MG Sinanju Painting Tips
So needing to paint the gold trims on the Sinanju might’ve put some of you off from this kit. Some of you, like me, aren’t exactly meticulous with your hands to paint. Well, here are a few ways of tackling Sinanju’s gold trims courtesy of Dengeki Hobby (and one from me ^^).
1. Cut out the black and apply only the gold trim
This one should come as a no-brainer to anyone who doesn’t want to paint. While it looks easy, you actually need to be very careful so as to not cut into the gold itself. For the most part, it is pretty easy but think… how are you going to tackle the gold curves at the wrist and collar? and do you think you can get the black area between the emblem’s wings? This is just some of the more apparent issues you will run into if you take this route. A very sharp knife is needed for this but that sharpness also increases your chance of screwing up.
2. Applying the water slide decals
Like the gold foil stickers, it’s best that you also trim the decal right at the border of the actual gold trim. With this route, it’s also necessary that you shell out the extra money for Mr. Mark Softener or Mr. Mark Setter. They are toxic chemicals that softens and “melts” the decal onto the plastic so it sticks otherwise it can fall off or make the gold trim look like ass.
3. Paint with Gundam Marker
You can pick up a gold Gundam marker and paint the trim with it directly or dispense the paint into a dish and use a brush (why not just buy a bottle of Mr. Hobby Gold in this case?). Don’t be deceived by the pictures. The paintjob in the photo above is like…smoother than the foil sticker. As easy as it looks, there’s no way any mere mortals can do such a clean job with a Gundam marker(not to mention it’s not THAT easy to clean off excess as well). The photos made the process look like cake. Use a real touch black (or the panel line Gundam marker) to sharpen the edges.
4. Spray paint
Exactly as it looks. Spray paint all in gold then color in the black. This seems like the hardest route to take. Again, not as easy as the photos make it out to be…
5. Masking and spraypaint.
THIS is my favorite route (not). Meticulously cut tiny rectangles and just mask the whole thing (repeatedly!) before spraypainting! Very effective but very time consuming and tedious… so this is not very efficient. Props to you if you want to do this. The blue bottle in the picture is Mr. Masking Sol.
And now… here’s a tip from yours truly…
6.PAINT THE FOIL STICKERS
This idea came to my mind after I got really frustrated with the rounded edges and curves on the shield. This method is simple; just paint the foil stickers and apply. You’ll still get the painted look but the lines will be cleaner. It’s also much easier this way too since you’re not fretting about getting paint all over. HOWEVER! There are some drawbacks…
- You can only do this for half of the foil sheets. Mainly The foil stickers that doesn’t have any black in them. Still, this is a great time saver.
- This doesn’t save you from the cracks/gaps/seams that the foil stickers will leave from fitment
- Crease marks and bends are more noticeable due to the paint.
- You can risk having the paint seeping into the adhesive part.
- a pointer: do either spray a little top coat or primer onto the foil sticker. The paint doesn’t stick well onto the foil. I had to apply multiple layers.
Since I have an ego over foil stickers, I only used this method on the red part of the shield (pictured above). That’s as far as I’ll go. The black part of the shield is handbrushed. The two blends perfectly. I’ll continue to handbrush the rest of the model. This method is only a last resort for the painting route to escape tough situations.
Hope this helps some of you.
