Okay, on to the base. Originally, this was going to be just a quickie build – something lightweight and fast in between more complicated models – so I didn’t plan anything too complex for a display.
Instead of cutting a piece of wood or plastic, I just went into the spares box. A few years ago, I bought these ready made bases from Kotobukia/Modeling Support Goods. I was going to put a MaK or two on them, but never got around to it.
I also had Hasegawa’s U.S. Pilot / Ground Crew set – I bought it specifically to get the pilot figures for a sci-fi attack helicopter kit, but the other figures might look interesting w/ this model. They’re the wrong scale, but I think they look close enough that only a die-hard Macross fan would notice.
I started by assembling and cleaning up a couple of the figures, and then drilling holes in their feet for thin brass rods. Unfortunately, I broke one of my last drill bits off inside the one figures leg. 
Unable to retrieve it, I drilled into the other leg…
I painted the edges of the base flat black, and then push fit the model together to get an idea how much space I have to work with, and where things might go. I liked this setup – the one figure guiding the mech, and another walking alongside checking something on the foot while ducking the swinging arm – so I drilled some holes for the rods and put them in place temporarily – this is what it looked like:
Now, from my hazy memories, these Destroids were stationed on the SDF-1, and the SDF-1 was partially constructed from aircraft carriers (I think)… so I decided to paint the base like a carrier deck. I looked at some carrier models in back issues of Finescale for inspiration.
I started by masking the edges, then sprayed a fairly even coat of Camouflage Grey mixed 50/50 with Light Sea Grey. Then I masked off some stripes, and put down some dry transfer numbers.
I then painted the surface Aircraft Interior Black. After that, I added some random light spots by mixing neutral grey into the black and spraying some cloud like shapes in random patterns around where the mech will be standing. I removed the tape and the transfers before the paint had completely dried. This is what I came up w/:
I don’t like it. I’m right on the edge of tossing it in the paint stripper and starting over. What do you guys think of it?
While I was mulling over repainting the base, I painted the various gun barrels. Flat black for a base coat, then a heavy drybrush of Jet Exhaust. The machine guns were fitted into the head from inside the arm hole, and fixed in place w/ a drop of superglue.
Next, I sprayed the kit w/ a layer of Glosscote to prep for decaling. It’s interesting how the clear layer changed the look of the painted surface – I’m liking it more now.
Since this was only a $6 kit, I expected the decals to give me some trouble. They were very thick and glossy, so I lightly sanded them w/ an 800 grit sanding stick to take some of the shine off.
Then I went to apply them, and knew I was in trouble when they began to silver as soon as they hit the water, while still on the backing paper…
I got the decals into position with some Microset solution, and then hit them hard w/ Microsol. They still silvered. So I re-coated them w/ more Microsol - each application seemed to reduce the silvering a little, so I just kept hitting them. Some had as many as 8 applications applied over the course of three days, but it worked, almost all the silvering disappeared. Man, I really like that stuff.
Considering how much trouble the other makings gave me, the D7 decal on the rounded section gave me no grief at all. Went down perfect right away. I am quite pleased. 
Once all that was dry, I mixed up an enamel wash – 1 part each of Black, Burnt Umber and Dark Tan, to about 20 parts thinner. I used this mix to accent panel lines and other surface details like rivets. I then set it aside to dry for a few days. It's a little bit heavy in places, but i expect the next step to tone it down some.
Almost done…