flamable object cannot be shipped via air so everything has to go by sea.

BTW any recommendations on Commissions for robot models? I'm thinking of sending 1 of my kit for commission.

want to see how others can paint & build the model.

i have 3 similar kits i think i don't have the ability to build all 3.

Hi sifus, currently waiting for my airbrush.. so gonna buy some solvents and paints..For thinning agent, have anyone used cheaper alternative rather than for example Mr Thinner?

Like if I wanna thin Mr Color Lacquer metallic copper C10, can i use ace Klean Strip lacquer thinner to thin it ?

1 bottle or Mr.Hobby levelling thinner can last quite a while. u use cheap ones might be too strong and damage the paint. for lacquer thinner should be ok.

Thanks a lot man. Just got my airbrush. What would be your go to paint type for airbrush and why? (if you don't mind me asking.)

i use Mr.Color Aqueous becoz last time i bought all the acrylic paint.

since you are buying new and have people giving advise i would say Mr.Color Lacquer, Tamiya Lacquer or Gaia Lacquer since you already know why. but people say if you plan to use some brush to paint lacquer paint dries up faster than acrylic so you gotta be quick.

JS Hobby has most choices for online shop.

and Tamiya Enamel panel line wash. if you are comfortable with panel wash then you have to get Mr.Hobby Gundam marker Super Fine but they can't be wiped off easily so any excess needs to be scrapped off with hobby knife, so you need thicker base paint to allow some scraping.

if you plan to do shading, then you have more room for error & touch up since it can be hidden with shadings.

if you plan to do clean style, like Brand New look, Glossy, Clean finishing, then margin of error is smaller and you need to use polisher after finishing the top coat.

for shading you can use Tamiya Weathering Powder (Easier, but less color choice), or airbrush (custom color, but lots of masking & good paint control to look natural and probably need a fine tip airbrush & some experience). Another alternative to airbrush but more choice, is ground color pencil into powder and apply it like Tamiya Weathering powder, but takes time to ground them into fine powder.

There's normal shading & reverse shading. Normal is apply shading paint after paint, reverse is applying shading paint 1st then normal paint. Normal paint meaning the "Brighter" area usually the flat surface, shading usually corner & sides.

I'm a huge fan of this finish (shaded + some candy coats).


I've kinda already leaning towards lacquer already and will probably start with Mr Color paints. Maybe some ALCLAD II chrome (I think they're the shiniest on a gloos black?).

As for weathering, I planned on doing some light weathering (I don't like the dirty-look weathering style, maybe just some subtle weathering). I've bought some cheap pastels to experiment on but I think I'll need to have more experience in painting first.

I just went and tried using vallejo model color flat white + some water, thinking I'm gonna try practicing on some runner.. that shit clogged up my airbrush within 5 mins lol. I then went panic started stripping off the airbrush but managed to clean it all up.

I wonder, what would you use to thin vallejo? Or vallejo model color just ain't suitable for airbrushing since they have the "air" line of paints?

** EDIT: Did some reading, people commented about adding Flow-Aid and a retarder to prevent clogging? ** If it's too much hassle, I'll just stop using vallejo and start with lacquer.

This post has been edited by GameFr3ak: Jun 25 2017, 10:55 PM

duh i never understood how water can dilute even acrylic paint. i never thin acrylic with water, only use Mr.Hobby Thinner or Levelling Thinner if you want it to dry slower but more expensive.

also never mix different types of paint, they will form muddy mixture.

remember for Airbrush you cannot have too thick paint especially if your brush has small tip. just pour a mixture in, try whether the paint flows out, if not, add more thinner & stir. usually i start off the airbrush with cleaning thinner you get in hardware shop, this will clear up any clogs as cleaning airbrush is not 100% clean, when it dries, there will have minor clogs.

i don't know what brush you use but i always remove the needle after use, too many times the needle stuck after dry. thinners will dry up and stick. just becareful when removing/installing. use a cut out vitagen straw as the needle tip cover so you won't poke urself or damage the tip when storing. IMO unless you have a bucket & lots of thinner/cleaning agent to wash it'd be difficult.

what i do is after spray:
1.Retrieve any leftover paints.
2.fill the paint compartment with thinner the fling the brush upsidedown to pour the thinner out (make sure you have newspaper on floor and don't splash on urself).
3.Wipe the compartment clean with tissue, make sure AB is upsidedown so any tissue fibers won't fall into the bottom area and you can swipe downwards with finger so they fall out of the AB.
4.Pour thinner again and keep repeating until you get little paint at bottom, then pour thinner and use a clean brush to brush the bottom (i use flat type brush).
5.now pour more thinner and full blast the airbrush and empty it and wipe the compartment clean.
6.Now you can remove the needle, dip a tissue with thinner and wipe the needle downwards to the tip and store the needle.
7.Without the needle, reassemble the AB and pour thinner in, keep blasting the thinner until you are satisfied it's clean, then dip the tip into small bottle of thinner to clean the tip, clean the cover, body and also wipe everything clean.
8.You can remove the tip nozzle covers and clean if you want. but if you do it too often there might start to have air leaks on the tip, and if you tighten too much when you put back you might damage the threads. When i mean tip cover i mean tip cover, not the nozzle, don't disassemble the nozzle, you can break it easily if you turn the wrong way or close too tight. I broke mine while troubleshooting, had to buy a replacement. only remove it when you think the nozzle needs replacement.

you won't get 100% clean AB but you will get around 85% clean.

Wow the nozzle. I actually took it out already You reminded me that I can easily clean the paint compartment with a brush dipped with thinner. Thank you very much for these airbrush tips man. I've actually went through most of those steps yesterday. But I reassembled everything back, including the needle. I'm gonna check it again today to see if it's stuck.

Yeah I guess it's dumb to really dilute acrylic for airbrush, especially when it's not formulated for airbrush.

I've stumbled across MODO lacquers. Do you have any experience with it? Tried to look for more information but looks unknown to mat salleh.......

i use Acrylic on AB, i said dilute with water is dumb, you can dilute with acrylic thinners.

the nozzle, do you mean the one you need the special wrench to open up, or just the nozzle cap which you turn with finger to remove? the nozzle itself is very small piece.

Yeah that small piece..... but after reassembling everything, I tested it and it's fine..luckily

only remove the nozzle when you felt the nozzle is clogged.

the risk of fiddling with the nozzle is if you:
1.Turn the wrong way when removing.
2.Over Tighten the nozzle when installing.

The thread area on the nozzle is very fragile, both case above risk over tightening the nozzle as such break the thread from the nozzle and the thread gets stuck in the airbrush. that is why the instruction mention turn the right direction & never over tighten.

if your thread broke and stuck in the AB, get a satay stick and stick the sharp end into the hole till you can feel the grip, then turn the stick you should be able to remove the broken thread, then scrap off any residue.

had to buy a new nozzle & also spare needle from Hobbysearch.

also remove the needle 1st before you remove the nozzle cover to avoid poking urself & damaging the needle.

if you are unsure, watch youtube instructions, don't simply tikam. btw what AB u bought?

Yeah I'm not gonna be disassembling anything unless it's really needed. At most only remove the needle like you said. It's a cheap taobao mini airbrush set. Just gonna give it a try to see how far my interest goes before I invest more.

BTW, any idea about Modo brand? Rarely any review around. Their lacquer thinner is cheaper nearly by half! They also have quite a lot of lacquer paints + cheaper too..

Hi,

I'm curious as to where to find popsicle sticks, those wood skewers and alligator clips [for holding gundam parts]? Is there a specific shop where I can find these? I'm in Ipoh if that helps.

If I'm getting primers, do I get White and Black or White and Grey or all three colors?

And does anyone know where I can find Vallejo Model Color paints in Malaysia? I'm not getting any results.

EDIT: Add on question. For purchasing gundam, there are quite some sites [locally]. What are some sites to get ship/car/motorcycle models?

Thank you.

This post has been edited by lol4291: Jun 27 2017, 10:07 AM

there are some shop sell vallejo paints, search it on facebook
S2 hobby shop
cktan plamodel shop
it toys
and others.

Hi,

I will give those shops a look/message them

Thank you again.

i'm using Satay Sticks + Bluetac + any small boxes, just blutac the parts onto the stick and poke it into the boxes. just need to make sure the box weight is balance. i find blutac takes less surface area than clips, but some parts need to paint 2 times because whole part needs to be painted.

all can be bought from major hypermarkets for under rm10.

bluetac also works quite well for masking.

for Primers Grey is most common, White is required if you want to paint White or very light colors. Black usually when you plan to paint metallic & shinny finish.

Usually if the color is Grey, Black or White, i will just make do with the Primers & top coat. No point painting another layer of paint that is same color as the Primer. Ace also sells Black & White Primer+Paint combo around rm3x.

So far i've been skipping White Primers, just straight away spray Matte White. As long parts is not Rubber, well dusted off, and start with a mist coat, it won't chip off easily. Grey Primers help you identify any scratches & uneven surfaces you might have missed, but i find normal Primers too think to be able to cover up light scratches & uneven surfaces, yet if you spray too thick, it will cover up some shallow panel lines.

If you notice after priming got some light scratch, can either use wet putty fill up the scratch & rub off excess with finger and do a light sand, or if the scratch not deep, can sand off lightly and spray another layer.

Hi,

Good day all.

I initially thought of hand painting my gundam models. Then, I realized that the total cost [especially spray can primers/top coats] would add up quickly. So, I might as well get an airbrush set and try it. However, as I’ve already budgeted to get paints and stuff, I don’t have much budget [about 200 max] left for an airbrush kit.

Would this kit be a good starting point? Just to practice and try on airbrushing until I can save up more to get a proper unit.

Some questions, sorry it’s quite long.

1. The AB kit linked above doesn’t have a pressure gauge. Would something like this or this work as an indicator? 0.3mm nozzle sufficient for all-purpose usage?

2. For primers, I’ve read it’s best to use lacquer based [if you’re airbrushing]. I’ve read some use Alclad, some Mr Surfacer. Which would be a good option? Mr Surfacer is easier to find.

3. What’s the difference between Mr Surfacer 500, 1000 and 1500? Which should I get for general purpose?

4. I read that it’s best to use Mr Color Leveling Thinner with Mr Surfacer. Can the same be used with Alclad? Do I use the same thinner for cleanup as well?

5. Most importantly, I'm really concerned about this. The thinner used for cleanup, where do you dispose it? You can’t really dump it anywhere, correct?

6. I read that you need mask when spray lacquer based items. What mask should I get? Is this mask good?

7. I’ll be spraying outdoor [only for primers], so I don’t need a spray booth, correct?

8. Do I need a spray booth if I’m spray acrylic paints [Vallejo, Tamiya] inside the house? I’ll be spraying in front of the door [sitting inside the house, but spraying facing outside the house.]

9. People who have pets, how do you keep them away or protect them when spraying lacquer based items?

Thank you.

1. I haven't use that kind of compressor but you don't really need the pressure gauge since mostly only produce 15-20 psi at most which is normal. Beware that they do get hot quickly and require some time to cool them off unless you want to kill it quickly.

2. Personally i use Mr.Primer Surfacer since it can grip metal as well but really get what is easiest to buy since it don't really matter much between brand as long as it can grip paint and don't peel of easily.

3. The difference between those are how fine the particle is, for gunpla it don't really matter since they don't have much fine line details compare to scale model plane for example.

4. As long it the same as type (lacquer paint with lacquer thinner, Acrylic with acrylic thinner) you should have no problem mixing with other brand but it probably react differently like require more or less thinner to thin the paint.

5. Really just use hardware/ cheap thinner for cleanup since sometimes you use alot of thinner to clean up the airbrush than you spray on your models which get expensive very quickly if you use the brand ones. Plus it alot easier to remove the paint using those. As for dumping them, just get those paint pot to dump into them or dump them in a metal can and leave them there since it will dry off in it.

6. Those mask are very good and what i currently using. Those will last quite awhile just remember to properly seal the mask so no paint smell leak in.

7. Paint booth is more for those paint indoors unless you want the paint smell lingering in the room for hours.

8/9 No matter the type of paint, inhaling paint fume still not recommended. So really better to find a place that people/ pet not frequently move into since paint fume can lingering for awhile.

Hi,

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

1. A friend of mine recently said I might as well get a proper compressor with air tank instead buying a cheaper one [and upgrading later or to be dissatisfied]. He showed this with HD-130 brush. Is this good enough (to last at least a few year)?

2. I'll get Mr. Primer Surfacer, maybe then 1000 version, as a middle ground

3. I'm planning on getting Mr Leveling Thinner as I heard you can use that for lacquer paints and all Tamiya paints.

4. Using hardware thinner for cleanup; wouldn't it damage the o-ring in the brush? [I've read this somewhere]. Or is it fine because the thinner stays in the brush for very short time? Do I just follow this video?

5. Dumping the excess into metal can and leaving them; is the can left open?

6. I've been reading a bit on the mask. I've read somewhere that it's best to use those mask with a filter with P95 rating or above [not N95]. Is this correct?

7. I'm thinking of making a DIY spray booth as I have some parts around.

8. I've also notice that they say nozzle and needle for airbrushes. Are those sold purely for replacement purpose or can I use them to change the size eg. 0.3mm to 0.5mm? Just curious.

9. Most important question; once I buy the airbrush set, what paint should I use to practice it with? Should I just get an extra bottle of paint and use that purely for practice?

Once again, thank you for replying.