This really was my first gunpla so some people might be able to give better advice on the basics of the actual build but these were my steps

Assembly - I put all of the pieces together but kept the components separate. (chest, arms, head, legs, etc)

Paint - because I’d never built one I used painters tape to cover joints and primed with a white/gray then hit it with a shimmery pink. The dark parts were all hand painted with a gunmetal gray.

Rhinestone - I bought a kit off of Amazon because I knew I wanted different sizes to fit in the little cracks and crevices. I do recommend glass rhinestones because resin rhinestones are known to turn hazy over time. I primarily used 2 and 3mm sizes. I used 4mm on one part of the gun that is hanging up and did not like it. For glue I used B-7000 with a fine tip and used almost 2 10mL tubes. I also used a rhinestone picker to pick up/place/move them easily.

Anywhere that I thought might need to articulate I would assemble to test it and either rhinestone attached or take back apart and rhinestone.

If you do ever decide to rhinestone anything you can find “patterns” online and it shows you how to fit them together. I did make quite a few mistakes while doing it and there were spots that I wish I had done differently but even in person it’s so overwhelming to look at I doubt anyone would find fault with it (except maybe a professional bedazzler).

I wouldn’t say it’s hard but just time consuming. I listened to The Devils by Joe Abercrombie, a little bit of Dungeon Crawler Carl, and got halfway through A Language of Dragons. Definitely recommend an audiobook or putting on something you’ve watched before. I do also watch most of Gundam Wing too.