Does anyone have some gunpla they've put together recently, or that they're working on?
Here's an old RS-178 MKII PG kit I assembled recently. Still deciding how I want to detail him, but as my first PG the level of detail and articulation is really cool.
I just got back into gunpla after like 9 years not building, here's the HG Aerial I finished a while back. First time airbrushing, was super impressed by the color separation which made it pretty easy to paint.
Also made some trails for the gund bits out of washi tape and wire, might upgrade to those 3D printed ones eventually.
Wow, those colors look fantastic. I've been debating on getting an airbrushing setup, have any reccomendations?
My HG Aerial is in the mail and I can only hope it comes out looking half this nice.
Do either of you guys have any tutorials you would recommend to see what airbrushing and detailing/customizing a kit at these higher levels would look like? I've always been curious at the workflows to get this kind of detail/quality.
I know of blogs like Good Guy Dan that have a lot of gunpla tutorials; the set for the HG Sinanju looks like it touches on a lot of what you're looking for.
Personally I don't have a particular go to place though, most of the time if I have a specific question on like thinning ratios or how to use something I search discord or the first few pages of Google. A lot of like military modeling forums out there where the advice still applies to gunpla, stuff like that.
I started out with a basic harbor freight set; definitely would not recommend. The airbrush is siphon feed so IMO it was a pain to clean, and the compressor didn't come with a tank or regulator.
I bought an Iwata Neo CN a while back, which has been pretty fantastic in comparison. Easy to use, easy to clean. I'm still using the HB compressor because I bought a regulator specifically for it, but I'd definitely recommend just getting one with everything. Regulator is important to be able to control your spray pressure, and the tank will store air and keep your compressor from running all the time. Right now in the hotter months I've been worried about it overheating.
Also if you're spraying indoors a spray booth and respirator are a must, otherwise you're going to be breathing in all those paint fumes.
Good luck with your Aerial! She's a great kit, I was really impressed by the engineering and I'd recommend her to anyone.
I've been using an Iwata Eclipse HP-CS for about a year now and I'm very happy with it. It's a good choice if you have the budget and only want one airbrush, since you can swap the included .35mm needle+nozzle out with a .5mm set to do things like prime. I use a master airbrush TC-326T compressor, which has been good. It has a regulator with water trap, and that water trap has been good enough for my dry climate. My paint booth is just homemade with a bathroom fan and furnace filter, gets the job done. For respirator, I just grabbed one intended for painting from Home Depot.
And I might as well include an image of my latest finished project, just for fun 😊.