When it comes to mobile suits, (IMHO) the cream of the crop as far as Gundam series go is Gundam 00. It's story is kind of a cross between Wing and Seed but it's suits are monsters. You would be very hard pressed to find a Gundam from any series that could go one on one with Setsuna in the Quanta...maybe Camille in Zeta, Kira in Strike Freedom and Amuro in Hi-Nu but that's about it. For me, the 00 suits are more high-tech than any other series, more original and the solar reactors give them a unique look while retaining the whole Minovsky-like mystique that the original series had (got to have some back story to explain how they can make 60 foot robots move around like ninjas!).
With this in mind, I was of course super-excited to see that 00's Exia would be getting a RG release. I have had a blast making the RG's I have made so far (Freedom, grunt Zaku, Full Vernian, Justice, and Mark II) so I expected big things with this kit. Bandai, of course in their own unique way, delivers on that but I have no doubt there will be some issues. At least Exia doesn't have a monster back pack so standing it should be easy. BTW, I was so keen to get this kit that I double ordered it so I ended up with 2 Exia's. Bandai Online store has an Astrea parts kit for it so hopefully I can get my hands on one of them so I can make an Astrea out of the 2nd one.
I've decided that this kit will be my first FULLY PAINTED Gundam. I've painted the frame on the last bunch of gundams I've made and the weapons as well and sometimes highlight colours but never the armor panels (other than flat clear) from head to toe. I'm going to play with the red and blue a bit to try and get some sparkle from them so I can try and make it look like it's going into Trans Am mode. Hopefully it'll look cooler than Bandai's lame Trans Am mode kits, which they just colour the parts pink.
Wednesday 27 August 2014
Saturday 16 August 2014
Tank (side) Tracks: Trumpeter 1/35 Russian T-80B MBT
I am both loving and hating my foray into 1/35 tank modeling. The amount of detail available in the tank world makes PG Gundams look like toys, which I love, but the fiddliness of the tiny details makes my eyes and fingers ache! I already started the Academy Merkava III kit but soon added Fruil metal tracks and a Legend Productions resin-based detail-up set that pushed the kit from my beginner kit to a long term project. I'm still skittish about working with resin as I develop my skills so I'm on a side-journey into this Russian main battle tank kit. I don't know much about Russian armour but this tank seems to have been in service in a similar time frame to the Merkava III. A quick wikipedia check tells me the T-80 entered service in 1976 while the T-80B entered service in 1978 and it's improvements were a new turret, autoloader and fire-control which allowed the firing of the Kobra anti-tank guided missile as well as improved composite armor.
This Trumpeter kit is on par with Dragon kits as far as detail and sheer parts count goes. 4 sprues of brown track links (with jig included for assembling tracks), approximately 20 sprues of gray plastic parts, turret, hull and clear parts. As is becoming the standard in the tank world, a sheet of photoetch is included. For this build I have also added E.T. Model's detail-up set for the T-80B which includes a large and 4 small sheets of photoetch, a resin antenna and a small fret of resin parts. I must be a glutton for punishment with all the photoetch for this kit but I'll take it slow.
First up is the drudgery part of the kit. The wheels and track pieces all need to be cut from the sprues and cleaned up which I find oddly soothing. I keep the parts in little bags and while I watch TV I clean the parts up with a file and sandpaper. The wheels have huge connections to the sprue, leaving nice big nubs when you cut them off so hours of cleaning these parts is ahead of me. As I'm doing the wheels I noticed in the instructions that the hubs on the outer wheels are NOT molded into the wheel itself but are a separate piece. These pieces are difficult to put onto the wheel as the center part of the wheel is sunken beneath the rim of the wheel making it impossible to get my fingers in there to push the hub onto the wheel. I figured it out eventually after much trial and error: use the flat end of a bamboo skewer and a tiny ball of blu-tack to get the hub lined up (there is a notch you need to line up) and then use my fingernails to push the hub down. Gluing this piece traditionally is impossible as it takes me anywhere from 10-30 minutes to get the tricky pieces to line up so what I did was put the hub on then use some Humbrol glue with the needle applicator to put some glue to the joint from the inside of the wheel. If this is an indication of how this build is going to go, it'll be a loooong build!
Some early build shots....track links...you've got to cut them each off the sprue and there's 4 sprues of track links. I keep them in a coffee can so I don't lose any while I'm cleaning them up as cutting them from the sprue leaves some bad scars.
Road wheels. The wheels are nice but they have a couple issues...the aforementioned outer wheel hub issue as well as the amount of cleanup they need. Cutting them from the sprue leaves 3 hellish scars which have to go and there's a seam line all the way around the wheel that has to go. Bandai is the market leader when it comes to thinking about placing pieces on the sprue and where the cuts will be and if they'll be visible but even they can't get around it sometimes...for example, the chromed swords in the RG Exia and PG Astray Red Frame cannot be removed without leaving a visible scar. So I shouldn't harp too much on Trumpeter for theirs, especially in such a wonderfully detailed kit. I don't mind cleaning up parts anyway, I usually do it when I'm watching TV. Here is the first batch of inner road wheels. I am using 2 new paints here....Vallejo's Russian Green polyeurathane primer, which is as good as their other primers in this line and having it in Russian Green saves me having to prime then basecoat it; The rubber "tires" are done with AK Interactive's acrylic "Rubber Tires" paint, by hand, another excellent product.
This Trumpeter kit is on par with Dragon kits as far as detail and sheer parts count goes. 4 sprues of brown track links (with jig included for assembling tracks), approximately 20 sprues of gray plastic parts, turret, hull and clear parts. As is becoming the standard in the tank world, a sheet of photoetch is included. For this build I have also added E.T. Model's detail-up set for the T-80B which includes a large and 4 small sheets of photoetch, a resin antenna and a small fret of resin parts. I must be a glutton for punishment with all the photoetch for this kit but I'll take it slow.
First up is the drudgery part of the kit. The wheels and track pieces all need to be cut from the sprues and cleaned up which I find oddly soothing. I keep the parts in little bags and while I watch TV I clean the parts up with a file and sandpaper. The wheels have huge connections to the sprue, leaving nice big nubs when you cut them off so hours of cleaning these parts is ahead of me. As I'm doing the wheels I noticed in the instructions that the hubs on the outer wheels are NOT molded into the wheel itself but are a separate piece. These pieces are difficult to put onto the wheel as the center part of the wheel is sunken beneath the rim of the wheel making it impossible to get my fingers in there to push the hub onto the wheel. I figured it out eventually after much trial and error: use the flat end of a bamboo skewer and a tiny ball of blu-tack to get the hub lined up (there is a notch you need to line up) and then use my fingernails to push the hub down. Gluing this piece traditionally is impossible as it takes me anywhere from 10-30 minutes to get the tricky pieces to line up so what I did was put the hub on then use some Humbrol glue with the needle applicator to put some glue to the joint from the inside of the wheel. If this is an indication of how this build is going to go, it'll be a loooong build!
Some early build shots....track links...you've got to cut them each off the sprue and there's 4 sprues of track links. I keep them in a coffee can so I don't lose any while I'm cleaning them up as cutting them from the sprue leaves some bad scars.
Road wheels. The wheels are nice but they have a couple issues...the aforementioned outer wheel hub issue as well as the amount of cleanup they need. Cutting them from the sprue leaves 3 hellish scars which have to go and there's a seam line all the way around the wheel that has to go. Bandai is the market leader when it comes to thinking about placing pieces on the sprue and where the cuts will be and if they'll be visible but even they can't get around it sometimes...for example, the chromed swords in the RG Exia and PG Astray Red Frame cannot be removed without leaving a visible scar. So I shouldn't harp too much on Trumpeter for theirs, especially in such a wonderfully detailed kit. I don't mind cleaning up parts anyway, I usually do it when I'm watching TV. Here is the first batch of inner road wheels. I am using 2 new paints here....Vallejo's Russian Green polyeurathane primer, which is as good as their other primers in this line and having it in Russian Green saves me having to prime then basecoat it; The rubber "tires" are done with AK Interactive's acrylic "Rubber Tires" paint, by hand, another excellent product.
Monday 11 August 2014
A Primer on Primer
Before painting, primer is used. It can clean up tiny surface imperfections like sanding marks but can also accentuate any nub marks left on a piece so nub marks should be sanded off well. It's main purpose, however, is to prepare the surface for paint. Paint does not stick well to the plastic, especially large flat pieces like those in gundam or tank models.
Primer also influences the colour that is painted over it so there are some basic rules I've come up with regarding primer color:
Military colours and dark colours - green, brown, dark blue, black: Grey Primer.
Bright colours - red, yellow, light blue and green, pink: White Primer
Metallic colours - silver variants (iron, steel, aluminium): Black Primer
Other metallics - gold, brass: Silver Primer (haven't tried this one yet but soon).
There are additional colours for tanks such as sand or german grey that is a lot closer to the colour that will be painted over it. The more a colour is different than the primer it's going over, the more paint you'll need to use. I have created effects by painting a whole piece one colour but the different parts in it were primed different colours...in this case, I used gunmetal over black and grey and the difference in colour was quite a lot.
There's a few types of primer I use:
Vallejo Polyeurethane: This comes pre-mixed and ready to spray which I love. I have used grey, white, black, sand yellow and they're all great. They spray MUCH better out of the .35mm Iwata airbrush I use than the .30mm Runway 13 one so I use the Iwata with this primer exclusively.
Vallejo primers come in 60ml bottles and very handy 200ml bottles with great spouts for pouring primer directly into the airbrush. Shake them very well before use, especially the grey as it separates into a white and dark layer.
Mr Hobby (Gunze Sangyou or GSI Creos) surfacers/primers are just like Mr Hobby laquer paint. They must be thinned for use. They come in different 'thicknesses' which refers to the grit in the primer so higher numbers refer to a finer surfacer. As you can see they have lots of products as well as Mr Surfacer such as Mr Primer/Surfacer (don't ask, I don't know the difference between Mr Surfacer 1000 and Mr Primer/Surfacer 1000), Mr Resin Primer (for resin models obviously) and Mr White Base which is simply Mr Surfacer in white. These primers are of a very high quality with the obvious disadvantage that you need to mix them up first.
Just to add a note on Mr Surfacer. Every time I use them I'm more impressed with the quality. Vallejo primers seem like a tight layer of protection around the model which is good but these go on so well they become part of the model. I haven't used them enough to differentiate between situations in which I'd use different grades of Mr Surfacer, so far I've only really used 1000, but as I use them more I'll get more of a feel for them. As for mixing them, I mix them like I mix paint....add Mr Surfacer to thinner until it becomes the viscosity of milk...I use this method rather than measuring out amounts. I think I tend to make my paint/primer too thin but I'd rather do that and have to layer the paint/primer on than make it too thick and have airbrush issues.
Alclad primers also come pre-thinned so are ready to use right out of the bottle. Shake very well, there are some little bearings in there that you can hear rattling around to help. I use black for silvery Alclad colours and grey for gold-type colours. The middle bottle is enamel gloss black base for their high-shine colours. Alclad primer, like their paint, is very thin. I prefer to use my smaller nozzled airbrush (.30mm) for Alclad to decrease my paint use as it's so expensive and being thinned already you really go through the paint. The primer is comparable to the finest Mr Surfacer as far as thickness goes.
Gaianotes primers also have to be thinned, like Mr Hobby. I rate their paint a bit higher quality than Gunze, but they're close. I got these because Gunze didn't use to do colours, just the standard grey primer, but pretty much everyone does a grey, white and black one so the only really unique one here is the silver one.
As with all my paints, for thinning primers, I match the primer to the paint. Gaianotes and Mr Hobby are both laquer based but I use Gaianotes thinner for Gaianotes and Mr Hobby thinner for their primer/surfacers. Perhaps this is a bit wasteful but in my experience you never go wrong using the primer that is meant for any paint/thinner.
As for enamels and acrylics I tend not to use them as primers. Lacquer paint is so tough and durable that you can use any paint over it but with enamel and acrylic you have to watch out for other paints eating them. I use enamel/acrylic paints as well as lacquer but always lacquer primer.
Primer also influences the colour that is painted over it so there are some basic rules I've come up with regarding primer color:
Military colours and dark colours - green, brown, dark blue, black: Grey Primer.
Bright colours - red, yellow, light blue and green, pink: White Primer
Metallic colours - silver variants (iron, steel, aluminium): Black Primer
Other metallics - gold, brass: Silver Primer (haven't tried this one yet but soon).
There are additional colours for tanks such as sand or german grey that is a lot closer to the colour that will be painted over it. The more a colour is different than the primer it's going over, the more paint you'll need to use. I have created effects by painting a whole piece one colour but the different parts in it were primed different colours...in this case, I used gunmetal over black and grey and the difference in colour was quite a lot.
There's a few types of primer I use:
Vallejo Polyeurethane: This comes pre-mixed and ready to spray which I love. I have used grey, white, black, sand yellow and they're all great. They spray MUCH better out of the .35mm Iwata airbrush I use than the .30mm Runway 13 one so I use the Iwata with this primer exclusively.
Just to add a note on Mr Surfacer. Every time I use them I'm more impressed with the quality. Vallejo primers seem like a tight layer of protection around the model which is good but these go on so well they become part of the model. I haven't used them enough to differentiate between situations in which I'd use different grades of Mr Surfacer, so far I've only really used 1000, but as I use them more I'll get more of a feel for them. As for mixing them, I mix them like I mix paint....add Mr Surfacer to thinner until it becomes the viscosity of milk...I use this method rather than measuring out amounts. I think I tend to make my paint/primer too thin but I'd rather do that and have to layer the paint/primer on than make it too thick and have airbrush issues.
As with all my paints, for thinning primers, I match the primer to the paint. Gaianotes and Mr Hobby are both laquer based but I use Gaianotes thinner for Gaianotes and Mr Hobby thinner for their primer/surfacers. Perhaps this is a bit wasteful but in my experience you never go wrong using the primer that is meant for any paint/thinner.
As for enamels and acrylics I tend not to use them as primers. Lacquer paint is so tough and durable that you can use any paint over it but with enamel and acrylic you have to watch out for other paints eating them. I use enamel/acrylic paints as well as lacquer but always lacquer primer.
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