Category Archives: Gundam

« The mine sweeper » (1/144 HG RX-79 G)

« An old RX-79 mobile suit that had been lying around in the forest for a long time. It was fix to go and help out those partner of the 8th team who fell in battle in the guerrilla zones. It has suffered a lot during its career but it still works. It can also be used as a support unit with its 180mm gun.« 

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Its dedicated gallery : https://flashfan981.com/index.php/the-mine-sweeper-1-144-hg-rx-79-g/

Salt technic on gunpla

Today, we speak about a ‘simple’ technic to creating chipping on model kits : The salt. Yes ! You’re read correctly, a simple salt to obtain a nice chipping on your gunpla. It’s a technic which work with an airbrush. I think it cannot work with brush … But I’m not sure. Maybe I will test one day.

I make a HG Jo hound model kit few month , and I wanted to obtain a heavy chipping. I decided to use only my brushes and little pieces of sponges. But this time, I decide to use the salt.

Prepare your model

First, you need to prepare the surface of your gunpla. For the example, I use the hand of the HG RX-79 ‘Ground type’ (1/144) from « the 08th team » anime.

Like for a classic preparation, I use a primer. In this case, I was a black primer from Vallejo mecha color. After, I added the rust coat. I used a red/brown primer color from GreenStuffWorld. You must a really hard paint because we will be ‘violent’ in a future step.

The Salt technic

Now, it’s time to use the salt.

Put some water gently at the surface of the piece where you want obtain chipping (often on the edges). Personnaly, I used a little sponge. Then put the salt directly on the piece like it’s raining salt. It will be trap by the water. To obtain various effect, try to use different sizes of salt. In my example, I used a really fine salt to try to respect scale.

Some advises :

  • Don’t forget to protect the parts where you do not want salt.
  • You can do that directly in your kitchen … because you’re going to salt everywhere … Believe me.
  • WAIT ! To paint, you need to have a dry salt, so wait ! … 8 or 12h in a dry place ?
It’s seems to be dirt, don’t worry !

Paint (when the salt is dry)

Paint your part as usual, the salt will work like a mask. You can use a pre-shading if you want. But becareful to the pressure you use on your airbrush. If the pressure is too high, the salt will be remove. On this example, I worked with the Mr. color white C1 diluated at 50% and applied at 1bar.

Salt chipping

To finish, You must remove the salt. I used a toothbrush with some water and I brush … brush … and brush again. If you remember, I said you must use a hard and dry paints. That is the moment where you’re going to see if your paint it’s good.

after removing the salt
After removing the mask tape

Salt chipping on gunpla is a good way to have random chips on a your paint. I think it’s a simple technic which give good results.

See you soon 😉

MG Exia #04

I continued to paint the MG Exia. I used the black and white technics to improve my model kit. That’s allow to make some artificial shadows and to improve the volume sensation. If you’re looking for a tutorial, I can advise you to go here (english) or here (french).

I painted the primer coat with the « one shot black » from Mig ammo [nozzle 0,4mm/1,5bars]. Then I used the white paint from Mr Color (ref : C1) diluated with a ratio of 50%/50% to paint the center of some parts [nozzle 0,2mm/1bars]. I decided to work with the paint made by Mr. Hobby for this project.

To finish, I a apply the base coat. You can see the result on the piece below with the « White MS » from Mr. Color (ref : UG01) [nozzle 0,2mm/1bars].

I hope you can the difference between the leg painted and the leg ‘out of the box’. I used exactly the same light for the photos. I think it looks great, no ?

See you soon 😉

Rusty Jo

It’s done, I finished this week-end the HG Jo Hound. It’s totally hand painting, it was a real pleasure ! I love to add weathering effect, dust and rust ♥️. I modifued some parts and adding a real green plastic lens … from my daughter’s toys 🙄.

I will probably write a post to describe all the products used to this realization.

To see more, you can go on its gallery : ▶️ here ◀️

See you soon 😉

MG Shenlong #01

Hey ! With summer’s holydays, I’ve got my kids at home and it’s impossible to work correctly with the airbrush (lacquer paint ar too dangerous with kids around). So I decide to build different kits during the next weeks and I will paint them together.
If my childrens are cools with maybe I will finish the MG Exia.
The first kit is a mechas from the gundam wing anime serie, The Shenlong (EW ver.). Enjoy !
To see more, go to the gallery : ▶️ here ◀️ !

See you soon ! 😉

MG Exia #03

I work a lot this moment, so I post when I can but I progress on my differents builds. The Exia is on the good way. I paint slowly because I use a lot of masking tape between each step. But I love the result.
‘Be patient to obtain a beautiful work’ that what I think.

In a same time, I work on a car model kit and that is an story 😀

See you soon 😉

MG Exia #02

I finish to built the MG EXIA. It’s probably the worst kit I done 🤪. A lot of pieces have bad adjustments and the « holographic » plactic use to simulate the GN cable of the mobile suit are terrible.
Now, I will disassemble it and modify some parts before painting.
In a same time, I prepare a longer post for another model kit the AAT char from star wars clone wars.

See you soon 😉

MG Mobile Ginn #04

I must finish some panel lines and the socling. But the harder is done 😉. For the moment, it is probably my favorite kit from the gundam seed animated serie, but I don’t build all the kits 😁.

See more photos on its dedicated gallery : here

See you soon 😉

MG mobile ginn from gundam seed
MG mobile ginn from gundam seed

MG Mobile Ginn #03

Work in progress : The Ginn is completed 😀 !

  • Base coat ……………………………… Done
  • Gloss varnish ………………………… Done
  • Backpack …………………….. In progress
  • Weapon …………………………………. Wait
  • Weathering …………………………….. Wait
  • Diorama …………………………………. Wait

When I list all the operations, I’m afraid 😱

To see more photos, go to the gallery : here

See you soon 😉

MG Mobile Ginn
MG Mobile Ginn : Helmet