MickyG's (Slow) VF-25G Build

[mickyg]

Hi everyone,

First time I've started a topic on this forum so here goes nothing!

I thought there were plenty of VF-25 buildups floating around but haven't seen anything for Mikhail's (Michael's/Michele's) G version yet. So since this is likely to be the only one I'll get for a while and will no doubt need some advice during the build, I figured, why not?

What this won't be is a step-by-step buildup. I plan to make it more of a journal of what I'm doing and what hitches or triumphs I run into. And mostly just another opportunity for the members of this community to share their tips and experiences.

Why the G? Well, I'm pretty partial to the name (hey, it's got both my initial's in it! )! I'm a huge fan of the sniper rifle concept in a space anime, and blue is just cool. I also thought Mikhail was about the most interesting regular character in the anime, in terms of story and character development.

As for the build, the dark colour has its own challenges so I thought it'd be good to get some tips and put them to use in this thread for everyone's reference. What I hope to achieve when this is done is a model that looks good and can withstand an occasional transformation without those looks getting totally ruined. This is my first model in about 15 years. I did a Vietnam era F-100 about 8 years ago but it was a once off and not real great. All my others were never that great. So I have no aspirations of this being amazing but I'm going to do my best and use what I've seen a lot of others do on these forums.

More content to come soon, this is here primarily to get me started and prevent me from procrastinating!

Edited June 13, 2009 by mickyg

[mickyg]

Now for some content...

I got the model, the Super Parts, clear action base, and some misc tools from Rainbow 10. They were great to deal with and I highly recommend doing business with them. The fact that they offer air shipping in addition to SAL and EMS is also a huge bonus (only cost me $5 more than SAL to get it in about 5 days).

So the plan was to build it up, test the fit of all the pieces, look for problems, etc... This being a snap together kit made that really easy. I got the whole thing done in about a week, and that was working on it for 30-40 minutes a day. I was careful to cut the parts out and do some basic cleanup of the sprue marks with a modeling file. I'll come back and clean these up with a sanding stick later.

I also thought it would be a good time to tint the clear parts purple. I've heard people comment on the 25G having a blue canopy. I can't say I interpreted it that way from the Anime and the box details show it being tinted purple like the the S or F variants. At any rate, after reading some suggestions by a few on the boards, I decided on water based drawing ink, mixed with the Aussie approximation of Future (Pascoe's Long Life). This stuff is no Future! It's white in the bottle, dries clear but has a pretty obvious ammonia content, as it disolves dried Tamiya/Gunze acrylics and causes them to run. What's worse, it disolves itself very readily too. So if you do one coat and think, "that looks OK but it could do with another" as soon as you apply the second, it wrinkles the first coat and causes it to look terrible. So I must've gone through 4 or 5 applications before I realised just tinting one side like I'd planned, just wasn't going to work. In the end, I dunked the whole thing and was just careful to bleed the excess from the mounting tabs with a thin paintbrush.

Here's some pics of the rough assembled model (ignore the folded down tailfins, I don't remember why I was playing with that...) and the canopy progress:

Apologies for the lousy quality - what looks good on the disply of a reasonable camera phone (Nokia E-71) looks terrible on a computer monitor.

I left the extra bits of sprue as a means of grasping the canopy. I later realised they were getting in the way and the built in tabs were a better option.

Next up is the actual "proper" part of the build (starting with the cockpit and pilot).

[mickyg]

After fitting everything together for a test run, I found the following issues:

• The nosecone section is a PITA during transformation, lots of parts that will rub if I'm not careful and things that just are a pain to align properly when it does its fold up thing
• The canopy, when it rests against the backplate in battroid mode, means any coating/tinting you do on the outside of the canopy will get scratched
• The hinge on the back/wings area definitely needs some tightening to support the weight of itself, let alone with the boosters attached
• The boosters don't fit to my satisfaction. They have a lot of side to side movement with a pivot right on the wing root point. Perhaps a magnet at the back could remedy this?
• The upper and lower intake is just as irritating a fit as it is in non super arrangement. Magnets should help here (I've sourced some small ones)
• The legs hang low as some others have pointed out. It's like it's designed this way though - there's a notched section on the leg armor that is designed so the wing section can sit right on it. Not sure if I can improve this or if I'll just have to live with it (pics to illustrate this at some point).
• The arms are hard to swivel into the correct position so they lock correctly in fighter mode
• The missiles are going to be challenging to paint. I might end up using blue tack to cover the tips, paint the whole thing white, then remove the blue tack and leave the molded red in place. Doing a wash over the complex shapes will then be my next issue.
• On the paint subject, the booster nozzles are a really impressive molded colour but where the sprues attached ends up being black, no matter how smoothly you sand. This might require repainting (alclad?).

Well, that sounds like a long list of complaints! I'm sure there will be more as I encounter them. However none of these are really that big a deal compaired to how much I still like this thing! It's an impressive bit of kit with all the details and the way things move and work together to allow it to transform. The engineering that went into it is still rater amazing and to have a product that can be assembled by a novice like me, and still work is amazing!

I mentioned getting on to the pilot/cockpit part but I've run out of time. Next section I'll cover that.

[mickyg]

As a lot of you are well aware, the pilot figure on these 1/72 scale models is tiny! Some have suggested it's more like 1/100 scale. Either way, if it's not painted, IMO it looks pretty obvious and realism goes out the window. So how do you paint one of these little guys?

I use acrylic paints from Tamiya and Gunze (my LHS didn't have all colours from one or the other) and mixed them based on the charts from the box/manual that was graciously translated for us by Vifam7:

I didn't stick with the exact recommendation for the white on Mikhail's uniform, instead going with white and light gull grey, which matches the recommended colours of the white on the mech. I think it looks OK. The purple on his helmet and pants is, in my opinion, not purple enough so I went with a mix of bright blue, sky blue and lavender. I don't remember proportions but the quantities were so small, that you can probably just go with an equal mix of the blues, then add lavender until you like what you see. For the darker colours, I just left the bare plastic. The gloves/gauntlets were done with neutral grey and the blue was the recommended colour mix on the box. For the visor, I painted it silver with Testors gloss silver enamel, then put a layer of the same stuff I used on the canopy. It ran a bit but it's so small, it'll only be noticeable in close up macro pics. The SMS insignia was also done with enamels - just gloss red and yellow.

Application was done with a toothpick for the most part. The visor and gloves I did with a fine brush. For the rest of the cockpit, I used the recommended RLM75 grey mixture and followed that onto the top, blue part of the fuselage as well. The grey paint didn't cover very well and I think it took at least 3 coats until it looked good enough. Even then, the edges of the patterns were still blue. I figured the wash would make that look OK when I'd finished. The front, instrument section was done with flat black and a touch of neutral grey. I printed out a copy of David Hintgen's screen cap, that WM Cheng has already cropped (check out his VF-25F build for a lot of the stuff I'm emulating). This was done on an inkjet and photo paper. It's not as crisp as WM's but for the size, it's acceptable. The resulting print was cut out and super glued on. After realising the piece was just a touch too big (it was preventing the canopy from closing) I trimmed it down and "painted" the edges with a black gundam marker.

FYI, I use Tamiya acrylic thinner in about a 1/3 ratio to paints (1/3 thinner, 2/3 paint). I find this keeps it from drying while still on the brush and also hides brush marks really well.

Wash was done with black artists oil and low odour thinner and allowed to dry for 2-3 hours before wiping it down with a dry paper towel.

Here are the results:

Pre wash:

Wash applied:

Wash wiped away:

These last three were done on a proper camera so the quality is a bit better:

Edited June 15, 2009 by mickyg

[mickyg]

Next up, the head. Why? I don't know, I think it might be a combination of curiosity and impatience.

This step gives me a chance to play with some washes for the darker blue colour. The results are not neccessarily what I had in mind but I'd like to know what people think.

I also tried the add some reflectiveness to the lense assembly on the head. That's another one that I'm not sure I like. Unfortunately I used silver enamel so to remove it will require sanding. I'd love to use thinner to get rid of it but I'm fairly certain that'll ruin the clear yellow plastic. In hindsight, I think the way it comes is probably the most reflective and bright look. The silver just ends up looking black when it's fitted into the head. Probably the shadows cast by being inside the closed head...

As for the blue and the wash I mentioned, I tried to go with a grey for the head, both on the antenna and the head. Again, in hindsight, I think a darker wash for the blue is in order and a lighter gray for the white parts. Which is kind of backward to what I see in stuff like WM Cheng's work. If he's got a black panel, he uses an almost white wash. Here it just doesn't quite look right.

Mister Cheng, if you're reading this, I'd love to know your thoughts!

The head was painted instead of decals. I used the recommended colour mix for the frame around the "eye" lense assembly. It's a very subtly lighter shade of blue and almost isn't visible as a different colour. The grey is just plain old neutral grey and I used the recommended blue colour for the rest of the body to touch up a few areas where the plastic had gone white around the sprue marks. The results were actually pretty good in my opinion. I'm hoping a semi-gloss clear coat will tie it all together (after the decals for the arrows have been applied).

Anyway, here's the pics:

This'll be the last update for a few days - got a crazy week and this brings things up to date with where I'm at in the build.

Edited June 15, 2009 by mickyg

[mickyg]

EDIT: Added pics

Another brief update and a question.

I masked off the underside of the Lerx for the bottom fusalage section. This is a part that is molded in white on all the kits but needs to follow the same colour for the rest of the Lerx. In the case of the VF-25G, it's a very dark blue. The S and F versions are black. I also decided to do the part that fits around the front landing gear doors, as it's molded in white and is meant to be blue, like the rest of the plane.

Required Tools (hobby knife, cutting mat, Tamiya masking tape) for cutting thin strips to mask:

The good stuff applied:

Regular masking tape for the larger areas, and the middle nose section prior to any painting:

I thought having the colours spelled out for me on the box/instructions would be a huge help and some quick testing showed the mix to be pretty accurate, so I went forward with the intention of just painting the white parts with the appropriate blues. When I was almost ready to start painting, I decided to do the right thing and prime first. My reasoning was that acrylics tend to scratch easily on bare styrene. If I primed, perhaps the primer would "bite" into the plastic a bit better and the acrylic paint would stick to the flat base better. So I put down a coat of Mr Base white and let that dry for 24 hours.

From there, I started wondering if white was the best base coat for a bright blue (which the G version most definitely is). So I ended up putting down a coat of neutral grey. I'm not sure if this was the right move. For the dark blue I think it'll be OK. But the bright blue is just too translucent and I fear I'll need to strip the blue and grey and just put blue down.

After that had dried (about 10 minutes - yeah not totally dried by any stretch) I put down a couple coats of bright blue. To my annoyance, the blue was not even close to the molded blue of the plastic on the rest of the parts. Perhaps I'm dreaming trying to match colours this way and all the blue will need to be repainted?

So two questions:

1. What's the best base colour for bright blue or dark blue (OK, that's 2 question in one!)?
2. When I started putting down coats, I noticed the spray pattern on my airbrush was a bit granulated. The "wetness" of the paint meant the "dots" settled down smoothly but is this a sign of too little air pressure on the airbrush, too thin, thick, etc? Any tips would be greatly appreciated for this novice airbrusher.

I took some pics but left them at home. Will edit this tonight to show progress.

Edited June 23, 2009 by mickyg

[Lolicon]

Another brief update and a question.

I masked off the underside of the Lerx for the bottom fusalage section. This is a part that is molded in white on all the kits but needs to follow the same colour for the rest of the Lerx. In the case of the VF-25G, it's a very dark blue. The S and F versions are black. I also decided to do the part that fits around the front landing gear doors, as it's molded in white and is meant to be blue, like the rest of the plane.

I thought having the colours spelled out for me on the box/instructions would be a huge help and some quick testing showed the mix to be pretty accurate, so I went forward with the intention of just painting the white parts with the appropriate blues. When I was almost ready to start painting, I decided to do the right thing and prime first. My reasoning was that acrylics tend to scratch easily on bare styrene. If I primed, perhaps the primer would "bite" into the plastic a bit better and the acrylic paint would stick to the flat base better. So I put down a coat of Mr Base white and let that dry for 24 hours.

From there, I started wondering if white was the best base coat for a bright blue (which the G version most definitely is). So I ended up putting down a coat of neutral grey. I'm not sure if this was the right move. For the dark blue I think it'll be OK. But the bright blue is just too translucent and I fear I'll need to strip the blue and grey and just put blue down.

After that had dried (about 10 minutes - yeah not totally dried by any stretch) I put down a couple coats of bright blue. To my annoyance, the blue was not even close to the molded blue of the plastic on the rest of the parts. Perhaps I'm dreaming trying to match colours this way and all the blue will need to be repainted?

So two questions:

1. What's the best base colour for bright blue or dark blue (OK, that's 2 question in one!)?
2. When I started putting down coats, I noticed the spray pattern on my airbrush was a bit granulated. The "wetness" of the paint meant the "dots" settled down smoothly but is this a sign of too little air pressure on the airbrush, too thin, thick, etc? Any tips would be greatly appreciated for this novice airbrusher.

I took some pics but left them at home. Will edit this tonight to show progress.

I'm an amateur modeler myself, but I've learned that the color of the primer used matters a great as it will affect how your paints will appear on the surface. If you use white primer, your paint will appear noticeably brighter. Likewise, if you use grey primer, your paint will appear darker.

Check out the attached pictures. Notice that the red stripe on the head doesn't match the decal red? It's because I got lazy and didn't use primer. However when I painted the tailfins, I took the time to use white primer on them, and the red was a perfect match for the decals.

I don't know much about airbrushes, so I can't help you there, though with an Armored VF-25S in my mitts, I'm seriously considering investing in one now and giving it the treatment it deserves.

Edited June 22, 2009 by Lolicon

[mickyg]

Your build looks great! If I can get anything even close to that, I'll be happy. So the red you're talking about, that was painted over black coloured plastic, right? The finish looks great, did you brush paint that?

I'll have a chance to do a few more coats on what I've started to it's possible the blue will look better than it does now. Then again, I might have to strip it back and start over again with a white background.

[Lolicon]

On the head unit I put red paint directly onto the red plastic, resulting in that deeper shade of red. On the tailfins I used white primer first then applied red paint, which lightened the red and matched the decals.

I used Gunze Sangyo Gundam Red 1 spray. As I guessed, Bandai would naturally use their Gundam colors.

I put down several layers of Gunze Sangyo semi-gloss clearcoat and then a layer of their semi-gloss topcoat to get that finish.

Yours is already looking good. Many of the decals are pretty bad and it's often better to paint some parts. I ended up throwing out a number of Alto's decals.

[mickyg]

Not sure I'd call it good yet but thanks!

I'm really impressed with the finish you got by using a spray can! And yes, very smart to go with Gundam paint - hadn't made that connection at all. Would have saved me mixing paints!

Here's some more shots of the blue, taken under halogen ceiling lights. The colour's actually a bit brighter than what these show. The important thing to note here is that the 2 paints I combined (bright blue and lavender) are both gloss paints. This does not look glossy in real life (and I hope you can see that in the pics).

That last one's a different part (the Lerx bottom) but shows how a light coat isn't glossy and is a very dull blue. This won't matter cause it's going to be dark blue but for the sake of argument, it shows the results I'm getting and not liking.

Here's my thoughts:

• This is being done in a cold garage - 15 degrees C or around 60 F
• air pressure is being regulated but the meter for pressure is possibly not accurate. I'm shooting for 15-20psi
• paint flow is minimal. 4 or 5 passes gets me enough colour to tell it's been painted
• the paint looks wet and glossy after it's been applied. It goes flat after it dries, even though it's gloss paint
• I'm using at least a 50/50 ratio of Tamiya thinner to paint, but possibly more thinner than paint

Any ideas?

[Lolicon]

Hmmm wish I could help you aith airbrush specifics, but I don't even own an airbrush as of yet. Still contemplating if I spend enough time on this hobby to justify the cost.

However, when I spray or hand paint something, I usually don't worry too much about the finish being glossy or flat, since I end up putting several layers of semi-gloss clearcoat anyway.

I don't have the VF-25G kit yet, but maybe Gundam Blue will be a good match?

http://www.hlj.com/product/GNZJG02

[mickyg]

Probably would be. I haven't got Gundam paints available to me here in Australia (not easily at my local hobby store, that is) and ordering from HLJ is always done via SAL to avoid outrageous fees, so it'd be weeks before I could use it. That, and having invested a fair bit into my paints, means I'll need to stick with what I'm doing.

That's OK though, just gives me an excuse to paint the whole thing and likely primer it all first anyway. Means the colour will likely be a bit different to how it was molded but I like unique. Also gives me a chance to experiment with pre-shading. The great thing about acrylics is that they wipe off with windex! So if I screw up, I can start over again without harming the plastic.

Thanks for your comments Lolicon - you're the only one replying so far!

I'll do some searching for air brush techniques. I'm probably doing something really simple to get the results I'm seeing.

Edited June 24, 2009 by mickyg

[mickyg]

Finally made some progress today!

Firstly, pressure seems to be the fix for my spattered paint issues. I cranked it up closer to 25psi and the finish is much more even. It also looks like temperature, while super cold is probably not recommened, at looks like it wasn't as big an issue as I though (today wasn't much warmer than last time I tried to paint).

Here's some progress pics:

Firstly, I "erased" the previous blue and grey coats from the middle panel, just to see if white undercoat was going to change the blue much. I was very impressed with what a bit of windex and a Qtip can do!

The next step was to see if my mix of dark blue actually matched the moulded colour of the kit. To my surprise, it's close enough that I don't think I'll worry about priming all the dark pieces before I paint them (if they even need paint). This step is more about covering sprue marks or discolourations in the plastic. Or, if any putty/filling is needed (so far this hasn't been the case).

(with and without flash):

After the masking is removed:

Here's a shot of the middle fusalage section after painting, compaired to the molded colour, and a second to highlight some tested spots where I'd brush painted (red to highlight the panel, green to show a sprue mark that's a bit more muted after the paint - still needs work):

And an overall colour comparison. I'm happy with it!

I think you can just barely tell the middle panel was white under the blue. After a few clear coats, I doubt it'll be possible to tell.

Edited June 27, 2009 by mickyg

[mickyg]

Made a bit more progress over the last week. This is going very slowly (hence the title).

I'll upload pics soon but the gist of the last week is painting the inner framework parts. The grey parts on the arms and legs, specifically. I've seen both the metal effect and the flat grey one and decided to go the metal route. I haven't got any Alclad or other lacquer based metal paints so decided to just experiment with Tamiya gun metal in acrylic, thinned fairly heavily (almost 50/50). As I'm doing a lot of this on my lunch break at work, I can't airbrush. So that left hand brushing as my only option. I figured if it didn't work out, I'd come back and air brush it over the weekend at home.

I was quite surprised at how it turned out. There's good and bad when using a metal type acrylic paint and hand brushing. The good is that brush strokes were non existent. I'm guessing the thinner is responsible for this and I'm quite impressed with this aspect. The bad news is that with thinner, the metal flecks seems to "float" for lack of a better description. So the paint goes on dark and then the flecks settle out to the surface. This actually looks really cool but the flecks, in my opinion are too big for the scale of the model and while it looks metallic, it also looks a bit fake. Perhaps an oil wash will tone this down a bit. I may also end up applying a clearcoat to tie things together a bit as well.

The next issue I encountered was not paint related but instead a problem with how the parts on the legs are designed. The pivot point just after the hips has a real flaw in that the bottom of the intake for the super parts fouls on the leg. This is probably only an issue when in Gerwalk, as the legs don't need to bend this way for any other mode. But still, I've almost broken the post that the bottom of the super parts intake piece mounts to (this will make more sense when I post the pics later today).

[nickster]

Next up, the head. Why? I don't know, I think it might be a combination of curiosity and impatience.

This step gives me a chance to play with some washes for the darker blue colour. The results are not neccessarily what I had in mind but I'd like to know what people think.

I also tried the add some reflectiveness to the lense assembly on the head. That's another one that I'm not sure I like. Unfortunately I used silver enamel so to remove it will require sanding. I'd love to use thinner to get rid of it but I'm fairly certain that'll ruin the clear yellow plastic. In hindsight, I think the way it comes is probably the most reflective and bright look. The silver just ends up looking black when it's fitted into the head. Probably the shadows cast by being inside the closed head...

As for the blue and the wash I mentioned, I tried to go with a grey for the head, both on the antenna and the head. Again, in hindsight, I think a darker wash for the blue is in order and a lighter gray for the white parts. Which is kind of backward to what I see in stuff like WM Cheng's work. If he's got a black panel, he uses an almost white wash. Here it just doesn't quite look right.

Mister Cheng, if you're reading this, I'd love to know your thoughts!

The head was painted instead of decals. I used the recommended colour mix for the frame around the "eye" lense assembly. It's a very subtly lighter shade of blue and almost isn't visible as a different colour. The grey is just plain old neutral grey and I used the recommended blue colour for the rest of the body to touch up a few areas where the plastic had gone white around the sprue marks. The results were actually pretty good in my opinion. I'm hoping a semi-gloss clear coat will tie it all together (after the decals for the arrows have been applied).

Anyway, here's the pics:

This'll be the last update for a few days - got a crazy week and this brings things up to date with where I'm at in the build.

Hi mickyG! nice work on the vf-25G. I would suggest a darker grey wash on the blue. German Grey perhaps is the best color for that type of blue.

Heres a pic of my old super gundam with german grey wash.

Just my teo cents.

Nick

[mickyg]

Thanks Nick. I like the look of that. I was thinking of black but it would likely be too stark a contrast for what I'm going for. I'll see what I can mix up from my artist oils.

[mickyg]

Pics. Unfortunately, the finished leg pics haven't been taken yet and of course, I left the parts at work and the camera is at home so they'll have to wait. Typical for me...

Anyway, here's what I've got:

Arms - One's painted, the other not. You can get an idea of the silver look, due to the metalic flake seperating out somewhat. It's actually worse in this light (halogen lights overhead - no flash):

Legs - One dismantled and ready for painting

And this view showing the stress mark (circled)

With bottom of super parts intake attached

And lastly, the leg in gerwalk mode, showing where the parts rub and cause stress on the mounting point

Edited July 13, 2009 by mickyg

[mickyg]

And some pics of the painted leg. I've since discovered the "knee" joint (it's got two pivot points) is loose. I'll need to disassemble this and see if it can be tightened. In its current state, it's not going to support the rest of the body when it's finished. With or without the super packs.

[mickyg]

Got the leg apart. It's not loose, it's broken! Aaaaargh!

Side and top, showing the crack all the way through.

After I pulled the broken part out, I discovered it'd cracked at the bottom as well, which makes sense since that part would be under stress too. So knowing I'd need to super glue this (I think it's ABS, not PS), I just pulled it open all the way.

The good news is that it's now been super glued back together and at least appears to be stronger than it was before it broke. Time and the occasional pose will tell. I don't plan to "play" with this thing so hopefully that's the last I'll need to worry about it.

BTW How'd it break? I'm guessing it's that stupid Gerwalk leg configuration again. Probably the thigh fouls on the knee part and puts pressure on that joint. Another weak point in the design here but I'm not sure there's any other way to do it.

Edited July 14, 2009 by mickyg

[mickyg]

Finally had the model, camera and time to work on it all together today. So I figured I'd put a quick black artist oil wash on the leg. I love the results! Not sure if the pics really do it justice but the bright metalic finish that looked a bit fake before is gone. It's been replaced by what, in my opinion, looks much more realistic.

Flash, no flash. No flash, flash. Amazing what the flash brings out that your eye doesn't see in normal light.

[mickyg]

The inner framework is all done now - painted and black oil washed. I"m pretty happy with how it looks. I'll spray a semigloss clearcoat on it to seal it all in after I've made sure all the joints are tight and there are no more breaks or cracks that need fixing. The last one I found was the neck piece with the ball on it for the head - Had a crack right on the pivot joint. No idea how I managed to break that but it's safe to say the joints on this thing are fragile and care must be taken during any movement to prevent unexpected breaks.

On another note - does anyone have any decent screencaps of the sniper rifle in closed and open mode? I've got a couple of caps from the show but they're all fairly low rez and I can't see any real colour consistency. The paint guide mentions a dark grey, a black and a lighter grey. But I can't seem to find anything specific on where these colours actually go.

EDIT:

My suspicion is that the black is the gun barrel and possibly the scope parts (under the top cover), the dark grey is the rest of the gun, and the light grey is a few accent pieces - the part that resembles a shotgun "pump" and possibly the clip, plus another ribbed piece on top of the stock.

I'd just go with my instincts but I'm incredibly pedantic about accuracy. And if I can't get it accurate, it's got to be good enough to make me forget it's not accurate!

Edited July 19, 2009 by mickyg

[Cent]

Hey Micky, not to steal your thread or anything, but I wanted to post a few pictures, even though I have a terrible camera, of some of the work that I've done thus far, mostly inspired by your experiences written here.

I basically painted every single piece for this build, and took a little bit of liberty in my choices of color. I darkened and flattened the standard blue of the 25G, and then coated it twice (thus far) with a mixture of Tamiya Flat Base and Future.

Fins, painted this time. Was a pain. I work in a pretty messy area, so I need to find a better way to cover my projects overnight.. As you can see, dust and white speckles eventually stick back to the fins. Although its not permanent, I still have to dust off everything before working on it again the next day.

I recolored the entire gunpod in a mix of flat black and gun metal and coated it thrice with a flat clear coat. Its pretty stiff in the joints now, which is good, since it holds in poses great now. I still plan to dismantle it and paint the inner tines a green-yellow. I also plan to not use the pinkish decals that are provided, and instead paint a new red color in their place. The pink just doesnt go well with the black of the gun.

On the front of the instruction manual, you can see that the front tines are green, but the rear ones are not painted at all. While I think that the show did not have hollowed out rear tines like the model kit does, I would like to at least match the show's color. At some point, I would also like to paint in the lens on the end of the scope of the rifle.

I painted the thrusters in a metallic grey, applied a semi-gloss coat, then brushed on a rough flat soot-like layer of flat black and gun metal around the rear edges.

Here I followed what you did, and masked and repainted the underbelly sections blue/white. Off to the right, you'll notice that I repainted the darker blue pieces as well. Everything will be recoated with at least two more layers of flat clear coat. Its already very flat, although the pics dont show that well, but I'm concerned about the decals rubbing off like they did on my 25F.

Edit: Gah. I dunno how to make the preview here smaller. >_<

Edited July 20, 2009 by Cent

[mickyg]

Hi Cent - thanks for posting!

Yours is looking fantastic! I'd almost decided not to paint the whole body but I'm loving the results you're getting. The gun is pretty hard to judge on the show - in some shots you see a green tinge to the inner tines but other times, it's just grey. It's the same for the super packs - they're molded in purple but most of the time, they just look grey to me. And in my opinion, grey looks better. So I'll likely go that route. As for the pink - I kinda like it! I wish I knew why that colour was chosen though - what are those parts, what do they do? Are they crystals or some sort of sensor array? At any rate, I'll likely go more red or purple than pink. I'm not planning to use the stickers either.

It's also great to hear people are reading and finding some help from this thread. For anyone else reading this or building the 25G, feel free to post away.

[Lolicon]

Quick question: are the white parts on the G the same bright white as the F, or are they a really light grey (nearly white) like they are on the S? Stilling working on my Armored, but I decided to snag a G plus Super Packs from HLJ's sale so I'm thinking about how to paint it.

[mickyg]

The paint guide says white with a small amount of light gull grey. But judging by the colour of the plastic, it's probably the same as the 25F - bright white. It's definitely not light grey like the 25S.

What's kinda frustrating is the super parts white colour. These are not molded in the same colour as the rest of the model. Though with the universal nature of the super parts kit, I guess there has to be some variety they don't match.

[Cent]

I finished the sniper rifle, and took quite a bit of liberty in my selection of colors as I mentioned above. The pink just doesnt sit well with me. Painted the outside highlights red, but i couldnt airbrush it as masking these small areas around edges and curves gave me a lot of trouble. Small details like the red dots on the side of the scope were also painted red. The scope lens itself (very hard to see) is also painted

It was worse trying to brush inside the mask, so I just skipped masking altogether. The green-yellow was airbrushed with masks, and was much easier to do.

Sorry, pics arent good, but my digital camera is really old and handles close shots and low apertures poorly.

[mickyg]

That looks great! I was thinking of not doing the green on mine but I think it adds a bit of alien-ness to it that I actually quite like! Really nice job on the hand painting too.

Going back to the pics and comments of the feet you did - you said you brushed on the darker shades for that burned look - did you mean brushed as in hand brushed or air brushed. Cause if they're hand brushed, please share your technique, it's amazing!

Man, I need to get a move on! With the sale on the 25G at HLJ, my build is going to end up so slow that it won't actually help anyone.

Edited July 22, 2009 by mickyg

[Cent]

No, the soot was airbrushed on. I couldn't imagine how you would try to emulate that effect with a paintbrush o_o.

[mickyg]

then brushed on a rough flat soot-like layer of flat black and gun metal around the rear edges.

Bold added by me

Phew! You had me thinking there was some way to get that effect with a normal brush and I thought there was no way I'd ever be able to do that! Almost crushed my confidence! Almost.

Update

Not much to report - been doing a bit more research on the gun and looking at ideas for the overall paint scheme as well. There's some great references on these boards that I had completely failed to use. Perhaps the best is WM Cheng's YF-21 buildup. That's got a blue fighter with weathering done up about as good as you could possibly want! So I'll probably borrow some of his techniques for mine too. I like the idea of varying matt/gloss clearcoats for subtle colour/sheen changes. I doubt I'll use 3 different colours of blue but 2 might be just right. I'm thinking I'll follow the way he did his 25F with a different colour in the middle of the wings and some select areas. Haven't decided on lighter or darker for these areas though.

Back to the gun - I've decided after looking at the anime screencaps I've gathered up, that my black barrel, dark grey everything else, and neutral grey accents is the way to go. I'm going to mix in a bit of metallics with all these though as I think it'll look a bit better and tie in with the arms and legs of the battroid better.

I've just spent the last hour sanding all the sprue marks off the gun parts. Man that's time consuming!

[mickyg]

I managed to make some progress on the gun yesterday. I spent my lunch break hand brush painting the two shades of dark grey (almost black) and am pleased with the results. If someone had told me when I was a teenager that you could get the results I'm getting now with acrylics, there's no way I would have ever bothered with all the Testors enamels I used back in the day! Properly thinned, the Gunze and Tamiya acryls are so good, I don't see the need to air brush them on. Except for speed perhaps but all the cleaning of the airbrush sorta cancels that benefit out. Still, it has it's place and I'll no doubt be using it soon on some other parts.

Anyway, I followed the paint guide for the most part. I wanted a bit of a metallic effect though, so added steel to both colours. I started with the darker colour - but since I didn't buy "Dark Earth" (couldn't find it and it's only called for in tiny quantities) I just went with "Tire Black" and "Steel" and I think the results are pretty good. As there's only a small amount of this colour, I had leftovers. So I added more "Tire Black" and mixed in the approximate amounts of "Neutral Grey" and "Midnight Blue" that are called for in the instructions. I put another small amount of steel to bring out the metallic but that was it. This colour so closely matches the colour of the plastic that I struggle to even see the difference. Unless you look for the metallic flecks, that is.

Here are some pics:

All the parts laid out (so many!) and some examples of the very subtle difference on the main part of the gun. The clip hasn't been painted at all but the rest has.

Here are some of the most obvious darker parts (again, it's subtle)

And these are only half painted. The "barrel" part of the rifle has been painted the blacker of the two colours and it's almost not visible. I'm hoping the final clearcoat brings this out a bit more.

I then experimented with the pink parts of the gun. I don't have pink paint so I mixed flat white with clear red (don't have opaque red either) and then a dab of purple. Probably more purple than called for in the instructions. The colour is good but I don't like the coverage. I also forgot that the coat of pink will partially dissolve the under grey so I'll clearcoat before I do this for the rest of the parts. No idea how I'm going to do the tiny little "eye" shaped part at the back of those parts in the pic. Cent, any tips?

Here's the results. They're not terrible but I'm sure I can do much better.

[Cent]

Eye? You mean the hexagonal pink thing at the end of the larger set of tines? You've already painted one from what I can see there. I did mine with a brush by just carefully carefully staying within the border. Trying to mask it just gave me more problems than just plain brushing it on.

My advice is to thin your paint a little more than usual, use a very fine, stiff brush and gently apply more and more paint until you reach just the amount you need to achieve coverage. Since you're overlaying it on top of the existing black, expect to do at least another coat to get a solid color.

Be very careful in handling, as you'll scratch off the paint in this process very easily (and it will remain this way until you lay down a clearcoat when you're done).

(If you meant the scope's lens/eye piece, then just getting a hypodermic needle, positioning it dead center over the area of application and dropping a tiny dab will do the trick. This will also give you a slight bulge in the paint, to emulate the lens bulge, if you use little or no thinner.)

Edited July 25, 2009 by Cent

[mickyg]

Yeah, I should have described the "eyes" better. A picture should help:

Blown away by flash but in focus (mostly)

And another showing I did paint these parts but it's out of focus

Thanks for the tips on the other parts. I'm considering airbrushing but the areas are so small that I'm not sure I can adequitely mask them off. I don't have a small, stiff brush. My small brushes are all really flexible. I'm thinking I'll try the multiple coats option first and see if that works OK.

As for the scratches you're seeing on the pink - it was time to go home from work and the paint wasn't dry yet. The scratches were a result of careless handling. Next time they'll be properly dry before I move them.

Edited July 25, 2009 by mickyg

[Cent]

Okay those eyes were a pain in the ass. The best way to do it is if you have something that works like a rubber or sponge stamp. Make sure the stamp is flat, and lightly coated with the paint of your choice. Using a piece of semi-absorbent foam will work too. I forget what they're called, but back in elementary school we had these stiff greenish bricks of foam that absorbed water very easily. I used to stick toothpicks and flower stems in them and call it art. I'm sure you can find something like that at a local arts/crafts store.

Anyway, take whatever stiff flat material it is that you're using as your stamp and gently impress the eye onto it. This should give you a very light coat your selected paint on the edge of the eye. Subsequent coats of this will give you a solid, sharp paintjob. Be very careful when you press the eye onto the foam. The amount of pressure is crucial, but too light is better than too heavy. If your base coat for your gun was acrylic, and your eye pink color is also acrylic, cleanup of a smudged mistake will be difficult without risking damage to the black.

Edited July 25, 2009 by Cent

[mickyg]

Brilliant! Thanks for the tip. I'll see if I can scrounge up a sponge of some sort. I want to get the purple done this weekend so if I don't have one on hand, I might have to improvise.

[mickyg]

Well, I tried using the sponge approach but I think my paint was too thin. It went on so lightly that you could barely see it. I ended up using a brush instead and just scraping off the mistakes with a hobby knife. Because the darker paint so closely matches the plastic, I really can't see any blemishes where I've no doubt scraped both the pink and the black. Still, I may try this sponge approach again with some other parts where a feature sticks up enough to make this work.

I mixed up some of the custom purple and put it in another 10ml plastic paint jar. Tip1: clear colours (red in this case) and opaques mix OK as long as you apply them immediately. If they sit for a few days, they separate. And restirring works for only about 2 days. Tip2: The paint won't last very long (probably 3 days max) in a container with this much air in it. Today the mix was clumpy and although not solid, was not really good enough to work for anything other than a few touch ups. I added some ammonia to see if it'll "melt" the clumps. I'll let you know how that works out.

The good news is that I have managed to get all the purple parts except for the front tines painted. The gun looks pretty good! Next up will be finishing the front tines, then on to the green.

I gave the scope some special treatment - the back (part facing the "eye" of the battroid) I did a simulated crt screen type of thing, so a green lens effect (similar to a HUD projector actually). For the front lens, I gave it a red coat. For both, I laid down a dot of gloss silver enamel, unthinned. Once that was dry, a dab with a toothpick of clear green for the back and clear red for the front. Both layers, when built up (the enamel and acrylic) make a pretty convincing rounded lens effect. I'm not sure I like the red look and am contemplating adding a dab of clear orange (amber) on top of the red to tone it down somewhat.

Pics will be forthcoming.

edit:

The ammonia broke it down perfectly. The paint is nice and smooth again. I'll see if this gives me enough left over to finish the front tines.

Edited July 29, 2009 by mickyg