Gunpla Tutorial: Painting

This time I will be sharing with you how I paint my kits. 

The first step for me is I try to look for references for my paint schemes. I really liked the color scheme of the Mega Shiki and thought that a custom scheme based off this  would work well with the Delta Kai. You can see in the photo above the paints that I use, basically it is just Reeve's Acrylic mixed with water. This paint can be bought for around $8 for the whole set. This paint is what we call Student Grade, meaning, it is not as high quality as the more expensive brands like Grumbacher and Rembrandt which are "Artist Grade". I am yet to try using these more expensive brands but I am speculating that they will work better since they have higher pigment density.

What I do is I eyeball and approximate the colors that I need and then just lump together the paints inside an old Tamiya jar along with a coin to help stir the paint.

I add some water and then shake the bottle with the coin acting as an agitator. At this point, on top of aiming for the color that I want, I am aiming for a slightly creamy consistency and slightly leaning towards the thick side. Remember, we will be hand painting, so excessive thinning of the paint will only result in us spending more time applying layers and layers of paint.

Here is the primed piece ready for painting. 

By the way, I use really inexpensive brushes as acrylics tend to destroy the brushes that I use even if I clean them properly. By the way, before each painting session, I make sure that I mix the paint well. I do this by adding a small coin or an old watch battery into paint bottle and then shaking the bottle vigorously. Of course, some paint will stick to the bottom of the cap, and it is from here that I get my paint to apply to the kit. I do not dip the brush into the bottle as I do not want to overload the bristles and having less paint on the brush helps me control just how much I can get onto the kit part.

Here is an image of the part after an initial coat of paint. Notice the paint strokes? At this stage they are very noticeable but this will be gone after two or three more coats of paint. Also, I am not that mindful of the brush direction since I am using paint that dries relatively slow and flat.

The two images above show how the kit part will look like after two coats of paint. Notice that while there are still some brush strokes visible, they are almost gone. By the third and the fourth application it will almost be flat.

Here's two coats applied on a larger kit part. I've actually finished working on an MG Kit using this method and it works just as well.

Above are two images of the kit after the fourth layer of paint. Note that the paint is almost flat and that the brush strokes are gone except in some areas where the paint may have gone off a bit too thick.

Here is an example of two differently colored parts coming together and me trying to figure out what colors I will be needing to detail the kit on top of the main colors that I used.

Detail Painting: I used to love masking when I was using an airbrush. Over the years though I have realized that it takes just way too much time for me and is not fun to do at all specially when you have very limited time. I still admire those guys who mask and are awesome at it but for me, since all I want to do at this stage is paint, I'd still go for hand brushing. For detail work I prefer a pointed 0 nylon brush. This is hard at first and I would suggest placing the part on a piece of clay that is wrapped in cling wrap so that you can concentrate on steadying your painting hand.

By the way, I'm a painting major, so I'm relatively comfortable with a hand brush and my hands are quite steady due to my work. Do not get frustrated if you make mistakes at this stage and if you are not that confident in your detailing skills with a brush you may mask the parts that you do not want to detail. I'll make a tutorial one of these days on how to hand brush with masks.

Here's an example of how the kit parts look like once detail painted and slapped together. I know, I should have taken the time to put together the whole kit and take a photo of it but, after a particularly stressful phase at work, I decided to start adding decals and weathering to the kit to let off some steam. I completely forgot to take photos of the kit in its freshly painted state. Sorry! Note too that the paint is glossy because I have sprayed it with a clear lacquer to prepare it for decals and weathering.

Thanks for reading and hoping you stick around for the next update!

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To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian charity; it is only fairness. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. - CS Lewis

I was able to finish a "The Weight of Glory" by C.S. Lewis earlier. The book is a collection of his lectures/sermons on various topics relevant to Christianity. Of all the topics he covered, the second to the last one struck a chord in me. Lewis explained the importance of forgiveness, and why we as Christians often have a wrong understanding of the difference between being forgiven and being excused for our faults.

When we wrong someone, when we sin, often we have a reason as to why we did something. If the reasoning is right, then the wrong committed is excusable, say, when we have to lie to protect the life of a person. In situations such as these, there is no sin committed and the fault is excused. But then, this is not always the case and there are situations wherein we really have committed grave error and there is simply no excuse to what we have done. In this instance, what we need from God and our fellow man is to be forgiven, no excuses, just an admittance that what we have done is disgusting and that we seek a restoration of relationship with God and the person offended.

Often, in my Christian walk, I have realized that whenever I seek forgiveness from God and from individuals I have wronged, all I do is make excuses. I reason out while at the same time saying sorry and often I never run out of reasons, no matter how lame they may be. All too often though, at the back of my mind, I come across a situation where I realized that the things I have done are inexcusable and that what I really need is to be forgiven.

We pray the Lord's prayer often, saying "Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us" without fully understanding the gravity of what these words mean. To forgive means to restore the relationship, it means to not to forget the fault but rather to let go of the desire to seek revenge and to let go of the resentment that is in the heart.

This is possible though, only when we understand what God does to our sins when we earnestly seek forgiveness from him. I think how Lewis said this best summarizes what I am trying to say:

"A great deal of our anxiety to make excuses come from not really believing in it, from thinking that God will not take us to Himself again unless He is satisfied that some sort of case can be made out in our favour. But that would not be forgiveness at all. Real forgiveness means looking steadily at the sin, the sin that is left over without any excuse, after all allowances have been made, and seeing it in all its horror, dirt, meanness, and malice, and nevertheless being wholly reconciled to the man who has done it. That and only that, is forgiveness, and that we can always have from God if we ask for it."

Looking back, I believe I have been wronged by some people. Those people have said sorry so many times for what they have done and while some do not know that they have offended me, I know that had they known that I was slighted they would have asked for forgiveness. The problem is that I have never fully forgiven some of them, and often what I think as me forgiving them is just me making rational excuses for their actions so that it is easier for me to deal with them without having to totally forgive them. This is just plain wrong, and something that by God's grace I hope to one day be able to correct.

I need to understand that the sin was there but they can be forgiven in the same way that God, as well as some really good people that I have offended, have forgiven me.

So Ivan, thanks for lending me the book, salamat!