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You're not likely to get actual GodHands in the UK for less than £60 ($80!) right now, and that's probably still going to be either knockoffs or someone selling the standard models (PN or CPN?) as the Ultimates (SPN 5.0?) on ebay. No idea how the standard models compare to the Ultimates that feature in every single review, or if the Ultimates are even being made any longer. I've been looking for months... The best nippers you can reasonably get right now in the UK are probably the DSPIAE 3.0 ones, which reviews say are about 90% as good as the GodHands but actually available and a fraction of the cost (still being gouged at £40+ right now). They're only meant to cut from one side and can struggle with some more oddly shaped pieces. Not sure if the GodHands are the same on that front. GundamMad occasionally gets the DSPIAE 3.0's in stock for £30 which is not too bad if you're ordering other stuff from them. HobbyFrontline are cheaper but then you have to figure out the whole import situation from Ireland. I *think* you're fine for up to ~£85, but not sure if you risk accidentally getting charged taxes twice and having to claim some back, and no idea what happens above that as the cart doesn't switch from "taxes as part of order price" to "you pay taxes separately on delivery". If you do go the HobbyFrontline route you can also pick up a glass file and/or some precut sanding sponges of actually useful grades for about a quarter of what you'd pay on amazon, even after postage. Bandai Build Up Nippers (~£13 - £20) tend to get slightly misaligned, where the left blade points slightly up and the right one slightly down, and they're overall a bit less sharp than DSPIAE. They're still better than most random amazon listing nippers up to ~£30, and perfect for cutting runners, leaving the nub work to a glass file or the better nippers if you can afford them. You will want a glass file either way, and the DSPIAE Siren is really good if you want something specifically made for models (~£3 - £7 vs £2 - £4 for no-name nail and beauty ones). The only problem I have is that the glass file leaves things a bit too polished and shiny and I've still not figured out what grit of sandpaper I want to cancel that out. This is probably why GunPrimer sell a gate remover and balancer as a set, but those are another case of crazy prices and no stock. If you want to get really exotic I've occasionally seen plane and boat diorama modellers talk about using finger saws or wires to cut pieces from sprues, thinking it was less likely to mash any plastic. Not sure if there's anything to that.
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Feb 23, 2022 00:33
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I need some noob advice.
Then I'd like some kit suggestions to round out my backlog, as reviewers seem to be pretty divided on a couple of designs I like, and they're old enough that flaws that wouldn't be forgiven in more recent kits are omitted from the review. For the Zeta, Hyakushiki, ZZ (maybe FAZZ?) and maybe the Unicorn (not into the Phenex/Perfectibility), if I don't care about transforming them at all and don't want to get PG/EXs, which grades are the best? I know the RGs would be old-style stick-figure frames that turn into hand grenades / need tightening and glue, which probably means HG or MG, but there's stuff going on with Revives, 2.0's and ver Ka's? Going a bit wider, what are the best Macross Valkyries? I probably want to pick up a -1A or -1S from DYRL / original series, and then one more from the overall franchise in general. Preferably new enough to be able to avoid the old "toothbrush to remove release agent" stuff, though I'm aware that gunpla levels of "no paint or glue required" probably isn't going to happen. Are there any kits of the LOGH ships? Some of the designs from the newer series look like they were made with it in mind, though the older ones aren't turn-offs either. And finally, are there any gunpla style snap-fit jets / tanks / battleship kits out there? The booster kit on the Bandai ARX-7 being half a jet gave me the idea to look into this as mine went together really well despite reviewers hating it. The closest I've found so far is the Yamato 2199+ line, which tends to be quite expensive for what you get and usually still needs at least a bit of glue.
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May 30, 2022 09:43
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PriorMarcus posted:Where is a good place to buy gunpla in the UK? I'm looking at atarting the hobby with some of the EVA figures. GundamMad.co.uk tends to have the largest range and cheapest prices. Really crappy website, so use the search function. Their payment processor worried me the first time I used them, but it's been fine. I've also used OEShop.co.uk though for most kits they tend to be slightly more expensive, and the range / stock is a bit smaller. They do usually have a wider range of tools and paints to make up for it, including some of the cheaper options like dspiae markers, and may work out better if you're local to them (Edinbrugh). HobbyFrontline are supposed to be good if you're in NI/know how the current import situation works, and are the only place I know of that does pre-orders, though I've yet to actually use them (for reasons of said import situation). As a last resort there's amazon but make sure to double check you picked an option sold & dispatched by amazon themselves or you're likely to get a HG when you order an RG despite whatever the page may say. Maybe ebay too? I think a number of smaller places just sell on marketplaces rather than set up sites themselves. (Don't bother looking at places like HLJ, as the shipping per item tends to cost more than the kit and you're liable for the import duties on top.)
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Jun 30, 2022 22:23
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I'm toying with the idea of brush painting for the first time. I tend to overdo panel lines and need to clean them up a lot, so I want to plan for being able to do that without burning through layers below the wash. To complicate things, I'm aiming to be completely spray-free - no air brush, no rattle cans (even for clear coats, which is going to be tricky), and as little enamel or lacquer as I can manage due to lack of space for an extractor booth. In addition, some commonly recommended products are hard to find (Pledge/Future in the right formula seems to have vanished where I live, and I've seen warnings that lighter fluid formulas have also changed to be harsher on certain coats). The guides on the last couple of pages have been quite helpful but don't quite get me over this hurdle. I'm thinking something like:
Or, for eventually trying weathering, from the last gloss coat over decals
So I guess the question is how to avoid the burn-through from the decal solutions and panel line cleaning without the under layers being lacquer, as I'm struggling to find clear coats that aren't acrylic based and therefore easily damaged by those hotter components. (The Vallejo Mecha line is just the best fit I could find for a fairly complete set of brushable primer/color/varnish; it's probably slightly cheaper to use the non-mecha series as I don't re-pose much)
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Aug 25, 2022 10:37
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Kuvo posted:speaking of panel lining does anyone have any experience doing it with these nib pens? been using a very small brush but this seems more accurate I've seen people talk about using fountain pens for it before, and the conclusion they came to was "not great". It's a bit difficult to control the release rate or something? Complaints about an initial blob, and then it being no different to any other type of marking tool. The video of it in action on Amazon, where they're clearly using it just to 'inject' the ink rather than draw with it, makes it look pretty good so it might work. Your brush-based panel lining is very good judging from what you've posted earlier in the thread, so I guess you're looking at it from the perspective of saving effort? It's unlikely to be any worse than pour type markers, and ought to be a bit better than the brush that comes in the tamiya pots directly, at least. --- For the benefit of new starters, as a starter myself (who has watched WAY too many videos on youtube lately): If you're panel lining actual sunken lines in the plastic, then a "sakura pigma micron" type pen (a fineliner with ink that doesn't run, size say 003/0.15mm should get in most moulded parts) or pour-type panel liner (either gundam marker, or tamiya accent color panel liner applied by brush) will work best. If the line's not coming out clean with this method - for example when you go to clean up the application points you always take off too much - then take out a scribing tool (which may be a hobby knife blade, or even a needle - you can buy dedicated ones, and you don't need the crazy expensive madworks chisels for this) and SLIGHTLY, BARELY, deepen the lines a bit so the ink stays in them. Like three light scores tops, and make sure you're using something suitably thin enough rather than forcing in an entire blade. You'll need to use a damp cotton swab to clean up the odd spot, but it'll be hardly noticeable. You can also use other brands of dedicated panel line wash if you have them around or your local stores carry them, though they tend to require a bit more coercing with the brush/applicator because they don't flow quite as well as the aforementioned two brands. You can use thinner/flow improver to help with that if you have the stuff lying around. There are also model washes like GW's Nuln Oil. These are SLIGHTLY different to dedicated panel line washes, but not by very much - mostly it's a question of how much pigment it leaves behind whilst flowing and how thick it goes on at the first application. With these model washes you end up with a bit more pigment staining everywhere and you may need to do a bit more clean-up with the cotton swab. This is actually a sneaky way of doing shading as well as panel lining if you apply a couple of coats and clean up differently after each one so the lines are darkest, the edge dark, and the mid-panels pretty clean, though I've not seen enough people do it to know how good the result actually looks in the end. If you're trying to line along changes in profile where there's no dedicated channel in the plastic, then you might use a pen like a micron or acrylic paint felt tip or apply paint with a small brush. You could also try gently scribing a small channel into the edge so it attracts panel line products, or build up a bunch of shadow in the region with applciation of real touch marker (or, again, model washes). Real touch markers rub off really easy though, and need to be sealed by a layer of varnish, so aren't something to rush out and buy. You'll want to seal in acrylic/micron too, ideally, but it's less urgent than with the real touch stuff. For straight-up edge 'highlighting', say around the edge of a square forearm, where you're trying for a more outlined or cell-shaded look, then a paint brush loaded for edge "highlighting" or the felt-tip type acrylic paint markers (you don't really need to get the specific gundam marker brand for this, and can probably find some in your local supermarket) are the cheap and easy way to go. You just brush the side of the pen tip / brush along the edge gently, and it'll pick up the paint as you go. When cleaning up application points and so forth, water'll do just fine most of the time, even with enamels so long as you get to it within a couple of minutes. 70%+ isopropyl alcohol or similar if you've got a bad puddle and water isn't helping. The swab should be just damp, use a paper towel to take off excess water - you're wicking up paint excess with it, not depositing water/alcohol (can be a pain with 99% alcohol because it tends to dry off so fast).
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Nov 28, 2022 01:20
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Acrylic should sit on lacquer (after curing for a few days) just fine, and even be removed by thinners without damaging the lacquer, going the other way can be problematic though. Vallejo mecha has a decent enough line of primer colours too.
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Jan 11, 2023 19:08
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The SPN ultimate 5.0s? At retail you say? in GBP? HOW/where? After asking the thread for advice on painting without airbrushes I gave up and spent way too much money on one and accepted having to spend an hour breaking it down/setting it up near a tiny window every time. The cost of the compressor and the brush wasn't too bad, but throw in a spray booth, cleaning products, gloves, a painters mask, etc etc and it ended up about doubling. And I probably still need to add another LED light or two, if I can figure out somewhere to put them. Maybe an extra strip or two for inside the booth. This is going to be a lean month. Replacing colors seems easy enough, though I do need to practice the basics of mix/pressure/distance more, but I don't think I'll ever learn the fine control required for even basic shading stuff or even good masking so I should probably switch over to single-action. It's also a bit tricky to control the pressure on the sparmax 610 compressor - the regulator gauge is REALLY fiddly and I have to spray air for a while to get it settle to the true reading. Just did my first set of clear gloss sprays. Ended up panicking and doing three kits because I mixed too much using Don Surantos' 2 thinner:1 flow improver:3 varnish mix. Should have just tipped the excess whilst I focused on one kit. I can't tell if it's gone on evenly enough - I guess I'll find out in a few hours when it dries and I try some brush-on enamel panel liners. A full vallejo stack (undercoat, paint, gloss/matte, cleaners and thinners) so far has worked well enough, but I couldn't get any light gray panel washes (for a dark suit) in acrylic so enamels it is. No tamiya stuff around so I'll have to thin some AK.
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Jan 21, 2023 13:47
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Release agent residues stopped being a thing like 10 years ago I think? Even for re-prints as I understand it. Lots of guides have been kicking around for longer than that and are based on word of mouth from even further back, so they make a big deal about scrubbing things before painting. Though non-Bandai and especially resin kits probably do need a brief wash just in case. Primer is a thing you use specifically because it sticks to the models better than the rest of the paint and the paint sticks to it better than bare plastic. Lacquer primer especially is basically going to be unshakeable, so long as you let it cure for the full several days/week before doing anything else to it. If you really want to, stick the parts with some mildly soapy water in the sonic cleaner you've almost inevitably been convinced into buying to go with the airbrush as a cleaning tool. You used to need to use a toothbrush but who has time for that these days? The Beast of Backlog is already powerful enough! (Aldi does a good sonic cleaner meant for jewelry for £20 apparently; ones on amazon cost £40+ and are, uh, a complete crap-shoot - reviews are not to be trusted directly on the site itself, I got stung by a really crappy unit that had several hundred 5-star reviews. Instead of trying to find a good one and being disappointed, just get the cheap one until you know you need something better.) If you're working with an expensive aftermarket resin job, or just cheap kits with hairlines cracks and scuffed surfaces compared to Bandai extruded polystyrene/ABS, you might want to look into MrSurfacer after washing the parts - low grits is a mix of primer and liquid filler which will close up small gaps and cracks on the surfaces to even them out, whilst high grit is basically just primer with trace amounts of filler. I did a HG Windam as my first paint pig to get a feel for the process and see what various colours actually look like on a model. Didn't bother sanding or washing it or anything and it came out fine with acrylic over acrylic, no issues with the paint staying down, smooth, and even (excluding some slight pooling where I screwed up my airbrush control and didn't bother cleaning and reapplying the paint).
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Jan 27, 2023 16:47
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What's a brand of (not rattlecan) lacquer gloss? All I can find in local hobby shops and amazon are arcylic glosses, or furniture glosses in rattle cans, and most don't even say what type they are. I had my first 'big' fuckup whilst airbrushing on my fourth kit. I didn't put a coat of gloss (vallejo mecha acrylic) on thick enough, so it's a bit uneven and flow type panel liners, uh, didn't flow. I ended up making a mess, and when I started to clean it up using cheap swabs made slightly damp from the nozzle of a spray-bottle of alcohol (99%, 91% is harder to get around here, as is lighter fluid) the gloss started to melt and go tacky. From a few angles there are now streaks visible in the finish. I did get lucky enough to avoid lifting the paint below, somehow. As panel lining products tend to be enamels, I guess I probably want to consider use of a lacquer gloss so that clean-up products (whether alcohol or enamel thinner) have a harder time eating into it if I'm paranoid about a particular kit. Whilst posting anyway, does anyone have any suggestions on better ways to clean panel lines than swabs? I go through a lot of them, and whilst they're cheap something with a tighter weave that I could potentially clean and re-use would be better. 'Gun cleaning swabs' don't really exist here, and if imported through amazon seem to be a LOT more expensive (10-20x) than you'd think. (I did look at cuticle pushers, but the tips are solid rubber so alcohol or thinners just slide straight off)
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Feb 18, 2023 15:12
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Pierson posted:I got some Evo stickers for the Strike that were advertised as blue-sheet waterslde decals (these) but when they're arrived they're on a teal sheet so did I get scammed? The evo studio ones are waterslides. Backing paper is not consistent between companies, or even between all Bandai products. You can probably test it with one of the tiny hazard symbols from the sheet if you want - there'll be two dozen of each style and you can get away with losing one or two meant for the back if there aren't any spares. For Bandai ones, there are oddities like the HG Jesta which are on the decal shade of paper but are stickers. For older kits where there's no english beyond maybe the unit name on the sheet, look for the character "水" (mizu, water) on the text. If you see it, it's waterslide. Or hold the sheet up in front of Google Lens or some other camera based translator. DO read the instructions on the decals, and maybe test them using some of the less important ones first. Bandai decals only need 3-5 seconds in lukewarm water to activate, other decals may need say 15 seconds. Leaving Bandai ones in water for too long makes them weaker and susceptible to tearing, so they get a bad rap in some circles who assume they're the same as other brands, but I've never had trouble with them. You'll also want to check if you need to cut the decal paper itself arond the design (less common these days) or if each decal is pre-cut and you only need to slice out a chunk of backing to get at it. Should be easy to angle the sheet against the light, looking for the edge. Aside: The correct order for softer and setter seems to vary between every single person who uses it, I think they have something on the official website about the correct order as well, but I've been meaning to paint a #1 and #2 on my bottles next time I need them so I don't have to keep looking it up.
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Feb 21, 2023 11:37
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Lfrith and Sniper II MG back on GundamMad for those in the UK who missed them last time, though I think the Lfrith ended up in quite a few other places on GunplaLink in the end. I also grabbed a Plamax VF-1. The stickers are apparently pretty bad, but it looks like they give you the option of "colour-replacing sticker + logo" or "logo-only" if you want to paint yourself. Probably still need to find some decals though.
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Mar 15, 2023 20:29
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Pierson posted:Dangit. Are there any actual good enamel brands besides Tamiya (hard to get in the UK)? I investigated Humbrol but according to everyone they changed their formula a while back and are horrible now. I'm only really aware of Revell as the alternative to Humbrol at the commonly carried in stores level, but I can't comment on whether it's any good - just anecdote that I saw a lot of posts of people turning their noses up at both it and Humbrol. Scale modeling thread might have a better impression of the stuff. There's also a brand called PlastiKote floating around, but I've not actually found anyone claiming to have really used it on models in anger - it's mostly spray stuff plus a couple of fast-dry brush-ons in a handful of colours, so if was any good you'd still likely have to learn how to decant and mix the iconic shades. For enamel washes you can get a fair variety, at most of the bigger hobby stores. I'd rather be using Tamiya accent color instead of thinning down Ammo-by-Mig, but it was 5x the price when I last looked. Pure colours in enamel do seem to be pretty hard to find. Best bet might be an ebay seller already carrying the stuff (sellers in italy and poland seem to be the most common for such listings), and asking if they can do you a custom order so you don't get dinged 3x the price of each individual pot in postage. AliExpress might be cheaper on the shipping at the cost of waiting three months, depending on how it works out. Without an account I can't tell if picking several different colours from a single listing of 20 helps reduce the shipping costs like 20 of the same colour would. Could also try talking to a dedicated importer - I think the chap behind JLGunplaUK offers a buying service and generally does far better on price than ebay and the likes, though it'll be up to whether he's interested or not. Paints might not be something he wants to risk due to fragility and chemicals. Your earlier posts sounded like you'd started spraying lacquer succesfully, and were after good metallic finishes for candy coating. Emodels (and no doubt others) stock Alclad lacquer which a lot of youtubers swear by for chrome and candy finishes? Is there's a particular property you want from enamel that lacquer/acrylic isn't getting you? There's also oil paints as an option, like Abteilung, though I've mostly seen them applied to bare plastic, left for 30 minutes, then rubbed off to create lining and weathering.
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Mar 18, 2023 22:24
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Just cleaned the panel lining on an entire (unpainted) kit with a SINGLE tamiya swab. The gently caress is this magic? It's still got the point, and if I leave it for a few seconds the ink gets drawn into the 'core' of the swab leaving the tips fairly clean to continue with. In contast, I'd have used a dozen or more generic swabs from the supermarket. Even with the tamiya premium this works out cheaper and I've not had to reapply any lines afterwards either. (Admittedly by the end I was leaving some very light staining on the last couple of parts, but I don't really mind as it's mostly hidden areas - I might do a second pass on the middle of the flat surfaces with the cheap swabs if I'm feeling fancy)
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Mar 19, 2023 12:24
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Speaking of Valkyries, I just did a Plamax 1/72 DYRL VF-1 (fighter mode only, no partsforming or transforming here). It's pretty good too! I've not (yet) built a Hasegawa (and I completely missed the wave of Bandai Macross kits), though I've now got a Hase 1/72 and a 1/48 floating around here somewhere which I've briefly looked at but not yet built. I want to do the MG Zeta 2.0 (I got it just before the Ver Ka was announced) and a couple of other kits before I think about touching those. I built it quick and used pour-type gundam markers for lining, as I was coming off an exhausting set of airbrushing adventures and intend to get the Roy version at some later point to take more care over and paint properly. Plastic and detailing
Assembly
Stickers So the big disappointment with this kit is the stickers - they're vinyl(?) and glossy. The backing paper is thin so they roll up a little in transport, but you can press them flat under a book easily enough. The Roy edition will apparently have some decals to go alongside the stickers, but I don't know if it'll be a full set or just some key logos. Firstly, the good -
I did tear one of the big wrap-around rear stabiliser stickers, trying to make it fit snugly without the tab constantly opening. That was more of a me getting frustrated thing rather than them being flimsy. Gimmicks, extras, and expansion sets
Skrillmub posted:Thanks for this post. Glad it's helping - I couldn't afford the markup on importing "gun cleaning" swabs and was unsure if these Panel Line Cleaner (aka Seepage Line Wiper) things were going to be really washable or just a waste of money. Tamiya just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
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Mar 26, 2023 03:05
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The paint in one of my pour-type gundam markers has thickened and stopped flowing. Is there a way to fix it, or should I attempt to decant it and mix it with some enamel thinner or something? There's still loads of pigment so I can use it like a regular marker, it just doesn't flow along panel lines properly any more.
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Mar 31, 2023 20:52
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Pierson posted:So the Bandai Builders ones are out of stock (gently caress eBay scalpers forever) and the Wave Options ones look extremely basic, are there any brands who do 1/100 humanoid figures for stuff like hanger-bay scenes or dioramas? Army dudes can get repainted as fed/zeon simply enough but finding maintenance/space crews seems like a challenge. Maybe work some into a HLJ order you're happy to slowboat or wait for a shipping offer on? I imagine a few places will restock them when they get the chance, but it might be a couple of months. You could mix with less detailed stuff in the background keeping MG pilot figures and an eventual Builders pack in the foreground.
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Apr 3, 2023 20:32
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I've used them twice so far, and I now regularly check them to see if there's anything I want that won't otherwise see UK shores like LOGH resin kits. My second order was actually cheaper by air than by boat because they had a shipping offer, but it was only a small order and still ran me £30 so they're not replacing my regular shops for stuff that normally makes it over here like gunpla outside of real emergencies. Using the warehouse is a bit tricky, because shipping is based upon size and weight, and you don't get a price if something is on backorder. You can broad-strokes figure it out as they do give that information for each kit so you can try to find something roughly equivalent but actually in stock to get to the expected price, but it turns an hour of shopping into several and if they start vigorously enforcing warehouse time limits and auto-shipping again I can imagine being stung quite easily, so I haven't put anything on pre/backorder yet. Packets of builders parts, photoetch, decals, and so forth basically add nothing to the shipping cost provided you don't edge over a weight limit, so you just need one or two small kits to make the baseline order worthwhile. I think the smallest box they ship with is equivalent to about 3-5 midsize HG's in size and 3 kg or thereabouts. The shipping costs jump very distinctly as you add / remove stuff. A couple of the more expensive local sites do basically operate at the price of (HLJ + HLJ shipping for the individual item + local shipping) anyway, so if you can't find something on one of the better sites it's something worth double checking at least. Splitting an order with someone is probably a very smart way of going about it. They have a tiny UK subsiduary to process payments from the UK so you don't get hit by extra fees on your card, which also lets the prices they show be correct rather than subject to rate shifts between banks. But this comes at the cost of the exchange rate being a bit worse than in reality. The import duty for orders over £135 are meant to be 20% for model kits, plus about £5 general handling on top of everything else, but it actually worked out at 12-15% when the customs officers calculated it from the yen listed on the manifesto for my first order. My second was under £135 (shipped! apparently we pay duty on shipping too!), and it went straight to my door without any additional fees. I'm still a bit fuzzy on the whole thing - I thought that it meant that for large orders we should get a 20% discount because we pay the taxes locally directly to customs, instead of the vendor collecting them, but it doesn't seem to be that way. Unless I'm meant to go claim back the 20% after the fact somehow. I should really get on some discords or something and see if there are people who properly understand it all...
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Apr 3, 2023 23:41
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Junkozeyne posted:You can't escape the domestic VAT. Giving you 20% off would hurt the vendor since you don't pay it to them, you pay it to your goverment. And yes VAT is calculated by the total cost. Yeah, I agree with all that and wasn't trying to dodge taxes, but it was a tiny bit more confusing initially. The price final price to the customer is ((exc.tax cost of goods + shipping) + (VAT at 20%)) + ((import duty at 20% for model kits) + (admin fees of about £5-10)). I am extremely stupid and was initially confusing Import Duty and domestic VAT instead of treating them as separate things. In HLJs case, they don't explicitly say "inc VAT" anywhere obvious. That left uncertainty for my first order - when the shipment arrives, am I going to have to pay (VAT + Import Duty + Fees), or just the (Duty/Fees)? Turns out that they have a UK subsiduary acting as a payment processor anyway, and seem to be collecting the VAT in full in all cases. Good on them, nice and easy to use. The reason for my confusion comes from elsewhere. The way a new law the UK implemented on Jan 1 2021 is worded means that domestic VAT on orders under £135 is to be collected by the seller and paid to the UK tax authority*. On orders over £135, the VAT is not necessarily collected by the seller. So - do you pay the tax at the checkout, or to the customs officers alongside import duty? This applies to all foreign sellers sending stuff to UK customers, not just ones in the EU, though it was written in response to Brexit. I suspect the situation with imports from Japan, HLJ, and most big reputable marketplaces actually did not change at all, as they were already collecting VAT correctly. The £135 value also happens to be a cut-off point below which imports are generally duty free and admin fees are waived. This is kind of sensible, but made it harder to get a clear picture if you've never thought about imports before, as import duty is a form of VAT and therefore people interchange the terms a lot. For HLJ to the UK, it boils down to:
I imagine, in practice, this is the case for many large stores. But that's not necessarily the case under the law, hence my confusion. The wording can mislead. See for example https://hobbyfrontline.com/important-notice-regarding-brexit/ which says UK customers are liable for *VAT* on orders over £135. I haven't actually used them, but in their cart they do now include UK VAT at the correct rate for deliveries to the UK, and so I suspect like HLJ only the import duties would apply, but the wording can be misinterpretted. Even Amazon has had poorly worded notices about this, which conflate general consumption VAT and Import Duty VAT. Writing it out like this has helped me understand it a lot more. Like I say, I'm stupid. - - - - * Not wanting to have to be too involved with a foreign tax agency is why some smaller shops stopped dealing with UK customers for small value orders. - Anyway, robots are cool and I'm going to go build some.
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Apr 4, 2023 19:06
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God Hands seem to do limited production runs, and then 'discontinue' the tools until the next one, even for the exact same item. I guess they don't necessarily know when their next factory slot will be and don't want people on an indefinite waiting list. HLJ seems to make a new listing for them every time there's a production run, so those two listings are probably a similar situation. Or, more likely, it's just amazon marketplace shenanigans. Be careful about buying stuff from amazon in this hobby that isn't sold and fulfilled by amazon itself - arguing about serial numbers and the difference between HG and RG is a pain. Check the reputations of the sellers as well, not just the reviews of the item - God Hands in particular were scalped and scammed to hell two years ago. There's a lot of different types of gundam marker and different routes to panel lining. There's four main types of paint - lacquer, enamel, acrylic, and oil, but I've never seen a lacquer based panel lining product before. Subdivisions exist, so there's "solvent" (often called alcohol based) and "aqueous" (water based) acrylics, with the former being more dangerous to bare plastic than the latter. But to keep things relatively simple; (no specific ordering here, beyond stuff up top being more likely to harm bare plastic)
Specifically for plastic in joints that manages to avoid top coats because you've already built the kit or whatever, I'd consider the acrylic miniature wash stuff. If the pigment on flat bits later gets rubbed away by moving the joint (acrylic not being the strongest of paints), it'll look like genuine use of the joint. BIG CAVEAT: Do NOT use enamel washes (tamiya or otherwise), pour type markers, or fine tip (manufacturer specifically warns against it) gundam markers on bare ABS plastic. The thinners react really harshly and crack it with ease. ABS plastic is usually indicated by a tag on the runner or a call-out in the manual; it's fairly uncommon on modern gundam kits, but older ones had inner frames of it, and kotobukiya used to make models entirely out of ABS (though they've moved on a bit; the recent Muv Luv series is PS like gundams) Finally, a bit of a plug of something I learned earlier in the thread - when tidying up panel lines using the right type of cotton bud can save immense pain and having to reapply lines over and over. A loosely spun one from the supermarket will pull stuff out of lines, whilst a tight one will only take stuff off the surface, leaving the line itself intact. In my case the only option for tight spun buds is Tamiya, which is expensive but worth it. In the States and Canada, I've heard people say gun cleaning swabs tend to be tightly spun, but I can't confirm.
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Jul 25, 2023 23:28
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Somewhere else on the web I saw someone suggest using a rhinestone picker to help place decals. This does not work with the ultra thin Bandai ones that only need 3 seconds in water. Maybe it works with stuff like the thick double-skin place-and-peel Eduard ones for plane model kits, I haven't got any of those, but definitely not the Bandai ones. Now to see if I can salvage the picker (might still be useful for picking up smaller pieces that even tweezers suffer with)
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Aug 6, 2023 12:06
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For those of you have done custom LEDs on a kit, what size lights and wires have you used? I'm thinking 3 mm would probably work for most kits except maybe the smaller HGs where an actual SMD size (say 0805?) might be needed. I've had trouble stripping AWG26 sized wires reliably. Think I'd get away with something more manageable lilke AWG22 or even AWG16? (I plan to use somethng like a JST connector to an external battery or 5v usb supply I guess)
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Aug 9, 2023 19:13
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The Windam, Leo, and maybe Graze are all meant to be pretty good and recent-ish grunt kits as well. Not quite the no-stickers level of the Dagger, but the Windam at least only really uses them for the highlights on the shield and backpack. For something more left field, I remember the Gernsback (and Arbalest, but that's not a grunt) high grades from Full Metal Panic have fun builds. The way the legs build up to avoid seam and part lines is something I'm sad we don't see in Gundam kits. They're a tiny bit more complicated than reglar grunts, but unfortunately like twice the cost because they're not Gundam. Also out of print so that may jack up the price even more.
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Aug 10, 2023 17:53
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Is the Zeta ver.Ka an improvement over the MG 2.0 in terms of actually building it? I bought the 2.0 not long before the ver.Ka was announced and am just now working through it. I'm trying to complete the Zeta/Mk.II/Hyakushiki team in 1/100, and I like the design enough to be thinking of the double dip, but if the build invovles juggling the same side-torso mechanisms again it can languish at the bottom of my wishlist for a few years. I actually think the RG Zeta has the best looks overall, but given the declining state of my eyes and fine motor control, I think I'll give that one a pass.
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Aug 17, 2023 22:47
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Those stickers on the inside of the broom scare me. Good job getting them in neatly.
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Aug 27, 2023 18:26
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I've never had a particular problem with official Bandai ones - either in-kit or bought separately. Beyond me messing up and tearing bigger ones, but I manage that with every brand... It's worth checking the instructions as Bandai decals seem to use a different type of wet-release adhesive from everyone else. If you follow the instructions and dunk them for 3-5 seconds then wait for 10-15 seconds for them to activate they work just fine. Dunk them for too long, like the 30 seconds requested by other manufacturers, and they tear, bubble, and disintegrate really easily along with washing away most of the adhesive. That MechaGaikotsu chap used to HATE waterslides for years because he was used to the (I'm guessing Games Workshop) ones and was ruining the Bandai ones by accident. I admit I have always used Mr Mark Setter Neo underneath followed by Softer Neo over the top with mine and never really touched the things afterwards. (Neo being the less-effective, less-toxic versions for the EU market) As an exercise, I've just been trying to do the small color-correction details on the MG Zeta 2.0 using a tiny wet palette because stickers suck and I kind of want to build up to painting kits by hand instead of airbrushing. Hand painting *does* still require a tiny dab of primer first, but once that's down it's amazingly effective for small details. I originally tried to do the corrections with soft-tipped acrylic markers, but the tips just don't give even coverage and after some mild usage there are always dry spots in the bristles no matter what I do. Plus even the dspiae/hobby mio markers cost about as much as actual pots of acrylic paint.
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Sep 1, 2023 20:23
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Think I'm going blind. Anyone know where the Zeta MG 2.0 dry transfer/decal G (pair) is supposed to go? Caution marking, with four small symbols it ( black (x), black box, red circle, black + ) and black text, implying it's to go on something white. Skipping over it for now, but I can't find it anywhere on the marking guide or any images of the kit people have built. It's also in various aftermarket decal kits, not just Bandai's own, which is slightly odd for something not used.
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Sep 3, 2023 20:15
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The big ones are 1/48 so about 35-40 cm long, bigger than MGs and slightly larger than the bigger 1/1000 Yamato kits (i.e. the Yamato itself, which clocks in at 30 cm). The YF-19 main fuselage can just barely fit in the box straight. Smaller ones tend to be 1/72 so about 20-25 cm long. I've only done a (plamax, recent) 1/72 VF-1 so far. Tipping that through 90 degrees puts the tip of the nose at about the top of the MG Barbatos's head. They do require a bit of glue and don't have much in the way of colour separation so they'll ideally want at least a little paint. (There's a whole set of aftermaket parts too - photo etch upgrades, missile/fast/super packs, canopy masks...) But yeah the one I have built was an absolutely great kit and a wonderful change of pace without having to worry about the "real world" aspect of plane kits. I have a couple in my backlog, including the hase 1/48 YF-19.
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Sep 4, 2023 01:09
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Doing some Flame Snow decals, and I think I might be doing something wrong. They're INSTANTLY welding themselves to the surface before I can adjust their position. If Bandai adhesive is too weak for some tastes, this stuff is way, way too strong. Instructions are warm water for 30 seconds, which is fine, and they come off the backing paper as easily as I'm used to. It's a bit too warm right now (about 32 C / 90 F indoors) which could be affecting it? But I'd still expect a little more live time before the adhesive reactivates fully.
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Sep 8, 2023 20:43
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If you're buying beauty supplies; nail buffer block. If you're buying expensive model building supplies, gunprimer balancer sponges (the sponges are usually not that bad price wise). If you prefer sandpaper, something around or north of 2000 grit. Some folks in thread claim Magic / Melamine sponges also work, but I guess it has to be legit branded ones because the cheap knockoff ones I got don't do poo poo. Good for cleaning the bathroom though.
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Oct 25, 2023 20:37
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Tis a fine looking pod, though you realise you've got to do a VF-1 to go with it right? Hand paint the details if masking and reverse masking gets too much. Can probably even do some edge highlighs and make it look better than raw airbrush work.
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Dec 26, 2023 13:28
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Get a bunch of matte medium and you can thin down other acrylics without breaking the surface tension. Use this to make whatever wash you want, black, grey, brown, blue, gold... Use it with a very light and dusty grey for lining black and dark blue things. The only dedicated product I've seen for dark pieces is AK's enamel wash for black camo, which'll cost 10x as much. Not sure what the same product is for enamel and lacquers; certainly some form flow improver should work, or maybe thinner. Too much pure thinner might act the same as too much water in and leave you with something that stains but doesn't flow the colour into recesses. Then, if you've been painting, highlight raised edges. Bit difficult to do if you want to keep the kit fully reposeable, but'll make the kit pop like crazy. No idea why you see this all over miniatures but never on gundams and other mechanicals. Other important hobby tools are LIGHTS LIGHTS LIGHTS LIGHTS you will be amazed at how much light helps with doing fine details. Some form of magnification is also nice, but one of those magnifiers with lights on it isn't enough LIIIIIGHT. A couple of cheap LED strips you can rearrange at will are incredibly useful, especially if you have a crappy little spray booth. Regular sand paper and sanding sponges are way more useful than people give them credit for in this thread. 400, 800, 1200 covers 99.999% of use cases. Glass file is for the absolute last bit of nub, they clog too much and can't deal with round surfaces. Metal files are for absolutely burning through plastic. Polishing cloths can unify the texture of glass-filed and raw plastic, but I don't really have any specifics on that as I got a small pile of gunprimer balancers for cheap. Gardening wire can stand in for brass rods in a pinch and doesn't have Hobby markups. Tungsten PCB drill bits will work with even the cheapest pin vise and are again a fraction of the cost of branded hobby supplies. Useful if you ever need to drill a barrel, do battle damage, or reinforce a snapped peg. Acrylic primer paint makes any touch ups (such as painting barbatos HG claws yellow) stick much better. And speaking of paint - paint pens cost at least as much as regular paint, but the paint dries in the bristles way too easily and clogs them so they only work once or twice. For cleaning up washes and panel lining, tightly spun cotton swabs (like tamiya ones) work so much better than regular. They're easier to control and suck up way more residue. To the point where I'd say it's worth the significant extra cost, though I still keep a lot of the cheap ones on hand. For decals, rhinestone pickers do *not* mix well. Cotton swabs work best for me (especially the press onto swab then press onto spot trick), but I've gotten into the routine of testing with a small spare decal first as some brands just don't like that and need tweezers. Tweezers are another of the tools where I find the hobby ones are worth it because they'll actually close with something approaching the precision needed for decals vs the 3.99 stamped junk on amazon et al.
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Mar 21, 2024 23:02
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Yeah acrylic washes will work just fine on bare plastic. They might come off a bit more easily than you'd like if you're handling them a lot and they tend to spread, stain, and pool a bit more than dedicated panel liners based on oil/enamel based washes, but they're more common, usually cheaper, and don't stink. One technique is even to basically apply wash everywhere, then simply rub it off the highlights and middle of panels. I find that works a bit better with straight up oil paint rather than acrylic washes though. There were some videos on YouTube of someone doing a bunch of kits that way using Abteilung's Starship Filth oil paint (including some Warhammer ones where they painted and clear coated first). There'll always be some clean-up after painting/washing/lining things on sprue, but I have to admit to doing it a few times. If using anything with 'heat' to it (enamel or oil washes / liners) make sure to not let it pool or anywhere near ABS plastic, or you'll risk the plastic cracking.
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Mar 22, 2024 00:33
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monsterzero posted:don’t think I have the discipline or skill to dry brush highlights so What un-knightly attitude is this for someone with a Gyan? You CAN do it. Don't be like me and wait until you're two shelves of suits and $1500 in. You might need a bottle of 90+% alcohol to rub it off if you go too hard the first time (though honestly just a dry cloth'll probably do if you use acrylics; dampening it with the alcohol will make it faster or help with many non-acrylics), but you'll get it right in no time. And if you flub it a few times? So what. You can fix it, and you're getting better each time. Pretty much everyone overdoes their first attempt at drybrushing, and those who dont probably have several hundred hours of artist opus tutorials on their youtube viewing history. (On cleaning - alcohol may not react well with a top coat if you already applied one... but you can take the top coat off using the alcohol and reapply if it comes down to it) For the darker pieces, lighter shades for lining will work better than darker ones which end up invsible; look at the dust build that gets between the panels on chinooks and blackhawks and the like in real life - they overcome the self-cast shadows and make the panels distinct. A mid-light grey, carefully applied on the tip of a toothpick, will work a bit like a panel lining pen if you don't feel steady enough with a fine brush. And you can use the other end of the toothpick to scrub away the paint if you apply it too thickly. I have no answers for how to get the mix of bright dust on the dark parts with the grey panel lning on darker parts to feel right together... YET. But once you've tried it once, if it doesn't feel right you can always clean it up and try something new. Maybe some very light brown edge highlighting / drybrushing / chipping sponge on the raised edges of the bright bits will help blend it in? Maybe using thin bright white lines on the dark parts will give it a very TV Series feel? For thruster bells, on my next project I think I'm going to try for a scorched metal look - shiny silver bell, then stipple on some brass in the middle, purple on the end, and blue on the very tip like this (first hit I could find for the technique under 5 minutes view time). Maybe a heavy dabbing of a sooty black on the inside of the bell too. It'll loook like rear end the first time, expecially on such curved and small parts. I'll find out I can only fit one transition colour on something this small, rather than working through three. I'll probably oversaturate the colours thinking I've done it too lightly. But nobody's seeing my collection except me, so I'll try it anyway. I've already enjoyed building the kit; I've nothing to lose if I wreck it. I own the plastic, it doesn't own me. It's easy to say, but neither fearing failure nor exhausting yourself by going all out on every kit is healthy. If you've identified something you want to try, try it. Nobody gets hurt if you mess up, and if you feel like getting lazy, it's just a hobby and you can always go over it later. It's a waste to just let yourself think the kits will sit on a shelf or in a display case for 60 years after you've built them if you think you could do something more with them. Snap building might be the most fun part for you (it is for me) but you already own the thing so use it even after you've 'finished' with it. Even if you literally break a model in half in the most bizarre failure possible... you've got bits for a new diorama project (the "battle damage" and "bitz box" stuff is twee when you hear it too much, but it's not exactly wrong) And let's face it, you were proably going to have to toss a few kits next time you move anyway. This even goes for the expensive ones, and even if you can only afford one HG a year. I'm actually yelling at myself - sorry to monsterzero for using them as an excuse to do it.
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Apr 11, 2024 22:10
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Iymarra posted:Is there some kind of shortage? All of the UK Gundam/many hobbyist stockists are totally out of things like Mr Hobby mark setter / mark softer (except the NEO, which I read is not really for JP models and more for thicker decals?) and places like newtype US wont ship internationally. Neo's just the one with less harsh chemicals to comply with EU laws. All new bottles of Mark Setter and Mark Softer uses that formula now anyway, which was... not well recieved when it was announced not too long ago as folks think it's weaker. I've only ever used Neo though, and it works fine for me. Enamels and lacquer based paints are also carried by only a few stockists because of the chemicals, so you're mostly stuck with acrylics or locally sourced equivalents like (shudder) revel/humbrol. There are sometimes a handful of ebay stores in Europe that do carry them (somehow) just expect to pay a premium, and probably import tax if the total order is over £135. A couple of places DO get the odd shipment of things like AllClad (for doing chrome), but it's typically the larger more generic hobby places like ScaleModelShop and eModels from memory. But I don't think they get the full Gunze / Mr.(Hobby/Color/Etc) line ever. As for plastic models themselves... warehouses are full to bursting. GundamMad is doing the first %-off sale I've seen in years trying to clear AMAIM / Warrior on the Borderlands stock, and I'm speculating it's to make more room. Demand has dropped for quite a few things now everyone has been back at work for a few years and become too tired for novel hobbies. Several stores closed down over the past two years. A lot of the remaining ones have agreements with distributors to take a certain amount of whatever Bandai prints so it looks a bit strange if you browse exclusively new stock. The more expensive stores directly import whatever you want from the Gundam Base in Hong Kong or whatever, but that clearly costs a lot more and at that point it's worth thinking about HobbyLinkJapan orders. We also usually get things a couple of months later than official releases because the shops that aren't super expensive use sea shipping rather than air shipping (and again, agreements with a Europe-wide distributor because this side of Bandai has no reason to care about tiny foreign stores) I think a couple of agreements for stores to import masses of HobbyMio, Dspiae, MadWorks, and other tool and accessories stuff also didn't work out as well as hoped so last year there were lots of new products in addition to just kits, and this year not so much, which also makes stores look a bit stagnant. What specifically are you looking for aside from decal stuff?
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Apr 20, 2024 18:52
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Iymarra posted:Well, that's exactly it - I was looking at getting Mark setter / Mark softer because I've deliberately avoided doing water decals until now and want to dip my feet into it - that and proper panel lining. Huh. You're right, I can't find any Mark Setter and Softer in stock right now. Wasn't really expecting that. Though, if you did find a place that has Neo in stock, it'll be the same as the non-Neo stuff going forwards. Note that a lot of the stores below will charge at least £5 for shipping no matter what you buy. Decal solutions Setter-equivalent underneath to fix the decal in place, softer-equivalent over the top to smooth it over curved surfaces and hide/melt the edges a bit. They're basically all a mix of weak glue and solvents, so there shouldn't be much difference between brands.
Panel liners It's hard to get the Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color stuff here, Amazon marketplace lists some but it's like £13 a bottle and missing black. So best bet for easing into it is pour type pens. I use an eraser or a cotton bud (higher quality buds help, but can wait) moistened with isopropyl alocohol to clean up mistakes. Stock levels are a bit all over the place for these too right now, which likely means we're a month or two from a big restock of accessory stuff.
There'll be other stores around I imagine, this is just a quick list made up of shop names I could remember.
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Apr 21, 2024 11:00
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