After much hemming & hawing, I have finally gotten around to painting some of my ships. Huge thanks to all of you who've posted pointers on here, especially to Lansing, who was kind enough to answer some questions I had about paints. I feel very newb-ish, especially as art has never been my thing, so I've been meticulously researching things like the colour wheel to learn how that works. Anyhow, what's past is prologue...

I liked Lansing's job on adding some flair to the GR-75, and was inspired by dante005's repaint job with WWII themes for some fighters , and started thinking about making a GR-75 look kinda like the C-47s from which paratroopers jumped .

I've begun work on mine, and wanted to post a photo for any other beginners / amateurs who may struggle with getting up the gumption to just try to do the darned thing; this WIP will be the behind-the-scenes of how painting is a process.

As you can see in the photos, there is a stark difference between painting one coat, letting it dry, and painting a second coat over it (the starboard-side panel; on the left as you look at the photos), and just painting one coat (the port-side panel, on the right as you look at the photos). Actually, that port-side panel is more like 1.5 coats, since I did the centre of the panel with a larger brush, and then went back with a smaller brush to do the edges.

Anyhow, I hope this encourages others to just give it a shot, and I'm always happy to answer questions (to the limited extent my newly-acquired knowledge allows).

Edit: I don't know why it keeps rotating my photos, but oh well...

So are you planning on painting the whole thing OD Green?

I'm debating - just doing the stripes that were gray on the original model in OD green, and then trying to paint invasion stripes on that surface; or larger chunks in OD green. I don't want to do the whole thing in OD green, I don't think.

Well, personally, I think I'd paint most of it in Olive Drab, leaving original about the same number of panels that were grey when you started. Put a little scorching around the surrounding panels and the "original color" can be replacement panels covering flak... er, blaster damage. The surface is too rough for decals, but you might be able to cut a mask/stencil and paint on a star. Like this:

Best of luck!

Yeah, I really want to try and get the star on it somewhere, maybe near the exhaust...

Pretty sure I don't want to do chunks of it in OD green; I want to make it more of a Modern homage, not a slavish replica. Like OT concept art that was pretty spare in its colouring, evoking a used-and-beaten-up feel, much like your scorch marks would if I had the skill to paint them, [Edit: not a just-done-up for the invasion fresh paintjob look. More of a "this vessel has been repurposed so many times, but somehow retained parts of its original paint" feel.]

Anyhow, I finally have the dining table available to me again, so I will hopefully post updates later today.

I finished (I think) with dorsal green stripes, and started prepping for ventral "invasion" stripes by the end of summer, but have not touched it since then. I'm trying to do some OSL for engine glow on other ships, so I tried on the GR-75 as well last weekend. The results are not satisfying, but I'm learning (seeking feedback in the Repaints thread).