WIP
Shirabe Tsukuyomi, is that you???
Hey y’all, it’s been a good while since I’ve done a mecha musume kit, but I return with a little surprise known as the Acerby, which I hope she counts as one to post it here. I kinda just got her spontaneously when I took a family trip to Flushing, NY, and I thought I could do a little something as I wait for all the upcoming mecha musume kits coming out this year… and hopefully finding more space to display my girls… I didn’t expect much considering she is a tiny kit, but I thought that her being a feminine robot instead of being an anime girl with robot parts was interesting to take a look at.
The build—it ain’t called 30 Minute Missions for nothing. Well I didn’t build it in exactly 30 minutes because I like to take my time cleaning off the nubs, I pretty much snapped her up in one evening. Her build heavily resembles the likes of 30MS kits (which shouldn’t be surprising), but her joints are much more akin to the traditional robot style than human ones. She comes with a few accessories, having a pair of open hands, a gun, a beam dagger and additional armor that can be used as shoulder pads or a skirt depending where you connect it to the back or the rear.
That being said, I can’t help but find her adorable. Having twintails as her “hair” and her face only having two huge gigantic round eyes makes me want to cringe in cuteness. But, as a robot, that doesn’t mean she can’t look cool too, because hot damn, the biggest surprise I got with Acerby is that she is so goddamn posable and her few accessories go a long way of making her so photogenic.
Acerby may not have any complicated joints, but her joints can move wherever the hell they want without restriction, and it’s stupid easy to get her in a good pose. The possibilities of posing feel endless, and that’s coming from someone that has made at least 15 poses of her OOB. Her joint strength is superb that sometimes I feel like I’m handling a toy more than a model kit, and if that was Bandai’s intention with their 30MM line, then they did a fine job at that. She can rock multiple soldier looks, assassin looks, hell if you want her looking carefree as a bee, then she can do that too due to her bubbly look. It’s just almost magic at times how effortless you can get her looking good in the lightbox. That’s something I can’t really say for a lot of the girlpla I’ve built over time (though that challenge is what makes it fun in the first place)
My only problem I have is what to do from here—frankly, I kinda don’t wanna detail her right now, as I’m really inclined to get the option set for her, but then I really have to wonder, should I do some custom paint job for her? I really don’t wanna think about it. For now, I might just leave her as it is as I’m still busy doing the FM Forbidden with my dad, but, this won’t be the last time you’ll see her. Until then!
Completed
Holy shit, this is a record of firsts. It’s my first major custom painted kit, as well as the first time I’ve actually painted with a spray can and airbrush, as well as priming for the first time too. It’s safe to say that this kit is a major milestone for me, so uh, get ready for a really long post.
Last week, I got myself a [[3a. 30MM Acerby - A posing champ!|30MM Acerby]], and my only plan I had with this kit was possibly getting this option set, which “possibly” became reality the day after. It’s surprisingly sold out in a lot of places, but I was able to snatch one for $19 shipped, and arrived in only two days since it was coming from a few states away. Once it came in the mail, I snapped it up pretty quickly and fooled around with the different ways I could dress Acerby up. I ultimately came up with this setup which gave me huge 00 Raiser vibes, so I decided to stick with it.Â
This is where my ambition to paint her up all started—the fact that the option parts are all gray screamed ”paint me!!!” Now, was I willing to make her look like Shirabe Tsukuyomi? Uhhhh, no. Instead, I decided to make my own color scheme on paint.net, and after an hour or so fooling around, I cooked up this, which I somehow made her look closer to Chris Yukine in Ichavial instead. I really vibed with it though, so I decided, why not finally learn how to spray paint and airbrush with her? My dad’s been insisting that I learn soon, so why not do it now?
First, I painted the white and the red, which my dad recommended to me to use Tamiya TS-18 Metallic Red, but not before I primed the parts in white, which would also paint the parts I wanted in white. My dad showed me the steps, and lo and behold, I’ve spray painted for the first time. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a perfect paint job, there are quite a few micro paint bubbles and a few drips here and there. But for a first timer? Not a bad job if I say so myself!
Next, I wanted to paint the joints and weapons gray, and the rest of the gray parts to match with the joints. My dad has always painted Gundam frames by airbrushing them in Alclad, so I wanted to do the same. Airbrushing takes a bit more setup, and the airbrush my dad owns has a bit of weight to it, but in return there’s a lot more precision in using one over spray cans. I will say, my first experience with airbrushing was a bit trickier than spray painting. It took me a few parts to get it right, because my aim was… not great at first, and sometimes, mostly with the gray parts, I couldn’t tell if I painted the part or not. But, I did get the desired result in the end, which snapping her together with the painted pieces, I got pretty damn close to what I intended!
You pretty much know how I roll from here—hand painting, panel-lining and topcoating what I didn’t paint already. I dabbed a lot of Tamiya Metallic Gray to make her look more mechanical, gave the white shoulder guns some Vallejo Red, and sprinkled some RGB across Acerby and my god I cooked like crazy with those little touches. Of course, I just had to paint the inside of the bunny ears pink. Unfortunately, the airbrushed parts were chipping, so I took the chance to put Metallic Gray on it instead, and, jeez, it’s really similar to Alclad Magnesium. Can you spot the patches? Afterwards, I panel lined her using a Micron pen, and damn, they’re pretty sweet, and decaled her with a decaying sheet of generic decals from DelpiDecal. Finally, when the weather was right, I gave the pink parts a good flatcoat, and she was complete.
I’m, really, really happy how she ended up. I got a basic 30MM kit out of mild curiosity and made something special out of it. Acerby with the options set looked great, but it definitely needed something more, and the custom color scheme I went for just pops off so hard. She still rocks in articulation, with enough joints on the shoulders that they can get out of the way most of the time, so she’s still one hell of a poser. I’m proud of myself. My dad’s really proud of me. I even got the rest of my family impressed without them scratching their heads. Without a doubt, Acerby was one revolutionary experience, and I’m so excited about what I can do from here.
That being said, my mecha musume space is severely low as ever, and I don’t have as much money to spend on them as I used to. Mad Wolf is not even released yet. Susanowo Guren is too big and too expensive right now. I made my Acerby color scheme too similar to Megalomaria Ruby Eye. My musume future is quite uncertain. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this long write-up, and I’ll see you around!
