One HUGE tip I recently discovered is: take all your smaller pieces, put them on alligator clips and into a foam or green brick, and SPRAY PAINT THEM ALL AT ONCE !!! You will save SO MUCH spray paint instead of doing it piece of piece. I literally did around 16 small pieces in less than 30 seconds with only a few sprays. This was a huge game changer for me because spraying piece by piece no matter how you do will fly through cans and cost you a lot of money.
Its been a long time that I have watched your channel. Around 8 years or so. I remember when you uploaded your "how to build gunpla" videos that also covered this topic. And now we have come full circle for the new generation of scale model hobbyists to enjoy.
As someone with expereince with spray canning it, a couple additional tips: 1. Mask your joints! May not be as important with the EG, but RGs, MGs, and PGs have tight tolerances in their joints and several plastic on plastic joints. With primer, paint, and top coats those joints can get sticky once assembled and will likely snap if you do any posing. It can be a PITA to mask but it'll be worth it avoid that pain down the line if you plan on posing your kit. 2. On painting outside, you forgot to mention the wind. Even a slight breeze can drastically shift the direction the paint goes when spraying. I've had sprays goes up, over, down and even back in my face in almost imperceptible breezes. Wear your mask, but consider eye protection too. Can't always avoid it but it's something to be aware of.
How about HG kits should I mask the joints ball joints and the hip joint Which connects the two legs and the skirt Also can I airbrush the inner frame of ibo kits
I just started this hobby back in January 2024, so I'm fairly new to this stuff. I really find your videos to be quite helpful, I am not in a place that works for an airbrush setup, so this is very great. I am looking forward to part 3. Thank you so much.
Thanks for metioning the humidity issuse. I almost completely screwed up my first painted kit using spraycans outside. Not a good idea during the summer in Georgia. Relocated to my cooler and much dryer basement to get away from the humidity and shifing winds that would ocassionaly blow the paint back on me.
I’ve watched tons of painting how to’s and this is the best beginner video on RU-vid. Great video dude, this will help more people get into our awesome hobby.
Ah, spray cans...bring back so much memories. I was using spray can before in my college life, man...those cans are expensive! I will add some tips to save you some troubles. - Stick more than one parts on the painting clips using blue tac or whatever you have when you paint if the parts are tiny. For example, the thruster bell. Don't spray it one by one, you're wasting the paint. - Mask all the expose pegs and joints, paint has thickness and you'll have trouble putting parts together after painting. - When you painting outside, be aware of the wind and check your parts again before spraying. The sand or dust might be sticking on parts, bring out some old brush...you might need it.
Lmao the timing. I just finished spray can painting for the 1st time. Also my first time painting a kit. M1 Astray. Great Fun. Though if this video had came out a week earlier or I waited 1 more week before I began, a lot of mistakes could have been avoided.
its nice that you're redoing this series. I think a lot of times people will prefer to watch a tutorial or video that is more recent than one that is 5 years old
90% is prep and 10% is the paint job 😅... I've been using automotive paint all this time coz im painting and restoring cars for my day job but i still use mr hobby surfacers for primer😂.. its just the best for model kit..
Love this! I think one other thing worth mentioning when talking about masking is knowing which joints or pegs (or c-clips or connections) to mask before proceeding to the colors especially if you plan on layering a few. I had to learn this the hard way before haha finished everything just to realize some parts fit too tight when reassembling. sometimes it's easy to underestimate how even a "thin" coat of paint or primer adds to the parts.
One more tip, that blew my mind for rattle can results when I first learned it. Warm your paint. Let your paint cans sit in a hot to the touch, but not burning, warm water bath, before using them. Shake them really well before spraying. The paint will flow better and give results much closer to an airbrush.
I would suggest an addition to things, along with the alligator clip skewers, to grab some of the paint mixing sticks of the type that hardware stores have for house paint or some cheap rulers from the dollar store of choice, add a layer of double sided tape to a flat side for some of the smaller detail pieces that will not have the back painted. It's just an easier and cheap thing to work with some parts that are a pain in the rear to have on alligator clips.
For 2022's Battlogue contest I used an old pair of tweezers to hold the parts for painting and then used toothpicks in cardboard to hold the parts for drying, I've since bought clips lol
Don't forget that the underside of parts can be visible at times. Sounds obvious but I have been caught out by this. Also, I highly recommend Vallejo spray paints. Often, colour and primer in one tin, great colours and dries flat. Not as cheap as Tamiya, and not quite as expansive a range, but less prone to bubbling. In my experience.
i heard it;s good for making the browns and greens pop out even more. also useful when chipping off for weathering--giving this rust underneath the paint effect
Hello Zak! Hope you are having a wonderful day. I want to paint the molded gold of MGEX strike freedom. should I prime it before I use gold spray paint? Will I then have to top coat it before I panel line on top of the new gold? Any tips would be appreciated Thank you for your time :)
This is much appreciated. I recently picked up airbrushing, and your tips can be applied to it. You ended on fixing a few common mistakes. Is there any interest in making a more in-depth video about fixing common mistakes? For example, you said sanding the paint down - does that mean waiting till your mistake drys, then sand it lightly for the paint to come off, then spray again? I figured it'd need to be washed and brushed a bit again. Also brings up the question on if spraying the mistake area to coat it would influence the areas that already have good paint coverage on it. I've read some people spray in patterns, wants to hear your input on that too. This stuff is fun and I can't wait to keep going. My first project is priming a hg zaku and painting it yellow. Knowing that I'll probably mess up and get that orange peel effect, he's gonna take photos next to a bowl of lemons.
Thins I'll add about priming : Don't paint white over pink primer. It will give the white a pink hue that will be very hard to work around (will require multiple coats). I speak from experience. The best primer for a bright white ? White primer :D . Or grey at the very least. I would use the pin primer under : Red, Yellow, Blue, Green. Mainly colors that have a good "coverage". Thanks for the tutorial, very useful indeed !
@ZakuAurelius, I'm planning to paint the purple parts of the MG 2.0 G3 Gundam from purple to dark gray, what color of surface primer would you recommend?
i wanna ask this since im going to do my first paint on my precious (and beloved) Master Grade GM Sniper II. and ive been avoiding the inner frame for this (Because i like the color already and worry that if i paint the frame that the interlapping parts would in turn get "glued" together refusing to move so ive only really have prepped the outer parts really well. but my question: will the parts be able to fit just right or will they be more hard to get back on?
hi, i had one question. Does using Tamiya or hobby spray paint easily peal off like normal spray like Samurai brand? I had once used samurai spray paint on gunpla but it doesn't stick and easily peeled or scrubs. thanks.
Ive painted a lot of scale models, but none with moving parts (on gunpla's scale). How do you deal with joints/frame bits on bigger kits, like RG, MG, PG and the like?
Lmao I've never used primer when spraying with rattlecans. Tamiya paint sticks to bandai plastic pretty well if put on raw, but you do need to lay it on well or else the original color peeks thru too much
I’m going to be building my third kit, the Gundvolva HG. IMO, the colors are kinda boring, so I’m going to paint just some accents. This is kinda time consuming, but find a good picture of the built kit, then use some sort of art app to color in the parts you want to paint before even buying any paint. This way you can very easily change up the colors if you aren’t happy with your first idea that seemed good at the time.
That’s the grit! So 1000 is a higher grit (like sandpaper) compared to 1200 or 1500 which is usually called “finishing surfacer” because it’s the smoothest 👍
highly recommend to break up the parts into label bags: Head, Body, Arms, Legs, Waist, Backpack, Weapons especially for more incredibly high parts number model kits so it makes it easier to put the kit back together after painting and you don't get frustrated trying to find parts...
Pfft masking I'm a Warhammer painter I don't mask, just all by hand baby. (Joking aside masking is a totally valid technique and if you like doing it then that's great!)
is it bad if i build sections like legs, arms, head, torso, THEN I wash them? I just bought my first 2 kits, I tried washing all the pieces broken down on the first one, and it went good, on the second one I built it in limb sections and then washed it with dish soap and water. I am not painting but i plan to panel line and top coat. is there any negatives to doing what i did? I feel like washing it built in limbs has been fine for the one i did it with.