of an HG Alex, so I happened to have on hand the primary colors used in most protagonist Gundams. thus, to better fit the theme, I decided to model my color scheme off the original protagonist mobile suit, the OG RX-78-2.
the airbrushing didn't exactly go smoothly, but I'm still pretty happy with the end result. it's definitely splotchy, which is especially noticable on the blue parts. I'm not sure if this was a thinner/paint mixture issue, holding the airbrush too close, or maybe I didn't drag across the part quickly enough. the yellow also came out more mustard-y than I would have liked. I forgot to paint a single part (missed an E2 part) when I was doing my batches, which was especially frustrating. I tried to mix small amounts of paint to paint this part by itself, but the mixture always came out bad.
not very noticeable, but I did put a new set of metallic Gundam markers to use as well. it's most noticable on the circular bits on the feet, but I pretty much used them everywhere I could in place of the shiny stickers. with the exception of the shield sticker, I decided to leave all the stickers off, partially because I like the look better, and also because many of the colors would clash now that I've painted the kit.
I would have posted some more poses, but while moving the head I broke the thingy on top off, so now it's sitting on my desk while I wait for the hobby cement to dry. overall though, airbrushes are cool and I'm excited to see what the next build club theme will be