1/1700 Musai Progress

Jan 30, 2005: I picked up a 1/1700 EX Musai yesterday and first put the thing together. Granted the size is incredibly small, but there are some really nice details. The EX line that bandai pushes out are smaller kits made for the more fanatical gunpla folks. Since this is such a niche kit, this results in exorbitant prices, this kit cost 32.00. But being that I'm fit into the fanatical gunpla niche of modelers, I picked this guy up.

Below are pictures of the kit just snapped together to get a general size reference so that I can work on the base as I build the kit. The following pictures are from primed and then the first coat.

I learned a new technique today while chatting with one of the owners of Best1Hobby. Apparently acrylics can be thinned with Mr Color Thinner (Lacquer thinner). This produces a few interesting effects. The paint dries much much faster than when thinned with alcohol. The paint seems to adhere better to the plastic as opposed to being airbrushed with alcohol thinner. I will continue to test this new technique as time progresses, like cure time and strength in comparison to a piece sprayed using alcohol as a thinner. If this pans out, then I have now have a way to get the results of lacquer paints with acrylic. The first coat of paint is tamyia gloss white thinned with Mr Color Thinner.

The last picture is the base I will be creating. Using the base stand that comes with the kit, I glued styrofoam pieces and this will eventually make for an asteroid of some sort. Following this, I will be adding plaster cloth and going to experiment with celluclay.

January 31, 2005: Update on the acrylic thinned with Mr Color. After allowing about 24 hours to dry, the surface looks and feels as if it was cured for a week. I tried the scratching test and it took some strength to get the paint off. I'm happy with these results. Now if I am in a hurry to paint, I can use Mr Color thinner to thin the acrylics and to speed up my work time. The first picture was take last night after I had finished painting a coat of tamyia clear green over the white. Again I thinned the acrylic with mr color thinner. The following two shots are of the base. I had placed plaster cloth over the bare styrofoam and plastic base yesterday. Tonight, I added celluclay (my first time working with the stuff) and it seemed to go on fairly nicely. I added some details to the astroid using a both ends of a brush; then used a hair dryer to airdry the majority of the clay to see what resulted. Hopefully the celluclay will be completely dry tomorrow so that I can work on painting the base. The next set of pictures are what's done so far with the kit. I painted all the parts, and have layered on a couple of coat of future. I'll allow this to dry for a day or two (hopefully I won't get ansy and only let a day go by) then it's on to the wash and final coat of future + flat base. If all goes well, this little kit should be done by the end of the week.

 

 

Update Information:

Another kit that I wasn't overly satisfied with so I never took completed pictures.

 

 

 

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