Home » Shows » Gunpla TV » Gunpla TV – Episode 14 – Enamel Panel Line Tutorial – Washing Runners

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Gunpla TV

Gunpla TV – Episode 14 – Enamel Panel Line Tutorial – Washing Runners

In this week’s edition of Gunpla TV we show you how to use enamels to panel line your Gundam pieces. With panel washes you can get a terrific result with only a little bit of time and effort. Remember, these are chemicals so all safety precautions should be followed as you use enamels and thinner, etc. Be sure to work in a well ventilated area.

gundam-tutorial-panel-lines

In this episode:
1/144 HG GPB-X80
– 1/144 Hi-Nu Gundam GPB Color
– Extra pieces from the 1/144 HG Avalanche Exia Dash
– Back armor of the 1/100 MG RX-77-2 Guncannon with Special Clear Armor Parts
– HF Pointed Brush Small
– …and a cotton swab

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13 Comments

  1. Later I am going to japan and i want to go to HLJ.

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  2. The deal with “Gunpla Builders” is that in the story there are “Gunpla Battle Centers” with video game pods like the ones for “Bonds of the Battlefield” – except the pods also include a Haro-shaped capsule into which the player puts their Gundam model – the model is scanned and the players start the game, “piloting” their chosen model. It’s kind of like the old manga Plamo Kyoshiro, or a bit like Angelic Layer…

    In the anime, the main character, Haru, goes to Shizuoka and sees the 1:1 scale Gundam and decides to buy his very first Gundam model. Having seen the statue he wants to build the Gundam, but the very last one is bought by a girl just before he gets to it… Beginning Gundam falls on his head and so he buys that instead. 🙂 The kit box, instructions, and parts trees shown in the anime are almost exactly like the actual kit. Anyway, it seems like a pretty fun show (though it’s very short), I think it’s worth checking out.

    Since you’re working on a Beginning Gundam, maybe people would find it helpful if you showed how to paint the beam saber hand that comes with the kit? (The kit includes a hand part that’s holding three beam sabers, and the whole thing is molded in clear yellow… So it’s a masking problem. Mask the beam blade, paint everything else white, then probably hand-paint the gray bits of the hand and the blue bits of the sabers…) It’s relatively uncommon these days for a Bandai Gundam kit to have a part like that – beam saber and blade molded into a hand – and when Bandai does it, people tend to complain. 🙂 But the reason they do it is because that approach allows them to deliver a much better sculpt…

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  3. Why would one have to top coat the pieces before you panel line with enamels/thinner? That’s the only way I do panel lines (for the most part), and I have NEVER done that. Hope that’s not bad…

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  4. @Matt
    Reason is if you paint your kit, the paint layer base might not be “smooth” enough for the enamels to flow nicely therefore a top coat (usually gloss) to help the enamel flow nicely and then lastly another layer of top coat(flat or gloss up to you) to “protect” the enamel paint. Hope it helps 🙂

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  5. Just wondering if the result from the enamel for panellining are better compared to the gundam marker? I am really interested to try this technique for panel lining since i has been using gundam markers for panellining.

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  6. Thanks for tip of washing of the pieces before assembling and painting.

    Greetings from Mexico.

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  7. Another reason for the gloss coat:
    If your model had been painted with flat paint, it would be much harder to clean excess wash off the matte surface. A gloss surface allows you to pretty much just wipe excess wash off (possibly with a bit of thinner and coaxing) – but a matte surface is rough, it’s full of tiny crevices for that wash to sink into, so it can “capture” the wash in a way a gloss surface can’t.
    This has its uses, too. It is the basis of a technique known as a “filter” – a wash-like mixture applied over a whole area of the model in order to change the color in subtle ways.
    If you were doing a wash on an unpainted part, or a part that you’d painted with gloss paint, probably you wouldn’t need the gloss clear coat for the wash.

    I can’t compare the wash technique to markers, personally, but I can say this: paneling with a pen or marker is a more hands-on process. A wash follows the contours of your model, so it helps you along to some extent.

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  8. Other than Enamel, can other type of paint achieve similar result?

    For me, the easiest to access paint is Acrylic (Game Workshop’s Citadel), which can be thinned with water, but I also notice that it doesn’t flow along the panel lines as well as Syd is showing here.

    Would using an alternative thinning solution help, or is this simply the physical properties of acrylic paint and it can’t be changed?

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  9. i hope we get to see a full build that shows all of the techniques you’ve demonstrated for us.
    washing,sanding painting,panel washing, waterslide decals,weathering and damage, and aftermarket parts :).

    perhaps on a user voted MG kit?

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  10. Ryc03: I don’t know about Games Workshop paints, but I used to do panel washes with Tamiya acrylics. The mixture I used was paint, a bunch of water, and a little bit (like a drop or so) of dish soap. The dish soap cuts the surface tension, helping the water to flow more smoothly – it also cuts the paint adhesion a bit, making it easier to clean up places where you didn’t want the wash to end up. The mixture for a wash is more like “water with paint in it” instead of “paint with water in it” – if you take my meaning. Getting a good mixture with your paints may just be a matter of experimentation.
    I have also heard that artists’ oils are good for washes. I’ve tried these but haven’t done much with them. One of the benefits to oils, as I understand it, is that the pigments tend to be very fine – which is good for a technique that relies on thinning down the paint so much.

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  11. Hi Ryc03,

    You can use acrylics for panel washes, as well. Acrylics are also safe to use over top of lacquer just like enamels. Some people choose to thin their paints for washes using lighter fluid but that is something I haven’t tried because I haven’t needed to. Like George stated it’s all about experimentation and finding what works best for you.

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  12. big thank you for showing on youtube as i dont use quicktime

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  13. Hey Syd!

    I have a question about using enamel panel lining over enamel paint. So my model is painted with enamel, and I’m using the enamel topcoat (semi-gloss) so that I can work on panel lining with enamel. Is it okay to be consistent without damaging the paint layer? Please let me know. Thanks!

    Reply

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