The new Wave SnakeEye Engine Bells are a fantastic addtion to the new kit. First of all, they are now one piece! The ridges made the old ones quite difficult to put together cleanly but now with a sharp file, some folded sandapaper you can have these little gems tidied up in minutes.

It’s not necessary but I wanted to add a little detail to the inside of the bells and used some Mecha Detailing parts from Kotobukiya. These are from sheet p-113.

Next I prime and base coat the Engine Bells in one step with Mr. Color 33 Flat Black applied with a Citadel Large Brush and thinned with Gaia Notes T-07 “Moderate Thinner”. It has retarder pre-mixed in and is good for airbrushing these paints and also for hand-brushing them. The thinned paint on the light colored plastic shows through nicely giving them a highlight/shadow balance from the start.

Next, a series of very quick and randomised dry-brushing runs, starting from darkest and working up to brightest with Mr. Color 61 Burnt Iron and then 3 Citadel Metallics of Tin Bitz, Brazen Brass and finally a little Mithril Silver. I purposely went for lacquers and acrylics here so that I could use enamel based thinners to fix the pigments I was planning in the next steps. Enamel thinners generally don’t interfere with lacquer or acrylic paints under them.

Lastly I’ve added some pigments from Mig Productions, Track Brown and Black Smoke both wet and dry. I spotted Track Brown when buying some other products there and had it in mind for engine bells and wasn’t disappointed, it’s a nice very dark brown and the very slight reddish tinge looks great on the engine bells and helps also to give them a very flat finish with some of the metallic sheen of the paints coming through. First run is to brush in some pigments dry and then touching a brush loaded with Tamiya Enamel Thinner which fixes them lightly in place. Then after attaching them to the model, here the fit is so good they are simply pressed into place, no glue required, I add a little more of both colors in places I feel accentuate the look I am after and to tone down any spots still too glossy or clean looking. You can also see that I bought my Tamiya Enamel Thinner at Yodobashi Camera for ¥360, cheasy product placement at it’s best!