"BB-CH1EF"

So, the school I work at had a Secret Santa a few weeks before our winter break. As luck would have it, I got a Star Wars fan who LOVES BB-8. And what better than a normal BB-8...a BB-8 with the colors of our school.

It took a huge effort to find someone willing to expedite a Bandai BB-8 kit to me so late. I only got the kit a few weeks from the deadline. So, I quickly got to work priming and painting. Because of how it's designed, I painted everything before assembly. I masked the 2 eyes with liquid mask before priming in Mr. Surfacer Black.

For the paint, I chose maroon and gold for my school. I used a LifeColor red mixed with a little Vallejo purple ink to create the maroon. I then misted a little purple over the finished panels to create more depth and maroon tones. For the circular panels, I used an off-white. Finally, for the gold, I had an enamel pen set that had a nice gold in it. Tapping the pen in a paint tray resulted in enough paint that I could brush onto the model.

I weathered this little guy with a new set of Wilder's Aqualine. These are vanilla-smelling pastes that you can thin somewhat and use kinda like oils. Primarily, I used the Black Smoke and Dark Earth shades. For the chipped paint,I used a silver pen, tapping as before with the gold pen. Lastly, I used several watercolor pencils to create more shading and fading on the maroon panels.

Honestly, this kit was a dream to build. All I added was a little stretched clear sprue for the blue flame.