From the modeler…

I present to you my Gundam Barbatos Tombstone (Boseki).

I mainly used Vallejo and AK Interactive paints. No airbrush on this project, everything painted by hand.

I wanted to achieve different contrasts for weathering, so i did not to use dry brush or the sponge technique for the weathering. All I used was toothpick. Little rougher around the edges than normal!

I’m still learning, so it’s not perfect. So I kinda ran out of Dry Decals so I had to go with stickers, which came out pretty horrible at some spots. Second, towards the end stages I decided to add some more depth using some Ak Interactive products I never used before. I quickly discovered that my parts were breaking and cracking al over the place, so I ended up gluing a lot of parts back togheter till the point I almost had to give it up. I wanted to do so much more with the filter, I wanted to soften up some spots and add more dynamic to a few specific spots, but I was too afraid to ruin it after what happend.

Note: This is not because AK Interactive is bad, not at all! I wen’t on Reddit and got a pretty good explanation that I will share with you!

“this is a reaction of the enamel solvent (also mineral spirits) with the plastic used in Bandai kits (gundam and star wars) the plastic is still polystyrene like a regular tamiya, revell kit…. BUT it is cooled and injected at different pressures. The turpentine just weakens the chemistry and the stress fractures the bandai plastic.. well – i have suffered the problem also ! yes use a gloss varnish – acrylic preferred. When you apply your wash use small quantities and wipe up the excess — no guarantee but i have used that method.”

Yes, I was not aware! From the start I’ve mainly sticked to one brand, and only used acrylics, so watch out with the enamels. In the end i’m still very pleased by how it turned out. I hope that I can reach to my full potential in the next build!

(Images received via email)





