Hi all

i'm very new to this modeling stuff and i need some advice from you all

i have bought 1 pcs of gundam last week and i have search the video on how to gunpal beginner , i have follow the step that the vidoe teach , cut the pcs out , and sand the nip marks .

the problem occure when i sand the nip marks , the plastic got scratch

and i search the web again , they said have to used those tamiya compound fine,finish and so on , and the price for that is not cheap .

i have search this thead some sifu mention to used those industrial compound to polish. like soft 99 and so on . so my question is

1) now what do i do to get rid off the scratch

2) what is the correct step to start from cutting out the pcs to paint

3) in the video how to gunpla they spray mr.surfacer and no prime is used before paint . may i ask do i spray mr.surfacer or spray with prime colour ?

everyone help will be much appreciate

buy diff grades of sandpaper. 300, 600, 900, 1200. and slowly sand it again. preferably wet sand it i.e. wet the sandpaper before sanding. by the time u've used 1200, the scratches would be minimal. then use Mr Surfacer prior to painting. it shld cover all remaining minor scratches.

i believe someone has explained about sanding before.

Mr Surfacer is a primer.

got a feeling u may ask this question...you can get those sandpaper from hardware stores i.e. shops you get industrial paints, nails, faucet, etc from.

thanks davidlim so now i need to sand it using wet sand method with 1200

then apply mr surfacer.

buy why some using white or blace colour as primer , this mr.surfacer is transparent in colour is that ok , after apply that and paint

also what is wet mist coat , and dry mist coat

Usually i use 600 or 800 to flatten the nip marks, then only sand with 1000 or 1200, 1200 sand paper will not flatten the nip mark remaining, but to smoothen the surface, with tiny scratches remain, after u prime with Mr Surfacer, those tiny scratches will be covered, then its ready for paint.

But if you wish to paint bright colour like red or yellow, spray Mr WhiteBase or White Surfacer or else your red will turn maroon. Basicly you need white base for bright colours.

There's no need of using compound before painting.

Cut from sprue with cutter, trim with modeling knife, flatten remaining with 600 or 800, then 1000. Wash the plastic before priming with Mr Surfacer to remove all dust left over by sanding, then its ready for paint. ^_^

Use wet sanding so that the dust wont be flying around your room :lol:

1. If it's light scratches, try sanding it off. You can probably start with 400 or 600 grit depending on how deep the scratch is. If you've got a deep scar instead of light scratch, then there's not much you can do except to fill it with putty or CA later and go through the sanding process again.

2. When you cut off the sprue, use a good sharp cutter and don't make the cut right next to the part instead leave a bit of excess for you to easily sand or trim level.

3. Mr. Surfacer is a grey primer. The base coat goes on top of this and you don't need any other primer before it.

never heard of that, but

usually MIST coat is LIGHT coat, apply very lightly

while WET coat is HEAVY coat, spray until whole area looks WET

thanks all , luckly is a minor scratch

wet coat what coat to use ? is it those clear or topcoat

usually wet coat are for gloss finish, like cars, spraying flat color are not neccessary, unless you want a thick coat of paint ^_^

because i bought this sinanju gundam and i want it to be shiny color

now i have to try this weekend with the sanding first thanks all later after sanding i will ask you all how to paint , thanks all bro for yr help .

You are using can spray or airbrush?

i did a simple tutorial on how to practise gloss finish few weeks ago, but its using airbrush

HERE

hope it helps :D

no airbrush hand paint is that ok

thanks bro Entau for the link ,but i cannot understand maybe later i will ask you

now just want to sand down those nip mark

thanks bro .

HAND PAINT? well, its gonna be tough :P

I'm not good in hand painting, so can't help you much, i suggest you try your hand painting on plastic spoon first and see if you are satisfied with the result, you don't want to mess up your Sinanju, right?

All the things you say, I think you are getting advises by car modellers. Compounds, mist spray techniques are very common and basic thing for car modellers.

I have only built 1 car model when I was in Australia... I don't have my compressor with me, so I worked on some car models with spray cans. Car modelling is new, and i follow step by step according to an article is FSM.

Compound is usually used to polish the model in prior of painting to make it more glossy. If you're going to fix a scratch, compound wouldn't work..... or you might need to consume 2 sticks to get rid of 1 scratch. You'll also need to wash away the compounds once it dries.

Mist spraying is used in car modelling. It simply means spraying your model from about 2 ft away. You first get a blur coat of paint on your primed model, let it dry for 12~24 hours, then repeat the same thing for 3 or 4 times. This will give you an even coat of paint on your model, which is very critical if you want your model to look shiny. Lastly, spray 1 or 2 layer of gloss after applying decals.

You if want your Gundam to look like glossy, you can go with that method. As far as normal Gundam models is concerned (I never build any.... not my cup of tea), you don't need compound and mist spray method.

For the scratches, above posts are the best way. In fact, as an armour modeller, I sand every part that comes out from the sprue with different grades of sand paper, especially the joint of the part to the sprue. I do this to get rid any molding seams, extra plastics and possibly scratches. The first sanding starts with coarse sand paper (lower number, like 600 or 800). This will create scratches around. Then you use 1000 to sand, and then 1200. Still not happy? use water sand paper.

I use the normal sand paper I get from any DIY store, cost you like RM 0.5 ~ Rm 3 per piece. I use sand paper ranging from 600 to 1200 or probably more (need to check). Dun use the whole sand paper in 1 shot, you can cut out small pieces (about 3 inch x 3 inch), just enough for your use. Sometimes you can glue/tape your sand paper on to a stick, or round object for different part shapes. Sometimes for even finer sanding, I'd use water sandpaper, especially for aircraft. If I'm not mistaken, they offer up to 2000.

For painting, I would suggest your to spray everything using white primer, or enamels. Then, after it dried, spray different aclyric colors on to it, masking other parts while doing so. If you can dismantle an arm or leg, do so. Work your way from lighter color to darker color, remember to wait for it to dry before moving forward (you need to plan your painting). Finally, hand paint the joints with German Grey.

After drying, you spray a thin coat of gloss overcoat ( use can spray for this). Then apply a wash of darker color to the seam lines.

I hope this would help.

Please give opinion and critics if I did anything wrong.

Cheers

Edit: I didn't kow you wanted a super glossy look on your Gundam. When those replies gone up there while I was typing.

wow i didn't knowthat car and gundam is different thanks bro flylic80 i thought that both are the same technique to paint

what sanding also need so many range of sand paper like this how lohng it will take for me to sand all the sinaju part :cry: but the video show very easy and fast . and may i ask what is dart colour seam line .

now i'm getting more and more scare :cry: to touch plastic model kits , i plan to do gundam then car then aircraft with this i better stop after my sinanju .

dont worry, its not that hard, maybe flylice80 was explaining too much things to you at the same time :lol:

Gundam & Cars are different, but when comes to High Gloss Finish, its the same, you can apply to cars, gundam, bikes or figure. but usually Gundams are in Matt/Flat finish, Sinanju are fine to be gloss.

about sanding, just start with 800 or 600 if 800 takes too long, then finish with 1000. wash, prime then paint. but i DON'T recommend hand painting, usually hand paint are for small area where masking are impossible.

can i used 1200 for all the sanding very worry bro entau

why must use 400 then 600 then 1200

every sandpaper grit got their purposes, you simply can't flatten the nip mark by just using 1200, 1200 is for removing scratches. therefore you need to start with 600 or 800, the coarser the surface, the lower grit you need.

if you try use 1200 and sand the nip mark, after 2 hours, the mark will still there :lol:

ok, thanks everyone for yr help let me try sanding them this weekend . hope it will not turn in to disaster

another question is how long do i need to sand since the nip mark cannot be remove

sand until you don't see it :lol:

usually 5-10 passes with 600 grit if the protuding mark are little, then smoothen with 800, or 1000

after you prime, and you still manage to see scratches, you need to re-sand with 1000 or 1200

sorry to ask not we sand all the thing only prime

if we prime and sand then the prime will be off right do we prime again

yes, you need to prime again, but if the scratches is visible ONLY from 15cm, you can ignore it :P

but if its visible from 1 feet, you need to re-sand :lol:

thanks

here i would like to thanks for those bro who give me yr advice i really appreciated it from the bottom of my heart . and i really hope thing will not turn bad i reall not good at modelling and painting . i really want to try it because i have seen alots of nice picture of those gundam , car ,aircraft and tanks with diorama on it

now i really feel the pain of doing it :cry: maybe i'm really lousy on my skill . hope that i will not stop half way

Nar... sanding is fairly quick, if you are using the right sand paper. Sanding 1 part wouldn't even take me more than 1 minutes (I sand almost every part of my Dragon 88mm Flak gun model. It has more than 400 parts). You can skip sanding every part, it's not compulsary. It's just something I personally would prefer. :P

Modeling is very versatile and subjective, as long as you enjoy the construction, enjoy your finish product. You'd be proud what you have constructed. :D

Dark color wash on seamlines is a method to erm.... well.... create dark color lines. I notice on almost all Gundam models have a dark (black) lines between body parts /panels. It adds contrast to your model to have more 3D look.



See the black line close to the tip of the white color "rod"? and you see the black line on the red "skirts"? Those are created ... generally, using a wash of dark color (black or german grey).

This image doesn't look glossy though:



Mist sprays, compounds, etc method is used for something really glossy like this:


Build your Gundam the way you like and prefer. Remember to clean your model, let it dry completely before you start painting. Some people even use detergents to clean..... :blink: . I'd suggest you to spray your model about 1 feet away using spray can, create a first coat, let it dry overnight (inside a container) , then spray 2nd coat. Keep your spray can moving all the time while you spray, dun concentrate spraying 1 part for more than... 3 seconds. It'll create drips of paints that will look very ugly when it dry.

After that, you can spray a gloss coat if you wish. You can examine the painted model before deciding whether or not to spray a gloss coat.

Even if you don't do the dark wash, it's still look very nice.

Looking thru the Sinanju pictures, you only need spray the red parts 2 layers. Other parts, you can use hand paint. But it's best if you can use a spray brush. Use aclyrics while you hadn paint. If you make any mistake and painted on the red coat, use aclyric thinners on a cotton butt to clean it. The thinner won't eat the red spray-can paint wan.

That is simple enough. Show us your progress, you can get better advise from experts in this forum.

Oh... 1 more thing. Do not use commercial spray cans you buy from hardware stores, they'll make your model look like sotong. Use Mr.color or Tamiya spray cans.

Well, everything have to start from somewhere. You're lucky, experts like entau is giving advise. When I start modeling, I'm just using UHU glue on airplanes, unpainted. They look grey and sometimes the missle can fall down wan. The landing gears cannot even support the plane... coz UHU glue s*cks. But I still love them (that time I'm oni 8 years old i think).

Speaking of priming, usually I prime my model everytime just for the purpose of spotting mistakes like finger prints and scratches before I really paint them. Sometimes these scratchs will only be visible after you paint your model. So priming actaully helps you to spot them first.

thanks bro flylice80 for yr advice and picture show :D

i pretty amaze by the masterpiece done by all sifu in here either by gundam,aircraft and so on that make me want to do it more and more that why i start with it , after getting the advice from you all last night i been thinking maybe this will be my last modelling reason it involve alots of cost like airbrush ,paint,top coat and so on this make me even want to stop right now . not too sure will i going to paint my sinanju or not but i will do the sanding part .

may i ask if i sand and apply the mr.surfacer and don't want to paint is this ok with it , afraid will have some problem with my sinanju later.

airbrush compressor cost 6++ to 8++

airbrush cost 2++ to 4++

if you don't paint your primed kit it'll look grey la :lol:
you are really funny man :D


hey.. check out the sales thread by tkting, I heard he just brought in a compressor set (in fact a starter set for airbrushing, less than rm300, just everything u need).
why don't you PM him, maybe he has something that fits into your need. :rolleyes:

The guys here have pretty much covered everything so I'll just add this teeny bit. Don't worry too much about making mistakes on your first few model kits. Everyone does and that's how we learn. Plus for most of us starting out it will take at least a few completed models before we master the basics. So just go ahead and enjoy yourself and don't worry if your first few kits do not turn out to what you have seen here or elsewhere.

Best of luck.

Again I said, modelling is very versatile. You don't need a degree certificate or huge investments. Take it easy.

I bought my first spray brush back in 1998, it's Tamiya brand and it's not even a compressor, more like an air pump. Those days Tamiya brand is still cheap and affordable. Somehow, years later it broke down. I didn't purchase any new ones. I use back the same brush win canned compressed air. Since the cans are expensive, I limit using spraying to the body colors only. All other parts, hand paint.. still looks good.

After my spray brush set broke down, I avoid plane models and just go for tanks with mono-tone body color, like a M1A2 Abrams in OIF. I buy Tamiya spray cans to finish the job. I didn't even prime it. Then all other effects can be done by hand. Using all sorts of things like artist oils, pastel chalks, etc. You can read some magazines while you're free to see how ppl do it.

Once you started to love the hobby and have some spare money in your bank, then you slowly invest into other tools for better effects you can create. I just recently bought a new compressor + spray brush after CNY this year. Within the period which I dun have the airbrush, I did these few projects:

1) IJN Yamato 350 scale (Out of Box), used canned compressed air for painting
2) Subaru WRX for a friend's BD, Use a blue-color spray can, and grey primer can.
3) 88mm Flak, Used German Grey Spray Can, with whitewash finishing
4) 8t Half track, suppose to go with the 88 flak gun in a diorama. Haven't started the ground work, but finished the model. Samething, German grey spray can with whitewash.
5) M1A2 Abrams, Used Sand Yellow Spray Can
6) Merkava MK2. Used Sand Yellow Spray Can, but I got my new airbrush while doing this project, so i finished it with mixture of different tones to create contrasts.

If you are into cars, Airbrush is really not a necessity, unless you want your car to paint with rainbow colors like those hotrods. Can sprays + some hand painting is really good enough. I hand painted the entire interior of a Subaru WRX, scratch built the seat belts.

If you are into Gundam, it might be abit troublesome coz you'll need white, red, blue and probably yellow and black spray cans. But if you planning to build an army of Gundam, it might worth it. 1 can cost like Rm30+ depends where u get them. You'll need to invest about like RM150-ish and can use the cans for multiple projects.

For the better case, make good friends with modelers and make an appointment with them to borrow the airbrush when you need painting. I don't think any will let you bring their's home, you can meet up at 1 place and use it at their supervision. Good time to learn painting skills also. :D

I'm sure many will help you out. I can help if you need, if you are near enough to me and fix a time that i'm free.

@ bro klay r u sure below 3++ :blink:


thanks bro for given me encouragement , i will try my level best to finish it

to paint it is second issue ,

bro klay what do u mean my prime kit will look grey

unless the said person lie to me lar :P

bro.. primer is grey what :blink: ..
if u leave the primed kit unpainted.. of course it will look grey :lol:

You didnt know that primer is grey colour? that's what meant by klay, if you only prime and no paint, of course the whole sinanju will look grey ^_^

if you dont have airbrush or the money to buy spray can, i suggest that you don't prime & paint it, just cut out, sand nicely, and hand paint those small detailing like eyes, thrusters, rivets, etc..then spray top coat onto your sinanju, the top coat available in Gloss, Semi-gloss and Matt Finish

because you might be using around RM200++ just for buying can spray for sinanju alone

what mr.surfacer is in gray colour , but in viedo is like trasparent only :o

yup if add up the cost for my sinanju 270 and the paint cost will be 400 my wife will sure kill me (buying that model kits also need to beg her so long only can buy)

that is my situation :cry:

can i use industrial spray , there are some one using it to spray their gundam turn out to be very nice .

anyway industrial spray or model spray or airbrush to my hand sure disaster me cannot paint well .

so bro flylice offer me to used his airbrush i also takut , unless i buy the colour bro spray for me then is ok :D

PM me your email, i send you some pics about building gundams WITHOUT using airbrush or can spray (only use TOPCOAT can spray, i think you can find it at local hobby store) though its in japanese, but the picture should tell the stories

DONT USE any industrial can spray if you didnt prime ur sinanju, the industrial can spray might melt ur plastic, they are very strong, unless u are very familiar with them

thanks bro

i will pm u my email

by the bro u mention before that the surface is to cover the scratch

so if i don't used that how for me to cover the scratch

Thats why you need TOPCOAT ^_^

but deep scratch will still visible after topcoat, so you need to really smoothen it untill 1500 or 2000 if you decided only to topcoat, and topcoat is clear, transparent ^_^

AND i think i answer too much, dunno you will remember or not, why dont you try first, experience is very important :) try some simple kit below rm100, if you mess up at least not :cry:

yup i plab to buy tohse bb gundam at least less part :D no need to takut to spoil my sinanju

bro received yr email why the sand paper is very different with what we have at hardware store