2011/04/25

Stickers? No Thanks.

I know it's not for everyone, but I feel as a modeler for 12 years, the foil stickers these kits come with are a bit of an insult. It may be time consuming and sometimes expensive, but painting parts to correct colors to spite their stickers always bring a much more satisfying result!

Take for example the HGUC kits of MSN-06S Sinanju and NZ-666 Kshatriya. These delicate tiny foil stickers would end up being more of a nuisance. They could fold up on themselves, be wrongly positioned, rip, come loose around bends, wrinkle around curves... I could go on. And, unfortunately, these problems also exist with the more necessary clear stickers, too...



But, with some patience and a lot of effort, you CAN get a beautiful result, even on these small kits!


Once again, I must say, this isn't for everyone. I officially killed a Gundam Marker Gold doing the Sinanju because of layering (The gold tends to flake unless multiple layers are holding it together, somehow). Luckily I have a spare, but I wasn't expecting to lose a full marker on one kit!


The Kshatriya was a bit more tedious, as I refused to primer the surface and potentially lose the detail definition. So, once again, about three layers of white paint was used to coat those sleeve and chest designs.
On both kits, the black was repainted to cover any leakage. Not entirely successful but still a pleasing result. A smaller brush would have helped, but meh.
Still, it's better than a peeling-up sticker that's lost its adhesiveness.

I always look at a new kit with a lot of small details (Many from the Gundam UC series are guilty of this) and just say...

2 comments:

Joe said...

I can most definitely appreciate the sentiments here! I haven't used the foil stickers in years now. I only keep them as reference of what colors to paint where.

I would suggest a small brush next time, as you mentioned, but your results are very good. a bit of ink around the edges to define the details and the gold and white trim will be perfect. I almost never go hog wild on my kits, but this simple painting of details is a must. Great job.

OZKai said...

@Joe

I at least attempt to make the 1/144 kits as accurate as their original line art (compensating for discrepancies, of course). I'm considering after I touch up the gold to do a yellow clear-coat over the trim, but I don't know if I'll like the final color as much on the Sinanju vs. the EW Gundams.

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