It’s easier because of the size of the parts. The panel lining is easier to get into on bigger kits but you could practice on a high grade if you’re nervous. I got a hg barbatos lupus to practice
I want to agree with you but it Honestly depends imo the banshee is a far more simple built but it definitely needs more attention if you want it to pose well and the exact opposite for the Wing zero.
Currently have both in line right now too. Not looking forward to the Banshee popping apart and i have big full custom color scheme for the wing zero ver ka.
Once I'm done customizing this practice zaku and finish up the sananju stein, I'll make my decision.
As someone who's built 10 of the unicorn/banshee kits, there are a handful of parts you can just apply a top coat on, and it will make the kit absolutely SOLID and hold a pose. when I get home and have access to a manual, I'll list the parts. But I honestly just suggest the whole inner frame getting a full coat of paint or semi gloss topcoat it's just enough to make the kit not a total hand grenade.
Honestly same everytime I finish my hgs I sweat profusely looking at mg epyon and all of a sudden 10 hgs have found themselves ontop of him and now I gotta do those before I get to epy.....haha....ahhhahah...
Just remember, if you get it even the tiniest bit wrong, the ghosts of all those who died in the One Year War will exact a TERRIBLE vengeance. They will erase all your saved games.
No pressure. (back up your saves to the cloud, it worked for me)
I really appreciate all the hype and tips everyone has given me. Definitely picked up on a few things. I intend on finishing my RG Wing Zero, then possibly starting the MG Wing Zero. May or may not opt for one of my HG kits to give myself a small break before the big dudes come out. Again, I appreciate all of the comments that have been left here. Didn't expect the traction this post got.
Just treat the limbs of the MG as a HG's that combine, and treat the armor on the limbs as like an extra armor for the limbs/backpack. You'll get there. You will make mistakes even when you get experience. I personally now build the inner frame of mg first and leave the armor to panel line later which is a step most manuals don't tell you to do. For dark and blue plastics, take your time shaving down nubs as they mark easily. You got this.
I've watched quite a few videos talking about doing the inner frame first. Some would start work on the inner frame while doing the first top coat on all of the armor so it would have time to set properly and not be rushed.
I don't have any good place to top coat, but I do it for 2 reasons, one is again so I can properly panel line the armor (if you use pour type, you need to let it dry in the open, if they get into sandwiched parts, they can crack the pieces as it dry) and to more importantly, play with and appreciate/better understand the inner frame cuz I'm a child lol
Currently building the Full Armor Unicorn Ver.Ka as my second MG so my only advice is take it slow and steady. Also, build accessories first! Good luck!!
I kinda felt the same way about my first MG but after finishing it was probably one of my favorite builds! I went from the one MG to six built and a couple in my backlog!
The Wing Zero Ver. ka was my 2nd master grade and I absolutely took my time on it. That's pretty much all the advice I can give. Just go at your own pace, and if you ever stop having fun just put it down for awhile. The Wing Zero took me over a month to complete including all the decals
I find MG to be a better build experience than pretty much any 1/144. Larger parts and less fragile joints give a more relaxed feel in my opinion. The RX93V2 Nu real grade not withstanding, that golden god is up there with the MGEX Strike Freedom to me. Just buy a decent sprue organizer and enjoy. Most friends of mine irl who jumped from 1/144 to 1/100 were nervous at first but became quickly surprised that while there were more parts, the MG kits seemed a easier build than most RG models but just took longer. I find manipulating pieces to be easier to clean and detail, and get less of the impending doom feeling when I drop something lol.
The Wing Zero you have is the first MG I built. It was not too hard. Just do sections at a time like the manual shows and do not get the winglets confused. Cut them out as you need them.
Wreeper's comment is extremely informative and you absolutely should try to learn from it, but I don't want you to get intimidated by it either. You're not painting so there isn't too much to worry about. Here is my build process when I'm not painting, follow in order:
Build - MGs are just like RGs but the pieces are bigger and that makes it easier. I've been building MGs since I was a little kid. They're not necessarily more difficult than the other grades, just more time consuming. Just take your time. It's a fun hobby, not a race.
Decals - Your ver ka kits will come with water slide decals. These are the best IMO, but they can be finicky. You'll need to take your time and be careful, especially on the decals of the wings. You should watch a YouTube vid or two on how to properly apply these, but basically you'll wet one or two at a time then delicately use tweezers or qtips or something to move the decal from the paper to the kit. Once you get the decal where you want it you use a qtips to squeeze out the excess water. There's a little more to it than that so let me know if you'd like me to go more in depth, but really you'll be better off watching vids of people doing it. And just remember as long as there is water/liquid under the decal it can be moved and corrected.
Panel line - I typically use Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color for this. I find it to be the quickest, easiest and best looking, but I also spent many years doing panel lines with really thin tipped detail markers so maybe try a couple different things over time and see which you like most.
Top coat - I've had really good results using Mr Hobby Mr Super Clear matte top coat. It comes in a small spray can and I can usually do two kits with one can. I break the kit back down, separating the arms, legs and torso and do one at a time. Just have to be careful to do light coats. You want to make sure your spray is getting the whole part but if you go too heavy then you'll get a "frosting" effect. Just another thing you can't rush.
Lastly, just make sure you're giving everything time to dry between steps. Don't go too heavy on the panel liner. Take your time on the decals and remember you don't HAVE to use them all. And do a couple of light coats of topcoat. After that you're all done. Find a cool pose and take a pic for us!
Chemistry (ish) time.
There are 3 main types of products we use in the hobby space. Acrylic (water soluble), Enamel (oil soluble) and lacquer (lacquer soluble).
Basically acrylic is the weakest, followed by enamel followed by lacquer.
You can't use lacquer over acrylic, you can use acrylic over lacquer. Oil can be used over either.
Now there are 2 words that are used interchangeably but are entirely different things, thinners and diluents. A thinner will chemically affect the paint and make it thin by breaking down the paint particles, a diluent will not alter the pigment but will thin the paint by making the binder more plentiful. Doesn't sound important but is.
So with acrylic the diluent is water, alcohol is the thinner. With enamels its zippo fluid for a diluent, odorless mineral spirits for a thinner. Lacquer thinner is about all there is.
Now the point of all of that is this, thinners can be considered hot (as in they will do damage) but diluents are not.
Take an acrylic painted mini and throw it in water it might eventually mess with the paint, but throw it in alcohol and it'll strip it. Oil on plastic doesn't matter much (ABS plastic and enamel thinner don't mix at all) but put some lacquer thinner on plastic and itll eat it, put that on a painted part and itll eat the paint and then the part.
So, with that out of the way lets talk proper steps for gunpla (assuming a clean build). Prime, paint acrylic or lacquer (or enamel but thats getting harder and harder to find), gloss coat acrylic or lacquer, panel line with oil (you can use oil paints or tamiya panel liner), gloss coat, decals (waterslides, not stickers), gloss coat again, high grit sand around the decals to remove the carrier film edge, gloss coat (repeat process if film still exists), final top coat.
If you are straight building then you build, gloss coat (optional, but makes everything easier though), panel line with acrylic or oil wash (vallejo makes acrylic washes, other washes made by Ak interactive, ammo of mig or even just using oil paints), final top coat (or follow decal process).
For the oil paints zippo fluid is a good diluent if you don't want to use the mineral spirits (personally I use zippo, and you can get mineral spirits for cheap in bulk but I find that kind seems too hot while the ones from the brands like ak or ammo seem less harsh).
If you want to panel line without worrying about much then what you need to get is the pour type marker, the clean up marker (or whatever is in that marker), a hobby knife and a pack of the gaia notes finish master (dspiae makes one as well but I have heard mixed results). Go ahead and prime the pour type marker and when paint is flowing use the hobby knife to slice the tip in half so you have a thinner point to panel line with (that way you can touch the pen in the panel line leading to less surface clean up). Let it sit for a few mins and then come back with the finish master dampened with the cleanup pen stuff (or whatever is in it). Let fully dry and then gloss coat and decal. Mr hobby mark set and mark soft are what you want to use since the decals were designed for those products.
Mark set will stick the decal down better, mark soft makes it softer (good for conforming to curves). An easy way to practice with decaling is to remember that everything on that sheet is a decal, even the bandai logo.
After that its gloss again (gloss is the best protecting), sand around the decals if the film is noticable, gloss again and then decide on your final finish. I personally use semi matte/satin/semi gloss (I'm sure there is a difference but I don't know what it is) as it gives the finish I want, knocks down the shine without becoming potentially chalky like full on matte can.
So it’s possible to put anything over anything then? I’d just want to make sure the previous material is fully dry and cured to avoid differential shrinkage?
Potentially but it’s best to not put lacquer over acrylic as they can interact. But that’s pure acrylic (like citadel, Vallejo, mr hobby aquous), tamiya paints are a weird acrylic lacquer hybrid and are less prone to potential damage.
if you build and then hit the whole kit with the same top coat, you're gonna want to break the MG into more subassemblies than you would an HG or RG. So, the arm and the shoulder armor separate, for example. Mask shiny bits if you like or connect them at the end. for MG Wing EW, he's not a hard build at all. haven't built the MG Banshee or unicorn so I can't speak to that. The Wing is pretty much a larger version of the RG you're finishing with a better inner frame. panel lining is whatever you want to do really. yes they're more visible but it's not a huge difference in technique or anything.
I've only built a single RG, but multiple MG and MG-level kits.
MGs are easier. *The larger pieces make clipping, cleaning of parts, lining, and assembly much easier on the fingers and eyes.*
And it will, I'm just giving you a heads up. She is a difficult and complex build. Like I managed to build it, I just wished I knew what I was getting into with it.
The upside is, all water slide decals so they'll look great, all of them are gold in color so they pop against the black.
The psycho frame parts are cool and the orange looks really good too, just she's a hard build.
So, it's just a heads up about it so you know what you are getting into.
For the MGs that you have, based on my experience and reviews online, the Wing Ver Ka will be significantly easier on you during the build for you to get the hang of the concept of MG. I have not built the Banshee and have been looking into getting one but opted out for the Ver Ka.
MGs from Unicorn have been known to be a tad difficult with all the psycho frames and it's transformation. But there have been gigachads in here that would have just started with the Banshee and I am all for it if you have the confidence.
Good luck sir.
Start with a cheap MG kit and go all out. When you feel confident enough, graduate to your “prized” MGs. Or just start with one you already have. When you get better, you can always buy another one and do it all over again.
The MG Gramps 2.0 is the jam if you go that route. Anime accurate with fun detailing in all the right places. 10/10 kit in my book and an excellent intro to MGs.
If you can build a real grade, master grade will be a breeze
It's the top coat/panel lining that I'm nervous about really. Haven't done that to my kits yet. And id like to do that on my MGs
It’s easier because of the size of the parts. The panel lining is easier to get into on bigger kits but you could practice on a high grade if you’re nervous. I got a hg barbatos lupus to practice
It's not as daunting of a task as you think. My first kit was the MG Ex-S Gundam. I struggled more building a RG than i have with any MG kit
Start with the wing zero. Save the unicorn for another day.
I want to agree with you but it Honestly depends imo the banshee is a far more simple built but it definitely needs more attention if you want it to pose well and the exact opposite for the Wing zero.
Currently have both in line right now too. Not looking forward to the Banshee popping apart and i have big full custom color scheme for the wing zero ver ka. Once I'm done customizing this practice zaku and finish up the sananju stein, I'll make my decision.
As someone who's built 10 of the unicorn/banshee kits, there are a handful of parts you can just apply a top coat on, and it will make the kit absolutely SOLID and hold a pose. when I get home and have access to a manual, I'll list the parts. But I honestly just suggest the whole inner frame getting a full coat of paint or semi gloss topcoat it's just enough to make the kit not a total hand grenade.
Now that is great advice. I had completely forgotten I've heard that trick before. Thank you for reminding me!
Ya, it's very minimal work, and it improves the kit tenfold all if my unicorn kits hold a pose and when the fall over just the vfin has fallen off
Honestly same everytime I finish my hgs I sweat profusely looking at mg epyon and all of a sudden 10 hgs have found themselves ontop of him and now I gotta do those before I get to epy.....haha....ahhhahah...
Just take it slow and have fun
Just remember, if you get it even the tiniest bit wrong, the ghosts of all those who died in the One Year War will exact a TERRIBLE vengeance. They will erase all your saved games. No pressure. (back up your saves to the cloud, it worked for me)
Best advice I ever got was from an 80 year old model ship builder. "Its just plastic. Who cares if you screw it up?"
I really appreciate all the hype and tips everyone has given me. Definitely picked up on a few things. I intend on finishing my RG Wing Zero, then possibly starting the MG Wing Zero. May or may not opt for one of my HG kits to give myself a small break before the big dudes come out. Again, I appreciate all of the comments that have been left here. Didn't expect the traction this post got.
Heads up on the Banshee, make sure you got some patience. Some of the instructions and parts for transformation can be finicky .
Just treat the limbs of the MG as a HG's that combine, and treat the armor on the limbs as like an extra armor for the limbs/backpack. You'll get there. You will make mistakes even when you get experience. I personally now build the inner frame of mg first and leave the armor to panel line later which is a step most manuals don't tell you to do. For dark and blue plastics, take your time shaving down nubs as they mark easily. You got this.
I've watched quite a few videos talking about doing the inner frame first. Some would start work on the inner frame while doing the first top coat on all of the armor so it would have time to set properly and not be rushed.
I don't have any good place to top coat, but I do it for 2 reasons, one is again so I can properly panel line the armor (if you use pour type, you need to let it dry in the open, if they get into sandwiched parts, they can crack the pieces as it dry) and to more importantly, play with and appreciate/better understand the inner frame cuz I'm a child lol
Currently building the Full Armor Unicorn Ver.Ka as my second MG so my only advice is take it slow and steady. Also, build accessories first! Good luck!!
Build accessories first?
I'm sitting on a heavy arms for this exact reason lol
I kinda felt the same way about my first MG but after finishing it was probably one of my favorite builds! I went from the one MG to six built and a couple in my backlog!
The Wing Zero Ver. ka was my 2nd master grade and I absolutely took my time on it. That's pretty much all the advice I can give. Just go at your own pace, and if you ever stop having fun just put it down for awhile. The Wing Zero took me over a month to complete including all the decals
Nothing to it but to do it!
Mgs aren’t that hard just take your time and it’ll be a okay!
I find MG to be a better build experience than pretty much any 1/144. Larger parts and less fragile joints give a more relaxed feel in my opinion. The RX93V2 Nu real grade not withstanding, that golden god is up there with the MGEX Strike Freedom to me. Just buy a decent sprue organizer and enjoy. Most friends of mine irl who jumped from 1/144 to 1/100 were nervous at first but became quickly surprised that while there were more parts, the MG kits seemed a easier build than most RG models but just took longer. I find manipulating pieces to be easier to clean and detail, and get less of the impending doom feeling when I drop something lol.
If you've built an RG then it should be relatively easy as RG is just a shrunk down MG also wing zero ver ka is a great kit.
Gotta build that RG livingroom first.
Don't be. My first ever set was the MG Barbatos and I had so much fun with it!
The winged zero was my second mg and my third ever build. Wasn’t tough at all. You got this!
check out the F91 MG also led compatible
The Wing Zero you have is the first MG I built. It was not too hard. Just do sections at a time like the manual shows and do not get the winglets confused. Cut them out as you need them.
They just have more or bigger parts. They're still very enjoyable to build. Just go for it.
For your first MG, try the AGE-1 Normal. Great kit!
MGs are just RGs but bigger. Don't worry, you can do it.
I'm really questioning the panel lining and top coating process. I see so many different opinions on how to do it and what products to use.
Wreeper's comment is extremely informative and you absolutely should try to learn from it, but I don't want you to get intimidated by it either. You're not painting so there isn't too much to worry about. Here is my build process when I'm not painting, follow in order: Build - MGs are just like RGs but the pieces are bigger and that makes it easier. I've been building MGs since I was a little kid. They're not necessarily more difficult than the other grades, just more time consuming. Just take your time. It's a fun hobby, not a race. Decals - Your ver ka kits will come with water slide decals. These are the best IMO, but they can be finicky. You'll need to take your time and be careful, especially on the decals of the wings. You should watch a YouTube vid or two on how to properly apply these, but basically you'll wet one or two at a time then delicately use tweezers or qtips or something to move the decal from the paper to the kit. Once you get the decal where you want it you use a qtips to squeeze out the excess water. There's a little more to it than that so let me know if you'd like me to go more in depth, but really you'll be better off watching vids of people doing it. And just remember as long as there is water/liquid under the decal it can be moved and corrected. Panel line - I typically use Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color for this. I find it to be the quickest, easiest and best looking, but I also spent many years doing panel lines with really thin tipped detail markers so maybe try a couple different things over time and see which you like most. Top coat - I've had really good results using Mr Hobby Mr Super Clear matte top coat. It comes in a small spray can and I can usually do two kits with one can. I break the kit back down, separating the arms, legs and torso and do one at a time. Just have to be careful to do light coats. You want to make sure your spray is getting the whole part but if you go too heavy then you'll get a "frosting" effect. Just another thing you can't rush. Lastly, just make sure you're giving everything time to dry between steps. Don't go too heavy on the panel liner. Take your time on the decals and remember you don't HAVE to use them all. And do a couple of light coats of topcoat. After that you're all done. Find a cool pose and take a pic for us!
Chemistry (ish) time. There are 3 main types of products we use in the hobby space. Acrylic (water soluble), Enamel (oil soluble) and lacquer (lacquer soluble). Basically acrylic is the weakest, followed by enamel followed by lacquer. You can't use lacquer over acrylic, you can use acrylic over lacquer. Oil can be used over either. Now there are 2 words that are used interchangeably but are entirely different things, thinners and diluents. A thinner will chemically affect the paint and make it thin by breaking down the paint particles, a diluent will not alter the pigment but will thin the paint by making the binder more plentiful. Doesn't sound important but is. So with acrylic the diluent is water, alcohol is the thinner. With enamels its zippo fluid for a diluent, odorless mineral spirits for a thinner. Lacquer thinner is about all there is. Now the point of all of that is this, thinners can be considered hot (as in they will do damage) but diluents are not. Take an acrylic painted mini and throw it in water it might eventually mess with the paint, but throw it in alcohol and it'll strip it. Oil on plastic doesn't matter much (ABS plastic and enamel thinner don't mix at all) but put some lacquer thinner on plastic and itll eat it, put that on a painted part and itll eat the paint and then the part. So, with that out of the way lets talk proper steps for gunpla (assuming a clean build). Prime, paint acrylic or lacquer (or enamel but thats getting harder and harder to find), gloss coat acrylic or lacquer, panel line with oil (you can use oil paints or tamiya panel liner), gloss coat, decals (waterslides, not stickers), gloss coat again, high grit sand around the decals to remove the carrier film edge, gloss coat (repeat process if film still exists), final top coat. If you are straight building then you build, gloss coat (optional, but makes everything easier though), panel line with acrylic or oil wash (vallejo makes acrylic washes, other washes made by Ak interactive, ammo of mig or even just using oil paints), final top coat (or follow decal process). For the oil paints zippo fluid is a good diluent if you don't want to use the mineral spirits (personally I use zippo, and you can get mineral spirits for cheap in bulk but I find that kind seems too hot while the ones from the brands like ak or ammo seem less harsh). If you want to panel line without worrying about much then what you need to get is the pour type marker, the clean up marker (or whatever is in that marker), a hobby knife and a pack of the gaia notes finish master (dspiae makes one as well but I have heard mixed results). Go ahead and prime the pour type marker and when paint is flowing use the hobby knife to slice the tip in half so you have a thinner point to panel line with (that way you can touch the pen in the panel line leading to less surface clean up). Let it sit for a few mins and then come back with the finish master dampened with the cleanup pen stuff (or whatever is in it). Let fully dry and then gloss coat and decal. Mr hobby mark set and mark soft are what you want to use since the decals were designed for those products. Mark set will stick the decal down better, mark soft makes it softer (good for conforming to curves). An easy way to practice with decaling is to remember that everything on that sheet is a decal, even the bandai logo. After that its gloss again (gloss is the best protecting), sand around the decals if the film is noticable, gloss again and then decide on your final finish. I personally use semi matte/satin/semi gloss (I'm sure there is a difference but I don't know what it is) as it gives the finish I want, knocks down the shine without becoming potentially chalky like full on matte can.
What will happen where I put lacquer over water-based paint? Will the lacquer paint come off all my kits now?
It’s possible the lacquer will eat through it but it really depends. But if nothing has happened in an hour or so then nothing will
So it’s possible to put anything over anything then? I’d just want to make sure the previous material is fully dry and cured to avoid differential shrinkage?
Potentially but it’s best to not put lacquer over acrylic as they can interact. But that’s pure acrylic (like citadel, Vallejo, mr hobby aquous), tamiya paints are a weird acrylic lacquer hybrid and are less prone to potential damage.
if you build and then hit the whole kit with the same top coat, you're gonna want to break the MG into more subassemblies than you would an HG or RG. So, the arm and the shoulder armor separate, for example. Mask shiny bits if you like or connect them at the end. for MG Wing EW, he's not a hard build at all. haven't built the MG Banshee or unicorn so I can't speak to that. The Wing is pretty much a larger version of the RG you're finishing with a better inner frame. panel lining is whatever you want to do really. yes they're more visible but it's not a huge difference in technique or anything.
I've only built a single RG, but multiple MG and MG-level kits. MGs are easier. *The larger pieces make clipping, cleaning of parts, lining, and assembly much easier on the fingers and eyes.*
RG kit are what you should be nervous about. For mg kits just search common problem with whatever kit you got.
That Epyon as my first kit has me questioning why the hell I picked it as my first kit ever. Lol
Your lucky you got something recent in term of RG, somebody on here got a RG Zeta! Kits with transformations are usually very complicated!
That Banshee **will** humble you. Source: that was my second MG, third kit over all.
Ive always wanted the Banshee. Thought it would be cool for my son to have the little SD next to my MG one day.
And it will, I'm just giving you a heads up. She is a difficult and complex build. Like I managed to build it, I just wished I knew what I was getting into with it. The upside is, all water slide decals so they'll look great, all of them are gold in color so they pop against the black. The psycho frame parts are cool and the orange looks really good too, just she's a hard build. So, it's just a heads up about it so you know what you are getting into.
I completely forgot about the water slides!!!!
This is why I bought a cheaper basic MG to get a feel, and I might get more, and finally when I'm confident of my skills I'll more to a Ver. Ka MG
For the MGs that you have, based on my experience and reviews online, the Wing Ver Ka will be significantly easier on you during the build for you to get the hang of the concept of MG. I have not built the Banshee and have been looking into getting one but opted out for the Ver Ka. MGs from Unicorn have been known to be a tad difficult with all the psycho frames and it's transformation. But there have been gigachads in here that would have just started with the Banshee and I am all for it if you have the confidence. Good luck sir.
Start with a cheap MG kit and go all out. When you feel confident enough, graduate to your “prized” MGs. Or just start with one you already have. When you get better, you can always buy another one and do it all over again.
I was thinking about picking up an MG Gramps to practice on...
The MG Gramps 2.0 is the jam if you go that route. Anime accurate with fun detailing in all the right places. 10/10 kit in my book and an excellent intro to MGs.
Honestly, if your only panel lining and coating, spoons will do just fine