Sinanju Project (image heavy!)

[Phantasee]

Can you post up some pictures of the pieces partially painted? It'd be neat to see some step-by-step work, for a couple pieces.

[Darwin]

Can you post up some pictures of the pieces partially painted? It'd be neat to see some step-by-step work, for a couple pieces.

oh definitely. ^^

I may detail the frame before going on to paint the armor, as they're all nice and in plastic bags and protected from dust.

[Ypoknons]

It's at least a week away. I've got the gray for the internal frame painted. now all the armor needs a coat of black, white highlights, then red over the top. THEN I can worry about the gold. I've got some new liquid mask I might try.

The liquid mask sounds incredible. Definitely keep us posted.

As for the Gundam marker, it worked great, really, but we painted all the pieces the moment we opened it. It rubs off a more easily than paint though, but I'll let you know about how the paint and the marker itself lasts.

[Ford Prefect]

I'd certianly like to see a comparison of the painted pieces compared to the unpainted ones.

PS. Sinanju deserves gold leaf.

[Darwin]

I've decided to finish the inner frame first before moving on to other parts. So far I've picked out bits and pistons and cables here and there in silver, and undercoated silver for some of the brighter colors like yellow. didn't get much done today since I got to a rather late start. I'm gonna get a bit complicated with the inner frame, with some bits in darker gray, gunmetal, etc, just to make it look like it's a lot more pieces than it really is! Yes I know it will all be hidden by armor. *sigh*

[Darth Yoshi]

Man, that's hardcore. I don't even bother with painting the outside, even though the stickers look like shit.

[Darwin]

Man, that's hardcore. I don't even bother with painting the outside, even though the stickers look like shit.

I've halfassed so much gunpla, I figure it's time to do it right. Others have completed theirs already, but with minimal paint and details. http://fudoushin.wordpress.com/mg/sinanju-ver-ka/ I'm hoping to blow em out of space. ^.^

[Ypoknons]

I'm surprised some Hong Kong resin kit shop hasn't produced the parts with gold lining already on or even two piece parts where the gold snaps on. I'll take mine in 18K gold just to give the finger to Bandai over this one.

[Darwin]

I'm surprised some Hong Kong resin kit shop hasn't produced the parts with gold lining already on or even two piece parts where the gold snaps on. I'll take mine in 18K gold just to give the finger to Bandai over this one.

Seriously. I'm really surprised and disappointed that bandai didn't include gold-plated parts for the verniers and trim.

[Ypoknons]

Haven't had time to work on yours either, eh Darwin?

[Darwin]

Haven't had time to work on yours either, eh Darwin?

Astounding considering I'm unemployed, huh?

My sleep schedule has been all wonky lately and it just hasn't come together in a bit. I'll have progress soon!

[Havok]

Sonuva... Look man, we have rules against misleading topic titles. You specify "pic heavy"... it better be pic heavy dude!!

[Darwin]

Sonuva... Look man, we have rules against misleading topic titles. You specify "pic heavy"... it better be pic heavy dude!!

right then.

Day 8



More painting! I fired up the airbrush to put down the base color on the thrusters, MM Jet Exhaust. Still deciding whether to paint the inside of the bells yellow or gold or what.





Detail added to the frame and other bits, I used German uniform gray, gunmetal, silver, and insignia yellow.







I'm disapponted with the close-up photos of the leg verniers, I may need to clean them up and redo them.







Still need to do some black details, some cleanup, and the armored cables. Then, I can finally start on the armor! Yay!

[Darth Yoshi]

So wait, the shield attaches to the shoulder?

Oh! I should comment on the paint job, too. The verniers seem okay to me.

[Darwin]

So wait, the shield attaches to the shoulder?

Oh! I should comment on the paint job, too. The verniers seem okay to me.

it optionally attaches to a device hidden within the shoulder.

In practice, this thing isn't exactly strong enough to work well.

[Ypoknons]

In practice, this thing isn't exactly strong enough to work well.

The curse of the Master Grade. Seriously, ever wondered how Crossbone full heart held that beam crossbow? It doesn't.

[VF5SS]

It doesn't.

I lolled at dalong's "solution."

[Darwin]

Day 9

Here we go.So today I started with the known issue of the shoulders, got out the Squadron Green and went at it.



Gold marker shows that there's still a problem here.



So I went and filled some more. In retrospect, I should have used cement to start with. The pieces just keep moving tiny amounts, causing the gap to re-appear.



Went and started masking the shoulders for painting. Pretty annoying! Trying out liquid mask on the tricky bits near the end, we'll see how well that works.





Now, I discovered I can assemble the head armor while removing the internals like the mono-eye. This means I can paint the head semi-assembled, and take care of the seam in the back and the front.



Need to mask the circled areas in the head internal structure though, because they're exposed from the armor.



Plastic cement and some pressure take care of the seams. A light touch with the sanding stick and they'll be gone!





Now to start painting! I'm hitting everything with black. It doesn't have to be particularly pretty or nice, it's just a color coat that's going to have white and then red over it, so I'm allowed to be a little sloppy. If I'd normally spray 3 times, here I'm spraying twice. Some red can show through and I'm not worrying about a little orangepeel. Yet.



several hours later...



So how'd the shoulder come out? well...





I'm rather amazed at how much my sanding marks are showing up. I thought my extra fine salon board would leave the marks invisible, but I guess not! Also, the lines are still there! >_< I really should have glued cause I don't know how I'll keep the little line from showing up now. What do you folks think? A little Mr.Surfacer or automotive primer, maybe?

The head came out much better, and I'm quite happy with it.





Next comes the white, and preshading!

[Havok]

Try sanding in a circular motion and applying less pressure. From the score marks it looks like you are just going back and fourth. Were you wet sanding or dry sanding? I always used to use real auto primer on my model cars and it worked great.

[Darwin]

Try sanding in a circular motion and applying less pressure. From the score marks it looks like you are just going back and fourth. Were you wet sanding or dry sanding? I always used to use real auto primer on my model cars and it worked great.

Funny you should mention, I often use duplicolor automotive primer on my projects, but not this one. I just went right to basecoat. The duplicolor would have probably filled the scratch marks.
on complex curved parts, it's hard to even out the scratch marks using the salon boards I've got.
I'm going to switch to my micro-mesh polishing cloths to try and smooth everything out. 1200-15,000 grit fixes *Everything*

[Darwin]

Day, uh, 10?

Armed with fresh Squadron White and Tamiya surface primer, I went at the shoulder seams again. Disassembled, cleaned up, and re-asssembled, this time with cement between the offending seams. Filled, sanded, primered, sanded. Looking better.







And with a fresh coat of black. Now I'm out of Tamiya black. All in all, I didn't used to consider the Tamiya paints much, but boy do they airbrush nice. I think I'll call the seam filling done, and move on to my pre-highlighting. The seam fill itself is iffy as heck. if I handle the shoulders much more, it'll probably re-open. This will be *FUN* when I get to the dry transfers.

[Darth Yoshi]

Wow, it looks like it lost a fight with a sandstorm...

Pretty good job with the seam, though. I had to scroll back up to see where it was.

[Darwin]

Wow, it looks like it lost a fight with a sandstorm...

Pretty good job with the seam, though. I had to scroll back up to see where it was.

You have no idea how hard that is to sand and smooth. It's an incredibly complex compound curve, and only sanding the part you want is about impossible.

[Darwin]

Pre-shading is done!



My white mix was 2 pipettes of 70% Isopropyl alcohol, 4 pipettes of Tamiya white, about 6 drops of clear blue and 3 drops of clear red.



I almost blew up my poor Super Silent 20a compressor. I was definitely running it hard for this session. So I took a break after the first batch to totally disassemble it, top up the oil, and seal some air leaks that it's had since I got it.

Filled shoulders are looking pretty good now.




I should have fired up some test sprue, because I have no idea how my red is going to go down on top of all this.

[generator_g1]

Darwin, what camera do you use for the close-up shots?