Build Start! HG Brave Commander Test Type

Time to start a new kit.   It's my first kit from my favourite Gundam series as far as mechas go, Gundam 00.  Nearly every suit in 00 is awesome in some way and very different to other series.   00 is also heavily loaded with bad-ass pilots and one of the baddest is Graham Aker AKA Mr Bushido!  He featured in many suits over the course of the 2 seasons, each one better than the one before it so I guess that this suit, from the 00 movie which is set after Season 2, is the best suit he ever had, the Brave Commander Test Type:

Here's the manual cover and sprues in the box.   It's basically 2 colours, blue and black with some white and clear pieces.  The black will actually get painted midnight blue which is close to black.

 

UPDATE:  Painting, going slow.  There's 3 main colours on this kit:  Black, which is actually Mr Hobby Midnight Blue with a touch of white (below, far right); White, which is Gaianotes Ultimate White.  I primed the white pieces with Surfacer Evo silver and even after 3 or 4 coats of white I could still see traces of the silver underneath, so I added a later of Mr Hobby White Pearl over the white; Blue, which is Gainotes Ultra Blue, Gaianotes Ultimate White and Gaianotes Flourescent Blue.

Upper body and one of the arms.  I'm happy with the colours that I chose for this kit although the consistency of colour is all over the place on the model.  This just comes with experience and also I mixed up small amounts of paint for each few parts I did rather than make a large amount of paint.  Doing larger amounts will help with consistency but I'm just getting started so wanted to make it easier to get the colours I wanted.