Some weathering tips:

Objective: U've seen the armour surface of those mobile suits that's spent too long in space right? Pot Marked surface, after spending too long being plummeted by space debries of various sizes, especially the smaller ones that don't really damage the MS, but just leave marks on the surface. So was wondering on how to achieve this.

Considerations: Thinner that eats plastic was my first thought. However the tough part here is trying to figure out how not to overdo it, and how to do it right. Rubbing thinner on the surface wont do, as it'll just leave a rough surface all over. Same goes for submerging the plastic in thinner. It'll just warp completely.


Solution: Took a container of water, added thinner (1 part thinner to 30 part water) into it (they don't mix btw.). Put in a little bit of detergent to help reduce the liquid tension of the water, as this will help to get the thinner to spread throughout the water in smaller blobs. Close the container, shake very well. Soak the plastic pieces in there for about an hour, then check the results. Leave longer if needed

The Results:



The piece was originally a dark blue, and this is after I've sprayed on a thin layer of Mr Surfacer (to get it ready for painting, and also to make the markings more visible to be shown here). Should there be too much of such markings for your liking, then u can fill it up by applying Mr Surfacer using a paint brush right out of the bottle, then do a bit of sanding work.


Afterthoughts:

This method pretty much allows for those marks to be randomly scattered throughout the model, which is both good and bad. Good 'cause it looks realistic, bad as u cant really control it, resulting in the possibility of more marks in an area that's partially covered by a larger piece of armor (which is not really realistic).

So the best solution around this is to plan your soaking of the pieces in batches properly, rather than chucking everything in at a single time. Outer armor pieces which r to look the most battered will receive the longest soak in the solution, of which u can also play around with the water to thinner ratio. Other pieces will go in for a shorter amount of time once that's done.

This post has been edited by fyire: Jun 27 2007, 07:11 PM

i wanna ask.. i alwiz see ppl do modification on gundams.. wat mods can be done? any links? i wanna try some on my new kit... thanks in advance

modding are not easy and you have to know what are you doing...
and here in malaysia..wanna buy all those stuff for mod are expensive

cheapest mods r of the DIY variety, where u use your own imagination. But make sure to practice on a Bendi model first before doing it on ya Bandai

ic ic... hmm.. can i kno wat mods can be done? wat equipment needed? how much are they? thanks

any full tips on how to hand paint bb gundam ?

^

paint,

mixer bowl,

thinner (i use leveling thinner so the paint slow dry and have a better brush stroke),

brush (depends on how wide on how small the areas) 00 size for small area are recommended...try to avoid chinese brush,

tissues...lol,

and most important of all...steady hand...try to hold your breath of something to get those steady hands...lol

Wow nice thread! Here are some of my contribution although i am a noob myself.

To strip off the gold colour from any plastic (MG Hyaku Shiki), go get yourself a DOT3 brake fluid. You can get this from any petrol station. Soak all the bling bling part overnight in the fluid (dont worry, those fluid is not corrosive so it will not harm the plastic). After 1 night you might see the gold colour coming off but you might have to soak it longer than that. This also works if u want to strip paints of a part.

The easiest modification in my opinion is adding panel line. Just get yourself a razor blade and some tough tape and you can start to scribe extra panel line that you add some depth into the detail of the kit.

Errr... i think that is all for now.

Ps: I suggest that we join this thread together with the airbrush thread since it is interrelated.

using brake oil will make the plastic very very fragile....

pls think twice....

if use leveling thinner, do i stil need thinner? or the leveling thinner is already the thinner which dry up slower?
wat kind of paint to use? enamel isit?

i remember last time i use a marble cleaner to remove chrome paint.. but the plastic become a bit flat on its surface, dunno if originally it's flat coz its a bendi.

anyway, can try on the sprues first..

yes...use leveling thinner no need any other thinner already...
leveling there is actually a thinner with a add up retarder inside...to slow down the drying process...

leveling thinner are for oil base paint...like i said before..i only use enamel for lining...
me always paint with oil base paint...

from my understanding, each paint types has its own thinner and also depends on brands as well...
i have mr.hobby paints(odd caps, i believe this is lacquer paints) = mr.hobby leveling thinner + retarder mild
tamiya enamels = tamiya enamel thinner.

tamiya acrylics and mr.hobby aqueous(not sure the spelling) = water but also read that to get lesser brush strokes on using these paints, u can add few drops of mr. retarder mild so that the paint would level out and dries slowly and evenly like using mr.hobby lacquer paints...

ok, here's my question...as acrylic paint uses water as solvent or thinner, i may assume that water is recommended...
but, do u guys have any other suggestions?

as for lacquer paint, other than using mr.hobby thinner, be it normal or leveling thinner, are there any other cheaper alternatives that does the job equally?

how bout enamel paints as well?

Acrylics, I tend to use a mix of water and spirits for the thinning. No idea about using retarder on acrylics, but I tend to get pretty good surfacing when I mix Tamiya Acrylics with Citadel Acrylics, on a 1:1 ratio. The paint has to be pretty diluted when applied using a hand brush, so u'll need multiple layers. The key here is patience. I only use acrylics for hand brushing.

Lacquer paint, I've been using hardware thinner (Zebra brand, available for RM3.80), and so far so good. Lacquer is what I use for airbrushing.

Enamel paints, I've only used those for lining work. Thin those with Zippo fluid. A cheaper alternative will be turpentine, but that stinks like mad, and dries rather slowly too, so hence Zippo fluid's recommended.

u guys heard of ms-newgen.com?
from thai n they sell metal/aluminium thrusters..
i think the price is ok..though i dunno how's the shipping price is.
but since its close so not much i guess..

oh yeah i wonder if anyone here have tried re-cast..huhu

thx for the reply...
anyway, few more qs...
is it ok to handpaint using lacquer paints thinned with the zebra thinner?
as for spirits, i've seen these mineral odorless spirits at ace hardware, is this type of spirit recommended or any spirits will be fine?
what about isoprophyl alcohol aka rubbing alcohol?
thx..

as suggested by fyire, Zebra brand shud be ok for lacquer paint (i just bought 1 bottle too but havn't try yet )
if u gonna handpaint, there might be some issues:
1) brush strokes
2) so u use thinned paint, brush few times, but when u use a too diluted paint u might have problems wt paint sticking to ur plastic, so better prime ur plastic
3) u might need to hand paint few layers (3-6) of thin and diluted paint, waiting for each layer to dry is pain in the ass

u can't use spirit or alcohol for lacquer. only mr. thinner or zebra brand thinner
i got my own thinner (from my fren who works in paint factory), but need to test whether it's gonna be the same with zebra brand thinner or not.

for acrylics, u can use water but pls use distilled (battery water), no tap water pls.
if u want the paint to flow better, try add in few drops of retarder, or u can try add some contact lense buffer solution. coz it has a detergent effect, where it's able to reduce the water tension properties, it prob help the paint to flow i guess. coz some ppl use detergent water (0.5%)

lol..actually sometimes those hardware thinner are ok to mix with oil base paint(mr hobby)...like yesterday...i accidently mix up my paint with a hardware thinner (mistaken the bottle thought it was leveling thinner...as they are sitting side by side)...

turn out to be the paint slow dry also...act almost the same as leveling...but i just be lucky...maybe i should test it again...lol

anyone here know how to use a primer ? wats the use of a primer ? i have a metal diecast car... and wanna respray it to other color.. first thing is wat should i use to strip of the paint? brake fluid ? or is there any other "cleaner" method ? because if do those thing at home will be very dirty and hard to clean up...

primer is surfacer...its to cover the whole surface from original color...

i prefer to use mr surfacer rather than to strip the original paint.
more safer and more cleaner that way...less hassle also