Ok, here's some basic tools for some basic painting, non airbrush-ish. X D Beginner's toys.
They're my tools for painting.
Disposable gloves is a must, you wouldn't want your fingers to be painted are we? I bought a can of Mr. Surfacer 500, it's used to priming. Though have yet to know what's the different of the numbers, 500, 1000 and 1500 for Mr. Surfacer. The Tamiya surface primer works good on gundam i guess, i've used it to prime my Nu Gundam, though having a bottle is just enough for less than..mm..7 runners. Tamiya acrylic paint is alright, though you can only swipe once at a time or else you gonna have a bad paint job. Mr. Hobby's sprays are the best, though they're difficult to get locally. Of all i know, only XL Shop bring them in, only selective varieties. I bought the Mr. Color 62(white) from City Square for Rm19 each. Tamiya sprays range from Rm25 - Rm27.
Apparently two cans of grey weren't enough for my Nu Gundam so i had to buy an extra bottle with another as back up. I wanted a "prototype'' Nu Gundam like those gunpla in Hobby Japan. So i primed the darker colors(like black and blue) with tamiya primer then give every runners a monotone grey. THOUGH, prototype supposed to have a lighter grey than what i got. Pfff..
Well. Considering spending a fortune on painting tools. I seriously agree that having an airbrush is more effective and cost-effective, for the long run. A bottle Mr. Hobby top coat, is probably just enough for a layer if not best of two layers of coat on a MG. However, if you get airbrush, and you mix the paint, will be a lot cheaper.
MG Sazabi was my first gunpla that i full first coat(runners-spray), ink and decals while i assemble it. It looks much more nicer than the FAZZ on the right, without inking and decaling. I have yet to fix the problem on FAZZ yet. Soon...soon..
The problem with FAZZ was, i used the wrong top coat on him. I bought several bottles of Tamiya top coat, thinking it'll be the same as Mr. Hobby top coat(the tamiya guy said so). So i used it on my FAZZ, for the first time, i do top coat. And the results? I got myself a WHITE gundam. Notice all the yellow, grey and blue pieces are 'infected' with heavy supposed-to-be-flat-clear-top-coat. Now i need to prime the FAZZ to fix the color issue..PFff...
MG FAZZ and Strike Freedom in my temporary book shelf. Have yet to complete the wings by that time cause had some freelance work to do. But it's..well..still not completed yet..i have yet to clean up the bad inking(it was my first attempt to ink on white and i didn't clean the ink, so it's thick and dark, ugly.) and apply decals.
Not so flat-clear after all......
Runners left over by MG Sazabi. I didn't count but it's probably no more than 20 pieces of runners. HG gunplas will have half of the runners on a MG.
Surprisingly the MG Sazabi's red comes in two tones of red. A lighter(ugly) red and a better darker red. Nevertheless, i gave them a slight metallic red first coat.
I also gave first coat black to all the other colors in Sazabi. Giving the runners first coat will improve the look of the pieces. Not-so-light-reflective-pieces as a result of the first coat. It'll really look nicer.
The surfacer i initially bought for my Nu Gundam. I didn't use it cause i knew a bottle wasn't enough for that many runners so i bought Tamiya Primer(cause i couldn't get Mr. Hobby at that time).
Before first coat.
After first coat. I was surprised cause i didn't expect it to be shiny. But no worries, top coat will fix that problem.
MG yellow pieces, not so yellow-standard after all.
MG Mk-II Titans V2.0 getting ready for its first coat. Along with Nu Gundam's yellow runner.
Ex-S's leg, had first coat. The runners were Hi-Nu, no first coat. See how much it 'attracts light'. X D Though i didn't have a first coat on Hi-Nu cause the colors that came with it are superbly sweet.
Before first coat, originally is uh..dark gery color.
After first coat, becomes flat black. THOUGH, never spray under windy condition and TOO open area. It'll screw up the paint and you'll be spraying all over the places than the pieces. (i had to spray in an open place cause the regular place i spray, my neighbour was cooking at the back and i didn't want to poison them, so....)
MG Nu-Gundam having it's first coat of priming and monotone grey.
My mini painting station. Normally i'll just tape newspapers on the walls and on the floor.
After a brief moment of testing Mr. Hobby Flat-Clear top coat. Finally, i got a working top coat. Thanks Aunty Lenny from Endah Parade.
No top coat at all. See the difference? There's 3 types of top coats, semi gloss, gloss and flat clear. I've tried gloss, it's really nice. But i just prefer flat clear.
Same but not so same. wtf? Nvm. They're all top coats but Tamiya ones don't blend well with gundams. SO DON'T USE TAMIYA TOP COAT! Right is gloss with UV cut?? I'm gonna spray a gundam and put under sun and see if the UV really protects it. =p
Tamiya flat clear, Do not spray on decals and stickers. Hmm.. I had none on FAZZ.
Like i mentioned earlier, one can is merely enough for a MG, so if you really want to give your gunplas a top coat, get an airbrush. You'll save more on the paint and more environment friendly(no need to dispose of those irritating-not-environment-friendly empty cans).
[A little correction here, i was able to use the top coat on Mk-II, Sazabi and Hi Nu. I gave them an average 2 coats each.]
That's all for basic painting. If you have any questions at all, feel free to email me. I will help as much as i can.
8 comments:
i face the same prob as you do... cant get an airbrush cause they cost too much... plus my parents wont let me go too far to get these paints... the furthest that i can go on the train line is sg.wang and thats it... u kno of any decent shop selling these paint and those filer at decent prices??
Hi, the cheapest airbrush i could get is around RM700-800. If you could afford that, why not try it. Plus, there's seriously no point in going after expensive japan import airbrush. Btw, what do you mean by "filer"? Do you mean putty? I normally get my tamiya spray cans from Tamiya Underground in 1u. It's located at new wing, basement 2. Some toycity shops do sell tamiya spray paints too but tamiya underground has the most varieties and the price is slightly cheaper than toycity. Or you could always try Time Machine, located 7th floor Times Square, they have quite a varieties of gunpla tools. Spray paints, limited, they normally have a few bottles of coats. Or you could try Grafitti toys located across MCD in Times Square, 5th floor i think. They have spray paints too, but very limited.
putty?? i mean the thing that is used to clean any unclean cuts... (filer if im not mistaken..) beginners mistake.. hahaahha
Oh, sorry friend. I don't really use filer, cause it's too time consuming, considering there's a minimum of 3 nubs in every piece. What i normally do is that i cut off the pieces from the runners leaving as big nub as i can, then i cut the nubs off as flat as i can to the piece, so i won't accidently cut a bit of the piece off. It should be just nice or there'll be a white "scar" left. And i'll just re-spray all the pieces after assembling it. Or normally i'll just scrap away the nubs using the hobby knife and re-spray later.
Though if you're really looking for filers. You could get the ones from Tamiya. I think people call it sandpaper in general. X D They comes in low grit, mid and high grit. Low grit is mainly used to sand off the nubs and higher grits are used to polish/smooth the area. I used to do it last time but like i said, it's too time consuming and i only wish to do it leisurely. So i rely on spraying in the end rather than to sand each little nubs. Though if you're looking to get sandpapers which are more affordable that Tamiyas, you could try local hardware shop. Get the sandpapers from 1000 grit and above, get a few range, 1000, 1200, 1400, 1600 and 2000 perhaps. Use low grit and slowly move up to higher grits to polish/smooth out the 'scar' area. Don't get too low as you might scratched the entire area. And get the wet sandpapers and use it with water. They'll be useless after 2-3 use, so get a few pieces of each grit. Cut them into small pieces of the size of a 5 or 10 cent coin.
Hmm.I think i've said too much. But hope that answered your question.
Putty is used to fill up accidental scratches and holes you damage to the piece. People sometimes use it to cover seamlines as well.
Hi there didn't find this topic earlier. Just what i want to learn n see.
I want to start building SD grade so can u suggest the equipment, spay ect and the budget to get the basic tools for coloring kit?
SD grades has fewer parts and real small. Why not start with HG grades? Though they come lesser parts than MG, but they're really fun to build. I've had a couple of SD grades, don't really like them. Too many parts to color. ><"
I can't tell you exactly what you'll need to build your gundams cause everyone does it differently. Here's my basic tools, i have:
1. Gunpla cutter, most important tool to cut pieces from the runners.
2. Tweezers, for applying decals, wet or dry.
3. I have Mr. Mark Softener for decaling (Optional)
4. I have Extra Thin Cement to fix seams, if i accidently break something or simply fix loose parts. (Optional)
5. Hobby knife/blade, a must to get rid of leftover nubs.
6. Standard gunpla markers, , for lining/inking. I usually go for the standard black.
7. Eraser, to clean up lining.
8. Standard tapes for applying dry decals. (I believe HG grades has no dry decals...yet..)
9. Non-sticky tapes to assist in coloring. (Optional)
10. There's this color-eraser-marker pen that can erase markers' colors. It looks like a marker pen but it's in white, the cap is transparent. It's sold for RM10. This is really useful if you were to color using color markers. You can't remove color markers with nail polish removal or a little bit of thinner, so this marker is the best you can have to undo your coloring mistakes.
11. Last i have some wet sanding papers on standby in case i couldn't get rid of some horrible nubs.
12. Color Markers, whichever color i need for that particular gundam.
For sprays or color markers, just buy whatever color you need for that particular gundam. Color markers are sold separately and some in packs. Though most common colors in gunpla are white, grey, yellow, red and blue. So maybe you could get Gundam 00 color marker set. Or you could always buy them separately depending on your needs.
Though, don't bother with spray cans just yet. If you're looking to color those small little parts in SD or HD, they're quite pointless cause you'll be wasting the spray. Just stick with color markers first. Only buy spray cans when you have larger pieces to spray, like those in MG and PG. I only use spray cans as a runner-spray to give the plastic a slightly nicer texture. But i believe with top coats, you'll be able to do just that as well. So i would recommend that you get a top coat instead of spray cans. Top coat range from RM35-RM40. Just don't get the wrong top coat. x D
bern.kam thanks a lot for your explanation. Deep and helpful and i already list it down. I just bought HG Mechanics Dendrobium RX-78GP03. I notice no sticker at all.
So my question is do i should use Top Coat first before do lining? I don't want to assemble it yet because i want to learn gunpla :)
You're welcome, don't worry about. I'm just sharing what i know, and we are learning too. x D
Btw, i've came across two Dendro Gp03. One is the normal HG box size and the other is of PG box size. No matter which you get, i would recommend you not to assemble it till you're comfortable with your techniques, or else you'll risk a chance of messing it up.(I messed up my MG Ex-S by not applying the decals and inking, then i wasn't comfortable at doing those yet.) What i'm trying to say is, you should get a couple of HG kits which you like but don't mind messing it up and practice your techniques on them before moving onto your Gp03. I would recommend some newer models of HG kits cause they have newer ''engineered parts'' in them. I got myself a HGUC Nu Gundam lately and the pieces look great for a 1/144 kit. It's also slightly bigger than standard 1/144 kits. If you're local from Malaysia/KL, you could get it from the toy shop in Lowyat Plaza for RM87. Other recent released HG kits would be Sazabi(another best buy cause it's so so many times better than it's MG kit) and HG gundam 00 kits.
You can only learn gunpla when you practice it or learn as you assemble. You could do research on your Gp03 and see what others have done for it and you could use them as guidelines. There's plenty of tutorials over the internet, research on a couple and see how people do it and use it as a guideline. For example, i prefer to ink the arm and apply decals while i'm assembling the arm. Sometimes i do the ink and decals while the pieces are still in the runners. I find it easier to do so but some may disagree cause i have friends who do inking and decals once they fully assembled the kit. We're not wrong, just self preferences. You do your research, see what suits you and go along with that. Maybe you could try a kit that you apply decals and ink while you go and another kit that you apply decals and ink once you're done. Then decide which suits you.
Then again i'm writing too much. X D (happens when i talk about gunpla..)
As for top coat, you apply top coat once you've completed everything(that includes inking/lining, decals). Before you buy your top coats, make sure they blend well with the color markers that you will be using. Blue-can top coats are used for airbrush paints. Silver/grey-can top coats are used for spray cans and color markers. Don't get the wrong one or it might mess up your colors. There's 3 types of top coats though, flat, semi gloss and glossy. The UV top coats is just marketing mimic, in my opinion. Who really puts their gunplas under direct hot sun light?
You can check [http://bkgunpla.blogspot.com/2008/10/7-clear-coating.html] for my entry on the top coating. I apologize if my pictures aren't clear enough cause i didn't have a proper camera then. X D But hope you get a brief idea on before/after top coat. BUT!! Make sure you put on a mask, no living creature is near when you apply your top coat. The fumes stinks(worst than Mr. Color spray cans, which already stinks bad enough) and it's best not to inhale such fumes. And make sure you apply your top coat in bright, sunny, hot day. Or else you're getting a bad top coat. X D Just spray all over the kit and run away for 10-15 mins for it to dry, return and spray all over the kit again. I've managed to apply a can of top coat for 3 MG kits, all with 2 or 3 layers of top coat.
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