u/theCoolestGuy599

Finally got the rest of my paint in and was able to finish off this amazing kit! And wow, what a kit it is. I can't believe they engineered four different modes, *and* gave this as much articulation as it has, in a model kit of this scale. This is mind blowing. My only nitpick with this kit is that there's absolutely nothing you can do with the hand guard pieces in either Gamma or Robo modes. Seems like a weird exclusion in the design, usually these kits are pretty good about storage for mandatory parts.

And as much of a lengthy process masking all these parts were, I do think it was worth it. Painting all the stock grey silver and even painting the chrome stickers metallic silver really adds so much to the presentation here. Towards the end of the slideshow you can see my sticker sheet - I only used a few. Everything not in use was painted. Didn't bother building the stock sword as I have the larger one in use from Q-Rex.

Things that I didn't bother painting, but am still considering, are the wheels themselves and the micro rangers. I have a silver Gundam marker, I could probably paint the wheels if I really wanted to. And the rangers I could probably do with the stuff I have for painting board game minis, I just don't feel strongly motivated to do either.

Only one kit left to finish the line off (for now). Working on importing Time Shadow since I missed the boat on it initially. I would love to also get a second copy of both Shadow and Robo to have one set combined, but I'm not sure if I should hold off on a potential black/gold repaint that bundles both. I tend to prefer those recolors for combined duplicates.

Bit of a wordy post, but about a month ago I finally got this and the Q Rex kits in, and with Q Rex I decided to try my hand at doing some basic paint work before assembly. I have plenty of experience building these kits, but I've never made the dive into going any further than making sure the tolerances were to my liking. Q Rex looked pretty rough in the molded plastic though, so I sprayed the entire thing down with Mica Silver and it turned out great! A few things I wished I did differently on the Q Rex though, but overall it looks much better than the stock plastic.

A week ago or so I finally moved on to the Time Jets, and for these I wanted to take things even further.

I spent the better part of the last week planning out and painfully masking every individual piece in this kit. Unfortunately I ran out of Mica Silver so I won't be able to finish the build until next week, but I have all of Jet 1 done, the shells of Jets 4 and 5 done, and the Time Flyer.

Overall, I'm SUPER happy with how this is turning out. Very few stickers are being used, as I wanted to see how well I could realistically mask and paint things this small. The base grey plastic is all done in Mica Silver. The chrome pieces all had a black primer undercoat, followed with two coats of Metallic Silver. I made sure to keep all the color separated pieces masked out as I liked the toy look of the molded black/red parts. I also like the look of the stickers for select details, but I plan on using very few. The pictures done do the paint finish justice. The Mica Silver has a really nice shine in hand without being too distracting. And the Metallic Silver chrome parts definitely look more premium than the other silver pieces, although I do wish it was more reflective.

Time Flyer is painted as well, although that one came out a little rougher than the Jets as it was the first thing I tested the process on and I didn't layer on the masking tape thick enough.

Besides the chrome parts, I did not prime anything and I have not applied any topcoat to anything. All paint is Tamiya spray paint, with the primer undercoat being Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500. Really looking forward to finishing everything else! Will make another post when the full kit is done.

Photo credit: kaijucanuck

Photo credit: thekaijukingdom on Instagram

I've been a long time fan of DNA Designs, but sometimes their kits just do way more than I'm looking for and the prices have gotten a bit ridiculous as a result. I still enjoy the kits but sometimes it's nice to see some upgrade kits that know exactly what to offer.

This is one of those unbranded 3D printed upgrade kits from China. No clue if there was an original seller for this kit but you can find them all over eBay. It specifically upgrades Prime himself; basically nothing is changed to Super Mode outside of a gap filler for the feet. The upgrades here are subtle but really nice. It includes new hands that allow the fingers to open, but also adds a new transformation step that lets the back of the hand flip around to hide the hands better in alt mode. The kit also includes a replacement leg piece which adds maybe half an inch to the figure's height to make the proportions better. The new leg pieces are collapsible for transformation, so the alt mode is unchanged. These do also make Super Mode's arms about a half inch longer as well to adjust the proportions a bit, but it's barely noticeable. It also has little added hinges to the arms to fill out the cab doors, as well as some screw hole covers.

Just thought I'd share in case anyone was unimpressed with what DNA did with their kit. I felt DNAs kit offered a lot of unnecessary bulking and styling to the design; this kit keeps the design authentic while upgrading a few specific things. It's also cheap, both in price and in material. These are 3D printed so you'd want to handle with care, but they aren't so fragile that they'll snap with ease.

Q3 2027

$150 / $170 (tariffs)

Q3 2027

$59.99 USD (pre-tariff)

$69.99 USD (tariff)