New York Giants Sazabi 3

1/100 Master Grade MSN-04 Sazabi New York Giants Custom

This is the controversial commission piece I've been working on. Controversial because I know that to many people, the Sazabi is their favorite MS and the epitome of Char. So to paint the MS embodiment of Char in other colors-- especially a football team's colors-- is sacrilege! And of course there are gonna be Giants haters, so they're gonna complain too (doesn't bother me-- I don't follow football).

But alas, it's what the customer wanted, and weird custom paint jobs are always done in Japan (the Itasha movement springs to mind) so who am I to judge?

This was not an easy paint job. In some ways, it's one of the hardest/ most expensive I've done. The reason is that the client wanted the white uniform. And painting white over red is probably the most obnoxious paint process you can do-- even more than painting over black. The reason is simple: You have to remove every. single. trace. of white or it will always have a pink tint to it. That pink tint is immediately noticeable, as opposed to painting white over black, where at worst, you have a slight gray tint. A gray tint is easy for the eye to gloss over, but pink... no way.

Adding to the hassle is that you can't just keep spraying coats of white on something like this til the red disappears. You need to retain the detail and keep the joints free to move. Being a fairly early MG, the Sazabi has always had annoying joint issues and places where parts rub together to threaten the paint (especially in the legs), so you have to be even more precise with a job like this.

The usual way around it is to spray a coat of gray down and then white over it. But I didn't want there to be any odd over spray areas of gray to potentially miss... so this was all white paint only. Luckily, Gaia has always been a champ in pigment and coverage, so I managed to do this job in four coats (it could have been MUCH worse). Of course, Gaia isn't the cheapest paint around and I wouldn't do this if it was my own thing. I found myself having to buy four new bottles of Gaia white to replace the paint this thing went through. If only the client would have wanted the blue jersey...

All the lines were masked and airbrushed instead of making them with custom decals. I did make custom decals for the NY logos and numbers and had them produced by Samuel. Fun fact about the NY logo on the shield: the white over pink problem surfaced there too with the color difference between the blue shield and red stripe being obvious in the decal. So I had four more logos made by Samuel and then very carefully lined them up and applied them one over the other until the NY was solid with no color delineations. Whew!

The client wanted #56, Lawrence Taylor, so custom decals were made there also. Just in time for Taylor to be given 6 years' probation in court. Too late to change those numbers now!

The red on the shin guards is to depict the red socks the giants wear with this uniform. Since this is more of a sports mascot instead of a military machine, there is only dark line work with no shading. A coat of Gunze solvent-based flat seals the whole thing in.

Now, having built two Sazabis (I sold my personal build last year), I can say in all honesty, I never want to build another one!