Gundam Fans

[SchizophrenicMC]

WAIT! Before you try that, you need to know what kind of paint you're using!

If you try that with an acrylic paint, it won't work! To do that with acrylic paint, you can use Isopropyl Alcohol or water. (I use Isopropyl because it leaves a flat finish) If you're using Tamiya Color, the jar shape will tell you if it's Acrylic, Enamel, or Lacquer. If you're using Testors, you'll need to read the bottle.

If you're using Enamel paint, don't let me stop you. But, if you're using Lacquer paint, you'll need Lacquer thinner, and plenty of ventilation. The man in the video is using Mr.Color Enamels, which are oil-based, and so, they thin, with a mineral oil spirit, like Naphthanol.

I pretty much do the same thing for panel lines, though, only with alcohol and acrylic. I must say, having tried all 3 methods of wash-lining (This method of panel lining is called the Wash Method), I prefer having the parts, painted, off the sprue, but unassembled. Then, nothing gets in the way of washing it on, then cleaning up. I always use acrylic paint for lining, because alcohol doesn't damage Polystyrene or ABS, and it won't dissolve Lacquer or Enamel paints.

 

[Whitelog]

Thanks for the warning. With that in mind I will pick up some Testors Acrylic paint or whatever brand name Hobby Lobby deals with. But is it okay to use rubbing alcohol to thin it? If not I'll pick up some acrylic thinner with the paint. Also about removing the excess paint. In another video I found the person using the same method, only with paint from a gundam marker and Tamiya Acrylic thinner, after painting he let it dry and then rubbed off the excess paint with a Q-tip , would it be easier to get it off while its still wet?

 

[SchizophrenicMC]

Acrylic thinner is Isopropyl Alcohol, generally. And that's rubbing alcohol. Currently, I'm using 91% concentrated Isopropyl, but 70% would work, as well, since you only really need water to thin acrylics. The alcohol just speeds up drying and flattens the finish. When you rub off the paint, just use some alcohol.

I would suggest getting Tamiya Color acrylics (I swear, I keep trying to type Cyrillic) because they cost less, and have just as good a finish. I'm pretty sure most Hobby Lobby stores carry a small selection.

 

[Whitelog]

Again thanks for all the Help. I can't think of any thing else to ask so unless you have any last minute advice my next post might have some Pics with it.
Probably just a link to photobucket.

 

[Jester1014]

Just to throw my 2 cents in on the Whole panel lining. I use a Bic Fine tip. It's works great and you only notice the purpleish sheen if you' don't wipe off the piece enough. The Gunmetal style that schiz uses, works well on dark colored kits, but on lighter kits it gets kind of lost to the eyes, That just my opinion.
And using lighter fluid... why would you want to make your kit flammable?

Remove the pieces from the tree, but don't connect them. That way if you get any kind of running between parts, you can clean it before it becomes a problem.

Just for show I spent 30 bucks at my Hobbytown and bought and built a kit right there within two hours. I let them see what it looked like not detailed, then I had my way with it. Added afew Extra Decals to give it some more Militaristic Markings and the owners buoght it for a display. While I was building, quite a few Random customers were watching me.
They grew interested in what I was doing. One of my friends explained it, and in two days the store was out of stock for Gundam Kits. Now they order more than usual to keep up with demand. If only they ordered HGUC and More Mastergrades, I would be in heaven.

 

[SchizophrenicMC]

I use a light paint for dark kits, and Tamiya X-19 Smoke grey for light kits. And, by light, I mean, lighter than TITANS colors. This stuff shows up pretty well, though, I've considered getting a thicker color, lately.

Good on you, Jay, with that Hobbytown bit. I plan on entering this GM in the next model competition, if I can get the diorama done, as well.

 

[Jester1014]

I'm going to be making a sacrifice to the Gouf or the Deathscythe Ka here soon for a wicked BD Dio.

 

[SchizophrenicMC]

I'm going to be making a sacrifice to the Gouf or the Deathscythe Ka here soon for a wicked BD Dio.

Very nice.

In a bout of irony, I ran out of Olive Drab paint, and I only have one more leg to paint. That's gonna be $7 for a leg. Also, I have MAYBE enough Grey to paint the leg, and not the massive beam rifle or missile launcher. Other than that, the GM is assembled. It looks a lot better, albeit dark, in the new color. Modified (ahem, clipped apart) the broken knee peg, so I get a LOT more mobility now. Gonna do the same for the other leg, and this guy'll be able to snipe him some Kergerin. Painting the normal Beam Rifle that comes with him, now. I just wanna put down some of this white paint, and, it's not likely to ever find itself in this suit's hands, so it's a good practice piece.

All that said, cleaning up the smoke acrylic is peeling paint off my test pieces. They've sat for about 3 days, now. Probably gonna have to wait until my first topcoat to panel-line and decal. Then, top coat again and start working on a diorama. Still not certain what I want to do for that.

 

[Jester1014]

I was having an Acrylic chipping problem when I painted my HGUC Unicorn DM Black to match the Deathscythe colors, the paint didn't take to the plastic and it just sluffed off. I then started to use Tamiya Gloss Black, it took like a charm. I gues just certain paints will work with certain plastics.

 

[SchizophrenicMC]

It could also be the mold-release agent that I neglected to wash off. I'm still thinking, if I topcoat it, it'll seal it well enough to panel-line, so when the weather permits, I'll finish painting and detailing this guy.

 

[Toacrabman]

Yeah, you gotta wash everything in a tray to get the mould release stuff off, then the paint applys way better, and with no extra uneven gloss, I know this because i do 1/72nd scale model WWII planes, and they are detailed.

 

[Boba Fett]

Actually, a better route is PollyS plastic prep. It is AMAZING stuff, and you'll never have a problem with oil ever again.

 

[SchizophrenicMC]

Honestly, in the past, I've just used dish detergent in water, and it takes the stuff right off. This time around I didn't feel like losing small parts, or, really, doing too much work, so I just went dirty. Dad always did in the past. Paint stays on well, it just comes off when I rub with a solvent.

I painted the faceplate behind the visor silver, and it looks fan-blam!-in' tastic.

 

[Boba Fett]

Oh, the dish soap works fine, but there have been very stubborn patches of mold-release agent on the plastic at times. The polly-s has never failed me. just a suggestion.

 

[misfitjh]

I have a question for. Have an of you guys heard of the TT brand name? I bought a 1/100 scale GN-005 Virtue off of E-bay from them and it arrived yesterday. I was just wondering if you guys have tried building these kits and if they are any good. Here is a link to one of their auctions http://cgi.ebay.ca/TT-BRAND-1-100-M...608?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e610a6f00 what do you guys think?

 

[Jester1014]

Pretty much you're going to want to treat it like a larger HGUC kit rather than a Master Grade, you'll still get some good detail out of it.
Also, TT uses a different plastic than the Japanese kits, TT is made in China. I have one For Green Frame Astray Gundam, it gives off an odd smell when the flash is shaved off. It's joints aren't going to be as strong as a Master Grade either. So expect poor posing ability.

 

[SchizophrenicMC]

TT Hongli is a Chinese brand that makes cheap, crappy knock-off versions of Bandai kits. It's completely illegal and the product sucks. They're not authorized to be sold, outside of China, except online, and likely contain heavy metal filler agents in a lot of the plastic.

When you buy Gunpla, you really want to buy Bandai.

I really don't see why Prime92 always buys Honglis. You'd think by now she'd have moved onto the real high-quality kits. Hell, Master Grade ANYTHING would be nice. Just a break from all this NG crap. And that voice modulation makes the videos unwatchable.

Really, I think Vegeta's the only Gunpla reviewer I can stand, 90% of the time. Rrobert184 has an elitist air about him, because he lives in Japan (and always points it out), Prime92's got that terrible voice modulation, 2Old4Toys doesn't talk NEARLY enough (Come on, man, your videos would be so much better if you spoke. The ones where you do talk are so much more enjoyable!)... I mean, Vegeta's not got the most thorough reviews, but he has a better mix of good things than the others. And it beats Frow55. Blah!

 

[misfitjh]

Thanks guys, I had originally bought this kit to use as a 3d ref for a possible Gundam costume. I was planning to just build the basic structures separately to see how it all looks and work out where I have to remove or change it to make it a wearable costume. But after looking at the kit I would kind of like to do a few for display. I found the four main characters from Gundam 00 in Bandai kits on e-bay and will most likely start buying them to build up properly. Again thanks for the advice and info guys.

 

[Jester1014]

Well schiz summed up Hongli TT alot better thanI could.

Don't buy ebay though, you're really never garunteed the quality of what you buy. IF you can, I of a few better site that have faster shipping and sheaper prices, and you know what you're getting. Pm me if you want the Addy's misfit.

And Neograde rocks the socks for add on parts and up grade kits, but full Neograde that are all resin are kinda crap, you can't really do anything with them. I have two NEograde Pieces, The 90mm Zaku Gatling Gun and The 08thTeams Gouf Shark custom add-on for the Gouf 2.0
They're expenxive but they were hand crafted.

If you want good 3d model refernces, go for HGUC, they're 1/144 scal. With a pair of Calipers a good modeler could easily put it into a modeling program like wings or Blender.

 

[SchizophrenicMC]

Yeah, I typically buy Hobbylink Japan, but I've recently been branching out into Robot4Less. Sometimes, Amazon. But I'd steer clear of eBay. You can never tell what's in good shape or not. The savings are not worth the risk, in my opinion.