Anyone into Gundam (or Gunpla)

[Raymond Lin]

Not sure if anyone has done this before and this is my first attempt but this is my plan.

Since I am not airbrush it with a new colour and watching to keep the plastic colour i am going to

Step 1 - Take it apart a little more, spray on a clear primer to both protect the plastic from the panel liner (which I hear can damage the plastic long term to make it brittle) and easier for the paint to stick.
Step 2 - Panel line. I have a choice of white, black, grey and brown. also some silver and bronze paint to choose from.
Step 3 - Waterslide decal
Step 4 - Top coat, I think I will do the whole thing in a matt top coat EXCEPT the black centre portion of the shield which I think looks best in a gloss top coat and i think he darker reds panels too might look better in a gloss top coat. Lots of masking will be required but I don't think it will be too difficult.

 

[DEL 707]

When you say panel lining, do you mean with those pens?

 

[Raymond Lin]

When you say panel lining, do you mean with those pens?

No, I am using ink. It seems much faster and easier.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhqJhz--yMo&t=2s

 

[DEL 707]

Hah, I've bought those exact inks for my Sherman tank!
Really do need to get off my arse and finish base coating it...

 

[Raymond Lin]

Change of plan, or possibly. I don't think I will do part gloss and part matt. I think whilst the shield comes out quite well with the contrast. Not sure how the actual suit will look with that. You got to say it looks a lot better than the before photo above.

 

[PC777]

That shield does look sweet, I looked into panel lining and I don't think I'll bother doing it with the minis as too much for me to make mistakes with and potential for mess in my office. Might try using it if I make a bigger one and I think I'd have to stick to pens for less mess potential. I made some more minis in the meantime, some were pretty cool, I'll post some pics later.

 

[PC777]

A couple more, the black one had 40 mostly tiny stickers but I think it does look comparable to the painted box version, very fiddly stickers but I do like the gold effect.
The fire one only had a few stickers but fiddly as well, the tiny green ones were ridiculous, looks much better with transparent red eyes than the green anime eyes that I don't really like so am leaving those stickers off. Painted gold parts would a lot better but the plastic gold looks OK as well.

Really like the black design and will likely get that one in a larger realistic style. Will build the realistic RX-79 144 scale I'm getting tomorrow next.

 

[DEL 707]

Think I'll start working on Starscream tomorrow!

 

[Lytic]

I was given a MG Freedom Gundam for Xmas. My first Gundam built and I thorougly enjoyed it, though my side cutters blunted out so had to improvise using a knife :O I think it turned out pretty well!
The most annoying part of building it was the hands that fit to the gun dont seem to want to stay in so I had to glue it to the handle, also the base stand it comes with is pretty bad and just barely supports the gundam and wings.

https://imgur.com/a/6Eok2az

Ive also ordered myself a MG Flugel Tallguese EW which I cant wait to build when it arrives.

 

[DEL 707]

Looks great!

Been working on Starscream, hopefully have the other leg and waist finished by the end of the week.

 

[PC777]

That MG Freedom looks great, nice progress on the Starscream, Del you ever going to get Autobots or are you a dedicated Decepticons fan?

Made up the 144 HG UC model, really nice detail but the scale is still quite large for the smallest range of "serious" ones they do, takes up about the same width but almost double the height of the minis, but along with having tiny heads compared to the minis, about the size of a Lego mini figure in a helmet. Once I build my super large SD freebie I'll take a pic to show the disparate scales.

I used some coloured stickers I bought separately to 'paint' the blade pink as it's just plain white out of the box, trying to keep this a totally dry and mess free hobby for me, can see some lines up close, but on the shelf it looks nicely painted in a shiny pink laser type effect. The included eyes sticker was insanely small and I misaligned it very slightly, annoying, but again can't notice on the shelf. Also made some more minis and have an RGB backlit shelving set up on wooden shelves with transparent acrylic display stands - the minis look great as you can fit so many on them, really colourful and diverse, will post pics when have finished it. Have half the shelf left for a similar set up for 144s which can fit about 8-10 144s compared to 16 or so minis on the same size space. The 100 scale and 60 scale likely will be too big for me to collect though I may get one of them for a separate area covered in an acrylic display box.

Be good to see some more progress from anyone else too.

 

[DEL 707]

Great looking model, are you tempted to try some panel lining?

Maybe 1 day I'll get some autobots, not many about.
Truth be told, the Decepticons have better looking models

 

[PC777]

Often getting distracted between building these so good chance I could mess up panel lining, definitely with a brush, If I did panel line I would want really light grey thin pen on the white indents, actually not a huge fan of the more cell shaded contrasted black panel line look, so I'd likely need a few pens to match colours. I'll likely edit each one a bit as an ongoing thing if I do get some, plus add stickers. There is a 144 set that comes with a panel lining pen, might get that to try it out, also some of the transparent 144s look really good as well and don't need panel lining.

It's true that the Deceptions generally do look cooler, I bet that Soundwave is their best seller in that range, a very cool and iconic one I might even get.

 

[DEL 707]

Put a good few hours into him today.



The waist seems to be angle'd a little downwards, not sure if it's meant to be like that, or I've made a mistake. Sadly, there's not many places I can go for help.

On the whole, it's not been too bad so far, maybe it's just from the experience with the last model. Though I have noticed a few pieces where they havn't bothered to put "bend lines", which means I've had to eyeball it. Caused a bit of warping, especially on the smaller pieces.

Edit-
Found a vid, looks like he does lean forward, maybe I should stop trying to bend the damn thing.

 

[DEL 707]

A **** ton of hours later...





I honestly turned into a man possessed. Every spare minute was spent working on him.

Few more bits to do, need to make Megatrons gun and change his right hand, but I can relax now.

Model does lean a bit, but after watching 2 videos, I just think that's the way the model is. I really don't think I can do anything without bending bits out of shape and honestly, I'm done with this model.

Also, who ever designed his crown was a servant of Satan.

 

[Raymond Lin]

You do work fast! I am still yet to part dismantle the Sazabi to put on a base coat before panel lining. Keep getting distracted!

 

[PC777]

Starscream looks great, really nice detail, I also saw you can get Transformer plastic snap together models like the Gundam, some of those look really nice.

Almost done with the minis display shelf, here's the built Mazinkaiser and another one. Just a few more minis and will be done with them and move onto a 144 scale shelf.
Been a great little hobby over the Christmas break, they look cool as a combined collection on the shelf.

 

[Lytic]

My MG Tallgeese Fluegel EW arrived today, cant wait to start building it.

 

[DEL 707]

Was talking to my brother last night, after a bit of a drink.

He managed to talk me into ordering Tarn.



I REALLY shouldn't have ordered him, I havn't even opened Megatrons box. But he was kind of hard to get and I got him for a good price from America.

I know those shoulders are going to be an absolute nightmare to assemble.

 

[Chaos]

I picked up a Gunpla a while ago, was the one from this playlist which is aimed at beginners -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHb2oXXBR3Y&list=PLT8l3DNUdcBD8ltTwSOyUuHPxB7hQIEzr

I mainily wanted to just learn some painting/weathering techniques I could use for 3d prints.

Not got round to starting it yet.