Day Project: SD RX-78 GP03D Dendrobium Painted Build

Hey Builders, 

Today I have a small photoshoot of my recently finished day project: The SD GP03D Dendrobium. I started it early this afternoon, and finished it around dinnertime. It is hand painted using Testor's Gold, and Aluminum, and GSI CREOS Gundam Markers, Red, Blue, Black, Silver, and White. 

I picked up this kit in a group buy with my Gunpla group from Hobbywave for about $11. I wanted a Dendrobium, but I really did not want to pay over $200 for the HG. Here's a look at my finished product. 

Keep in mind, this is a fairly old SD kit, from the G Generation-F series from the year 2000. It definitely does not live up to the standards of some of the SD's we have today. I won't necessarily be doing a review for this kit, since it was just a fun time killer for me. But if you're interested in this kit and have any questions, feel free to comment below!

Being an older kit, the shield and the swords came in white molded plastic. I had to paint the beam saber for the Stamen and the Dendrobium red. 

I also painted the sites for the bazooka and the beam rifle red as well. 

All in all, the Stamen looks pretty awesome after some detailing and top coat. However, it always feels like it is always looking down for some reason...

The Dendrobium offered a lot of paint opportunities, and was the primary reason why I bought this kit. I really wanted to take that bland plastic and paint it up. It was a real task. 90% of my time was taken painting the rocket pods and the internals of the ship. I used Testor's aluminum to paint all the rivets and the thrusters, Testors gold to paint in the circles on the inside, and also the fan. Red Gundam marker to paint the inside of the Thrusters, and the red parts in the rocket pods, Silver Gundam marker to paint the triangle parts of the rocket pods, and black to fill in all those areas. I also used the lining pen and a q-tip to smudge the front cover of the rocket pod.

Side views, this part was a bit tricky. I used white, silver, and a lining pen and used a q-tip to smudge all over the tops and sides of the rocket pods to dirty it up. It's not the best job, but I like it much better than the plain white. 

Here is the GP03 Stamen docked in the Dendrobium, featuring the beam saber specifically for the Dendrobium. 

 

Close up view of the front and back, while docked. 

Fitting this guy is a little tricky, but I have to say, it looks really cool. 

Especially with the rocket pods opened and ready to fire

Here he is, looking a lot better than an out of box build, all painted up and top coated. 

This is the first of 2 SD's that I will be building in the upcoming months. The second will be the SD Sinanju that my friend picked up for me on his way back from Japan as a gift!

Till next time!