MG Crossbone X2 wip

It's been a while since I've done any updates on the Xbone 2, but since finishing the Zaku 2 Head I've found myself making a lot of progress on this model. My goal with the X2 is to use the yellow and sky blue more liberally to contrast with the dark navy blue. 

The X2 isn't an old kit, but due to the smaller scale of the MS many of the details on this kit are not molded in color and need to be painted. Over the weekend I completed most of the difficult masking on this model.

The shoulder thruster pods are on of the most notable areas that require painting, but can easily done by painting the yellow area first, masking the entire recessed area and applying the navy blue color. The final black color is a reversed wash enamel. The French benefit of painting the thrusters this way is that you won't need to panel line the piece. 

The thruster arms on the back of kit have a few extra details that can be painted in too. I started by painting the entire arm navy blue, then I masked and painted on the yellow thruster ports as wells as the grey detail near the joint. The small sky blue details were painted using a tooth pick. The gray part on the back side of the thruster arm was first painted with drak grey, masked and painted with gray. One other enhancement to this part was that I filled the gaps in the rear part of the arms with putty, I think this gives the kit a more complete look. 

The thruster bells at the tips of each arm are painted using a new technique. I achieved the three color look by first painting the interior of the bell with lacquer yellow, followed by a coat of black enamel. I then applied a coat of Starbright Iron to the exterior of the bell. The black enamel of the bell was removed from the lip exposing the yellow below. I really like the way this looks, I've experiment with using a silver lip on thrusters before, but this is the first time I've used a bright color. I think it really helps to liven up the otherwise drab color scheme.

The eye scars on the head were the most difficult area to mask on the kit due to their size and the shallowness of the recess. They could have easily been done using an enamel wash, but I couldn't find or mix an enamel color to match the Sky blue used on the rest of the model. 

The weapons also feature masked paint work. The weapons were first painted with navy blue, then masked and painted yellow. Two sections of the weapon feature small pegs for securing into the skirt, I masked these areas agin and hit them with dark grey. The lance was originally made of two components, I fused the parts together and puttied them until the seam was invisible. The weapon was first painted with a sky blue for the beam emitters, the. The emitters were masked and the lance was painted with the navy blue. The trench knives on this model were painted using the same technique as the Bowie knife on the MG Heavy arms. First a coat of Starbright silver was applied to the blade of the knife, then the silver was masked and the spine of the blade was painted grey.

At this point, the only parts left to paint on this model belong to the internal frame, in another week or so this model should be complete, stay tuned for the final photos!