How to Paint Gundam Pilot Figures Tutorial

I felt I have to put up a quick tutorial on how to paint the small pilot figures that come with most Bandai Gundam model kits. To be honest I do not put so much time and effort in painting these pilot figures normally. I do quick paint jobs on some small figures for my dioramas that are mostly base color and washes that looks okay from afar but looks very unimpressive in close ups.

I am very fond of painting miniatures ( Warmachine ) these days, does I thought of putting up the Pilot Painting Contest.  Although far from world standard miniature painting, I hope this simple quick tutorial would help guide young modelers on how to paint those tiny pilot figures.

1. Glue or Cement the figures on something ( cork ) that would not be stressful on your fingers. If you glue the figures on a piece of styrene rod or stick, your fingers will get tired fast.

2. Always prime your figures. Primer gives you a nice textured surface that paint could adhere. Primers also has special agents that adheres to plastic, metal or resin way better than normal paints. I paint all my kits ( metal, plastic, resin ) with Vallejo Surface Primer. You need to let the Primer cure for 48 hours if you applied them on metal or resin. 6 hours on plastic is okay.

3.I do Zenithal Priming / Painting in all of my miniatures. So I thought why not adapt this technique in painting Gundam pilot figures. Zenithal Painting makes the details pop and gives you a nice base for your semi-transparent colors to produce subtle tonal shading later. I exaggerated the Zenithal painting by shooting black paint from below ( use black primer to skip this step ) and I shoot white primer directly on top of your figures. Notice the nice shadows produced by this technique after shooting the white primer.

4. Give your figures a nice subtle wash after Zenithal Priming. The wash will further enhance the shadows and deep details of the figure before painting. I use Glaze Medium to thin down my Vallejo Game Inks. Mediums cures to a stronger finish than distilled water and gives your washes a very flowy consistency.

5. After the black wash ( diluted with glaze medium ), you now have a very nice black and white figure to hand paint on. Paint the base colors. Paint from deep recesses upwards. So paint the skin first, then the shirt, then the jacket. The trick is to paint the parts that are sticking out last and paint the deeper areas first.

6. After painting the base color, give the figure another subtle wash. The wash will make the details pop again. This wash will guide you where to paint the highlights and the shadows.

7. Paint the highlights and the shadows

8. Paint the figure with a diluted color ( glaze medium or matt medium ) of the base color. This will blend the highlights, base color and shadows together. Apply thinly as you do not want to lose the detail painting you did in step 7. Apply another layer of highlights if necessary.

9. Top coat with varnish. I use Vallejo varnishes in all my top coating jobs. Top coat with a thin coat of gloss varnish ( for strength ) before the final satin or matt varnish.

I hope this simple crappy ( lol ) tutorial helps guide you to paint your first tiny 1/144, 1/100 or 1/60 figure! The figure in the photos are from 1/60 Perfect Grade Gundam model kits.

Thanks as always for dropping by! Until next post guys! Just enjoy the hobby! :)

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PG Strike Freedom verDC23 WIP081314

Not much update since my last post. Basically I did more armor trimming on some parts which I always love to do on any Master Grade or Perfect Grade kits. Armor trimming and separation is done already and I have started to work on the actual modifications I had in mind for this kit. Stay tuned guys as I try to give this PG Strike Freedom a more menacing look.

Thanks as always for dropping by! Until next post guys! Just enjoy the hobby! :)

Not

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Weathered OR Clean for my PG SF???

I am having second thoughts on the eventual finishing of my OLD Boys GB project if I will do a clean build or a weathered build due to Mr.Gav's WIP photos of his PG RX build.

Unlike Mr.Gav of Gavin Lee Manners, I very seldom do clean builds. I think I only have a couple of clean builds which are my MG Acguy and my commissioned work RG Aile Strike Gundam. I originally wanted to finish my PG SF clean... but as I've said Mr.Gav's work on his PG RX is poison!!! Great stuff as always and I am looking forward to the completed build!

I am as always leaning towards weathering my PG... I just think it will blend better on my diorama. I just can't make up my mind. Oh well... will see sooner than later. Will work on the diorama this weekend as I am itchy to weather and hand paint all of sudden.

Do check out Mr.Gav at his website at Gavin Lee Manners and also check his new account at Instagram...

GAVINMANNERS @Instagram

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PG Strike Freedom verDC23 Armor Trimming WIP

While I am writing this post, I am actually restraining myself not to show my progress on the diorama of this build so far ( to keep the element of surprise ). I made changes on the diorama last weekend as this Perfect Grade SF is not the original kit for it. Although I said I will no longer post updates of this build here in my blog, I love sharing so much I just can't keep all of my updates to myself. lol

Just a little over a couple of months to go ( October 1 ) before submission at GBWC 2014 here in the Philippines and I just started my entry a couple of weekends ago. I managed to do a bit of modifications on the armor parts and will continue to do so until I am happy with my armor trimming. After armor separation and trimming... will work on adding pla plates and panel lines to the kit.

The plan is NOT to kit bash 3 to 5 MG kits to this Perfect Grade kit and make it look ridiculous. I do not want to sacrifice 5 kits and this expensive PG kit just to try to win at GBWC 2014 ( I am so guilty of this as you can see in my old contest gallery HERE ). The focus is to create a living room showcase out of this for my new house, not a cluster - fuk of my collection modified into one kit. lol

My objective and design goal is simple...

1. Make the Unicorn Gundam Destroy Mode look like it is wearing a sweat shirt. So I plan to expose the gold internals thru armor separation and armor trimming as much as I can.
2. Maximize what this Bandai kit has to offer. I will try not to use too much Kotobukiya option parts, metal parts and builder's parts as much as possible.
3. Try to paint it as clean as I can.

All the design goals and build objectives above are very difficult for me. I used to slap too much pla plates, kotobukiya parts and paint unskillfully all of my old Bandai contest entries for the past 3 years ( 2008 to 2010 ). But then again, old habits die hard much like restraining myself to post my updates. 

Hope I can pull this off though. I like my armor separation and armor trimming so far... will see my progress after next weekend. Thanks as always for dropping by! Until next update guys! Just enjoy the hobby! :b

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Perfect Grade Strike Freedom BFG WIP

Finished snap fitting my PG Strike Freedom during the weekend. I was also able cement the parts with seam lines and could sand those off today ( after giving the cement a day to cure ). I was also able to come up with a Big Fu...ing Gun ( or Bayonet ) and am pretty happy with the rough design as of now. I also plan to create a sort of shield for this build and should do so by next weekend.

Honestly I am having second thoughts if I will push to enter this for GBWC as my original planned kit has just arrived. Besides rushing my first owned Perfect Grade is not a good idea. Will see if what kit to push thru for the Bandai competition once I get home and snapfit my classic ZZ Gundam kit.

Thanks a ton for dropping by! Until next update guys! Just enjoy the hobby! :)

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