GN

RG SF is a nice little kit eh? I’m halfway through one here. I really thought RG Justice was a great RG kit if you can’t decide which one to try next.

I used the gunmetal/smoke combination on the backpack of RX078 V3.0 that I just finished. It came out well. I also used it on some of the RG Destiny wing sections.

I gloss top coated it before putting the stickers on. Now there’s gloss coat on top of that, drying. I should be able to get pictures perhaps this evening.

Yes, doing multiple coats to make an effect is a lot of work! But sometimes it’s the only way to achieve the effect that I like. For instance, Createx pearl blue looks great as is, but Createx…[Read more]

I love figuring out new paint techniques. I just found a new look on my RG Strike Freedom’s dark blue sections: Tamiya gunmetal, Tamiya clear blue, smoke and then a layer of Createx clear blue. The Createx went on a touch spotty, which made for a finely mottled look that adds great depth to the piece when viewed close up, so a really lucky accident!

Tamiya clear colours all come out really really shiny. They generally need some thinning as they’re quite thick, although that’s ok for hand painting details, it’s not so good on the airbrush.

They don’t mix together though. If you want purple, don’t think you can mix clear red and clear blue – you just get mud. If you want a clear purple you’ve…[Read more]

The Iwata starter set is great – that what I got from my local art store when it was on sale and I’ve been very very happy with it.

A spray booth is a great idea. I got a Artograph Model 1530 which is working well for me, especially as I pipe the fumes outside.

You’re certainly on the right track.

I’ve never tried Vallejo Air clear colours – are they any good?

I really like Tamiya clear smoke – it’s useful. Or should I say I keep finding uses for it!

I’ve found uses for all their clear colours so far – they’re really useful! I used many of the clears here: http://www.graemenattress.com/wp/pg-chars-zaku-ii-part-10-frame/ hand painted on the frame, and the smoke was used to darken the indents on the panels.

Great blog post. I don’t use the Tamiya metallics, but I do like their gunmetal, especially with a flat coat. The other gem of the Tamiya range are their clear colours – smoke (grey), red, blue, yellow, green and orange. They all work great airbrushed over metallics, or hand painted for details.

I’ve had it do that to me once or twice, but it resolved itself on checking later.

The shield is Createx pearl red, with a top coat of Tamiya clear red. The darker tone was created by mixing a small amount of black and blue into the pearl red. I had to do it twice because the first time I made it too dark.

Fortunately, due to the design of the V3.0 there’s not that much masking actually needed. I did mask on the shield for the two-tone red effect, and for some of the small detail parts where otherwise stickers would have been used, but that’s about it. Never-the-less, this kit has an awful lot of small parts so it does take a fair time to paint and…[Read more]

Will do!

I want to see how this is going to turn out.

Yes, all the pieces are individually airbrushed. Some pieces were also masked so that I didn’t have to use the stickers.

Thanks. The RX-78 isn’t always the most interesting design suit, but this iteration is excellent. There’s lots of detail with the armour which breaks up the “way too much white” look of previous versions. The details and how the construction goes together makes this an excellent kit.

Another trick for backwash is to slightly loosen the front of the airbrush. Don’t take it off completely, just about half-way, and that has the same effect as putting your finger over the end. If you need to do an extended backwash, this is less tiring.