1/100 Tieren Ground Type Review

This is a birthday present from my friend, I have assembled it years ago but I am taking it out to do some modifications to it. Since I am taking photos of how the tieren looks out of the box, I might as well do a review of it.

In the anime, the Tieren did not have much impressive battle scenes, especially for the ground type are typically depicted as weak units (but every unit is weak compared to the gundam in the early part of gundam 00) while the aces uses a commander type and taozi. However, looking at the model kit itself, it makes you appreciates the design more. I like the overall design as it resembles a zeon mobile suit with its mono eye and shoulder shields.

Despite its bulky appearance, it has quite good articulation. The upper torso can rotate 360 degrees, tilt front and back and even left and right. The orange armour parts offers a good contrast to the green color scheme. It comes with three types of weapons like the bazooka, machine gun and a combat knife. For a non-grade, the amount of details on it is quite decent.

This will be my next project. The objectives will be to try working with pla-plates, to use lacquer paints instead of acrylic for painting and scratch building, all for the first time. Hopefully, I can complete it before the school semester starts and enter the GWBC Singapore.

Blade Liger Completed

My completed work

I wanted to create a scene with the blade liger leaping off a slope but it seems the base is too small.

There are a lot of new things that I tried with this project like using an airbrush, a hobby knife, a side cutter during assembly of the kit (I used to use scissor and nail clipper), various weathering techniques and try making a custom base. 

 

I think the weathering is overdone, that it looks a bit too dirty. Perhaps some battle damage may make it look a bit better but I just couldn't bear to damage this kit as blade liger is my favourite zoid.

 I added zeke in the last two photos, it kind of blend well to the background. I am using the action base 1 stand to support the liger since it is not made for it, the support is kind of wobbly. 

By the time I started on this post, the group build is a ready over. I find the group build to be an eye-opening experience with lots of impressive entries. Lots of room for me to improve on my work, especially in the basics. 

Thanks for dropping by.

WIP Blade Liger

Lots of delay in the work due to the need to wait for both airbrush and spraybooth to be available. The spraybooth even broke down after a week due to the faulty adapter. I also damaged my airbrush nozzle which I have to get spare part as it is my first time airbrushing.

One of the reason I bought an airbrush is to try the hair spray technique for weathering. I find the technique quite difficult to get a good result as the base coat get in the way of the blue color tone, making it darker than I liked.

Hair spray technique consist of spraying the inner coat of paint with hairspray and sprinkled with salt. Then spray the intended color over it and when it drys use a toothbrush to brush of the salt to reveal the inner coat of paint. The type of salt used cannot be too fine as the more I paint the more of it get dissolved and the numerous coats of paint also make it hard to create the chipping effect especially on those parts without the salt.

The second weathering technique I used on the non-blue parts is the sponge technique which involve using a sponge with minimal paint to add rust effects. It is a much easier technique and it looks great. Although, it may not be the most realistic looking, it is the easiest to do.

The third technique I used is oil wash. It basically used to tinge the surface with a darker tone. I used brown oil paint thinned with enamel thinner till it is very diluted to cover the whole kit after the painting is done.

The last technique I used is tamiya weathering master. It is more of an add on. It can make certain parts have a more rusted look. It is quite easy to apply as it comes in compact packages with a brush.