MG Exia R1 Weathering and Damage Explanation

I had some slight problems with the topcoat on the MG Exia yellowing due to a bad batch of thinner. And I did not want to throw out an otherwise good model, I decided to convert it over the Exia Repair.

Weathering

When I weathered and beat this kit up I tried to stick with the source material. The Exia is built out of an advanced GN armor composite and being space bound, I decided early on that rust wouldn't make any sense considering the material and environment. Instead of rust I decided carbon scoring from MS weapons would make more sense

Damage 

 I also reasoned that although Graham Acker did most of the damage to the Exia, the Exia had still experienced combat against 20+ GNXs and Alejandro Corner's Alvatore/Alvaaron right before the climactic duel. I also reasoned that the pilot Setsuna would have continued to operate the suit during the 2 year time skip and would likely have been further damaged during those encounters. Therefore the Exia was going to be further beat up than what was just show in the anime and on the box. In addition to thin nicks from glancing slashes I cut swaths of armor off of the left leg, left stomach/torso area and left & right hips. I also ‘shattered’ the GN cable material in the left leg to further illustrate the difference in material types. I modified the head in two ways. I lost the original ‘pre-damaged’ face, v-fin & eyes so I made one out of the undamaged one. I also cut out spacing for the green gem in the head (normally the kit would have a blank piece of plastic with a foil sticker over it).

 Painting

Alot of the painting was already done on this kit since I was just converting it from the MG Exia I had built a while ago. I used several shades of gray on the cloak to add high and low lights. The molding of the cloak naturally adds a lot of volume and texture. Several washes of flat enamel were added to the Exia to show the accumulation of carbon scoring, burning and general ‘fucked-up-ness’ of it’s condition. 

Overall:

Enough explanation, here are the final photos.