1/44 High Grade Gouf Custom

Mobile Suit: MS-07B-3 Gouf Custom
Release Date: November 2010
Series: Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team

Start Date: August 9, 2026
Finish Date: August 21, 2026

This is one of my favorite suit redesigns, featured in the penultimate battle in the OVA series The 08th MS Team. It's a meaner, grittier take on the Gouf that's featured heavily in the original anime series.

I wanted to try more weathering techniques - I previously did a Char's Zaku II where I tried weathering, but I was pretty unstructured about it. I wanted to practice some more concrete techniques and approaches, but didn't want to do it on a kit that I spent a lot of time painting - so I decided to pick up this suit, did very slight metallic frame painting, and then just used weathering for the rest of the kit.

I don't really like how this came out. I overweathered this thing to a huge degree. But I don't regret it at all - this is just part of the learning process, and I post these too. This just ain't gonna be on display for long. Maybe one day we'll get a redemption build with the 1/100 MG version of the kit.

Process:

1. Airbrushed frame with 75% Gaia Gunmetal Surfacer + 25% Mr Color Black
2. Makeup weathering with Tamiya Weathering Master Oil Stain
3. Semi-gloss topcoat 1
4. Pin wash with Tamiya Dark Gray / Mr Weathering Color Multi-Black
5. Waterslide decals
6. Sponge chipping with enamel paints - a lighter color of each armor color
7. Brush with enamel paints - gunmetal
8. Semi-gloss topcoat 2
9. Rust filter with Mr Weathering Color Stain Brown
10. Semi-gloss topcoat 3

Observations:

• I kind of liked using the makeup weathering here. Since I didn't paint (and therefore didn't have any shading) I felt like this added a decent amount of depth and fade on its own. I probably won't use these on any painted kits, but maybe this is something I can leverage on quick builds in the future.
• I just went way, way, way overboard on the number of chips here. I think the chest is where I have the most consistently good amount and it's still pretty heavy. The legs just get silly.
• But - some individual chips look quite good to my eyes. That's encouraging at least since I can iterate on the density of the effect in the future, but fundamentally use the same approach.
• I mixed the primer with black paint to darken it and I like the result - I will take advantage of being able to tint this in future builds for sure.

Gallery