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Gunpla TV

Gunpla TV – Episode 3 – Cleaning up your kit

Cleaning up, we all hate it but it’s got to be done! In this episode Syd takes you through the steps of how to clean up your Gundam.

Viewing the image below will immediately reveal the differences between a clean model and an uncleaned model. Items used in this video are listed below, if you don’t already have these items at home i suggest you invest in them!

In this episode:
1/144 MSZ-010 ZZ Gundam
Cutting Mat
Gundam Markers Seed Basic Set
Gundam Marker #21 (Sumiire Gray)
Design Knife

Difference in model details after a simple leg clean up, notice the spur (gate) marks on
the white section of the leg have been removed and cleaned up.

gundam

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9 Comments

  1. The sequence of these videos has the assembly step before the clean-up… In some cases, this can make things difficult. Some parts, once snapped together, do not like to come apart. And if your part has an undergate or something, or just an area where the gate is close enough to the join line of the parts that it interferes with assembly, one can wind up in a situation where assembled parts are stuck together, and the fact that they’re assembled makes a necessary bit of cleanup difficult or impossible… Prying parts apart when they’re locked like this can damage the edges where you’re prying, and it can result in breakage of the snap-fit pegs.
    For reasons like these, when I assemble snap-fit kits I usually trim the snap-fit pegs or sockets while assembling, so the parts are easy to take apart again. The simplest way is to just stick nippers into a snap-fit socket and cut. There’s a knack to cutting the right amount – too much and the parts won’t stay together without glue, too little and they’ll just get stuck together anyway… But if you do it just right, they’ll be easy to take apart, but still hold together even if you don’t glue it.

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  2. Well done. I’m looking forward to buy my first kit.

    Btw. I like your shirt 🙂

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  3. This video serves more as an introduction to those who have never built a gundam before. If they want to just build it straight out of the box, they can watch Episode 2. If they want to do some clean-up and make their Gundam a little bit tidier, they can follow along with Episode 3. Episode 4 will be about adding simple details.

    Personally, my sequence when building a gundam goes like this 1)remove from gate, 2)remove gate marks 3)sand smooth, 4)modify for test-building, 5)test build, 6)disassemble, 7)modifications, 8)priming, 9)painting, 10)top-coat in preparation for decals, 11)water-slide decals and panel lines 12)final top-coat.

    If I was to present that sequence to someone who has never touched a Gundam model kit before, it would probably look overwhelming.

    But Gunpla TV is in its infancy. We look forward to bringing you plenty more videos covering all aspects of Gunpla!

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  4. I think this approach is perfect for beginners. I’ve never messed with the Gundam markers before. I always prime my stuff and then throw a custom paint job over it, but I can see how they make cleanup go much faster if you’re just interested in the original colors.

    Love the series so far!

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  5. Right. I’m not trying to make this be about my way of building things – I’m just saying, this video talks about pulling assemblies apart. In many cases, this can be maddeningly difficult and result in minor part damage or peg breakage – unless you know to deal with the issue during the assembly stage.

    I think Bandai’s been trying to address this in their new releases – so it may not even be an issue on HGUC ZZ… But even on the recently-released Zaku F2 it seemed like there were one or two places where the assembly would lock the parts.

    I think I wasn’t entirely clear in my previous post. Please consider all this a contribution, not a criticism.

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  6. In Japan, is it acceptable to just do straight builds(panel lines, minor detail paint)? Or do all the modelers there go all out with paint and mods?

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  7. i’m pretty sure it’s the same as over here. there are the casuals and then the hardcore people like me.

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  8. I think whats made these video’s great is that for oob (out of box builders) they can see that building a kit and getting it looking good, is not a chore but is actually really simple.

    And helps many beginners get the fundamentals right besides we have to learn rules before we break em right.

    I’am so looking forward to a series of the advanced tutorials, using styrene and aftermarket parts for mods.

    it will really showcase how awesome hlj really is, cos they have so many things available for modding kits.

    In closing the fact that the cleaning is done after the assembly is a good idea cos i’ve seen lots of guys scar the piece before putting it together and realizing that they should’ve looked at the part as a whole first before cleanup. This shows that step and allows you to choose which to do first.

    Keep going Syd your rocking 😀

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  9. What do you do when you have a really hard marks and i always dig into the piece?

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