Chas

Well I just started using spray paints recently, and I'm getting awesome results! what kinds have you used? For me it's Tamyia. I think the secret is to wash the parts with soapy water, make sure they are thoroughly dried, then prime them (sand/putty any blemishes) and lay the spraypaint down in THIN LAYERS. I cannot stress enough how important it is to apply THIN layers of both paint and primer. Make sure you are holding the spray can the requisit 12" (30cm) away from the object. Another tip is to try and keep the can in a verticle position while sprying - tilt the part not the can!. As for weathering/panel lineing there are many different techniques each with there own tools. I always refer folks to the A.R.C. for a good pimmer on some of the different methods. Just visit the 'Tools 'n' Tips' section and read untill you feel confident in what you want to do. When you've decided on what kind of paints you are going to use (i.e. acrylics?/ lacquers?/ enamels? ) for your base coat then we can talk further about how to tackle the panel lines, as the choice of base coat can have an effect the steps that follow it. One thing I'd like to add is, as I said, I keep my primer/paint coats thin, but when I aplly the clearcoat (Future in my case - and I use a brush for this) for the decals I make that a thicker coat. (something I learned on these very boards!) Hope that helps a little. Keep us posted. (Ha, Ha, I slay me )

Can't hepl you there. I don't use an airbrush. Strictly old fashioned here. But I'm sure someone will be along soon who can help out. My primer of choice is Mr. Surfacer 500, 1000, and 1200. Glad to hear your test went well. Good luck!

Primer for model kits serves the same purpose as primer for interior painting, or automotive etc. . . it primes the surface, by evening out minor colour variations, and surface makrs and providing good uniform suface texture for the paint to stick to. You can find 'specialty' primers that are designed for certain tasks, i.e. High-Build Primers (auto) designed to fill in scratches (left from sandinng) etc. but they all serve the basic function mentioned above. As you are applying a layer of primer over the model of course it gets into the panel lines. If it filled them in and made them useless do you think we would use the stuff? It is basically another layer of paint. If you mean, will the primer melt the styrene or something akin to that, no not in my experience. But then again I've never put a thick coat of primer on a model. I don't know why you would want to do that. The idea is to putty and sand down the imperfections and seamlines untill you think they are smooth then apply a layer of primer to check for any imperfections. Where you see them (and you always will) you sand again and then reapply the primer, repeat untill the offending uneveness is no longer visible. I have found it to be easier to scribe the panel lines before I begin to sand in order to deepen them and prevent them from disappearinng during the sandding proccess. Once you are happy with the relative smoothness of the kits appearance you lay down your base coat and begin the painting process. At least that's how I do it. Putty is different because it is designed and used to smooth areas that have severe differences in height, i.e. sink holes, seamlines, gouges, etc. . . Putty is not meant to, and in my experience does not, provide a uniform surface for the paint to stick to. That's where the primer comes in. Hope that helps. I'm no expert but that's how I see things.

Well I'm going to assume that your talking about a model _ 'cus, well 'cus I'm just that kind of guy. So, you say that and .Which leads me to believe that your previous models have been somehow lacking in your estimation. I think that you probably have what it takes to build the kit yourself and get some satisfactory results, not to mention the sense of accomplishment, but, before I, or, I suspect anyone here, can give you any advice/tips on how to do that more clarification is required. What did you have difficulty with in your previous builds? was it the building of the kit? (i.e. the gluing, sanding, puttying, sanding, re-puttying, sanding, re-re-puttying, sanding etc.?) or was it the detailing?( i.e. the decaling, weathering, panel-lining, painting etc.?)

It's a VF-1J Shadowfighter Just kidding, nice job. I think that, that particular pattern of colouration on the chest-plate (Darker top--light sides and front) should be known from here on out as the "ghostryder scheme"!

Experience only comes from doing. You have to start somewhere. You learn by making mistakes and then trying to fix them. This is my way of saying give mixing a shot! You never know, you might find a colour you like even better!

Hey , cool I like them alot. Thanks, I'm gonna have to find some albums of their's now.

Well I gave it a good two days drying time and so far so good. I'll post if there are any disasters that occur.

Well I guess it looks O.K. I mean it is a nice smooth even paint job, but to my mind that's the problem. Think about any large vehicle, now think about the colour on it. The colour of large vehicles is almost never uniform. There are always sections that are lighter, or darker. This is usualy dew to wear patterns, but on some very large vehicles may also be do to light reflecting off of some parts and onto adjoining sections, thus changing the apparent colour. What about colour bleaching? These kind of considerations really impact the "scale-effect" look of the piece. Like I said right now it looks good but When I think about What it could look like - even with the same colour scheme-, well. . .

O.K. so I'm experimenting with Tamiya Color spray cans (which I'm pretty sure are laquer based) and I know that after they are dry to the touch lacquer based paints are still off-gassing, but how long do I need to wait before I clearcoat with future? Thanks in advance.

Finally did this! Only one in Korea.

Wow this looks great. I must say though, in that line art the 'biceps' loook awefully skinny with the armour in place.

If I had on of those suckers I'd get myself some Armour and Tank references for colour scheme idea's and go to town on the weathering. I think anime subjects look just incredible when given more 'real-world' colour schemes and weathering treatment.

Good now that that's settled I'm off to go Gundam shopping!

OOOOOHHHHH!!!!!!!! O.K. I got it now. Thank you so much for putting up with my persistenly stupid questions. So the Skygrasper is a vehicle onto which the Aile Striker-strike pack can be attached - ostensibly to transport the strike pack to the Strike Gundam somewhere in the field. Does that sound about right? So then PG Skygrasper+Aile Striker kit + the PG Strike Gundam kit would be the non Feminized equivalent of the PG STRIKE ROUGE GUNDAM & SKYGRASPER. Whew! Talk about confusing! But thanks to guys I think I've got it straight I hope

Thanks for your help guys, but I'm still a little confused: Ok in most of the images I've seen the PG Skygrasper + Aile Striker kit shows the jet thingy (sorry) with those red fins on the back and then a Gundam with the same red things on the back, and there is a Gundam called the Aile Striker isn't there? But this kit is basically just the skygrasper (jet thingy). Then why does the box say + Aile Striker on it? I am guessing that the Skygrasper is the jet-like vehicle, so I guess I'm wondering wht the Aile Striker is, if it's not the Gundam that I always see pictured with the Skygrasper? It even looks like they share parts. Someone please straighten me out.

O.K. You'll have to pardon my ignorance here ( I know nothing about Gundam, or Gundam models, well except that those blasted PG,MG,HG kits are all over Seoul - I mean evrywhere I look ther are stacks and stacks of them!) Anyway, back to my post. What is the difference in these two PG Kits? PG SKYGRASPER + AILE STRIKER and the [PG] STRIKE ROUGE GUNDAM & SKYGRASPER from what I can gather their pretty much the same, except the first one is a hell of of lot cheaper. What gives? The reason I ask is that my nnephews have been bugging me to send them some model kits and I know that they mean Gundam model kits. Needless to say If I sent them each a PG they'd explode with joy and probably stop bugging me for a while. So any help on what the difference between these two is?

If by "Your last part" you mean the section I've highlighted, the an old yellowed Valk. is not what you are looking for. I would suggest checking out the A.R.C. for some tips on weathering techniques. Also you might want to do a search for Rust-All, a product used by Model RR builders to create believable looking extreme rust. Good Luck.

I'm not sure what it is your asking. Do you want the plastic to yellow and wear so that the valk looks like an old plastic toy, or do you want it to look like an old rusted oxidized aircraft?

Well If the Acetone worked as a thinner then I would suggest using a generic off the shelf Gunwash to thin the body filler as they usually have some acetone as an ingredient. (in the 1000ppm range) As far as gloves & protective ware: I would suggest that anyone using any chemicals stonger than Easy-Off oven cleaner invest in a proper respirator, and as far as gloves go, for slovents your best bet is a good pair of nitrile gloves check out this link: link any of their nitrile gloves should work, or if you want to be sure the Power Knight. Hey MT any idea how many hours you've put in on this so far?

And How! I'd hate to see the size of the motor that is too Big for this thing

Well I know that you can puchase Debonders for CA but in my experience they make the CA soft and gummy, this isn't neccessarily a problem, but in your case I don't know what it would do to the VF that the Ghost is attached to. I think it may damage the paint job, and possibly desolve some of the detail, but I've never used CA debonder on Polystyrene, just polyurethane ( doesn't damage urethane at all) Try Googleing Cyano Acrylate Debonder and see what you can find out about how it reacts with Styrerne. Good Luck! Charles.

Wow! I've only ever looked in Canada (where I used to live) and could not find anything higher than 70% in retail. Anyway if the acetone worked as a thinner then I think it was probably the Gunwash that I've seen used as Acetone is an ingredient in most Gunwash solutions. Yeah great work so far MT. Do you have any 1/200 scale mechs you could place on it for the next set of Photos? That'd be cool to see.

Did the acetone thin the body filler? Why would you not use it now, if it worked? (Sorry MT I know this is OT but I'm curious)

The stuff you buy at the Drug Store that most N.Americans call Rubbing Alchohol is indeed Isopropyl Alchohol (Isopropanol) but it is rarely sold in concentrations higher than 40%. I don't think that is strong enough to do the job of thinning the body filler, that is why I specified Industrial Iso-Alchohol, it is much stronger (and thus more dangerous - if using try not to get it on your skin, as it will be absorbed through your pours - there is a reason hospitals have cut back on it's use!- and this is not a good thing) and it can be found in concentrations as high as 99%. Now after saying all that I'm no longer sure it was Iso-Alchohol that was used to thin the stuff, but give it a go anywho. It was either Iso-Alchohol, laquer thinner, or Gun Wash not sure. Sorry