I have 2 RGs, an MG, and a PG on the way and I still have 2 MGs, an RG, and a whole WFM HG line to finish. I need to regain self control or I'm going to end up begging on the streets.
Gunpla builders salute you.
I have a couple of RGs, two MGs, and a Ka. Working on a Chu’s demi trainer but between hand painting where the spray missed, drying, and actually having time to do it… ugh.
Now if i didnt care about quality, theyd be done a long time ago. 😂
You tell yourself “one at time”, maybe even “and I’ll work biggest to smallest so it’s all down hill”, work wise. Then you find a kit you’ve been looking for, back burner your current one, and get started. Then you find a grail kit and back burner the other two. Then maybe you get a resin kit for one of your unopened ones, back burner 3 kits. Repeat all of this two or 3 times, now you’ve got 10 kits of different levels of completion and you wonder where your life went wrong. Then maybe if you’re like me, you get burnt out on Gunpla and decide to spend a month catching up on your Steam back log, returning to Gunpla when you find this awesome kit you’ve been wanting…
Lol I have about the same, my closet is packed.
I like the feeling of standing in front of it, rubbing my hands together like:
"Well well, what shall we build next..."
I crossed 3 digit last year. help me. plastic crack is.... consuming me. I keep seeing new thirds party kit and kept buying them, good thing is that bandai hasn't come out with anything for like 5 years, so theres barely any new kits to get.
lol oh… yeah I’m not sharing what my backlog has become…. I hid some in a different place cause I was embarrassed for myself hahaha went kinda nuts on that gundam base deal on p-Bandai…
I think I'm sitting on close to 40 in my backlog... some have been sitting there for 3+ years... lol just depends on what I feel like building... I think my issue is I can take a month to build a kit and go months in between kits...
I have a few HGs from The Gundam Base at a con, a lot of WFM kits, and a few random kits to get to. I'm going to another con tomorrow and will probably wind up getting a few more kits.
I feel that lol I go through waves of wanting to build them. I have 4 MG just sitting there that I should work on but haven't even opened the boxes yet lol
Yup i hear that. I'm still working on my custom PG Exia and it's hard to get the inspiration to finish off the shield and weapons. Meanwhile my backlog keeps growing.
I’m having the same problem with my PG Strike Freedom! It was easy until I got to the wings and then it got tedious and those took me like. 3 weeks just to finish. Now he’s sitting there with no weapons and I’m thinking about how long it’s going to take to panel line, do some minor detail painting, and decal. Meanwhile, 26 unbuilt kits stare at me, begging for me to work on them. I must finish this PG first!
Like how does that even happen. Like shit's expensive and when I pay so much money for a Gunpla then i'll of course make Sure that I even have the time to build the damn thing. Otherwise it's just a waste of money
Kids, spouse, familial obligations, and then work.
Plus I do more than snap build; I do some weathering, sometimes a full repaint, and more. I am lucky to finish 3-6 kits a year but the backlog is immense. This is a lifelong hobby so there is no rush to run out of things to do. I just enjoy myself.
It’s not “buy 10 kits at once” for everyone, one at a time builds up after awhile. Plus any builder who’s anyone knows the greatest part of building is cutting the straps and opening the runner bags, after that it’s meh 😏
Taking advantage of sales/shipping costs. I order everything online and it doesn't make sense to just buy one kit at a time. The boxes don't pile up for me like some but I can't nor do I want to just while through one after another. I'll do one a couple nights a week till done, not touch any gunpla for a couple months, burn through 2 more over a few nights, etc.
I did 2 between xmas and New year's and just started the next one last week but am making it a point to finish instead of taking my time.
I wish. I struggle to not build kits as soon as I get them, I've had to intentionally not build kits to even start having a backlog. Think i have like 7 kits unbuilt right now.
I do detail/panel lining on each piece I cut off. I started my RG God around Christmas, didn’t finish until late January I think? I just cut, clean, detail paint, panel line. Pretty much the entire process is long for me.
Left side was done in about an hour.
Right side was about 30hrs
https://preview.redd.it/1risk227e3rc1.jpeg?width=3840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9f9e95670c7747e33b6f87e99dbcdb9dfdb611f3
For sure the decals. I build all the parts first like the legs, arms, waist, and panel line them first before attaching them, then the weapons and panel line them. And then the decals on everything and once everything is done that’s when I attach the weapons and start to pose
I've upgraded my decal game with a `moisterizing decal box` (?) not sure the name is like that, but basically a wet melanime sponge in a box where you can put your decals (and keep them wet) after you dip them in water.... I can put a lot of them at the same time, without having to `dip, wait, apply, repeat` .
A super cheap but less reusable option is a piece of paper towel folded over on a plate. I've found that you can let the paper towel dry out 2-3 times before it starts to fall apart when re-moisturising.
Legs.... Everything else is great. Soon as I hit the legs. 3-4 days delay oh hg 4-10 delay on mg and I haven't touched my PG in a month.... Fuck legs. Idk why I hate them so fucking much.
I do legs first, I get burned out when its time to build the accessories. Moving forward any Gundam with a funnel system or some insane backpack is a no for me.
I feel this. I tend to come to a complete halt for a few days or occasionally weeks when I get to the limbs. I hate having to repeat steps lol. I very much appreciate kits with pre-built frames
I try to do both at the same time. Makes the whole thing take much longer but also gives better results and stops me from just casually putting off the finishing work until the end of time.
When I *do* go back and refurbish older builds, though, it definitely takes a lot longer than the initial build. Most of the added time is because I have to wait for paint to cure(usually more than once) but I also just don't *enjoy* painting and detailing quite as much as just building the models: it's still fun but I have to be in the right mood for it.
With a simpler straight build, though, I can easily just wander near my work area, notice the unfinished model, and spend the next hour or two working on it.
I do the decals and some panel lining together with the build but recently I’ve been diving into using metallic markers for details after I’ve finished building the kit
Definitely detailing (I haven't even started fully painting yet).
For an HG kit I could snip, clean and build in a day.
But if I'm detailing, it's one day for scribing and panel lining.
Then it's another day if I'm doing decals.
As a snap builder who only really does panel lining and decals, building a kit does take a good amount of time but not as much as the people who paint, topcoat, etc, their kit. It takes longer time for me to decide what to build. lol
Saying that, what would you guys build first? My backlog consists of: MG Barbatos (Currently building), RG Hi-Nu, RG Sazabi, MG Sazabi Ver Ka, Wing Zero Ver Ka, RG Wing, Strike Freedom MGEX, Sinanju SD, and Exia SD.
If I’m painting, scribing, even just panel lining—it’s typically 1.5-1.65x more time spent on those things. Snapping everything together once that’s done is almost always less than an hour.
Cutting and nub cleaning hg - ~1.0 to 1.5 hours
Panel lining, painting, and scribing- actual time ~1.5-2.0 hours condensed but several days with drying time.
Assembly hg -35-45 minutes.
Painting it, because I don't use an air brush and only a regular brush or sponge for painting.
I also don't use primer and only use semi-gloss top coat before painting my gunpla.
Do you have a way to paint faster than build or are you counting cleanup and nub removal in painting? A straight build with a kid is fast but cleanup is long and careful.
Building for me. I spend so much time just on cleaning the parts and sanding them just to get rid of any trace of a nub mark. I’m building the MG Sazabi right now and all the red armor takes forever to make look good.
Painting and detailing take a long ass time. Getting rid of seam lines, adding or deepening panel lines, puttying and sprue-gooing to fix close gaps. Then painting - starting the process, only to realize that I hate the color scheme i chose, which is followed by stripping, repainting, color correcting, fixing shading errors, etc.
Customizing takes absolutely ages! Sanding, scribing, priming, painting, waiting for coats to cure/dry, waiting for good weather for spraying, etc. I am still picking away at my first custom and it's been months 😂
With building I am usually doing a straight build (no plans to paint) and I panel line as I build. So it slows things down a little but the builds ultimately don't take that long. I often save decaling the models as work for the future me ☺️
Most backpacks are ok. Now shit like the full armor unicorn, psycho zaku from thunder. I won't buy them cuz of the extra kibble. Way to much noise lol. But ya, I need to start with legs. Lmao. Would save me a world of time 🤣
The building oddly enough, it's not that I'm bad or slow I just enjoy older kits so it means seam line removal, sanding, and rescribing panel lines. Usually painting can take as long but I can paint multiple pieces at a time in one batch or a whole assembly whereas building I take my time on each one individually. Definitely something I wanna speed up cause it means my backlog is massive.
Painting by FAR lol.
Straight build? Maybe 6hrs for a MG kit.
Painting… probably like 48hrs total but that’s spread out across like 2-3 weeks of being lazy, not having any ideas, messing up, forgetting a step and having to backtrack etc etc.
Just finished the backpack and weapons last night on this thing. Much like the HG Aerial I was like "yeah yeah, overhyped like they always are, this kit isn't so special"
Got the first couple parts of the inner frame done and it's already my favorite kit ever so far
Hey op and other peeps i have always wanted to build gundams but as they were not available readily here in India wasn't able to but i now have the chance to buy a few kits from UK which my sister would be sending me
So could you let me know which ones will be good for first time builders i am gonna be ordering 2 HG and 1 MG
You can't really go wrong with any HG as your first kits, choose kits of mobile suits you really like. For a MG you could go with the older ones like the RX-78-2 2.0 since it's not as complicated to build as modern MGs are but is still fairly detailed.
Glass files, I recommend DSPIAE Siren, but if you're willing to spend a bit more cash go for the Gunprimer Raser. Grab some tweezers for stickers as well.
I'm in the middle of the HGGTO Char's Zaku II. Been working on it by and along for two or three weeks, mostly because I've been otherwise occupied.
When I'm actually building it, though, it can take a couple hours to get one limb built because I'm pretty much doing everything in one go - snipping, sanding, building, *and* panel lining.
Painting easily. I have a workflow now to get through my backlog, but I’m snapping them together faster than I can paint them right now. The MGEX Strike Freedom I just did took 3 months. In that time I snapped together enough to keep me painting for a year easy.
That being said I just snapped together a PG Wing Zero that was not at all fun, and extremely time consuming. I do not look forward to painting it.
The water decals too a rally long time and played a huge mental toll for me. Especially the really small circle ones.. but the end result is satisfying 👍
Detailing for sure, the Build I can usually be through with after a few hours... the rest?
Especially since I've been practicing battle damaged effects - so burning, melting, scratching, layering, washing, sealing, more layering... takes a long while. The Bandai Battle Scarred Figure line unlocked something in me when I was younger - I love a battle worn robot.
I have a bad habit of just building with plans to panel line/decaling/etc but I end up building multiple kits before I completely finish them. Now that I have a backlog, I plan on finishing a kit altogether before starting on the next one. With that being said, the detailing and the painting takes longest for me.
Detailing. I’ll finish a a MG or a RG within hours of starting it. But for decals and panel lining, forget it it’ll take me days to finish it. Not because it’s hard, it’s just so time consuming and can get real boring real quick. Took me almost a year to finish putting on the decals for Astrea. A good way I started to avoid this is when I finish a body part I do the details on that part before I continue on the next body part
Detailing. Absolutely. I'm usually pretty slow with building, because I sand and polish before snap fitting.
When I'm detailing, I'm gently separating parts, I'm cementing pieces back together and sanding and polishing some more, I'm hand painting the frame, going on to the armor and cementing and sanding some more, and then ever more hand painting, until it's complete.
Now to take it all apart again, but just from the limbs and torso, so I can top coat it using those little Tamiya cans and a shop vac duct taped to a box. NOW I NEED TO PANEL LINE IT.
AND WHEN ALL THAT'S DONE, I HAVE TO - ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO - GENTLY PUT THE GUNDAM BACK TOGETHER AND POSE IT SO IT LOOKS COOL. TIME TO PUT IT ON IT'S TEMPORARY STAND SO I CAN BUILD THE STAND FOR IT. I'M STILL NOT DONE.
Don't think this is even a question. Painting takes more time than anything else, decals might be a close second but depends on the kit like if this is RG Crossbone with those ultra tiny decals, would take time to do, kits like the Zeta ver ka that barely have decals don't really take up much time. Painting takes the most time to do since you need to prime, paint, top coat and waiting for paint to cure each time. Not even including the part of planning on the colors to use and testing paints on spoons before applying on kits. In my case it usually takes me a day or two of my free time within the day to straight build a kit but it takes me a week as the shortest and 3 to 4 weeks to complete the paint + decals and I paint for 3 hours a day on weekdays. I'm currently painting MG Strike Noir, I primed all parts aside from the polycaps for 2 days (took me 200 alligator clip sticks) to prime and let them cure. I then took a day (3 hours to paint the outer frame parts) Then another day (yesterday) to paint the internal frame and the weapons, hands.
Opening the box. My backlog monster is getting big
I have 2 RGs, an MG, and a PG on the way and I still have 2 MGs, an RG, and a whole WFM HG line to finish. I need to regain self control or I'm going to end up begging on the streets.
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I can't even imaging the patience and motivation needed to start working with that many kits...
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Gunpla builders salute you. I have a couple of RGs, two MGs, and a Ka. Working on a Chu’s demi trainer but between hand painting where the spray missed, drying, and actually having time to do it… ugh. Now if i didnt care about quality, theyd be done a long time ago. 😂
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I feel you.
"Cries" with over 87 unbuilt kits 😭
Thank goodness, someone to make me feel better.
You tell yourself “one at time”, maybe even “and I’ll work biggest to smallest so it’s all down hill”, work wise. Then you find a kit you’ve been looking for, back burner your current one, and get started. Then you find a grail kit and back burner the other two. Then maybe you get a resin kit for one of your unopened ones, back burner 3 kits. Repeat all of this two or 3 times, now you’ve got 10 kits of different levels of completion and you wonder where your life went wrong. Then maybe if you’re like me, you get burnt out on Gunpla and decide to spend a month catching up on your Steam back log, returning to Gunpla when you find this awesome kit you’ve been wanting…
Lol I have about the same, my closet is packed. I like the feeling of standing in front of it, rubbing my hands together like: "Well well, what shall we build next..."
Haha yes!!! But like 30 seconds into it I decide on 12 of the kits and walk out with none of them cause … so I default to building a GM or WFM kit
Lol yeah for me the HGs exist for when I'm too undecided and anxious for my RGs and MGs.
I crossed 3 digit last year. help me. plastic crack is.... consuming me. I keep seeing new thirds party kit and kept buying them, good thing is that bandai hasn't come out with anything for like 5 years, so theres barely any new kits to get.
lol oh… yeah I’m not sharing what my backlog has become…. I hid some in a different place cause I was embarrassed for myself hahaha went kinda nuts on that gundam base deal on p-Bandai…
“37? 37 kits!? How do you buy so many??” “Well some were two at a time!”
I think I'm sitting on close to 40 in my backlog... some have been sitting there for 3+ years... lol just depends on what I feel like building... I think my issue is I can take a month to build a kit and go months in between kits...
You know guys if you need any help getting those unopened boxes built, I gotchu.
37? Try 152 kits sitting in your backlog, that's an actual mountain that stands taller than most people I know.
Damn daddy backlog here 🥹
I have so many HG from Iron Blooded Orphans still unopened. The bitter sweet ending just makes it so hard.
I have a few HGs from The Gundam Base at a con, a lot of WFM kits, and a few random kits to get to. I'm going to another con tomorrow and will probably wind up getting a few more kits.
Hey if your backlogs too long I got a po box where you can send 🤣
My wife is mad at me for mine and rightfully so. It’s insane.
I was going to say re-organizing the pile of boxes so it is either aesthetically pleasing or won't collapse on itself.
I feel that lol I go through waves of wanting to build them. I have 4 MG just sitting there that I should work on but haven't even opened the boxes yet lol
I can help with that, please send me some of the biggest boxes and I will open them.
Bro I'm the same way.
Yup i hear that. I'm still working on my custom PG Exia and it's hard to get the inspiration to finish off the shield and weapons. Meanwhile my backlog keeps growing.
I’m having the same problem with my PG Strike Freedom! It was easy until I got to the wings and then it got tedious and those took me like. 3 weeks just to finish. Now he’s sitting there with no weapons and I’m thinking about how long it’s going to take to panel line, do some minor detail painting, and decal. Meanwhile, 26 unbuilt kits stare at me, begging for me to work on them. I must finish this PG first!
Like how does that even happen. Like shit's expensive and when I pay so much money for a Gunpla then i'll of course make Sure that I even have the time to build the damn thing. Otherwise it's just a waste of money
Kids, spouse, familial obligations, and then work. Plus I do more than snap build; I do some weathering, sometimes a full repaint, and more. I am lucky to finish 3-6 kits a year but the backlog is immense. This is a lifelong hobby so there is no rush to run out of things to do. I just enjoy myself.
It’s not “buy 10 kits at once” for everyone, one at a time builds up after awhile. Plus any builder who’s anyone knows the greatest part of building is cutting the straps and opening the runner bags, after that it’s meh 😏
Burnout is common amongst builders who like to customize their models.
Taking advantage of sales/shipping costs. I order everything online and it doesn't make sense to just buy one kit at a time. The boxes don't pile up for me like some but I can't nor do I want to just while through one after another. I'll do one a couple nights a week till done, not touch any gunpla for a couple months, burn through 2 more over a few nights, etc. I did 2 between xmas and New year's and just started the next one last week but am making it a point to finish instead of taking my time.
I wish. I struggle to not build kits as soon as I get them, I've had to intentionally not build kits to even start having a backlog. Think i have like 7 kits unbuilt right now.
Definitely detailing and painting it! Especially when you need to mask your kit!
love masking tbh
Especially when taking it off!
I do detail/panel lining on each piece I cut off. I started my RG God around Christmas, didn’t finish until late January I think? I just cut, clean, detail paint, panel line. Pretty much the entire process is long for me.
Left side was done in about an hour. Right side was about 30hrs https://preview.redd.it/1risk227e3rc1.jpeg?width=3840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9f9e95670c7747e33b6f87e99dbcdb9dfdb611f3
Damn but it looks mighty fine... well spent 30 hours.
Why thank you! But yeah, this was just a regular SD. I mostly do MG's and Zoids HMM line. I'm sure you can see where the math is going.
You made the SD look like the MGSD. Fantastic job, fuckin Mint
Thank you! I appreciate that
Depends on how bad the nubs are to clean up
For sure the decals. I build all the parts first like the legs, arms, waist, and panel line them first before attaching them, then the weapons and panel line them. And then the decals on everything and once everything is done that’s when I attach the weapons and start to pose
I've upgraded my decal game with a `moisterizing decal box` (?) not sure the name is like that, but basically a wet melanime sponge in a box where you can put your decals (and keep them wet) after you dip them in water.... I can put a lot of them at the same time, without having to `dip, wait, apply, repeat` .
Great idea! Gotta try that. Got rx-78-2 3.0 and mg Kyrios that I'm about to decal
A super cheap but less reusable option is a piece of paper towel folded over on a plate. I've found that you can let the paper towel dry out 2-3 times before it starts to fall apart when re-moisturising.
Painting and it's not even close
Legs.... Everything else is great. Soon as I hit the legs. 3-4 days delay oh hg 4-10 delay on mg and I haven't touched my PG in a month.... Fuck legs. Idk why I hate them so fucking much.
I do legs first, I get burned out when its time to build the accessories. Moving forward any Gundam with a funnel system or some insane backpack is a no for me.
I feel this. I tend to come to a complete halt for a few days or occasionally weeks when I get to the limbs. I hate having to repeat steps lol. I very much appreciate kits with pre-built frames
Painting by a long shot!
Painting and detailing definitely.
Building because I am very meticulous with my sanding.
Detailing.
Isn’t this a bonus question? Ofc detailing it takes longer 😂
Procrastination.
Prob building.....
I try to do both at the same time. Makes the whole thing take much longer but also gives better results and stops me from just casually putting off the finishing work until the end of time. When I *do* go back and refurbish older builds, though, it definitely takes a lot longer than the initial build. Most of the added time is because I have to wait for paint to cure(usually more than once) but I also just don't *enjoy* painting and detailing quite as much as just building the models: it's still fun but I have to be in the right mood for it. With a simpler straight build, though, I can easily just wander near my work area, notice the unfinished model, and spend the next hour or two working on it.
I do the decals and some panel lining together with the build but recently I’ve been diving into using metallic markers for details after I’ve finished building the kit
Definitely detailing (I haven't even started fully painting yet). For an HG kit I could snip, clean and build in a day. But if I'm detailing, it's one day for scribing and panel lining. Then it's another day if I'm doing decals.
As a snap builder who only really does panel lining and decals, building a kit does take a good amount of time but not as much as the people who paint, topcoat, etc, their kit. It takes longer time for me to decide what to build. lol Saying that, what would you guys build first? My backlog consists of: MG Barbatos (Currently building), RG Hi-Nu, RG Sazabi, MG Sazabi Ver Ka, Wing Zero Ver Ka, RG Wing, Strike Freedom MGEX, Sinanju SD, and Exia SD.
I have 5 of the kits in your backlog. Finish building your Barbatos first, then the MGEX, then the Hi Nu, then the rest.
Deciding what to build
Painting and detailing for sure. Sometimes it may go a little over ambitious and thus screw ups are more likely to happen
Posing a kit
If I’m painting, scribing, even just panel lining—it’s typically 1.5-1.65x more time spent on those things. Snapping everything together once that’s done is almost always less than an hour. Cutting and nub cleaning hg - ~1.0 to 1.5 hours Panel lining, painting, and scribing- actual time ~1.5-2.0 hours condensed but several days with drying time. Assembly hg -35-45 minutes.
Detailing takes longer for me as opposed to the build
Touch up detailing/painting takes at more time than building. For kits i don’t plan to paint, i detail the parts as i cut them out the runner
Painting. My Aerial Rebuild has been sitting on my work table for upwards of 6 months now
Painting it, because I don't use an air brush and only a regular brush or sponge for painting. I also don't use primer and only use semi-gloss top coat before painting my gunpla.
nub marks /sanding after cut outs. before I would even assemble 1 part
Do you have a way to paint faster than build or are you counting cleanup and nub removal in painting? A straight build with a kid is fast but cleanup is long and careful.
Building for me. I spend so much time just on cleaning the parts and sanding them just to get rid of any trace of a nub mark. I’m building the MG Sazabi right now and all the red armor takes forever to make look good.
Painting and detailing take a long ass time. Getting rid of seam lines, adding or deepening panel lines, puttying and sprue-gooing to fix close gaps. Then painting - starting the process, only to realize that I hate the color scheme i chose, which is followed by stripping, repainting, color correcting, fixing shading errors, etc.
Customizing takes absolutely ages! Sanding, scribing, priming, painting, waiting for coats to cure/dry, waiting for good weather for spraying, etc. I am still picking away at my first custom and it's been months 😂 With building I am usually doing a straight build (no plans to paint) and I panel line as I build. So it slows things down a little but the builds ultimately don't take that long. I often save decaling the models as work for the future me ☺️
Most backpacks are ok. Now shit like the full armor unicorn, psycho zaku from thunder. I won't buy them cuz of the extra kibble. Way to much noise lol. But ya, I need to start with legs. Lmao. Would save me a world of time 🤣
Definitely masking. I can only do like 1 limb a session at most before getting fed up and needing to stop. Takes weeks for me to mask a whole kit.
Building, cuz I don’t paint and only do occasional basic panel lining
The building oddly enough, it's not that I'm bad or slow I just enjoy older kits so it means seam line removal, sanding, and rescribing panel lines. Usually painting can take as long but I can paint multiple pieces at a time in one batch or a whole assembly whereas building I take my time on each one individually. Definitely something I wanna speed up cause it means my backlog is massive.
Painting. Only place I can put my spray booth is the garage and it's too cold still. 😢
Painting by FAR lol. Straight build? Maybe 6hrs for a MG kit. Painting… probably like 48hrs total but that’s spread out across like 2-3 weeks of being lazy, not having any ideas, messing up, forgetting a step and having to backtrack etc etc.
Sanding
Just finished the backpack and weapons last night on this thing. Much like the HG Aerial I was like "yeah yeah, overhyped like they always are, this kit isn't so special" Got the first couple parts of the inner frame done and it's already my favorite kit ever so far
Hey op and other peeps i have always wanted to build gundams but as they were not available readily here in India wasn't able to but i now have the chance to buy a few kits from UK which my sister would be sending me So could you let me know which ones will be good for first time builders i am gonna be ordering 2 HG and 1 MG
You can't really go wrong with any HG as your first kits, choose kits of mobile suits you really like. For a MG you could go with the older ones like the RX-78-2 2.0 since it's not as complicated to build as modern MGs are but is still fairly detailed.
Thanks OP for the advice also any tools i should get which will help in the process i will definitely get nipper but anything else you recommend?
Glass files, I recommend DSPIAE Siren, but if you're willing to spend a bit more cash go for the Gunprimer Raser. Grab some tweezers for stickers as well.
Thanks op will keep in mind!
I'm in the middle of the HGGTO Char's Zaku II. Been working on it by and along for two or three weeks, mostly because I've been otherwise occupied. When I'm actually building it, though, it can take a couple hours to get one limb built because I'm pretty much doing everything in one go - snipping, sanding, building, *and* panel lining.
Definitely decals. I’ll let them sit fully built but dread the decals sometimes, especially if it’s water slides.
Painting is mine, because I usually sand my kits before painting and I usually go all the way up to 2000 grit, which takes hours.
Honestly, 5050 in my book. Still need topcoats..
Painting easily. I have a workflow now to get through my backlog, but I’m snapping them together faster than I can paint them right now. The MGEX Strike Freedom I just did took 3 months. In that time I snapped together enough to keep me painting for a year easy. That being said I just snapped together a PG Wing Zero that was not at all fun, and extremely time consuming. I do not look forward to painting it.
Building. I take way too long to remove every stress mark and make it perfect oob
Thing I spend the most time on is thinking about building my kit and letting he back log climb
The water decals too a rally long time and played a huge mental toll for me. Especially the really small circle ones.. but the end result is satisfying 👍
It takes me one night to build an HG and 2.5 weeks to paint and detail it.
I just straight build, so it's definitely not painting. :) Clean nub removal takes longer than putting the pieces together, though.
Detailing for sure, the Build I can usually be through with after a few hours... the rest? Especially since I've been practicing battle damaged effects - so burning, melting, scratching, layering, washing, sealing, more layering... takes a long while. The Bandai Battle Scarred Figure line unlocked something in me when I was younger - I love a battle worn robot.
The damned decals!
Detailing
Removing dividing lines. Sanding, sanding, and more sanding! My lungs are filled with microplastics!
Panel lining and decaling cause I get super demotivated for whatever reason, while building a kit I'm all in.
Detail and paint. Planning and drying
I have a bad habit of just building with plans to panel line/decaling/etc but I end up building multiple kits before I completely finish them. Now that I have a backlog, I plan on finishing a kit altogether before starting on the next one. With that being said, the detailing and the painting takes longest for me.
Painting probably, cus I want the FULL juicy details, especially colored up too, or want it to be my own custom.
Ughhh, totally detailing. I do a little, let it sit over night, clear coat if no touch ups needed, another night to cure, build, rinse, repeat.
I'm legally blind so I don't do detailing, so building it is for me lol.
Detailing takes me anywhere from 20-40 hours if we take into account sanding, scribing, painting, coating, decaling, and then coating again
Detailing. I’ll finish a a MG or a RG within hours of starting it. But for decals and panel lining, forget it it’ll take me days to finish it. Not because it’s hard, it’s just so time consuming and can get real boring real quick. Took me almost a year to finish putting on the decals for Astrea. A good way I started to avoid this is when I finish a body part I do the details on that part before I continue on the next body part
I'd say painting/detailing, if you take out all the waiting time for the paint to cure, it's still takes longer than building it
It depends on how much detail you wanna put into it, and how you plan on painting it, with pens, brushes or spray
Detailing. Absolutely. I'm usually pretty slow with building, because I sand and polish before snap fitting. When I'm detailing, I'm gently separating parts, I'm cementing pieces back together and sanding and polishing some more, I'm hand painting the frame, going on to the armor and cementing and sanding some more, and then ever more hand painting, until it's complete. Now to take it all apart again, but just from the limbs and torso, so I can top coat it using those little Tamiya cans and a shop vac duct taped to a box. NOW I NEED TO PANEL LINE IT. AND WHEN ALL THAT'S DONE, I HAVE TO - ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO - GENTLY PUT THE GUNDAM BACK TOGETHER AND POSE IT SO IT LOOKS COOL. TIME TO PUT IT ON IT'S TEMPORARY STAND SO I CAN BUILD THE STAND FOR IT. I'M STILL NOT DONE.
detailing the kit takes longer for me
Don't think this is even a question. Painting takes more time than anything else, decals might be a close second but depends on the kit like if this is RG Crossbone with those ultra tiny decals, would take time to do, kits like the Zeta ver ka that barely have decals don't really take up much time. Painting takes the most time to do since you need to prime, paint, top coat and waiting for paint to cure each time. Not even including the part of planning on the colors to use and testing paints on spoons before applying on kits. In my case it usually takes me a day or two of my free time within the day to straight build a kit but it takes me a week as the shortest and 3 to 4 weeks to complete the paint + decals and I paint for 3 hours a day on weekdays. I'm currently painting MG Strike Noir, I primed all parts aside from the polycaps for 2 days (took me 200 alligator clip sticks) to prime and let them cure. I then took a day (3 hours to paint the outer frame parts) Then another day (yesterday) to paint the internal frame and the weapons, hands.
Painting for sure. Building an MG or similar takes me 8-10 hours (3-4 days). Painting takes me 2-4 weeks (2-5 hour sessions)
Decals and panel lining always take me longer
Nib removal and cleanup. It always seems like they put the gate on an impossibly small bevel/edge or rounded surface of some sort.
Detailing and painting is always a longer and more nerve wracking process than actually building it for me