Unicorn Banshee Update 1

Worked on my Banshee over the past few days. Progress is coming along great.

I finished cutting, sanding and cleaning all of the pieces, and began assembling the Unicorn in it's most basic state.


The reason I put it together is to get an idea of how the pieces fit together, and take the separate sections apart and finish them one at a time in a given night (I don't have a ton of time to work on Gunpla). If you are not painting your kit, this is where you can begin putting on decals.


Just for reference, I put the unsanded/untrimmed pieces of the Banshee head on to get an idea of what it's gonna look like. Looks great so far!


I also began testing paints and finishes that different washing would yield.

This is the result using spare pink pieces cut from the runner of the psycho frame:
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-I think it's obvious that the top piece is the best - it gives off a nice shine, even coat, and no color leaking through.
-Without the plastic prep, the paint pooled in certain areas. The plastic prep helped with keeping the static and maybe some molding grease I missed.
-The one on the right was not a pink piece, but you can see that the primer helped bring out the natural shine of the gold paint.
-And the bottom one, well, never do that. Color leaks through, and it just is bad in general without sanding.
Note: I used 600, 800, then 1500 grit sandpaper, in that order, to sand, when I did.


^^I sanded, then began priming the Psycho Frame of the shield with Tamiya Fine Primer (white) (sorry for the bad pics with standard flash)


Mixing paint, I'm using:
- Tamiya Acrylic Thinner
- Model Master Acryl Shiny Gold 1/2 (#4407)

I used a mixing ratio of approximately 1:2 (thinner:paint) with slightly less than 1 part thinner. I used a pipette to get the measurements, and got it to a slightly milky mixture - I'll be putting a tutorial up soon. I'm putting this for the airbrush newbs (like myself), because I never knew until I watched the pro shows from Japan where they really break it down for you. Then, just evenly apply the paint.


^^ Here is the result after painting with the airbrush.



^^ Looks great IMO. Gives off a nice shine in person too.

To get this gold, I bought 4 different golds and experimented with them in the same way with the runner pieces. I experimented with: Tamiya spray gold, tamiya bottle of Gold Leaf, Model Master Acryl Shiny Gold, and
Tamiya Titanium Gold. The Model Master turned out the absolute best in terms of shine and color.

To view the videos for the Japanese modeling TV show, visit my fellow gunpla builder's blog: S.L.'s Gunpla Blog. The videos are linked to on the right hand side.