Objectives:
Ok... I have been busy with work and my daily life as a father.
So I have skipped some blogging on how I build the GP03 Stamen. So in this episode, I briefly make it up by explaining how it was build and how I complete it.
Duration: Project completed. Stamen took me 3 days to build, 2 days to paint and 1 day for the decals.
The Chassis:
A pretty simple build.
I had 2 choices for the body:
1) To put putty to cover the seams where the neck resides. But filing down the seams is going to be tedious.
2) to modify it and scratch it to make the body looks "fit". But this will be time consuming.
I decided to stick with choice 1.
Building the head requires no rocket science knowledge. The Stamen's head does have panel lines on its side thus making it simple to build without thinking on how to cover its seams. The antenna was sharpen to give it a sharp look.
The Arms:
This is quite a tough one here.
I was in a dilemma:
a) should I modify the arms to ease painting?
b) should I fix the arms and complicate the painting using masking.
I made the wrong decision by choosing option a.
Modifying the arms by joining the forearms first, drill a through hole and make a pin to hold the extension...
It failed...
(Take note of the picture and you will notice a small panel which has 4 small holes.
It looks like its there to give the arms a "solid" look. But it is there to cover my mistake.)
So, from now on. Masking is always a good choice for me!
The Legs:
Pay close attention to the picture above.
There are 3 small modifications.
Mod #1:
The knee joints is modified to ease painting.
A small pla-plate is glued on the inner leg to provide support when the knee joints are glued at their original place after they are painted. - It was a success!
Mod #2:
The ankle plate's joint together. But not on the ankle as stated in the instruction manual.
Instead, I cut the protruding joining bits by 3/4 from its original length so that the ankle plate can snap in and out of the ankle. - It was a success!
Mod #3:
The indent grooves at the legs were been cut and replaced with a small piece of pla-plates. - I do have mixed feelings about this modification. You decide...
Painting:
In my earlier post, I was in a dilemma on whether to use Enamel paint or not. In the end, I found out that there is a hobby store around my area that sells Lacquer paints. Namely, Gaia Notes. I was very happy and the rest is history...
Anyway, for base coat, I have decided to use Mr Surfacer 1000 mixed with black to produce a darker tone of gray. Very much in-between German Grey and Neutral Grey. The mixture:
Mr Surfacer 1000 = 2 parts.
Black (Gloss) = 1 part
So, e.g. 10 ml of Surfacer, I added 5 ml of Black.
For the Chassis and Feet, I have decided to use Ultra Blue was used as its second coat. Then followed by adding white as its highlight. Mixture as such: 2:0.5 of Ultra Blue and White respectively.
To me the results were great! Even my wife says its nice! Good start.
Now for the remaining parts of the body.
For the entire Arms, Head and Legs, 3 coats of pure White was used.
And to me the results were fantastic! It really gives the look which I have always wanted!
As for the joints and internals, I stick to Gun Metal (I must say.. I really like Gaia Note's Gun Metal.).
Note:
As with all advices from forums, tips from Hobby Japan magazines, paints has to be thinned for air brushing.
My fear has arrived. Most would suggest a good starting point as 2 parts thinner, 1 part paint. But this varies according to a couple of circumstances. So, how much is enough?
The clue lies in 1 good point. The paint must be of milk consistency.
For starters, I decided to trial and error. Starting with the advice of 2:1 mixture of thinner and paint respectively. Then I decided to start my compressor's pressure at <0.5PSI.
After messing around with the pressure, I find that
a) 2:1 mixture with 0.5PSI is good for airbrushing larger areas with airbrush farther away from the subject.
B) Using a mixture of 2.5: 1 mixture with 0.5PSI fixed on the compressor then controlling the pressure using the airbrush to narrower output, I can work on the shading.
Next Post:
Project #2: Part 2B - Completing Denbdrobium Stamen - Final assembly.
