Painting my first Gundam

[commandercool]

While I was out yesterday I ended up picking up my first Gundam kit, a 1/100 Barbatos from Iron Blooded Orphans (which I'm watching right now and it's so goooood).

I put it together yesterday with no trouble, but painting it really has me flummoxed. Particularly, the wells for those red logo things on the shoulder pauldrons and knee armor. I've tried paint markers and acrylic paint, and the wells are too wide and thin so there's nothing to latch onto to try to keep my lines straight, and if I try to just smear over them and then blot the paint off of the armor like I did with the chest logo I end up wiping it out of the wells as well because they're so wide.

What's the best way to paint these spots? I don't have any masking tape on hand and I'll grab some tomorrow, but the shapes seem irregular enough that it might be really difficult to mask off properly.

Also, am I supposed to seal this when I'm done painting it? I typically use automotive sealer when I paint miniatures and it can kind of change the quality of the paint and the plastic, so I'm worried about it clouding up all of the unpainted white parts of the armor and making them look weird. Are these kits designed to take sealer or should I leave them unsealed and just be careful not to scratch the paint?

Pictures to come once I get this paint situation hammered out. It won't be anything impressive, but it let those of you who know how this stuff works point out thing I missed at least.

[Mеа]

I'd love to give my input to offer you help but the one time I tried painting a custom gunpla was when I bought an hg 00 and reborns gundam and then stuck the wing binders with the gn drives from the 00 onto the latter to create a monstrosity with 4 gn drives. Did I mention it was my first time painting a model? I used those hobby paint things and painted them with a brush which unfortunately made the parts so thick that my model handled like clumps of refrigerated fat. So yeah, no, sorry

[Hello Purvis]

Have any luck hunting for online guides?

[commandercool]

Have any luck hunting for online guides?

Not really. Everything I've looked at so far is waaay more advanced than this and just assumes that you've already completely mastered the basics. I did pick up a few small tricks I'm going to try, but I don't really need high-level techniques right now and that's most of what I found.

I did read that rubber eraser might be useful for cleaning up paint marker and I'm going to give it a shot, but I'm a bit skeptical of that.

[Zerviscos]

Congratulations. Once you start collecting, and painting models, you'll have a hard time going back.

I used to read this when I started out.
http://www.dannychoo.com/en/post/213/Gundam+Modeling+Tutorial.html

[commandercool]

I bought some masking tape, so I'm going to try that to get the lines straight on the shoulders. Also going to try inking over all of the panel seams later, which I haven't done yet. My paint markers are a lot thicker than the ones in that tutorial though, so I'm not sure how easy cleaning up the excess paint is going to be.

[commandercool]

Alright, so I learned two things today.

One, pencil eraser sort of works on paint marker. If you really scrub at it you can definitely clean up stray marks. It doesn't seem to easily work on really heavy paint, but for tiny stray marks it's effective.

Two, masking tape is worthless. Beyond worthless. Paint marker just bleeds through it and makes a bigger mess than doing nothing at all.

I ended up just only filling in the shoulder emblems partially, with a thin outline along the deepest part of the groove. It's not perfect but I think it's worth fine.

I'm highlighting the panels and grooves now with black, but paint marker is really bothersome. I think tomorrow I'm going to try thinned out black acrylic paint, which should go on easier and wipe off easier. I hope.





Here are some pictures. I know they suck and the model isn't much to look at, but if they highlight anything I'm doing wrong I'd love some tips. Thanks.

[Hello Purvis]

I wonder if you layered scotch tape over masking tape?

[commandercool]

No, I didn't. Was I supposed to? I'm going to guess it would have still bled pretty badly since I was tracing right up along the edge of the tape to get the lines straight, and unless the scotch tape overlapped past the masking tape the paint probably would have still seeped in from the sides. Maybe not though, I don't know. Should I give it another shot?

[Hello Purvis]

I sort of posted an incomplete clause there, I meant "I wonder if you layered scotch tape over it, if that would absorb less." Sorry about that. =[

I would experiment on something not your model, first.

[commandercool]

Oh okay, I gotcha.

I would be surprised if that worked, but it's worth a shot. Unfortunately I recycled all of my scraps last week, I should have held onto some of those to test on them.

[Mеа]

(korean eva poster yarr)

That's the barbatos? The v fin looks a lot more clumsily big on the model than the sleek angular sort of design the head had in the show from what I remember.
Panel lines on white can look a lot better if you use a light grey instead of a black. And then just trace around all of the nooks and angles to make them stand out more. It helps if you overdue it just a little and then use your thumb to smudge/smear the lines a bit to 'ease' them into the piece's base color.

[commandercool]

(korean eva poster yarr)

 

That's the barbatos? The v fin looks a lot more clumsily big on the model than the sleek angular sort of design the head had in the show from what I remember.

Looks about right to me.

Panel lines on white can look a lot better if you use a light grey instead of a black. And then just trace around all of the nooks and angles to make them stand out more. It helps if you overdue it just a little and then use your thumb to smudge/smear the lines a bit to 'ease' them into the piece's base color.

I'll keep that in mind when I take my next pass at it. The first time I used a paint marker, which didn't really leave me a choice but to overdo it and didn't give me the option of using gray. But it was kind of a mess, so I'll use acrylic next time. I do want then panels to be bold rather than subtle since the shelf I have the model on is a bit out of the way, but I'll give it a shot.

[Mеа]

Oh paint markers is that what you were using, I was thinking the fine line gundam markers they sell specifically for panel lines. Now those are actually clean and easy to rub off, not so much with paint I'd imagine.

[Menorah Jams, Pham]

I AM SUMMONED

Those emblems are perfect fodder for a panel line wash. 

You will need:

-Lacquer GLOSS topcoat (Testors Glosscote is available at Michaels/AC Moore, and they have 55% off coupons on their email lists, so sign up)
-Model Masters enamel paint (red in this case, but you can use any color)
-TURPENOID lighter fluid - anything else will not work.  Ronson yellow plastic bottles of the stuff are sold at 7-11
-Q-tips (Family Dollar generic brand are the best bang for your buck)
-A decent natural hair paintbrush (your local hobby shop will have this, along with the Model Masters enamel)

1) Thou shalt spray on your gloss topcoat evenly and allow it to dry (30 minutes should be fine)
2) Thou shalt mix the enamel paint and turpenoid lighter fluid thoroughly to a consistency of water.  Too thick?  Add more lighter fluid.  Too thin?  Add more paint.  Go by drops. Toothpicks are great for this.
3) Thou shalt dip thy brush into the mixture from step 2.  Thou shalt touch it gently to the edge of the paint container to bleed off some excess.
4) Thou shalt touch thy brush into the recessed panel line/emblem.  If thou hast mixed in step 2 properly, thine brush will put in the paint by virtue of capillary action.  The recessed part will suck the paint right in.
5) Thou shalt repeat at the edges of the sucked-in paint.
6) Thou shalt wait 15-20 minutes.
7) Thou shalt moisten a Q-tip - not dampen, just get it nice and moist (that's what SHE said) - with the lighter fluid.
8 ) Thou shalt run the Q-tip across where you touched the line, thus cleanly wiping off the excess. 
9) Thou shalt repeat steps 7 and 8 liberally. 

For reference, here's the entire process explained in video form: https://youtu.be/exT3VwzWpu8?t=378 

This yields some awesome results.  It only looks complex, but it's really quite simple when you break it all down. 

Also, if you have painted a part, do not use the pour type panel lining markers on it.  That shit eats right through any and all paint, including lacquers.

[commandercool]

That sounds... Intense? Still, sounds like what I need. I'll consider it. Thanks.

And I do get Michaels emails already. It comes up a lot...

[Menorah Jams, Pham]

It's not intense, it just looks that way. 

Gloss lacquer topcoat (or acrylic if you're airbrushing Future) to protect the surface and make it slippery enough for the enamel wash.

Enamel won't react with lacquer or acrylic.  Thinned down, it flows into cracks, and it dries slow enough to allow you to work.

Turpenoid thins enamel.  Swiping it with a Q-tip cleans up the surface.

Shitty picture, but I just did this on my 1/144 Barbatos.  It's worth the work.  You can use this for any recessed spot.  I use it on darker parts with chrome silver or steel enamel for some really awesome two-tone metal effects.

Barbatos:


Shitty 1/100 third-party Moebius Zero (this kit sucks and requires putty and paint, but it's the only 1/100 Moebius Zero out there):