LGG – Misc

Welcome to the pla plate tutorial, where Gunpla starts needing some expert level craftsmanship. Now, don’t get me wrong, pla plating at it’s simplest isn’t too difficult to manage. It’s when you go down the rabbit hole of customization that time, patience, and skill really comes into play. More of that later, for now, the basics.

Pla Plates

Pla plates, short for plastic plates, is the term generally used by gunpla modelers to refer to what’s commonly known as styrene sheeting. Styrene, a type of plastic, is a preferred material produced for modelers looking to scratch build or customize their projects. It’s fairly common and applies to many hobbies, most commonly model trains, making it quite common in hobby shops. In the United States many shops feature a shelf with plates from Evergreen Scale Models or Plastruct. read more

One of the easiest ways to add unique details to your project is through the use of option parts. Option parts are a generic term for accessories ranging from thrusters, hatches, and other details to extra and unique weapons. Kotobukiya makes the most options parts under their Modeling Support Goods (M.S.G.) line (HLJ / Hobby Search). Bandai has their own line called Builder’s Parts (HLJ / Gundam Planet).

Option kits featuring weapons or stands come with instructions and can be built like any other kit. Kotobukiya’s weapons generally come with standard attach points that allow them to be easily utilized with their original models. The fun stuff is the random patches, panels, rivets, thrusters, spikes, lenses and others armament details. These can be glued to your kit in any number of ways to really change how a kit looks. Where you add them, how many you add, it’s all up to you. Painting is generally recommended but if your kit already has a bunch of gray components you might be able to add some option parts without having to paint. read more

Seen these before?

Click to Enlarge 

They’re little thruster nozzles found on a lot of older kits. Most of the time they get a little lining and are left alone. A shame because with a little effort they can add great detail to a kit. It’s probably one of the oldest tricks in the book but I don’t see it that often. Maybe it’s because newer kits don’t feature these as prevalently, maybe it’s because fallen out of style or out of mind. All I know is that it looks great, is very inexpensive, and it’s really easy to do. All it takes besides your usual tools are some round IC sockets and a screwdriver. read more

Sig Super Stripe in an interesting product I saw laying around at my local hobby shop. It’s a tape with a fuel resistant adhesive meant for making easy pin stripes on RC cars.

Always inquisitive I picked some up to see how it fared on gunpla. Cutting to the chase, it looks pretty good.

Click to Enlarge | On Flickr

Click to Enlarge | On Flickr

For the most part it’s easy to apply and adds a nice look to a kit. Between the color and width choices there’s a lot of potential.

The problem is ends of the strip don’t seem to adhere really well to unpainted plastic. For a special adhesive meant to stand up to fuel why it doesn’t stick very well to bare plastic is beyond me. read more

Probably the most important thing you can do after putting together a model is give it a pose. Add some life and personality to your kit.

Posing

It’s a rookie mistake, your Gundam shouldn’t stand around stiff as a robot. It should be allowed to loosen up as to look and feel more natural.

 (click for larger, via ??? with thanks to /m/)

From here on everything is up to you. Reenact a scene, pit it in combat against another model, make it dance, facepalm, etc. If you’re working on your first kit with individual fingers, do what everyone does the first time, flip the bird. I really shouldn’t have to help with this part. read more