1/100 HG Gundam Heavyarms Custom

          I was able to finish this last Monday, but only got the chance to have decent photos of it yesterday...the reason: I have waited till weekend so I can borrow my mother's nokia n8....for higher resolution pics visit my flickr account:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/infrasmell/

1/100 HG Gundam Heavyarms: WIP part 5

            I used these for shading: staedtler pencil 6B, sandpaper (3M P600 super fine) and some cotton buds. What I do is I rub the tip of the pencil on the sandpaper until the lead turns into powder. 

I use mechanical pencil for panel lining.

            I also applied some powdered pencil lead on the black parts. It somehow gives a gun-metal look to it, with a bit shiny effect on the edges.

After painting the figure with poster color, I taped it on a bottle cap so I can spray it with flat clear.

            Looking nice eh? (almost forgot modesty^^) The kit itself is done except for the two double gatling guns, which still need some shading and lining.

1/100 HG Gundam Heavyarms: WIP part 4

detailing the missiles

             The missiles in the right pod is highlighted using black coloring pen. See the difference? I used black instead of gray for a more defined missiles. It looks smoky too, which I personally like. I wiped the excess black ink using cotton.

coloring pens....who knew?

Same thing I did with the missiles on the shoulder part.

              Trowa Barton's figure ready for painting. I'll do the same procedure I did with the heavyarms...paint it with poster color then spray flat clear paint.

           I used correction fluid on both eyes and some on those pointy hairs. I'll scrape off the overlaps using toothpick. Seems like I'll be waiting for Typhoon Quiel to subside so I can spray paint outside. The reason behind my Heavyarms' work delay is Typhoon Pedring.

          Foggy afternoon...view in front of our house one day before Typhoon Pedring hit. Creepy...looks like zombies are coming.

1/100 HG Gundam Heavyarms: WIP part 3

             Another good thing about poster colors is that it doesn't leave ugly brush marks. Also, if you mess up the colors or you're not contended with the tone, you can redo it just by wiping it with damped cotton....no need for chemicals.

It will mess up the paint job if you touch this with wet hands.

ready for top coat....will be using bosny flat clear. (I used "walis ting-ting" instead of barbeque stick to hold the parts for spray painting...heheh very jologs.)

My messy workstation.

Heavyarms' head after spraying flat clear.

          I used gray coloring pen this time for the edges and lining. Because of the matte surface, the ink doesn't easily wipe off...very nice to use when adding depth to the edges.^^

After I finished spraying flat clear, I'll be using a few of these for detailing.

The Hunt for the Yellow Grapes

Lanzones - scientific name Lansium domesticum

Vins Barok picking some lanzones.

Pia Cavegirl waiting for the harvest.

Vins Barok giving the harvest to the tribe leader.

1/100 HG Gundam Heavyarms: WIP part 2

masking trowa barton 1/20 figure

spray painted flat white

I've been using this brand on my previous kits and I didn't experience any problem with it. Until this happened....

It seems that I forgot to thoroughly shake the spray can resulting this chalky texture. I got no choice but to re-sand and spray again.

all non-white parts will be spray painted flat black.

1/100 HG Gundam Heavyarms: WIP

            If I can make my Heavyarms look almost exactly the same as the picture in the manual, I'll be very pleased. The problem is how can I make it to look something like that without using expensive paints. Again, I got no choice but to improvise and use whatever available. Just imagining myself as Macgyver being a gunpla enthusiast.

Nice things about poster colors:

-it's water-based and odorless
-easy-to-find (every school supply store I know have it)
-it's cheap
-nice shelf-life, it doesn't thicken over time (I bought those 12 years ago and still usable.)

           For the Heavyarms' color, I mixed green, blue, black and white. Black and white to make gray, then added green and blue after. I didn't mind what ratio as I only did this for testing.

I sprayed flat black on the runners, waited for it to dry before applying poster color.

           Once the poster color dried, I used a toothbrush to reveal more black underneath making the color a bit darker...well this depends on which part of the Heavyarms I'll be doing. With this method, I learned that the color of poster color varies when wet or dry. It turned out that the color becomes more dull when it dried. Once I achieve the right shade of color, I'll apply flat clear after.

         After some testing, I'll be spraying flat black on all the blue green, gray and dark blue parts. It'll be quite tricky to make the colors right as my color mixing is only based just by looking at it. So I won't be following the color guide stated in the manual. I just hope that it will turn out nicely.