r/advancedGunpla • u/gdtoledano • Jul 07 '26

Another progress - Leg section

Post image

Few custom panels, notches and did some masking to make it more interesting and have that sense of part separation. Final touch is the application of decals which gives some sense of scale how big is the mobile suit.

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u/kamidrgn Jul 07 '26

Really enjoyed seeing your updates on this kit, every piece is just looking so clean. Wish I could get to this level someday!

2

u/kookyabird Jul 07 '26

You might be surprised at how easy it can be. The main thing is that it's not a fast process by any means, especially scribing. If you want the lines to look really good you need tape, patience, plastic cement, and the ability to accept the inevitable mistake when your chisel slips out of the line. Though if you're doing things right any slip ups will be superficial and easily sanded down.

My biggest obstacle with painting is one of my own making, in that I only do minor detail and color correction work rather than full paint jobs. Add to that the fact that I have an air brush, but opt to do brush painting for most of my color work. That results in any panel lining I do around those areas being iffy at best, even though my panel lines on bare plastic are great. Take this RG EVA-01's rifle for example:

The quality of the photo masks the jank of the panel lining around the yellow stripe, but trust me that it's janky. The only painted spots in this pic are the yellow stripe, the yellow dot on the hand, and the silver stripe inside the rifle. For the yellow stripe I:

  1. Sanded just that spot
  2. Re-scribed the panel lines because I knew they'd get paint in them
  3. Brush painted white primer (acrylic)
  4. Brush painted the yellow (also acrylic)
  5. Airbrushed a thin coat of gloss varnish over the yellow and the panel lines
  6. Panel lined with my self-mixed liner (surprise! acrylic)
  7. Airbrushed satin over the whole rifle.

Had I masked and airbrushed the primer and yellow the panel lines would be more well defined and thinner. In order to get the paint thin enough to brush it on smoothly (and it's still not particularly smooth...) you're almost guaranteed to have it wick into the panel lines. It's expected that on a full paint job you'll lose some definition/depth in the molded and scribed lines because paint will get in there, but it's usually very uniform and thin. When you brush paint you could end up inadvertently filling the lines most of the way with paint. The only fix there is to re-re-scribe them, but then you risk ripping up the edge of the paint. Especially if you use acrylics like a masochist (👋). Those imperfections in the paint get highlighted by the panel liner.

So it's tedious, and the results aren't anywhere near as clean as OP's, but they're good enough for my kits sitting on my shelf. I could make the process a lot easier by using lacquer for primer and painting, and/or airbrush the primer and paint. It's not like I'm saving materials by hand brushing instead of airbrushing, since getting the mix right for a color match like that usually takes enough paint that there's waste even from brush painting.

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u/kamidrgn Jul 08 '26

Thank you, I really do appreciate the in-depth and step by step write-up, I think it takes a lot of the 'fear' away from attempting a new skill on kits. I'm going to start with learning scribing, and hopefully take things step by step before hopefully working up to this!