Roughly about a week ago my partner and I made the trip down to GundamPros in New Bedford, Massachusetts. This was an anticipated trip as the owner, Walter, was considerate and swift with customer service.

Exploring the warehouse was a treat! There’s always some form of excitement when going to a hobby shop, however, this was something that I wanted to do for a while now! I just love visiting hobby shops, local or far.

While we were loading up on kits (a blend of Gwitch, Frame Arms, and haros) I happened to stumble upon one of my favorite kits:

The Nightingale.

Did I need a third Nightingale? No. Did I want a third Nightingale? Absolutely. The large red kit had quickly become one of the topic kits for me to paint. The parts are wide but detailed enough to allow for creative designs.

Like this OR this!

However, I wanted this build to be different. I wanted to document the paint process so that I can try to teach you, or at least show you, how I got this design.
It’ll be fun!

During the build process I began to plot the pattern I wanted on sticky notes. The feeling for this one was somewhat semi-blob shapes, almost like camouflage.

I wanted to go with a base color that I don’t typically use very often, like Orange. Then I played a game I like to play called “close my eyes and grab random colors from my paint collection.

Which left me with these:

I airbrushed a layer of primer down on the wings before moving on to the base layer. The primer was Vallejo Skeleton Bone. It’s not one I would normally use however I felt like it helped the orange to pop.

You don’t have to airbrush a primer base. There is a brush-on or rattle can primer available if that is not an option.

I decided to avoid sketching with a normal pencil but a charcoal pencil. It smudged off easily enough if I needed it to. As for the brushes, I used two older brushes of mine. A thinner brush for the outlining and a thicker one for filling.

The first color I laid down was the crimson red. Winsor & Newton is slowly becoming one of my favorite paint brands. The paint just goes down smoothly and its shade is lovely.

Then came the second color! I recommend doing a few layers of colors before moving on to the next. It helps build up the vibrancy.

Then came the third and fourth! A light grey and black.

I hadn’t planned on doing an outline but the blue I pulled was just too pretty to not use. Outlining for this style is optional. If it’s not your vibe then skip or do something else.

You can probably airbrush the blob shapes using masking tape or silly putty. This is just my preferred method.

I decided to outline the blobs by using a blend of the colors touching, like blending the gray/red, red/purple, and purple/gray.

That’s how I painted the wings at this point. I still need to decide on a frame color and smaller bits that go on the wings. What color do you think? I had green in mind like a funky carrot combination. Wouldn’t that be fun?

Here are some photos to save if you’d like:

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Have a great Tuesday!

-J