WHY I Love Vallejo Colors and Where I Get Them

Quick Neutral Grounds Video Tour

I've been using Vallejos ( mostly Vallejo Premium, Vallejo Game Colors and Vallejo Game Airs ) for years now. I started using them on my LOTR action figures ( Vallejo Model Color back in 2001 ). Frodo looks better dirty with washes and grime than the bare plastic after all.

I love Vallejos coz they are the best in hand painting. The paints adhere well to primed or varnished ( Vallejo varnish ) surfaces. And they self level. Vallejo Colors will never reactivate the previous layers ( like other paints do ), so building up of thin coats is super easy. Also the high pigment and finer ( microscopic ) pigments makes better coverage than others.

They are also great with airbrushing as they are non-toxic.

Also the paints are reasonably priced. The high pigment count and the shelf life ( I have Vallejos that are more than 10 years old ) makes the paints worth it! These paints ( like other well established paints ) are investments in themselves.

Lastly, Vallejos are now very accessible to everyone. you may now purchase Vallejo Model Color, Vallejo Model Air, Vallejo Game Color, Vallejo Game Air and Vallejo Mecha Colors ( The whole shebang ) at all Neutral Grounds everywhere!

I get my stock at Neutral Grounds Centris.

So happy that Neutral Grounds started importing these awesome paints!

Anyways, thanks as always for dropping by! Until next post guys! Just enjoy the hobby!



Notable blog articles to guide you with Vallejo Colors.

• Vallejo Paints EXPLAINED
• Vallejo Mecha Color EXPLAINED
• Vallejo Airbrush Flow Improver EXPLAINED
• Vallejo Mediums EXPLAINED

Saludos!

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My Partners

I had a handful of inquiries the past week regarding paints, what I use, airbrush set up and where I get my tools and supplies. I am always happy to answer them.

I had a very brief time of painting with some Japanese brand paints ( I like branded paints as I like using only quality paints and tools ). I also have a few other Japanese and USA airbrushes way back ( again, I like quality tools only ) and a precious ( gift ) generic airbrush from my dear friend Kriz.

But I am now exclusively using Vallejos, Harder&Steenbeck and certain tools moving forward.

I am only painting with Vallejo Colors ( Spain ) and airbrushing with Harder&Steenbeck airbrushes from Germany ( once again, I only like quality paints and tools ).

I also get my paints locally ( and a few tools and supplies ) from Neutral Grounds. I also get my tools and supplies from HobbyMate Singapore ( the best hobby shop at Sing ).

Just wanted to make this clear.

Cheers!



DAILY BLOG POST

I am also thinking of posting "daily" blog posts like this, as I am a full time Professional Illustrator and Professional Sci Fi Modeler ( moving forward ). Most artists ( at least here in the Philippines ) are employees. Scale modeling, much more Gunpla ( Mecha / Sci Fi ) modeling is just a weekend hobby for the majority.

But, I literally draw and paint robots and monsters for a living.

Daily posts that I won't really share in other facebook groups or anything. Just some daily logs, a sort of a diary of a full time professional artist working at his home studio. How I start my day or something. I like blogging when I am about to sleep anyways.

Also, these kinds of posts could be inspiring for aspiring or even frustrated artists.

So let's talk shop!



WORK

Woke up, ate breakfast and drank coffee.

Drove my kids to school...went home and then I started work.

I did a bit of snap fitting of my commissioned MG Gunner Zaku Warrior.

Had an email meeting with one of my Gunpla partners for a few minutes, then...

I thought of suddenly recording a quick Vallejo Mecha Color weathering tutorial for my Youtube channel during the middle of my snap fitting. So I pulled out a figure to paint and started painting, errr... started weathering.



END OF WORK

I got hungry during the middle of weathering the figure. Thought of fetching the kids and get some groceries. Fetched the kids, went to the grocery and stayed there for a couple of hours. Drove back home and ... Voila!

The traffic here in the Philippines is one of the worst in the world. Specially during the Christmas season. Got home in time for dinner, ate dinner, then took a quick nap after dinner.



DC23 CLOTHING 

Our DC23 clothing will be merging ( sort of ) with another clothing brand next year. Our partners came late night and we had a nice meeting here at our Home Studio. We are excited to launch a handful of new Mecha Designs with the new collaboration.

We needed a partner that could help us deliver the demand of our clients from as simple as shirt sizes, shirt color, material and the request of potential resellers abroad.

2020 will be bigger, better and more fun!


SUPER LATE NIGHT

After the meeting, I thought of resuming my weathering session. Will reveal this quick weathering project tomorrow.

That's it! That's my day. Not too productive today as a huge chunk of my day was spent on groceries with the kids and the traffic. This was still a productive day tho.

Anyways, thanks a ton for dropping by! Until next post guys! Just enjoy the hobby!

Saludos!

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I Draw and Paint Monsters and Robots for a Living

People who follow me or been friends with me since I started this blog back in 2009, might be surprised a bit as I am coming back to Gunpla and Miniature painting again.

I previously tried to come back to the hobby a couple of times before ( 2012 and 2015 ), but ended up focusing on my career ( employed artist in 2012, freelance illustrator in 2016 ). 

I was focused in being a professional illustrator ( I do not use the term artist, as anything you do with a computer is art these days ). 

I professionally do both digital illustrations and traditional ink art and watercolors on paper. In fact, I became the first Filipino commissioned by Paramount Pictures to do an alternate poster for the movie, Pet Sematary this year. 

I have illustrated more than 50 published children's books in less than 3 years already. I have also drawn a ton of ink illustrations from Star Wars, Wargaming characters to Gundam. 90% ( maybe 98% ) of my illustration clients are from abroad tho. My wife ships traditional art, rolled inside a plastic tube through our local post office. Here is the link to my ART portfolio. 

Drawing monsters and robots at home, for a living is so fulfilling, You do not have a ( insert expletives here ) boss after all. It won't get you rich like crazy, but you will have enough to put 3 kids to school and slowly ( really slowly ) build a house / home studio - Blue Brick,  at the same time. 

FAST FORWARD

I'm really back as a Gunpla, Miniature Painter, Scale Modeler this time! 

NO, I do not think I will be joining GBWC ever again ( I am conflicted ). I used to join Bandai Gunpla competitions in 2008 to 2010. 

My Kampfer luckily won as World Champion in Hong Kong back in 2008 ( it's not even in the Bandai site anymore ) I met so many awesome people there. Back in 2010, Bandai created the expert category for multi time champions.

 I think mostly to prevent us from joining the Open category. My Gilgamesh Project won as Expert Champion. There are only 3 multi champion participants including me, in the expert category tho. A ton of LOL!

The old "Expert Category" of Bandai's competition back then, is one of the reason I stopped doing Gunpla. I shifted a bit to painting miniatures. Miniatures take less prep work, but are harder to paint. But it was also fun stuff!

I AM REALLY BACK THIS TIME

I am really back this time. Promise. LOL

I am actually waiting for a shipping of my model kits ( from the Gunpla Distributor from Singapore ).  Yes I do not even get my kits locally these days ( lol ). I am so excited, but afraid of the custom taxes at the same time. haha

I will also have a ton of personal Gunpla and Miniature projects. I like to do some restoration work of my older dioramas and vignettes and do some quick painting of smaller kits and minis.

I am expecting a whole year's ( 2020 ) amount of kits. Not sure if they are sending the whole lot I listed tho. But never the less, I am sooo excited! 

I have my Harder & SteenBeck airbrush to shoot with, I have my Vallejos to paint with, I have tools from HobbyMate and miniatures from Neutral Grounds to hand paint in the coming year! 

This is going to be so much fun! 

Join me as I try to build up my new Youtube channel, posts a ton in my Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts. 

Again, this semi transition back to the hobby should be a ton of fun! 

Thanks as always for dropping by! Until next update guys! Just enjoy the hobby! 

Cheers! 

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DC23 Clothing Designs Revelation on December 10!

Our first 3 Samurai Gundam inspired limited custom shirts SOLD well. 

But as a young clothing company, we are looking to grow and meet all the demands of our clients next year ( 2020 ). We plan to release 3 custom designs ( hand drawn by yours truly ) every 2 months this 2020. 

We are now in the talks with another clothing company, that could potentially help us grow and meet all the demands of our clients. Demands like shirt color variations and sizing ( Our apologies we did not have small, medium and xxxl last time ). 

We hope to deliver a more diverse line of custom designed shirts soon. 

We are also to release our Darth Vader inspired custom shirt this month. Again our apologies for the delay. 

We cannot thank all of our clients enough, who bought our first 3 designs. We look forward to delivering you the best Gundam / Gunpla / Mecha inspired designed shirts in the near future. 

DC23 clothing at Facebook

Cheers! 

SHOUTOUT as usual!

I only use Vallejo Acrylic paints in all my builds - Acrylicos Vallejo

I get some of my tools from HOBBYMATE Singapore - HobbyMate at Facebook

And get my Vallejo paints from Neutral Grounds Philippines - Neutral Grounds Philippines

I only use Harder & Steenbeck for airbrushing - Harder & Steenbeck Airbrush

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Just Some DC23 logo Variations

I did some DC23 logo variations to start my day ( woke up later than usual ). I am starting to confuse our different social media accounts and I wanted to unify all the accounts at the same time. So voila! Same logo in different variants. 

These are just quick and rough variants. I did not do them in Ai or something. No plans ( as of this writing ) of printing them on shirts or whatever. So these will do. They look good as profile pic / avatars. I am still getting used to them at the moment. 

I used the logo with the youtube icon for all the DC23_mecharts accounts ( IG, Twitter and Facebook ). Albeit DC23_mecharts at Twitter and the Fb page is now named Don Suratos ART. I want to promote my new Youtube channel with the logo. I am still building up the channel tho. Building up your channel is hard work, but is so fun. 

The DC23 logo with the rising sun background is for our DC23 clothing brand. Our first set of 3 designs are Samurai / Gundam inspired. Also I love anything Japanese ( obviously ). 

We are shipping another batch of DC23 clothing custom shirts today. We really never thought these custom shirts will sell this well. I personally hand drawn the shirt designs / illustrations with a Japanese brush on paper. Scanned it and had my art printed on shirts. Awesome stuff! 

There are only TWO more extra large Sazabi inspired shirts. And a handful of the Zaku and RX inspired shirts. We might re-print these Samurai line again. People like them. Thank You! 

That's it! Thanks a ton as always for dropping by! Until next update guys! 

Cheers! 

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Blogging versus Facebook

BLOGGING VERSUS FACEBOOK! 

Nahhhh! I just wanted to give this blog entry a cool title. Blogging versus Facebook sounds so thought provoking.

Seriously tho, I have been active here the past few days ( maybe a week ), and I am enjoying blogging again. Most, almost all of my fellow bloggers 10 years ago has moved on to Facebook. Obviously, forums are also dead. Facebook ( also twitter and Instagram ) are generally great for everyone. It  kinda gives a more accessible platform in comparison to the old forums. Social Media also feels more interactive ( or engaging ) than blogs and websites. 

Everyone is at Facebook these days. Everyone is at Twitter and Instagram too. 

Also, Youtube these days is bigger than Youtube years ago. Everyone watches Youtube. 

Do check out my new Youtube channel... Please subscribe even if my channel is still just filling up. 

Anyways, back to blogging...

I do interact at Facebook like everyone else. We've just started our art gallery / art studio of sorts, that we call Blue Brick. We also just launched the first 3 designs of our DC23 clothing. I have always been active at my old Facebook page ( they call it fan page way back ) DC23 mecharts, albeit I renamed it to Don Suratos ART last year. All of these are all at Facebook ( and IG and Twitter ). 

However, I am my most talkative self here at my blog. I feel like sharing everything here unlike anywhere else. I actually share too much here. This old blog... is like my public diary of sorts. 

This old blog used to get 100k visitors per month back in 2010 ( it is getting 5k per month during the past inactive 2 years ). I know that even if I become active in Gunpla / Gundam again, blog all of my updates and projects, post a gazillion tutorials here... page views here will never be the same. People like scrolling at Facebook or Twitter or Youtube or Instagram, than click links to a blog or website. 

Don't get me wrong, I love all of the Social Media platforms... these are just ramblings of a dude that is about to sleep. lol. 

Anyways, I fully embrace that blogging ( or at least my blog ) will never get the same traffic per month again. But I still really love blogging. Imho, Blogging feels more permanent. Facebook is too fast pace for me. I love to chill. I like chilling here. 

I love the "label" system, I love that all my posts are properly archived, and I love talking here a lot. 

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Woot, I am sleepy now. Photo dumps here are all the photos I used to edit for the edit of my Youtube video intro. I also use this design as banner to my Twitter and Facebook accounts. 

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Okay... I am really sleepy now. Thanks as always for wasting your time here! Until next update guys! 

Cheers! 

SHOUTOUT as usual!

I only use Vallejo Acrylic paints in all my builds - Acrylicos Vallejo

I get some of my tools from HOBBYMATE Singapore - HobbyMate at Facebook

And get my Vallejo paints from Neutral Grounds Philippines - Neutral Grounds Philippines

I only use Harder & Steenbeck for airbrushing - Harder & Steenbeck Airbrush

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Work SMART, NOT Work Hard

The past few weeks has been one of the most challenging of my adult life. So many realizations and I also got to know the true value of the people around me. Saying that the past few weeks were life changing weeks is an understatement. A major understatement.

I cannot share details about my struggles the past few weeks, other than a few bullet points I could share to kids or younger people. Feel free to disagree, but below are life lessons I learned...

• Always stay CALM. Calmness will help you through anything. A level headed mind will let you sort through the situation much better, than a mind in chaos.
• Hear your thoughts but also listen to your heart. Our mind will almost always tell us the correct things to do. But our heart will tell us the right things to do.
• Learn to DISCERN well. Everybody have there own motives, good or bad. It is natural for people to push what they want. May it be driven out of jealousy or passion. 
• Beware of SELF-RIGHTEOUS  people. These people are either too dumb to weigh options, or too hurt in life, to think and decide well.
• Beware of INSECURE people. These people are usually under-achieving people or people without REAL VALUE to other people. They are mostly concerned of what other people think of themselves, as they usually lack the confidence or the reputation. 
• Always see the POSITIVE in every situation. Always amplify the GOOD and ignore the DUMB.
• Lastly, work SMART, NOT work hard. Pace yourself, give more than expected but never too much. NOT everyone will appreciate your hard work. In fact, a few might even find your passion, too much. A few might think that your drive makes them look DUMB and LAZY. 

So that's basically it! I hope a few will find this helpful. Now let's go back to our normal programming! See you again soon! Just enjoy anything that you do! CIAO! 

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Ebasenet Gundam Head Display Groupbuild Gallery

 

I am trying to catch up with what are the ins and outs of the Gunpla Community for the past few hours and I just saw that the Ebasenet Gundam Head Display Groupbuild Gallery has now been set up! It is such an honor to be in the Ebasenet website! Thank You Masters!

I know this is old news already, but I have been away for a while and have been inactive in forums and the community for such a looooooong time already. Obviously I was inactive already before this gallery has been set up by the Gunpla masters of Ebasenet. 

Construction of my house should be done by the end of the month ( February ) and I am slowly getting excited in setting up a corner for this wonderful hobby! Will check my old tools if they are still in working condition and will get supplies for my first build very soon! Can't wait to get back!

Below is the link of my own gallery at Ebasenet... Do check it out if you have the time. :b 

Turn A head diorama verDC23 @ Ebasenet

Pardon for wasting your time! Just got really excited after seeing the gallery of my Turn V Gundam at Ebasenet. Thanks for dropping by! Until a better post guys! Just enjoy the hobby! 

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Hope to be back soon! :)

 

Hmmm, blogging felt so easy way back.

My previous blog post was back in May of 2013, it felt like a decade ago though. I plan to get back to the hobby once I have set up a nice work station in my house. No plans of getting back to 210 lbs though. My house is currently under construction, which gives me hope that I will finally be able to set up a work station for this hobby I used to love so much.

Basically I lost my house a couple of years back, my camera broke then eventually my trusty old laptop broke down too. All these events led to being lazy with the hobby.

I sincerely apologize to all my pending commission projects ( international and local ). I promise to make it up to you some way or another. I plan to finish all those commish if everyone is still interested or I could give back your down payments. No excuses whatsoever, just had a rough patch these past few years.

I am back on top of the hill now! Not really, but I think I can go back to the hobby sooner than later.

I should be meeting with an old Gunpla friend in Kenny Lim ( of Singapore ) aka TOYMAKER this month. Just seeing the dude should fire me up! That dude sure will inspire and motivate me again to pick up my art knife. Kenny is that handsome.

I will try to update my gallery with kits and toy repaints I finished last year. This blog should be fun or at least busy again this year. I just need to re-learn how to tweak with htmls and stuff. Hope to show stuffs soon. 

Til' next post guys! Just Enjoy the Hobby! :)

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Plastic TIP: clean up before modifications

This sounds as simple as it is guys. No matter how much you plan to modify your kit, may it be gunpla, gundam, scale model kits, resin kits and miniatures, you obviously have to clean up the parts thoroughly before doing any sort of modifications.

Clean up does not mean washing the parts ( although you have to do that too ). Clean up means you have to sand off all the nub marks and seal the seam lines ( optional depending on your modifications ).

Why do you have to clean up the nub marks before modding? Simple! Cleaning up while modifying the kit at the same time will super slow you down! If you have a nice sanded kit that is ready for priming, you will be able to focus on just modifications ( panel line scribing, pla plates, etc. ).

Imagine you are about to glue a piece of pla plate or a kotobukiya option part, when all of a sudden there is a nub or excess plastic in the way!!! Dang you all of a sudden have to clean up before gluing the intended part. That is so much hassle if you know what I mean.

Do trust me, you will enjoy the modding stage of your build if you have finished the clean up phase already.

Hope this very simple tip will help you speed up your work! Until next Plastic TIP guys! Just enjoy the hobby! :)

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