After years of printing chunky 440% scale Gundams with FDM — yeah they were big, but the precision was… let us just say charming. Finally decided to take the SLA plunge. 100% scale. First time. The surface finish on SLA parts is just on another level — smooth, clean, way more detail than FDM could ever dream of. But then the question hits: who paints all this? Me. So I went out and bought a full spray painting setup with a negative pressure booth.
This build had one clear goal: print every single part, get it assembled, make it stand — that is a win. So the sanding was minimal — just knock off support marks and flush the gates. Panel lines? Did not touch them. Painting was broad strokes only — overall spray, no precision masking, and zero water-slide decals. Basically: validate the full pipeline first, polish later.
This is the EG05 RISING FREEDOM from Rockyq Season 5. Details definitely have room for improvement — surface sanding was not refined, not a single panel line was drawn, paint is flat single-color with no separation, and zero decals applied. But it stands there, complete. For a first-ever SLA + hand-paint project, that is enough. It proved the pipeline works.
Already got the next build lined up: Rockyq Season 7 EG06 Infinite Justice Gundam. This time it is going to be serious — finer sanding on the armor panels, clean panel lines drawn one by one, proper color separation with masking, and I need to figure out how to apply water-slide decals properly. When that is done, the level of detail should be noticeably ahead of the Freedom.
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