Help! In a quandary!

[nikodiablo]

I've been in love with SD Gundam kits since forever, although my present collection favors already built action figures of non SD robots. Recently, I wanted to be more "involved " with my collection, and on a whim, I purchased one of the newer Sangokuden SD kits, and before I realized, I had bought 9 SD Kits

I decided to fully build the kit, including painting and all. Since I need to replace my airbrush pen, I decided to paint the kit using canned aerosol paint. The kit I experimented on was a variation of a Z-Plus that can be converted into mobile armor form. I used a lacquer based spray paint for priming, followed by acrylic based spray paint for the basic coat. Due to the difficulty in controlling the flow, the paint coats frequently came out too thick. In places that does not touch with other parts, they were mostly OK. But in places where parts touch each other, paint scratches do occur. Note that I did not top coat the painted parts.

I plan to obtain a new set of airbrush pen by the end of the month, and I believe this will be able to solve the application of paint. However, for transforming kits, contact between parts is unavoidable, and I fear that this will affect the finished work. This is where I need your input:

1. If the paint has been top coated with clear top coat layer, will it have significant protection to the layer underneath? Or will paint scratching occur regardless? What is the best choice for the final top coat layer?

2. Should I paint the whole kit, knowing that the paint will scratch upon transformation or should I just paint the necessary parts that are not color correct yet?

3. After completion, should I just leave the finished kit on a permanent pose and just forget about any intention to transform or change their armor? The reason I asked is that I favor kits with "play" features, like the Perfect Gundam and Full Armor Gundam's removable armor, and Z and ZZ's transformation feature

Please help! Any input will be valuable to me!!

[oldskul2]

hi nico, you can partially paint them, then topcoat them. here's a simplified gunpla building workflow, the one i'm using with my kits since getting back to gunpla two months ago-

1. wet sand everything (armor/polystyrene parts), except internal and ABS parts. this removes mostly the plastic shine and gives the surface "tooth" for paint/topcoat to cling on. start first with lower grit sandpaper like 500, then move up to 1000 or 1200 grits. then wash everything.

2. paint the parts that needed to be painted only. or the parts you need to highlight, example: painting the yellow v-fin to gold color, etc. here i prefer using hand painted enamel paint (i swear by Humbrol), because i'm not good on masking and i'm just too lazy/busy to use an airbrush. i don't use too much enamel thinner because it is cancer to plastic. ABS and internal moving parts i don't paint. for removable armor, you can still paint them. just don't paint the pegs on the back of the armor.

3. i don't paint rubbing parts, on transforming suits, to prevent paint chipping. i will just spray topcoat on them. the best time to spray is during the hot afternoons, never on humid nights/mornings and rainy days to prevent frosting. if frosting occurs, let dry, and spray again on hot afternoons. if topcoat scratches/cracks occur on "playing", wet sand area with 1000 grit sandpaper, wash and let dry, then just spray with topcoat again. topcoat i use: MR Topcoat semi-gloss from Gunze Sangyo.

4. i use sharp "2B" tip pencils for panel lines.

5. spray everything with topcoat spray. minimum two coats for best results, drying the layer(s) in between coats.

here's my latest project. HGUC z'gok partially painted and fully topcoated-











the parts have been topcoated (2 coats) before applying the decals, still drying the water slide markings for a few days, then will apply the final semi-gloss topcoat spray. with glow-in-the-dark mono eye-

[nikodiablo]

Awesome! Thanks for the tips!

So the key is leaving the original plastic color, painting the necessary parts only, and then top coating the kit with aerosol canned paint? But your Z-Gok looks like it's built professionally! Really good job on that one!

BTW, is the decal included with the Z-Gok the water transfer or the dry transfer ones?

EDIT: There's no evidence of hand brushing on your Z-Gok at all! How do you do that?

[oldskul2]

Jun 9, 2011 21:22:53 GMT -5 nikodiablo said:

Awesome! Thanks for the tips!

So the key is leaving the original plastic color, painting the necessary parts only, and then top coating the kit with aerosol canned paint? But your Z-Gok looks like it's built professionally! Really good job on that one!

BTW, is the decal included with the Z-Gok the water transfer or the dry transfer ones?

yes nico the water slide markings came with the kit (HGUC operation capture of Jaburo 3-in-1 set) and i also added some Zeon markings from my spares. i applied 94 decals in all.

Jun 9, 2011 21:22:53 GMT -5 nikodiablo said:

There's no evidence of hand brushing on your Z-Gok at all! How do you do that?

use enamel type paint when hand painting nico, it has a longer drying time, so minimal brush marks when the paint has dried. here are the z'gok parts after wet sanding and partial painting. repainted the "pink" armor parts with red color. really don't like the pink, i want my Char mobile suits to be predominantly red, as in the Red Comet (not Pink Comet):



handpainted red highlights to some armor parts:



here's a sample after spraying two coats of semi-gloss topcoat:



the grey parts i first handpainted with a heavy coat of MR Color gloss clear (with levelling thinner), making sure all the hidden nooks are covered with the clear coat. if only topcoat spray is applied, sometimes the spray will not reach all the hidden corners of the parts in one spray-



assembled them, then sprayed with semi-gloss topcoat spray. here's a sample after topcoat spray. the spray evens out the finish, no more visible brush marks from the handpainted clear coat.



this build took 3 weeks, working 1 to 2 hours each day, except Sundays

[nikodiablo]

Manny, thanks for taking your time to share all of this. I'm sure this will be valuable not only to myself, but to those looking to start modeling but do not have too much time on their hands or are not really confident in their modeling skills.

BTW, do you know whether the MR Color Top Coat comes in packages that is airbrushable?

[oldskul2]

hi nico, you can use the bottled MR Color clears, which are solvent base. available in super clear (gloss), semi-gloss super clear , and flat clear. be sure to wear a good respirator when spraying them though, really nasty stuff.

on the other hand, Gunze's MR Topcoat spray is labelled as water-based. i assume it is a bit safer to spray than the bottled MR Color clears. but still wear your respirator.

i'm switching to Humbrol's clear coats for my pre and post decal and will only handpaint them. i'm avoiding spraying paint as much as possible. will only use topcoat spray (MR Topcoat) as final coat. because i can't get the same even finish with handpainting.