Kimaris - Knight of Gjallarhorn

Hey plamo nerds! Welcome back from the long weekend! GMKC 2017 wrapped up last Sunday, and although I didn't get any awards, I was glad to have participated. It was my first time joining a major sanctioned event, and while the outcome did not match my expectations, I gained valuable experience. I was hoping more recognition would be given to color separation, shading, seam fixing and weathering, but just like many events before it, high gloss still reigns supreme in GMKC 2017. In any case, I applaud the emerging winners for their flawless execution. Now that the Kimaris is back home, I'm just happy to add another model to my display cabinet.

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(WARNING: PIC HEAVY)




I present to you all my humble entry for this year's GMKC, Kimaris - Knight of Gjallarhorn!

This was no easy straight build let me tell you, and after the event I realized that I may have unnecessarily handicapped myself by choosing to field this one. There were seams on the shoulder armor, the forearms, the head, the side skirts, a long one around the edge of the rear skirt, and a massive one running the entire length of the lance on both sides. I must have spent 3 weeks just fixing all those seams.

Some seam-fixes had to be done over pre-painted frame parts, so extra care had to be taken not to damage the paint underneath. I used up an entire jar of Mr. Primer Surfacer just prepping this model for paint.

 

For base coats I used Koong's base white for the white and purple parts, and Koong's base gloss black for the gold bits. Modulation pre-shading was done with Mr. Color gloss black. Base coats and post shades are all Mr. Color lacquers. The internal frame is a two-tone blue to purple fade, and the armor's highlights were done with thinned down gloss white for transparency.

Gold accents were either hand painted Vallejo gold, or a custom mixed Mr. Metallic yellow plus some orange to match the Vallejo tone. Tamiya panel line enamel was used to bring out the lines, and a mix of DL model and custom designed decals were applied after sealing the paint with Mr. Hobby clear. A final layer of Mr. Color flat-clear was misted over the parts to blend in the decals with the paint.

I have to admit I had to rush to finish this project in time for the event, and there were some things I still wanted to do that would have made me miss the deadline - but I'm satisfied with the way it turned out. If there's one takeaway from this experience, it's that I need to prepare 3-4 months in advance if I want to finish on time.

That's all for now. Congrats again to all the winners and participants at GMKC2017, and I look forward to doing battle with you again next year! Check back again soon for more tool reviews and random plamo rants, until next time, keep building plamo!