I lost my Gundams

Great!

Your reply has been "Cut & Pasted" onto a word document.

Your help has been most valuable - Thanks

Smeagol is there any way you can give me a step by step on the way you build and paint your models?

mainly the paint though

Thanks Smeagol,

 That's been very helpful. Love the pictures that you posted as well - 

Well still, your thinking about the box art and the anime, even those colors are subject to change and personal taste. here are some examples of the gundam paint scheme but different

While it can be colorful, by no means does it have to be glossy, that is up to you in the end, even the ones that seem like they should, like char's mechs and such... they dont have to be.  The sazabi in CCA wasnt shiny at all, even though it was that nice red color.

Paint colours again -

Firstly, I must make it clear that my knowledge of the Gundam series is limited, I mainly enjoy making the kits and I appreciate the design that goes into them.

There seems to be 2 distinct types, the military looking types (baddies) and the sleeker, spikier models of varying colours these are the Gudam Units I guess.

The Gundam units tend to have striking colour schemes, while the military ones have the drab/combat schemes. Combat schmes are not problem. The bright, custom finishes of the Gundam units are a different matter.

While I would have no hesitation weathering the military units, the brightly coloured Gundam units need a little more finesse. I'd use gloss paint, then do a subtle weathering job after the paint job has dried, is there an alternative?

for seam filling I gue 2 methods at once, the over glue, so ti spills out of the seam and you can slice it off, then I use testors white putty.

One of these days im gona put out a little tutorial on filling seams for gundam kits.

As far as the colorings... Satin = bad, actuially.

If you ever watch the series, they seem to be all shiny and such, but the furthur you get along, the more you start to see that its quite the opposite.  The best example being the first ric dias in zeta gundam, the black one

Just like anything else military they tried their best to use camo on vehichles.  The same goes for gundams, they would NOT have a shiny satin finish, if anything it would be a flat paint to cover the metalicness of the frame of the mech, which is why you paint something like that.  Desert units were more painted tans, jungle units greens and browns, artic units white.  Also, space units, though alot of the times in mass produced colors, whenever possible would be done in camo to fit the scenery as well.

Ultimatly, you can give it a 'show room finish' like you would a car model, but that wouldnt be the norm for any mech that was combat bound.

I guess that if you are going to fill in the seams, you also have to paint the kit as well!

I have painted ww2 suff before no problem, but Gundam kits need to have a satin finish. Are their any articles that discuss painting? and what is he best as a finishing coat?

Skull,

It is a problem when e-mailing and posting on forums that things can sometimes be taken the wrong way. Looking at my post above (the one with the Sans Seam Lines bit), it did look as though I had a bee in my bonnet, that was not my intention.

I am having tremenous fun posting here. I am a Newby and I have taken what Smeagol is saying as intended. I didn't expect to post on a forum like this without getting some constructive criticism., it is both welcomed and appreated. 

I am looking forward to building my next Gundam, making improvents and showing it off here!

Robo- I do think that kit is cool.  And I agree with STV, the minelayer is cool too.  I can't wait till I get one of the Zaku 2.0 kits, they all look amazing. 

Skonch- STV sounds like he's criticizing alot, but its his way of giving constructive feedback.  I've noticed that not many people give constructive feedback anymore, especially on a site like Bakuc (the link he sent you), so advice from him isn't meant to be a put down.  And seam lines are his pet peeve.  We all have one, that's his.  But he is correct, your models will look better without them.  I'm still trying to get them perfect too. 

To snowman, that is a nice kit, the Zaku 2.0 on it's own is beautiful, I have one, but parts had gone missing for the head, saddly.  That version seems to be the same, just with custom legs and backpack (which I have from the old version, nice looking pieces)  Personally though, if you dont have any affinity toward Shin M. I'd go for the minelayer Zaku before that one, the minelayer pack is just wicked, and its so not something normally done.

to our new turd baby, a few things.  First you should start working asap on seams, they are the major problem when building gundam kits, and its the difference between a toy that was painted, and an award winning model.

As far as the photoshopped stuff, thats fine as long as you say so, because if you look at... lets say... this http://www.bakuc.com/modeler/vic01/3158, you can see why I asked 

That looks really great.

After the criticism I gotfrom Smeagol, I'd be interested in seeing the finished article (sans seam lines).

@ STV

I was looking at this one here http://www.gundamstoreandmore.com/ban956655.html

so what do you think about this one?

One more question do you get a magazine for the models or something because I can never seem to find any?

Re seam removal.

I have really only just started getting back into model building after 30 odd years.

Finding this site has encouraged me to improve my rusty skills, I will be sure to look up the article. The finish is very important to me so any improvement will be great!

Thanks.

 Oh, the lights, they have been Photoshop'd. (sorry).

 Still, I loved the kit, which is what the post is about.

Did you install LEDs to those lights, or is that just a photoshopped effect?

Before you go painting your kits, do a search on this site for 'seam removal' and learn about it, it will make your kits look alot better, and they will be accepted better around here 

Hi!

I'm new to the Gundam thing, I have only built 3 examples, but they are sooo adictive I've ordered more.

I have just completed the Tieran Ground Type unit. I liked it because it was really nice to paint. Before I put the parts together I "washed" them in modellers acrylic black paint which I dried off using a paper towel. This left traces of oily looking marks in the detailing. I thought that it looked great when it was completed.

He's a mean looking Mutha as well!

Looky here:

They just released the G armor in MG 2.0 form, first time this kit was in MG.  Its for the Mg 2.0 gundam.

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10081025

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10082755

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10078493 

yeah hopefully haha. Ill look into tha one.

Are there any brand new ones I should be aware of

I hope you find them soon!

The Shin Musha Gundam looks great, and has a lot of room for custom paintjobs and mods. you could give it a go!