Assisted Build: 1/10 Rockman

So I helped a friend build his first model over the past few weeks. He really liked the look of the 1/10 Rockman so we built it and painted it. I assisted with many things, but he did almost everything by himself. I helped out when things went wrong and gave him general guidance for how to make a plamo model. Overall a fun little model. No internal frame, and a nice, easy build.

Total build time: ~20 hours, over 4 build days.

Krylon white primer
Tamiya acrylic paints, custom mixtures

Posing in the pics is a bit off because he was running out of time and I wanted to be sensitive of the top coat, which was sprayed ~40 minutes before the photo session.








Let me know what you all think about it, my friend would love to know.

Update and MSZ-007 WIP Part 1

So it's been awhile since my last post, but I've been busy!

Summarized events of Gunpla activity for the summer:

1. Bought and received 1/100 Kshatriya resin kit.
2. Upon cleaning parts, realized I had to recast an entire piece
3. Sold Kshatriya (haha)
4. Bought 1/144 MSZ-007 Gundam resin kit.

And so it begins.

Here is a new WIP for you all. Nothing new or crazy major happening with it. Frankly the casting quality is pretty bad and I don't want to deal with the small pieces any longer so I'm going to just paint it and glue it and call it a day.

Reckless released some new 1/144 resin kits last year at C3, and while I loved all of them, I wanted to start with this one. The MSZ-007 Mass Production model.

I ordered this recast from tatsuhobby.com, came safely to my door.


After cleaning the parts (and realizing that there are 158 parts for this 1/144 model!!!) I began to clean the resin off.


And casting quality is terrible yet again on quite a few pieces. This is not even supposed to have a line at all across the surface.

Yeah. Kind of upset, but whatev.

You can see my How-to for putty filling and sanding here: Gundam Building 101: Putty Filling for Beginners


I put in some Yellow Submarine joints for added flexibility. It just takes a lot of drilling and planning where you want it to go. Usually on a resin kit there is already some sort of joint in place so it makes it semi-easy.


I thought they're a bit too high here after taking the picture, so I made the joints a bit shorter. The joint itself will be eventually covered in the final model. Also the great thing about Yellow Submarine joints is that they are paintable, so even if some did poke through, it would be the same color as everything else anyways.

Got some 6mm thrusters from eBay. Kind of expensive for what you get, but I guess that's the nature of gunpla itself...



Pretty Snazzy if I do say so myself.

You can see my How-to for putting thrusters on here: Gundam Building 101: Metal Thrusters


Began painting the base layer of paint on last night for shading. I got too tired in the middle of it so I had to stop painting all of my pieces haha. Has that ever happened to you guys?

I don't really know why, but my camera is off with the color I painted it. It looks blue in this pic - but IRL it's more teal.

I have summarized quite a few days worth of WIP, but there will be more in the coming days.

Banshee update 3

Progress has been good so far - just lots and lots of sanding and painting.

The pink Psycho Frame piece it seems are made of some sort of smoother plastic that is more difficult to paint than the regular plastic pieces.

As an example, here you can see how tough it is for the primer to stick to the piece:


And after one coat of gold (acrylic paint mind you), there is lots left to be desired with pink showing through:


However, after a final coat of gold is applied (make sure it's a THIN layer)


Random shots of my WIP:

Some pink showing through (though the pink bits won't show on the final product):


And just a preview:


Waist and midsection next!

Gundam Building 101: Pre-painting Guide

Welcome to another session of Major Williams' Gundam Building 101 series.

I'll be showing you this time the steps needed to ensure that your paint will stick to the pieces you're going to be painting.

Materials needed:
- Testors Plastic-Prep (~$7.50)
- Tweezers
- Bowl and Dish soap
- Q-tips
- Pin Vise
- Drill Bits
- Potentially a drill
- Gloves


Using my nub management guide, I cut out and sanded all the runners and put them into plastic bags. This took about a week or two because of finishing the Sinanju and other time commitments.


To make painting a little easier, and the whole process more complete, I am using Testor's Plastic Prep (~$7.50). It will release the molding agents, oils, static and dust that the pieces naturally accumulate over time so it can hold paint better. Good stuff - and you can really tell the difference after using it.


First, you have to wash your parts for 10 minutes in warm soapy water.


Let them dry completely, and while that's being done, put some of the Plastic Prep into a container - I like to use glass candle holders - they're around $1 at Target/Wal-mart, and are the perfect size for this and holding paint.


Dip each of the parts completely in the solution. If you have larger parts, or don't want to dip, you can use a Q-tip and wash the surface of each piece (more tedious, but perfect for larger pieces).


The instructions say to let it dry completely without wiping it off. It takes quite a while if you dip your parts - nearly 20-30 minutes! If you use a Q-tip, the drying is within 5 minutes.

PART 2: Exercising holes for painting


Using a pin vise, your hand, or an actual drill, exercise the holes where your parts will fit into the underarmor. If you are painting the underarmor too, exercise those holes as well. Make sure you use a drill bit that is slightly larger (only by a little bit), and don't make the hole too big either. Your goal is to make the piece just loose enough to be able to fit into place and easily be taken off.


Here I'm using a drill. Sometimes, some holes are too big with the drill bits I have on hand and I don't feel like getting others, so I gently drill (slowly), and move the bit in a circular motion around the hole to shave off some of the plastic. Easy peasy.

Once these two processes are done, you can then begin assembling your model! Keep in mind you are only putting it together to get an idea of what everything looks like - you WILL be disassembling it again to paint/panel line. Assembly shouldn't take too long here either, a few hours max!

I had seen this done on a model making show, and the guy used this technique to frame up how he was going to draw panel lines and to see what he was going to paint. Total pro technique. Once he was finished with his model, he just glued the non-moving parts into place. Hope this helps!


Will post soon with my Unicorn update!