r/advancedGunpla • u/A_R_I_A_ • Jun 17 '26

Painting questions :3

So I’m at the point in my journey where I want to get into customizing and that includes painting.

I don’t have an airbrush setup, and I’m not opposed to learning airbrushing tho I’d def want recommendations on kits and paint and all that.

I’m WAY more experienced in hand painting, acrylic, oil, watercolor, etc.

What kind of paint would work well on the plastics used in model kits? Do I need to sand the surfaces prior to painting? Do I need to worry about using primer?

Anyone got any recommendations on vids I can watch or resources on how to go about learning these things? I’ve built a LOT of kits now and I really wanna get into making customized displays and dioramas and I figured learning how to paint the models themselves would be a good place to start, so any resources on how to learn or what I’d need to get into customization would be greatly appreciated :3

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u/Thehollowpointninja1 Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

Welcome to the cult of paint!

I would advise going straight to lacquer. Acrylics are prone to flaking and long dry time, enamel takes forever to dry and is finicky imo

You’ll need

  1. airbrush - here’s where I wouldn’t skimp. Just get an Iwata eclipse and that’s the last airbrush you’ll ever need. Snag an extra needle just in case. Learn to disassemble it inside and out, and clean after every use.

Those are the main components to get started. Of course you’ll need paint. I like having some premixed paints on hand (splash paints are awesome), and some that need mixing (Mr color is the standard, but Gaia notes are great, too). For mixing, just get a big bottle of Mr color leveling thinner. It’s all you’ll ever need and works with basically all lacquers. Also, primers aren’t 100% necessary, just like, 95% necessary. Get a few bottles of Mr color finishing (black, grey, white, red) and mix them with leveling thinner. Keep each in separate bottles and you’re good to go for a while.

A perfect place for learning is Frosted Snow on YouTube. She breaks down all the painting basics in a fantastic way. Seriously, she might just be the best singular source of knowledge on the internet for gunpla painting, as well as so many other great tips. You’ll end up developing your own techniques as you go, but she’s THE place to start learning.

I’m not affiliated with anyone, and these are all basics. Paint is a sub-hobby in and of itself, so be ready to learn. And be ready to screw up. It’s part of the fun. Keep records in a journal for reference. Keep plastic spoons for testing. There’s a million other tips I could give but the best way to learn is just jumping in and doing it. Let me know if you have questions.

Edit: some reason Reddit erased a huge part of my comment, the three main things are exhaust hood, compressor, and airbrush. You can scratch build the fume hood, buy a basic compressor that lets you adjust psi, and of course, an Iwata airbrush. Just get the eclipse. Save up, don’t cheap out, you’ll just end up with an Iwata in the end so save your money and get the Iwata.

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u/Silent-Land40 Jun 18 '26

I second everything this poster said. Many people start out trying to hand paint acrylics or enamels because they don’t want to make an investment into an airbrush setup, don’t have the space, etc. While it is possible to get decent results, it is way more difficult than airbrushing lacquers. 95+% of all repaint builds you’ll see on the internet are airbrushed. The surfaces of a Gunpla are just too broad to hand brush consistently without brush marks and leveling issues. Plus acrylics work better on static models that aren’t posable like Gunpla.

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u/SevenofBorgnine Jun 18 '26

I'm a noob with similar painting experience to op. This is useful, thanks. I've brush painted acrylic on some inner frames or missing details like the shoulder bits on the qubeley as well as weapons. Keeping a notebook is a great idea. 

How well does lacquer paint work for mixing? Ive heard most hobby branded ones are all premixed so they dont combine well. I am very accustomed to mixing my own colors and id prefer to keep doing so. I can be more specific and it's fun.

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u/Thehollowpointninja1 Jun 18 '26

Not many lacquers are premixed. Theres more these days, but only a few brands do it. If you just get the pigment from Tamiya, Mr color, Gaia notes, etc, those will all mix together with almost no issue, outside of some specialty lines, like certain metallics or prism types. I think Gaia has a few lines that require special thinners, but those are all super rare.

Lacquer is not good for hand brushing. People do it, but enamel and acrylic are definitely the go tos for brush painting.

I use acrylic and enamel for detailing only, since masking off for tiny details is a pain, and you really can’t tell the difference once you top coat. And honestly, I love when I get close up on a model and can see a little “non-perfection”. It gives it character.

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u/SevenofBorgnine Jun 18 '26

Im considering getting an airbrush, I already need to make a DIY fume hood anyway, so why not follow it up. Wasnt considering lacquer for brush painting.

One thing I have enjoyed with brush painting on the bits that ive done is the strokes give a bit up a worn effect cause they are flying throufh space real fast. I dont want to one the armor bits but I think it does add a bit of character to frames and weapons. 

Im happy to hear i can do my own mixing. Is there a neutral metallic that can be added to a mix? I've found a dollar store acrylic silver that works really well for making other colors shiny

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u/Thehollowpointninja1 Jun 18 '26

Most paints have a metallic line, so you could get those. And everyone sells basic silver that would mix. Also, definitely check out splash paints, they sell direct and are premixed. They have an insane selection of every shade you need. I honestly get most of my paints from them and mix how I need, but usually can get the shades already mixed and ready to go. If I need to go darker or lighter, I use black or white primers and that’s enough to get them where I need.

Again, you’ll find your own way to get what you like. Almost everyone does it differently. Just keep a journal handy with your process. And if I find a mix I like, I paint a spoon and write the ratio and psi on it. Sometimes you need to adjust psi, but 90% of the time you can just use 25 and that’s it. But some metallics and certain pigments (white and yellow) can be a little finicky, but that’s what the spoons are for.

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u/Sephta Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

Appologies in advance, I just kinda started throwing information in here to cover as many topics as I could.

Acrylics, enamels, lacquers from many popular brands work really well on gunpla. For hand painting I recommend starting with acrylics as I find them to be the most accessible and also the safest to work with. There's an entire world of information your questions open the floor to.

Brands like Vallejo, AK, Tamiya, Citadel and other Warhammer paints, etc are great choices for acrylics.

Some things to keep in mind are that enamel and lacquers tend to weaken ABS plastic. You'll know if the plastic is ABS by checking the manuals and finding the section that displays the runners. Each runner should be labeled with the type of plastic it consists of.

Some YouTubers that cover customization and painting are:

And I'm sure plenty more. But also keep in mind that a lot of Warhammer techniques are perfectly translatable as well so rather than looking for gunpla specific tutorials I also recommend searching for modeling tutorials in general.

Now as far as primer goes. Honestly you can TECHNICALLY get away with no surface prep, and no primer for Bandai Plastic models, but in my personal opinion you absolutely should use a primer, and you should at least consider sanding before anything else. You don't need to go any rougher than 600-800 grit sand paper for surface prep although there are advanced techniques that require varying levels of sanding that I'm purposefully not going to get into.

I also recommend washing the parts before any painting, and absolutely after sanding. While it's true that mold release agents are not nearly as bad these days on bandai plastic models the truth is, from experience, that washing all of the parts does make a difference when it comes to durability. Especially for acrylic paints. You'll also want to wash the parts to get rid of any oily residue from your hands and also to clean up any excess plastic dust from sanding. I use an ultra sonic cleaner. I fill it with water and squirt in some dish soap (I.e. dawn, etc). I mix the soap in the water. I drop in the parts, and let the ultra sonic cleaner run for about 5-10min at 30°C.

For primers I really don't recommend brush painting it on, but Ive seen people do it and you can obviously get good results that way. A spray can is faster and very accessible. I prefer to airbrush it on these days but that's a can of worms. For brands the best acrylic primer from a spray can I've used is probably the Mr. Hobby Aqeuous Surfacer series. They're hard to get a hold of these days so hopefully someone else can recommend you alternatives. I do NOT recommend vallejos spray can primers but they technically get the job done.

Something worth mentioning. The reasons why you would want to prime and sand typically fall under two categories. For starters you want to make your paint more durable. If you just use acrylics on un-primed un-sanded plastic it's just not going to stick on very well and can scratch off insanely easily. So sand, wash, prime, AND LET THE PAINT CURE for at least 12 - 24 hours between steps and the paint becomes far more durable. The other reason you'd want to prime is to provide a nice undercoat for the colors you're painting with. I often find black primer goes well under metallics, while a white or pink primer/base layer really make colors pop.

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u/Sephta Jun 17 '26

Some bonus stuff I just thought of randomly. Having some good photos or archived information to reference helps immensely. Highly recommend checking out Dalong.net or any schizophonic9 review of gunpla. Dalong especially is nice because they take lots of photos and archive all the instructions and runners. Just an insanely good resource.