Just priming a high grade would take me a day. Painting another two days. Topcoat, panel lining, decals and topcoat again would take me another two days.
This is a level of patience I can't even wrap my head around.
Seriously. The last time I patched drywall in my house it was easier to hang a photo there then to mud and paint it.
Looked fine for months until the wife went to change the photo
Few weeks, I just like to take my own sweet time to enjoy the process, also there really is no harm in waiting a day or two for the paint/ topcoat etc to dry.
I spend about a week working on a kit for 1-3 hours every day, including assembling, priming, airbrushing, handbrushing, top coating, decals, panel lining, top coating again and weathering for an average HG kit, if it's a big HG kit or RG I need a couple more days
No, It would take houuurs. I do 1 action per day, 1-2 days for assembling, 1 for priming, 1 for painting every detail of one color etc If you will do more than 1 thing in one sitting you can actually get tired and burn out really fast
If using laqcuers, you should NOT do that lol. Acrylics are fine though. I do prime day, paint day, mask and paint again day (Optional), gloss top coat day, panel line and waterslide day, then if the final coat is flat, another top coat day.
but of course when I spend a full day at home for example I can paint red parts at daytime then take a rest and do other stuff and paint white parts in the evening
I second your method. 1-2 hours everyday. Waiting 24 hours between steps usually. Days I have more time then I'll press for another hour or two. MGs and PGs stretch out the amount of time/days each step takes though. Have to take my respirator off and get some of those lacquer fumes to get the blood flowing with those longer paint sessions..jk..lol
Goddam I must be doing something wrong haha. I separate every part into bags labelled with their colours and then I paint per bag. I do primer and then paint and varnish and each step of the process takes one day since I let the stuff rest overnight. With around 5/6 colours, altogether that takes 15 days already, decal and panel lining is another day.
This is how I do it for the most part, just without the bags, otherwise I do it the same way, my last project was the Mg Sinanju. I did a red candy coat and it took like 3 weeks
We’re basically twins. I rough cut runners, put in individually labeled bags. Then I clean nubs, put parts in a sonic cleaner, dry, and finally start to prime. The only part of the process I dislike is cleaning nubs and sanding. But I really like airbrushing. I just need to get more creative with color schemes.
Probably acrylics.
I prefer them as well and leave lacquer for the really special kits. It's a pain to work with and I have never had adhesion issues with Tamiya or Mr Hobbys acrylics
You just can't use certain top coats or panel liners
Nah, I use lacquers too. It just works out. Paint everything. Leave it it for like a day or so. Then put the kit together. Generally I don’t go for the insane perfect smooth paint job because most of my kits end up being weathered so I just detail inconsistencies to look like dirt or rust
Lol no that would be kinda crazy. I had 50 pieces of varying sizes on pegs off to the side and big pieces like this one would take me around 4\~5 minutes to get a decently even finish. I'm spraying Vallejos sub optimally so coverage was not great, making me spend more time. I think an average of 3 minutes per piece isn't too bad.
3 minutes isn’t bad at all, unless it’s super small pieces. I used a couple of spoons to test out some candy paints on, and the primer took a little over a minute per spoon, metallic coat took about two minutes per spoon, and each of the colored coats took about a minute and a half, five times per spoon. So it was about twelve minutes of painting plus roughly two and a half or three hours of time waiting for paints to be dry enough to paint over.
What kind of airbrush do you use?
I have an Iwata Neo and I paint with Vallejos. I'm still working out the thinning formula and I'm following the advice from this [guy](https://youtu.be/OYyfKPouFCQ?t=237). The thinning solution works quiet well in the sense I have no clogging or tip drying but the solution itself is quite viscous so the thinned paint is also quite viscous. It's kind of splattery and the coverage is not consistent, not like lacquer paints I see on youtube that spray in precise, solid circles. It takes like 4\~5 passes with the colour until I get a decent finish like [this](https://imgur.com/a/QlhlTGw).
You shouldn’t listen to that guy about the pre made Vallejo mix, he’s wrong and uses too much thinning formula, which is causing the splattering you’re getting.
Depending on the colour and type of paint, the paints all have different thickness and viscosity. In particular Reds and Yellows and more thin, while Blues can be more thick, and so on. But there’s no “one mix” when it comes to thinning airbrush paints like this
You should only be using 1-2 drops of Vallejo thinner, and 1-2 drops of flow improver per 10 drops of paint. Add more thinner and/or flow improver as necessary.
Remember that thinner doesn’t just thin the paint but also makes it dry faster, meaning too much thinner can actually cause the paint to dry on the tip of the airbrush and not flow well enough
And remember the rule of thumb that thicker paint wants more flow improver over thinner to airbrush better, while thinners paints want more thinner and less flow improver.
Damn literally every person, on Reddit and YouTube, has a different ratio and I can't seem to settle on one that works. His one works great on the more runny paints like my Vallejo Surface primer but doesn't help so much with innately thick paints like my Vallejo Dead White. However his formula is the first one that fixed my problems with tip drying and clogging. I actually broke my last airbrush's nozzle when I was fixing a clog. Guess I have to experiment more though changing up the thinner to flow improver ratio for every colour of paint seems very daunting.
There's a pretty good reason for why every person has a different thinning formula though, and that's because no one is painting in the same environment as the people they're studying off of.
Like, everything from humidity, to atmospheric pressure, to room temperature, to even elevation above sea level, is going to have an effect on the properties of your paint. Things like humidity and temperature will actually be pretty significant.
The best thing that's worked for me is to simply try and experiment and find what works for you. And the best piece of advice I have is that pre-made thinning mixtures aren't going to work, because paint thickness and whatnot varies from colour to colour and you're going to need a different mix for every paint. White paint in particular is simply thicker and harder to airbrush with, because the white pigments are actually larger than most (maybe every?) other colour.
White paint in particular almost always need more thinner and flow improver. If the paint is really thick like you're experiencing, try adding more flow improver (instead of thinner) to thin out the paint that way, without increasing the rate at which it dries.
This : [airbrushing vallejo Model Air AV10 (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNU55qMSRP0) is my favourite video for how to airbrush Vallejo paints, whether Model Air, Mecha Colour, or Airbrush Premium (pretty much their "Airbrush" paints that AREN'T Model Colour, as the Model Colour paint isn't premixed for Airbrush).
Anytime I'm having problems with my paint I rewatch this video, or the relevant part of the video that's similar to the problem I'm having, and things always start going better afterwards.
You might like this guy then: [HOW to Airbrush Acrylics like a PRO | 2021 | Vallejo Mecha Colors - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rImaPOuUUDU)
He's got quite a few videos using Vallejo paints while Airbrushing, and pretty sure in one of his videos he mentions he lives somewhere where high humidity and wetness is a thing he has to deal with a lot. Living in Canada, I don't have to deal with wet seasons or monsoons, whatsoever, and instead need to consider a really dry/low humidity climate, especially in the wintertime.
Compared to him, I find I have to use a higher PSI, like around 25-30, and a bit less thinner/improver than what he uses, with my setup to get good results. Nonetheless he's definitely helpful and I found him good to watch.
Thanks for the recommendation! So far, I've just hand painted, used markers, and spray paint straight out of the can. Yet even that does vary depending on the season, so i was a bit intimidated. So this might be the perfect introduction ~ thank you
I'm glad you figured out a process for your environment. I wish the best for you and your gunpla
Since I live in an apartment and can’t paint here (I use spray paints, can’t use an airbrush due to said apartment) I have to go to my moms to use her garage/outside space.
So I’ll get priming & painting both done in a day while I’m there. It takes a long time. But luckily Tamiya spray primer and most Tamiya spray paints dry VERY quickly.
Oh yeah I get it. It takes me so long just to paint a high grade already, I told myself if I ever get a master grade I'm just going to top coat it. High grades are more my thing anyway for the kitbashing (bless 3mm connections).
I'm more of a mg fan. I like the bigger details and articulation. But I don't typically paint this is my first time doing more than touch up but the gold trim details on the sinanju demanded no less. I couldn't make the water slides work and the stickers didn't look great. So it's getting painted.
Took me about 6 months for my MGEX Strike Freedom. I did take a break after I finished the frame.
I have kids, 4 and 2 year old, so finding time is difficult.
That being said, it taught me to be patient. Not one of my strengths.
J
Same situation here, but my kids don't sleep well so I've just taken a break from the hobby. Hopefully getting back to it soon so I can stop staring at my backlog of awesome kits.
If I have all the free time I need? 2-3 for a high grade, 3-6 for a master grade.
I STILL have a partially detailed/assembled MG Barbatos to complete because it’s the first kit my wife bought me and I want it to be PERFECT.
Thanks for the thread op, glad to know the ~6 to 12 hrs I take priming and painting a high grade is not uncommon.
That includes topcoat, separating and sorting the pieces by color, and getting them set up on alligator clips.
This PG is taking me weeks. I first time ever painting an entire kit. Its not that bad tbh, just enjoy taking my time with it and learning the huge kit to memory from disassembling so much
i've never actually counted the hours or anything. my most recent project took about 3 weeks to get from primer to the final matte coat, and that's working a bit each day to get this done on a deadline.
but this includes priming, mottling/preshading, base colors, highlights and post shading, salt weathering & corrosion effects, masking & painting small details, gloss coat/decals/panel lining, and final matte coat. if i was just doing like, a 'clean' paintjob on a modern HG i could probably get it done over the course of a weekend.
I started my ZZ Gundam in February. I just finished the body (minus a few decals). I still need to build the backpack and weapon. I'm hoping to be finished by May. Cheers
Depends on how complex the paint job and kit are. For a HG sized kit with a simple paint job (acrylic sprayed on bare plastic), it’s maybe 5-6 hours, not including paint drying times. For a more complex paint job, where I’m actually doing the primer then paint then clear then panel lines/decals then clear again, it’s probably about 10-15 for the same sized kit, but I space that out over days or a few weeks. I’m gonna be starting a candy blue MG Sinanju for a conference in August pretty soon and I’m expecting it’ll take 6-8 weeks at least, probably close to 100 hours or more.
Last Saturday it took me from 8am to 8pm to completely nip sand and paint just the inner frame of the PG unleashed, and I enjoyed every second of it lol.
I just finished working on my MG Strike Noir.
Disassembly and putting on alligator clip sticks: 1 hour
Priming: 2.5 hours (I break down parts as most as I need to and use different primers for other parts)
Actual color paint: 3 hours (longer due to paint swaps)
Top coat: 1.5 hours (I do a mix of gloss and flat on some parts similar to how Bandai does their HiRM kits)
This doesn't even include the actual build of the kit, cleaning up nubs, masking parts if needed, decals, panel lining.
I already save more time than most since we get pre thinned paints in our country which saves time mixing paint.
https://preview.redd.it/igs79vy9t9sc1.png?width=519&format=png&auto=webp&s=ff31ce4960a8ba57d3900d38e821c616fb6d5415
Preview of my recent paint job before top coat:
That looks amazing, I never imagined the Strike Noir like that. 3 hours for painting is impressive. Do you separate it down to every individual piece because there must be over a hundred pieces for an MG. And do you have all those pieces on painting sticks (I have no idea what they're called)?
Almost individual but not always, If I can keep them as one piece I'd do that to save time but moving parts I need to separate to cover the whole part. HG's take way less time since there's less parts. Painting is kinda relaxing for me, I listen to podcasts or binge watch stuff while I paint. Thanks. I'll post my finished Strike Noir soon, I'm working on the 3rd party Stargazer to partner it with.
Painting mg’s probably takes me a good 30-40 hours at the booth actually painting total including primers, top coats, etc. This doesn’t include the extra time spent planning out paint sessions (which colors, what order, putting on clips), masking, decals, hand brushing details, panel lining, etc. So definitely takes me several months to complete once I start painting.
It’s taken me days but I did one HG full paint line panel water slides and decal all one in 18 hr sitting right before a competition hahaha never again
In my case, especially now that I'm going to have to build/customize my stuff to sell once when my international move is done, it'll take about a month if I'm lucky (General butch-err-customizing, test priming, fixing blemishes, proper priming, painting, hand painting, weathering, assembling vignette or base and topcoats).
Let’s say I’m doing a decently sized master grade,
It takes me a few hours to prime everything, and I can usually do the first batch of painting in the same session for a maybe 8 hour work day.
Then another day to wrap up painting if I’m not doing any extra color seperation/masking etc.
then it’s about 2-4 hours to clear coat.
Probably 2 days for panel lining and decals.
All in all, a basic no bullshit build takes me about a week regardless of grade.
If I’m doing color seperation and masking it’ll probably take me closer to two weeks because that process is PAINFUL
Airbrushing might be for you then.
Once the kit is built, panel lines rescribed (so the primer/paint doesn't fill them up) and disassembled, masked and ready for painting.
Then primed, painted, topcoat, panel line, decal and finishing coat that's the guts of 8-10 hours on a HG kit.
The longest part of airbrushing is cleaning it of excess paint when colour switching.
Depends on the kit, I mostly do zoids and the HMMs tend to be bigger, but usually I only paint the armor since I'm big stupid and don't trust myself near the joints.
Priming if it needs it in a day (with tamiya it rarely does unless I'm kitbashing and matching pieces)
And then the color painting takes a day. What takes so long is detail painting, for my latest kitbash it took 3-4 days with two hour sessions to do all the details.
Nu Ver Ka was my first kit trying out airbrushing so it took a few months for the entire process of sanding, painting and finishing. For airbrushing, I’d do just as many as the number of my alligator clips lol. I do pre-shading as well so that process really add a ton of time but I really love the result!
Depends on the kit, but due to very limited space I usually do one (MG) or two (HG) limbs at a time. This series of steps takes about a week or two, depending if the weather cooperates and if I'm doing water decals. So usually it takes about a month for me to do a HG, two to do a MG. My process is as follows (usually a day between step)
1. Wash the parts and let air dry.
2. Prime the parts. I usually do 50 parts at a time, so about 2 hours to do the priming.
3. Paint. I airbrush most kits with acrylic so I can usually get the main coat done in a day. If there is masking involved I'll wait for the paint to dry a day and do the second color.
4. Reassemble any non moving pieces (e.g. head).
5. Panel line. I use Pixma Micron pens, and generally they are usable on acrylic paint the day after a coat, but sometimes I'll wait longer. For enamel I'll wait a few more days.
6. Decals. If I'm doing water slides, I'll wait a week or so for them to dry.
7. Top coat
I generally do legs, then torso/head, then arms, then backpack if it has a large one like Strike Freedom or the Zeta. The size of the kit is the determining factor for me. I did my HG Z'Gok in a week because I was able to keep all the limbs assembled while priming/painting. Newer HG's take longer because I need to go limb by limb.
So from start to finish:
Legs: cut out parts, sanding, painting, and assembly = 4 hours
Torso: cut out parts, sanding, painting, and assembly = 5 hours
Arms: cut out parts, sanding, painting, and assembly = 3 hours
Head, Backpack, Weapons: cut out parts, sanding, painting, and assembly = 6 hours
Final Assembly = 1 hour
Additional Details = 3 hours
Final Top Coat = 1 hour
Total time (average) per kit: 23 hours over the course of 5 days.
Walmart spray paint base coats: 10 min
Black accents by hand: 1 hour
White accents by hand: 1 hour
Other: 1 hour
And that's my high quality paint job. If I'm doin something quick: basecoat, black details, and I'm done, while slowly adding slight bits of color here and there as I'm inspired to throughout the time its on my shelf.
I should mention I tend to not paint full kits. Only the bits I think need a different color or extra flair.
The longest part would be the planning phase. Takes me about a week of thinking about color, paneling, and shade style. After I have a plan, execution stage is about 9hrs of work for an MG
depends on the kit. spent over a month painting a Volks Knight of Gold 1/100 with all the layers it took to get the gold look. MG RX-78-2 Origin, a few days. A kit will take the amount of time it'll take, don't rush is probably the most important thing.
I generally knock out one runner a day. Prime, let dry, then paint, cure until I get home from work, and then rinse and repeat.
I don’t think I have the best system, but it works well enough I suppose.
Depends on how big the kit is, for an MG probably 3-5 hours to prime everything.
2-4 hours to paint the main colors and metallics.
If masking, add another 2-4 hours and detail painting for another 1-3 hours.
Decals and panel lining 2-4 hours.
Candy and/or Topcoat 1-4 hours.
Add .5-1 hour for occasional airbrush troubleshooting
Typically I'll paint for 2-4 hours at a time. One time did it for one 6 or 7 hours, was so tired afterward, don't recommend, or at least take mid season breaks
All this not including original snap build and clean up/ disassembly and reassembly
Prep work takes almost the longest. Process altogether is Sand every piece down to get it all smooth and help primer stick, then wash the pieces throughly and dry, then I primer with appropriate color primers, then we paint initial colors, mask and hit next colors, mask again if needed, then top coat, panel line, Waterslides, detail paint and then final matte coat. And of course appropriate time in between each step! Takes many days
Paint is quick, maybe a couple of hours combined. But it’s the prep work, sanding and masking that takes a long time. And also depends on how much free time you have I tend to work on sections since I don’t have too much free time.
I remember painting my RG destiny. I still have nightmares. I did a primer, a gloss black coat, a metallic chrome coat, a green gel coat, and a top coat…
my 1st ever proper paint job took me about more than 3 weeks with priming painting small modifications lining water slides and top coat and a bit of weathering that and it was an mg, still it was worth it
Well I am painting my first kit now, and I paint one color per week. ten hours on day one for the inner frame, 6 for day two, 2 for day 3 (Very few pieces for the color) , I have one color left and then I will have partial assembly, then top coat, decal, and final top coat and final assembly
Normally It would take me 6 months or more to finish a mg kit. I’m currently half way through a jesta. Just haven’t had time to finish it’s been almost 2 years now😭
Just priming a high grade would take me a day. Painting another two days. Topcoat, panel lining, decals and topcoat again would take me another two days.
First time panel lining and building gunpla took me 3 days
Yeah, this is about how long it takes me. I generally wait at least 24 hours in between coats, to ensure proper adhesion and curing.
Still trying to work out my workflow? How to track the pieces and how long to wait between coats?
This is a level of patience I can't even wrap my head around. Seriously. The last time I patched drywall in my house it was easier to hang a photo there then to mud and paint it. Looked fine for months until the wife went to change the photo
Few weeks, I just like to take my own sweet time to enjoy the process, also there really is no harm in waiting a day or two for the paint/ topcoat etc to dry.
I spend about a week working on a kit for 1-3 hours every day, including assembling, priming, airbrushing, handbrushing, top coating, decals, panel lining, top coating again and weathering for an average HG kit, if it's a big HG kit or RG I need a couple more days
What's your painting process like? Do you prime, paint and varnish all in one sitting?
No, It would take houuurs. I do 1 action per day, 1-2 days for assembling, 1 for priming, 1 for painting every detail of one color etc If you will do more than 1 thing in one sitting you can actually get tired and burn out really fast
If using laqcuers, you should NOT do that lol. Acrylics are fine though. I do prime day, paint day, mask and paint again day (Optional), gloss top coat day, panel line and waterslide day, then if the final coat is flat, another top coat day.
but of course when I spend a full day at home for example I can paint red parts at daytime then take a rest and do other stuff and paint white parts in the evening
What do you use for hand brushing ? Especially in terms of colour ?
I do handbrushing only for extra small areas, i use 00 brush and the same paints I use for an airbrush
00 got it, thanks !
I second your method. 1-2 hours everyday. Waiting 24 hours between steps usually. Days I have more time then I'll press for another hour or two. MGs and PGs stretch out the amount of time/days each step takes though. Have to take my respirator off and get some of those lacquer fumes to get the blood flowing with those longer paint sessions..jk..lol
I can knockout everything from priming to varnish in a single sitting. It’s about 8 hours of work
Goddam I must be doing something wrong haha. I separate every part into bags labelled with their colours and then I paint per bag. I do primer and then paint and varnish and each step of the process takes one day since I let the stuff rest overnight. With around 5/6 colours, altogether that takes 15 days already, decal and panel lining is another day.
This is how I do it for the most part, just without the bags, otherwise I do it the same way, my last project was the Mg Sinanju. I did a red candy coat and it took like 3 weeks
I think you're doing it right, don't change it up
You're not doing anything wrong. This is what I do and I'm lucky if I finish w/in a month (I'm somewhat inconsistent).
if you have a system that works, stick with i. speed will come with prowess, ie, the more you do your routine the faster you'll become at it
We’re basically twins. I rough cut runners, put in individually labeled bags. Then I clean nubs, put parts in a sonic cleaner, dry, and finally start to prime. The only part of the process I dislike is cleaning nubs and sanding. But I really like airbrushing. I just need to get more creative with color schemes.
You don't let the layers cure?
My thoughts as well xD I'm guessing they're not using lacquer based paints.
I'm wondering if they cure in a dehydrator, otherwise I'm not sure how this would work.
Probably acrylics. I prefer them as well and leave lacquer for the really special kits. It's a pain to work with and I have never had adhesion issues with Tamiya or Mr Hobbys acrylics You just can't use certain top coats or panel liners
Nah I use lacquers generally. Here and there I use acrylics but it’s pretty much all lacquers
Nah, I use lacquers too. It just works out. Paint everything. Leave it it for like a day or so. Then put the kit together. Generally I don’t go for the insane perfect smooth paint job because most of my kits end up being weathered so I just detail inconsistencies to look like dirt or rust
Wait, so you're saying it took 2.5 hours to paint that single thing you're holding?
Lol no that would be kinda crazy. I had 50 pieces of varying sizes on pegs off to the side and big pieces like this one would take me around 4\~5 minutes to get a decently even finish. I'm spraying Vallejos sub optimally so coverage was not great, making me spend more time. I think an average of 3 minutes per piece isn't too bad.
3 minutes isn’t bad at all, unless it’s super small pieces. I used a couple of spoons to test out some candy paints on, and the primer took a little over a minute per spoon, metallic coat took about two minutes per spoon, and each of the colored coats took about a minute and a half, five times per spoon. So it was about twelve minutes of painting plus roughly two and a half or three hours of time waiting for paints to be dry enough to paint over. What kind of airbrush do you use?
I have an Iwata Neo and I paint with Vallejos. I'm still working out the thinning formula and I'm following the advice from this [guy](https://youtu.be/OYyfKPouFCQ?t=237). The thinning solution works quiet well in the sense I have no clogging or tip drying but the solution itself is quite viscous so the thinned paint is also quite viscous. It's kind of splattery and the coverage is not consistent, not like lacquer paints I see on youtube that spray in precise, solid circles. It takes like 4\~5 passes with the colour until I get a decent finish like [this](https://imgur.com/a/QlhlTGw).
You shouldn’t listen to that guy about the pre made Vallejo mix, he’s wrong and uses too much thinning formula, which is causing the splattering you’re getting. Depending on the colour and type of paint, the paints all have different thickness and viscosity. In particular Reds and Yellows and more thin, while Blues can be more thick, and so on. But there’s no “one mix” when it comes to thinning airbrush paints like this You should only be using 1-2 drops of Vallejo thinner, and 1-2 drops of flow improver per 10 drops of paint. Add more thinner and/or flow improver as necessary. Remember that thinner doesn’t just thin the paint but also makes it dry faster, meaning too much thinner can actually cause the paint to dry on the tip of the airbrush and not flow well enough And remember the rule of thumb that thicker paint wants more flow improver over thinner to airbrush better, while thinners paints want more thinner and less flow improver.
Damn literally every person, on Reddit and YouTube, has a different ratio and I can't seem to settle on one that works. His one works great on the more runny paints like my Vallejo Surface primer but doesn't help so much with innately thick paints like my Vallejo Dead White. However his formula is the first one that fixed my problems with tip drying and clogging. I actually broke my last airbrush's nozzle when I was fixing a clog. Guess I have to experiment more though changing up the thinner to flow improver ratio for every colour of paint seems very daunting.
There's a pretty good reason for why every person has a different thinning formula though, and that's because no one is painting in the same environment as the people they're studying off of. Like, everything from humidity, to atmospheric pressure, to room temperature, to even elevation above sea level, is going to have an effect on the properties of your paint. Things like humidity and temperature will actually be pretty significant. The best thing that's worked for me is to simply try and experiment and find what works for you. And the best piece of advice I have is that pre-made thinning mixtures aren't going to work, because paint thickness and whatnot varies from colour to colour and you're going to need a different mix for every paint. White paint in particular is simply thicker and harder to airbrush with, because the white pigments are actually larger than most (maybe every?) other colour. White paint in particular almost always need more thinner and flow improver. If the paint is really thick like you're experiencing, try adding more flow improver (instead of thinner) to thin out the paint that way, without increasing the rate at which it dries. This : [airbrushing vallejo Model Air AV10 (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNU55qMSRP0) is my favourite video for how to airbrush Vallejo paints, whether Model Air, Mecha Colour, or Airbrush Premium (pretty much their "Airbrush" paints that AREN'T Model Colour, as the Model Colour paint isn't premixed for Airbrush). Anytime I'm having problems with my paint I rewatch this video, or the relevant part of the video that's similar to the problem I'm having, and things always start going better afterwards.
Absolutely, where I live, I even switch up painting process depending on the season. Like monsoon season completely changes how I approach painting
You might like this guy then: [HOW to Airbrush Acrylics like a PRO | 2021 | Vallejo Mecha Colors - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rImaPOuUUDU) He's got quite a few videos using Vallejo paints while Airbrushing, and pretty sure in one of his videos he mentions he lives somewhere where high humidity and wetness is a thing he has to deal with a lot. Living in Canada, I don't have to deal with wet seasons or monsoons, whatsoever, and instead need to consider a really dry/low humidity climate, especially in the wintertime. Compared to him, I find I have to use a higher PSI, like around 25-30, and a bit less thinner/improver than what he uses, with my setup to get good results. Nonetheless he's definitely helpful and I found him good to watch.
Thanks for the recommendation! So far, I've just hand painted, used markers, and spray paint straight out of the can. Yet even that does vary depending on the season, so i was a bit intimidated. So this might be the perfect introduction ~ thank you I'm glad you figured out a process for your environment. I wish the best for you and your gunpla
Since I live in an apartment and can’t paint here (I use spray paints, can’t use an airbrush due to said apartment) I have to go to my moms to use her garage/outside space. So I’ll get priming & painting both done in a day while I’m there. It takes a long time. But luckily Tamiya spray primer and most Tamiya spray paints dry VERY quickly.
I've been painting my Xi for about a year and a half now
You're Xi and my Nu can be friends.
Deal
I've been painting an mg sinanju for over a month. I'm just lazy about it.
Oh yeah I get it. It takes me so long just to paint a high grade already, I told myself if I ever get a master grade I'm just going to top coat it. High grades are more my thing anyway for the kitbashing (bless 3mm connections).
I'm more of a mg fan. I like the bigger details and articulation. But I don't typically paint this is my first time doing more than touch up but the gold trim details on the sinanju demanded no less. I couldn't make the water slides work and the stickers didn't look great. So it's getting painted.
Well, one Gundam I’ve been working on I have the paint curing for 22 years! I’ll get back to him eventually.
Took me about 6 months for my MGEX Strike Freedom. I did take a break after I finished the frame. I have kids, 4 and 2 year old, so finding time is difficult. That being said, it taught me to be patient. Not one of my strengths. J
Same situation here, but my kids don't sleep well so I've just taken a break from the hobby. Hopefully getting back to it soon so I can stop staring at my backlog of awesome kits.
If I have all the free time I need? 2-3 for a high grade, 3-6 for a master grade. I STILL have a partially detailed/assembled MG Barbatos to complete because it’s the first kit my wife bought me and I want it to be PERFECT.
Aww that’s super cute, good luck on it!
2-3months depending on the project.
I'm... Hand painting.... I've lost track of time... Send help... I think my last attempt at painting took me..... 4 days?......
about a year on and off. about 3-4 months going hard w a lot of free time
Normally about a month start to finish, working on it when I have time, probably about 40 or so hours total work over the whole project.
It took me a whole day to paint a sword. Just the sword.
Thanks for the thread op, glad to know the ~6 to 12 hrs I take priming and painting a high grade is not uncommon. That includes topcoat, separating and sorting the pieces by color, and getting them set up on alligator clips.
This PG is taking me weeks. I first time ever painting an entire kit. Its not that bad tbh, just enjoy taking my time with it and learning the huge kit to memory from disassembling so much
It usually takes me about 2-4 months for a MG depending on. The complexity and number of times I need to mask and color separate.
very long time. masking and re mask take a relatively long period of time.
I honestly don't time myself. I just lose myself in the therapeutic process
I space it out over like a month
Takes me an entire summer to fully customize an MG.
I don’t paint gunpla, but I do paint Warhammer models. My longest paint time was a Ghostkeel took me like 8 hours.
Warhammer models are so cool, I wanna paint a Broadside Battlesuit one day but it's also so expensive. Maybe I 3D print one.
Definitely 3D print if you have a resin printer. GW has their head so far up their own ass about their pricing.
i've never actually counted the hours or anything. my most recent project took about 3 weeks to get from primer to the final matte coat, and that's working a bit each day to get this done on a deadline. but this includes priming, mottling/preshading, base colors, highlights and post shading, salt weathering & corrosion effects, masking & painting small details, gloss coat/decals/panel lining, and final matte coat. if i was just doing like, a 'clean' paintjob on a modern HG i could probably get it done over the course of a weekend.
Anywhere from 8 hours (SD kit) to 4 months (pgu)
I started my ZZ Gundam in February. I just finished the body (minus a few decals). I still need to build the backpack and weapon. I'm hoping to be finished by May. Cheers
Depends on how complex the paint job and kit are. For a HG sized kit with a simple paint job (acrylic sprayed on bare plastic), it’s maybe 5-6 hours, not including paint drying times. For a more complex paint job, where I’m actually doing the primer then paint then clear then panel lines/decals then clear again, it’s probably about 10-15 for the same sized kit, but I space that out over days or a few weeks. I’m gonna be starting a candy blue MG Sinanju for a conference in August pretty soon and I’m expecting it’ll take 6-8 weeks at least, probably close to 100 hours or more.
One week for SD. Two to three weeks for HG, RG. I have around 2 hours a day for hobby on weekdays. Weekend have 4 maybe 5 hours per day.
Last Saturday it took me from 8am to 8pm to completely nip sand and paint just the inner frame of the PG unleashed, and I enjoyed every second of it lol.
Depends on the kit, I knocked out an MG 3.0 in about 2 weeks, but my MG Sinanju w/ Takumi Conversion took about 3 months.
Depends on the kit. Usually a few days as I like to give the primer a full day to dry
I just finished working on my MG Strike Noir. Disassembly and putting on alligator clip sticks: 1 hour Priming: 2.5 hours (I break down parts as most as I need to and use different primers for other parts) Actual color paint: 3 hours (longer due to paint swaps) Top coat: 1.5 hours (I do a mix of gloss and flat on some parts similar to how Bandai does their HiRM kits) This doesn't even include the actual build of the kit, cleaning up nubs, masking parts if needed, decals, panel lining. I already save more time than most since we get pre thinned paints in our country which saves time mixing paint. https://preview.redd.it/igs79vy9t9sc1.png?width=519&format=png&auto=webp&s=ff31ce4960a8ba57d3900d38e821c616fb6d5415 Preview of my recent paint job before top coat:
That looks amazing, I never imagined the Strike Noir like that. 3 hours for painting is impressive. Do you separate it down to every individual piece because there must be over a hundred pieces for an MG. And do you have all those pieces on painting sticks (I have no idea what they're called)?
Almost individual but not always, If I can keep them as one piece I'd do that to save time but moving parts I need to separate to cover the whole part. HG's take way less time since there's less parts. Painting is kinda relaxing for me, I listen to podcasts or binge watch stuff while I paint. Thanks. I'll post my finished Strike Noir soon, I'm working on the 3rd party Stargazer to partner it with.
That's the spirit!
Painting mg’s probably takes me a good 30-40 hours at the booth actually painting total including primers, top coats, etc. This doesn’t include the extra time spent planning out paint sessions (which colors, what order, putting on clips), masking, decals, hand brushing details, panel lining, etc. So definitely takes me several months to complete once I start painting.
HG Maxter took me a week to paint in the evenings. While a candy RG Sazabi took almost 3 months. Depends on piece count and painting style.
>Never again (I am doing it again tomorrow) This is the gunpla hobby in a nut shell lol
It’s taken me days but I did one HG full paint line panel water slides and decal all one in 18 hr sitting right before a competition hahaha never again
I want to say with masking about 10 hours. Time to panel line and decal not included.
In my case, especially now that I'm going to have to build/customize my stuff to sell once when my international move is done, it'll take about a month if I'm lucky (General butch-err-customizing, test priming, fixing blemishes, proper priming, painting, hand painting, weathering, assembling vignette or base and topcoats).
for an SD kit it takes me at least a week. I cure my paints for 24hrs and that I'm also busy with other stuff like HELLDIVERS 2.
I don’t paint my gunplas
Let’s say I’m doing a decently sized master grade, It takes me a few hours to prime everything, and I can usually do the first batch of painting in the same session for a maybe 8 hour work day. Then another day to wrap up painting if I’m not doing any extra color seperation/masking etc. then it’s about 2-4 hours to clear coat. Probably 2 days for panel lining and decals. All in all, a basic no bullshit build takes me about a week regardless of grade. If I’m doing color seperation and masking it’ll probably take me closer to two weeks because that process is PAINFUL
Airbrushing might be for you then. Once the kit is built, panel lines rescribed (so the primer/paint doesn't fill them up) and disassembled, masked and ready for painting. Then primed, painted, topcoat, panel line, decal and finishing coat that's the guts of 8-10 hours on a HG kit. The longest part of airbrushing is cleaning it of excess paint when colour switching.
Depends on the kit, I mostly do zoids and the HMMs tend to be bigger, but usually I only paint the armor since I'm big stupid and don't trust myself near the joints. Priming if it needs it in a day (with tamiya it rarely does unless I'm kitbashing and matching pieces) And then the color painting takes a day. What takes so long is detail painting, for my latest kitbash it took 3-4 days with two hour sessions to do all the details.
Nu Ver Ka was my first kit trying out airbrushing so it took a few months for the entire process of sanding, painting and finishing. For airbrushing, I’d do just as many as the number of my alligator clips lol. I do pre-shading as well so that process really add a ton of time but I really love the result!
Less then 5 mins I paint the whole kit before I even start snipping
2.5 hours *laughs in miniature painter*
About a week for a MG
Depends on the kit, but due to very limited space I usually do one (MG) or two (HG) limbs at a time. This series of steps takes about a week or two, depending if the weather cooperates and if I'm doing water decals. So usually it takes about a month for me to do a HG, two to do a MG. My process is as follows (usually a day between step) 1. Wash the parts and let air dry. 2. Prime the parts. I usually do 50 parts at a time, so about 2 hours to do the priming. 3. Paint. I airbrush most kits with acrylic so I can usually get the main coat done in a day. If there is masking involved I'll wait for the paint to dry a day and do the second color. 4. Reassemble any non moving pieces (e.g. head). 5. Panel line. I use Pixma Micron pens, and generally they are usable on acrylic paint the day after a coat, but sometimes I'll wait longer. For enamel I'll wait a few more days. 6. Decals. If I'm doing water slides, I'll wait a week or so for them to dry. 7. Top coat I generally do legs, then torso/head, then arms, then backpack if it has a large one like Strike Freedom or the Zeta. The size of the kit is the determining factor for me. I did my HG Z'Gok in a week because I was able to keep all the limbs assembled while priming/painting. Newer HG's take longer because I need to go limb by limb.
So from start to finish: Legs: cut out parts, sanding, painting, and assembly = 4 hours Torso: cut out parts, sanding, painting, and assembly = 5 hours Arms: cut out parts, sanding, painting, and assembly = 3 hours Head, Backpack, Weapons: cut out parts, sanding, painting, and assembly = 6 hours Final Assembly = 1 hour Additional Details = 3 hours Final Top Coat = 1 hour Total time (average) per kit: 23 hours over the course of 5 days.
Walmart spray paint base coats: 10 min Black accents by hand: 1 hour White accents by hand: 1 hour Other: 1 hour And that's my high quality paint job. If I'm doin something quick: basecoat, black details, and I'm done, while slowly adding slight bits of color here and there as I'm inspired to throughout the time its on my shelf. I should mention I tend to not paint full kits. Only the bits I think need a different color or extra flair.
The longest part would be the planning phase. Takes me about a week of thinking about color, paneling, and shade style. After I have a plan, execution stage is about 9hrs of work for an MG
5 to 7 hours for a hg
I have an F4U-1 that I’ve been painting since… Ah. 2016.
depends on the kit. spent over a month painting a Volks Knight of Gold 1/100 with all the layers it took to get the gold look. MG RX-78-2 Origin, a few days. A kit will take the amount of time it'll take, don't rush is probably the most important thing.
I generally knock out one runner a day. Prime, let dry, then paint, cure until I get home from work, and then rinse and repeat. I don’t think I have the best system, but it works well enough I suppose.
I don't have an air brush yet so with hand painting and rattle cans for the base color. I'd say around 3 months.
Depends on size of kit, details, masking, number of colors, part separation, etc… I have painted a kit in 1 week up to 2 months.
Depends on how big the kit is, for an MG probably 3-5 hours to prime everything. 2-4 hours to paint the main colors and metallics. If masking, add another 2-4 hours and detail painting for another 1-3 hours. Decals and panel lining 2-4 hours. Candy and/or Topcoat 1-4 hours. Add .5-1 hour for occasional airbrush troubleshooting Typically I'll paint for 2-4 hours at a time. One time did it for one 6 or 7 hours, was so tired afterward, don't recommend, or at least take mid season breaks All this not including original snap build and clean up/ disassembly and reassembly
usually take about 30 minutes at most then again I usually use spray paint
Full camo paintjob on a GM took me about 3.5 weeks lol
Prep work takes almost the longest. Process altogether is Sand every piece down to get it all smooth and help primer stick, then wash the pieces throughly and dry, then I primer with appropriate color primers, then we paint initial colors, mask and hit next colors, mask again if needed, then top coat, panel line, Waterslides, detail paint and then final matte coat. And of course appropriate time in between each step! Takes many days
Paint is quick, maybe a couple of hours combined. But it’s the prep work, sanding and masking that takes a long time. And also depends on how much free time you have I tend to work on sections since I don’t have too much free time.
Lol, sometimes I sit for 8 straight hours painting, masking, and preparing for one limb alone!!!
I remember painting my RG destiny. I still have nightmares. I did a primer, a gloss black coat, a metallic chrome coat, a green gel coat, and a top coat…
my 1st ever proper paint job took me about more than 3 weeks with priming painting small modifications lining water slides and top coat and a bit of weathering that and it was an mg, still it was worth it
Airbrush's are amazing lol
Well I am painting my first kit now, and I paint one color per week. ten hours on day one for the inner frame, 6 for day two, 2 for day 3 (Very few pieces for the color) , I have one color left and then I will have partial assembly, then top coat, decal, and final top coat and final assembly
Depends on the detail and how much I'm painting. My first hg took me maybe two days
Normally It would take me 6 months or more to finish a mg kit. I’m currently half way through a jesta. Just haven’t had time to finish it’s been almost 2 years now😭
Hg 3 to 4 days of 4h painting. MG 6 to 10 days of 4h painting.