I really had fun building the M1A1 Abrams modern battle tank. There were lessons there that I was excited to put into my next project. Techniques such as pre-shading and battle-damage were among the experiments that proved to be successful. I was hoping to apply those (and maybe improve upon it) on my next Gundam build.

After endless searching I finally found the perfect model (in Greenhills), an HG Gundam Tieren Ground Type mobile suit. This is the perfect mix of “ruggedness”, the Tieren doesn’t look like the average Gundam and I was pretty much excited to tackle it head on.

Gundam Tieren Ground Type Project

First Assembly

I began by assembling and sanding the model kit. It’s pretty much straight-forward and OOB (out of the box). Again, the robot was just huge and looked like a monster, which I liked so much.

Here are some pics of it after the initial build..

I also loved the BFG (the Bazooka) and I planned on doing a multi-layer paint scheme to really make it look like heavy metal.

I could have easily gone for any shade of military green (the default colors) but I was so inspired by the Abrams that I decided that this Tieren had to be sand-dune Buff color to look like it had just gone out of spanking Saddam’s dead @$$.

Assembly took around a week of “on-off” work. The next step was applying Tamiya surface primer to it and letting it dry for at least 3 days before applying the acrylics

Initial Painting

Now, most of the body would be sprayed with Buff, the inner metal would be simple German Grey (currently my favorite color for Gundam internals).

Here’s how the Tieren looked after the first layer of paint…

All paints used were Tamiya acrylics and were applied using the basic Tamiya Spraywork Airbrush set.

Meanwhile, I used Pylox canned spray paint (Red) for the shield and the other red parts.

After letting it dry and cure for another week, I disassembled it again and applied 1 coat of Future (Pledge Wipe and Shine here in the Philippines). This is to prepare it for the decals, the wash and the weathering.

Next update, I’ll share with you how I did the decals and basically transforming the brand-new Tieren into a grizzled war vet.

Stay tuned…

Don’t go yet! Check out my other posts on my model kits

• Star Wars Tie Interceptor
• M1A1 Abrams Tank USA
• In-progress: 1997 Ford Mustang
• Gundam Blitz
• MS-06J Zaku II
• Gundam Destiny
• Gundam Red Astray