Here's mine. I decided to go with the clean look. I painted the blue (Tamiya TS-51), red (Mr. Color 68), silver (Mr. Color SM01), and gold parts (Tamiya X-12).

Without the decals




With decals




DMK01 and DMK03. I wish I had also painted the DMK01.

 

Looks freakin BEAUTIFUL.

For some reason I also prefer a cleaner look for my 03. My 01 has plenty of weathering, but for some reason I didn't feel it was appropriate for this one.

 

Ya that looks really good nice and shiny

 

Hi there, I just got my DMK -03, want to confirm how do you guys paint the skeleton? Dry brush or tamiya spray can? Thinking of gun metal/silver color

Any tutorial showing how is it done. Currently i am only able to get resource from Gundam forums.

 

I sprayed the whole thing with gunmetal and then taped it off and sprayed the ab section gold. I spray painted the whole figure actually...

 

The only part of the skeleton that I spray painted is the abdominal area. To do this, I removed the extremeties from the trunk (try to remove as much parts as you can), then put masking tape on the areas that I don't want painted. I used an airbrush for painting. The rest, I just left unpainted since the armor pieces cover most of the skeleton anyway. Also, I prefer it unpainted so that the few exposed skeleton parts would give contrast to shiny silver armor. If you really want the whole skeleton painted, I suggest choosing a darker color (except for the abdomen) that would approximate the original color of the skeleton, again to give the figure some contrast.

 

I like the armor as a bright silver like I have it, but if I go back and decide to do more I'm gonna use a darker gunmetal dry brushing to preserve the contrast like you said.

 

Current progress on my prime. I have all the parts that I am currently decaling removed from the model ATM. Did my best to get most of the gold highlights seen in the movie CGI Model Painted on along with some of the more subtle red blue and silver areas that were not molded in the proper colors.

 

Looks like I'm gonna have to take a closer look at mine and see where I missed some gold, red, and blue bits to paint.

Also, does your gold really look that yellow or is it just the lighting?

 

It's probably a bit of both. In person the paint I used is a very bright metallic gold color, which makes it look really really bright yellow in most of the pictures I have taken. If your wondering what brand, either cause you want a bright bright yellow gold, or want to avoid it, its aztek gold pearl coat for airbrushes.

 

Thanks man!

 

While I like this model and would describe it as a good kit, it makes me sad how it fell just short of greatness like DMK-01. I blame a lot of this on their efforts to recycle so much of DMK-01's frame. In principle I suppose it seemed like a good idea, but ultimately the final design from age of extinction was just to different at the core. The most glaring inaccuracy for me is the lack of the gold hip guards that should protrude out from his crotch piece, just behind the skirt armor that hangs from the same area. Instead the left the whole area the same old black mechanical detail from DMK-03. But since I'm not willing to spend several thousand dollars for prime 1 studios statue I guess I'm stuck with DMK-03 if I want a semi-movie accurate robot mode for AOE prime.

 

I'm starting to consider getting DMK03 Optimus Prime since I want some representation of his upgraded form from AOE and aside from Armoured Knight Optimus Prime this is pretty much the closet I can get.

I do have questions about it. Is it just possible to paint some flames on the kit if you don't want to use the decals especially if one isn't an expert on it? Also is it possible to paint the silver parts by hand if you don't have a spray bottle in hand?

 

I know some people painted the flames. You can do whatever you want!  
And, yes! You can paint everything with brushes by hand, I'm doing it right now with my DMK03 actually. And I'm just starting to do the decals that are a real pain in the a**! Good thing is that I went for a total weathered look for my Optimus so I can fix some boo boos I make with the decals with battle-damage XD

I'm doing this kind of customization for the first time in my life and has been an awesome experience! I really wanted this kit, but I wasn't really sure to get it, actually I was really scared of doing this myself. The only things I've customized in my life are ball jointed dolls, but this thread with all your great pics and advices encouraged me to take the jump. Thank you so much guys!  
And the kit is gorgeous! I just love it! I'm so happy I finally got it! <3

Here's a pic of what I've done so far (if you want to see more pics, just click the image, you can see all the process and pics of the materials-paints I'm using)...

Takara DMK03 Optimus Prime - Age of Extintion (WIP) by Stratolily, en Flickr

 

^^That's good to know thanks.   Also yours is coming off pretty awesome.  

 

You're welcome and thanks!  

I would really like to know if I'm the only girl in this world building this kit. The guy from the hobby store was really nice, but when he learnt about what I was going to paint and build with the supplies I was purchasing from him, he felt the need to tell me that it was really weird that a woman likes these things that are more common to men. Well, in my personal case Optimus is one of my favorite characters ever, so that's why I'm "building" him.

 

I found these decals in eBay:

Eness Metal Detail Decals for Tansformers DMK03 Optimus Prime | eBay

Anyone know if they are traditional stickers or the type that comes with DMK-03? It would be worth it to have an alternative that isn't so difficult to apply.

 

I used them with mine, they were so much easier than the water slide decals. They're basically stickers that come with a plastic covering that you take off, then place the sticker onto the figure, rub in slightly, and peel off the plastic cover, so not traditional stickers. The only thing is that they aren't all aligned properly on the paper so you need to align individual pieces to match up the flame designs, they are a very nice metallic red and come across great!

 

So, here's my Optimus finally finished!   (click on the image if you want to see more pics)...

Takara DMK03 Optimus Prime - Age of Extinction version (finished). by Stratolily, en Flickr

If somebody can help me with a little problem I have... as soon as I added the blue parts that go in the lower back of his legs, the possability of his knees got totally messed up. He can't kneel as good as before (like in the previous pic I posted here) cause those parts that goes in the sides of his knees "collide" with his legs, even if I move them (sorry for my english, I'm trying to explain the problem the best I can). I don't understand as I see people posing him like crazy and I can't do it. Anyways, I won't be messing around with him actually, I don't even want to change his hands, cause he's very delicate and I don't want to break him (again. I already broke one of those knee parts when I was painting and assembling him. Lucky me I had a wonderful glue that did wonders and he's like new now). But still, I would like to know. Thanks!  

 

Does anyone know where I can get the instructions for the decals? I misplaced mine..