Reverse Wash Technique

Many Zeon MS designs incorporate some form of Zeonic insignia on the collar, chest, or wrist area. The kits usually have these embossed on the plastic, with matching stickers to give them the contrasting color they need. These insignia are a major pain to paint if you're doing it the traditional way (i.e. hand painting, masking), but luckily there is an alternative method to do justice to these excellent details. It's called the Reverse Wash technique. I'm not sure who invented it, but it works wonders for raised details in need of a contrasting color. Here's what you'll need:

1. Insignia color (Acrylic).
2. Base part color (Enamel)
3. Enamel thinner or lighter fluid
4. Cotton swabs




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Daban MG The O - Review

Happy holidays plamo nerds! Today I'm sharing another review for a kit many of you are eager to know more about - Daban's MG The O!

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Commission Finished - MG Zaku Cannon

Good day fellow otakus! The holidays are upon us, and I'm sure you're all busy with your last minute shopping. I've been extra busy myself, preparing for my new job and working on my remaining commission projects for the year. Here's how the Zaku Cannon turned out.

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Otaku On A (Tighter) Budget

I'm resigning from my current job by the end of the year. It's been great working there, and I'm truly thankful for the opportunities I was given during my tenure. My new job will be in Manila, which means my family and I will probably have to relocate. It entails bigger responsibilities and longer work hours, which translates to less time spent with the family and for myself. Blog posts may become farther apart for the first couple of months, but I'm sure everything will normalize eventually. I'll be giving up a lot of plamo time to take on this new challenge. On the other hand, I can start making some serious plans towards buying/building my own house, and start saving up for my son's education - you know, real-life stuff. To do that, I'll be tightening the already tight budget I have for the hobby.

I wrote about time management a few months ago - how a family guy should only work on his plamo projects beyond his established SFH. This time, I'd like to go into the financial side of things.

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Commission Finished - SD Neo Zeong

I finally finished this monster of an SD! This was one of the more challenging builds I've done because of the number of techniques that were employed - seam fixing, shading, reverse wash, panel wash, hand painting and so on - just for a basic paint job.

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Commission WIP - MG Zaku Cannon

A pleasant day to you all my fellow plamo otakus! Here's a quick update on one of my ongoing builds.

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DIY Pipe Sander

Greetings and salutations fellow otakus! I'm currently working on an MG Zaku Cannon. It's a great kit to build and I'm about 95% done with the snap-fit, with only one thing left to do before paint: Build the pipes. Everyone who's ever built a Zaku variant has had to deal with these things - Tiny fiddly little tubes from hell that are cursed with two nubs each and extra mold lines if you're unlucky. Try to sand them off by hand and you're likely to end up erasing your fingerprints in the process. Good thing I caught an episode of Plamo Tsukurou where the featured kit was a pipe laden MG Gouf. The builder demonstrated an ingenious way of getting at those nubs, and I'll be sharing my own adaptation of the technique.


Here's what you'll need:

1. A motorized eraser (purchased from Daiso at Php88.00)
2. Hobby knife
3. Sand paper in increasing grits
4. Double sided foam tape

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Experimenting With Adhering Liquid

Hello plamo otakus! I found something interesting at a local bookstore called Adhering Liquid. The label says its a "Premium Grade Lacquer Thinner" intended for Silk Screen printing. The stuff smells a lot like Mr. Color thinner, and is about the same consistency and clarity. My brain was telling me that if this stuff was mild enough for textile, then it may not be as harsh as industrial lacquer thinner, so it might be a viable alternative for hobby grade lacquer thinner. At less than a dollar for the 120ml bottle, I just had to give it a try.

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Disassembly

It's happened before. You're building a kit, happy to hear that pleasant clicking sound as the pieces snap together. There are no unsightly gaps, and you marvel at the ingenuity of the design - how precisely the individual pieces were molded. Glancing back at the instruction manual, something catches your attention - a lone polycap sitting ominously on the cutting mat. You are puzzled for but a moment...time itself stops...and then it hits you...

That polycap was supposed to go into the part you just put together.

Hastily, you grab the assembly and turn it around in your fingers - prying...searching...hoping for a small space where your fingernail might fit...a tiny glimmer of redemption. But there is none. Your fate was sealed the moment those pieces clicked together.


Or was it?



Rest easy my friend, for not all is lost! Today I'll be sharing how you can disassemble even the tightest fitting parts, with minimal stress or damage to the plastic - and all you need is your trusty hobby knife.

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Commission WIP - SD Neo Zeong

I'm not a fan of mobile armors, particularly those with arms OR legs (it's never both). I can get behind a Valkyrie's Gerwalk mode, because it can still go full mecha or full fighter jet - but designs like the Big Zam are just downright ridiculous to me. It's as if Zeon stole a bunch of Robeast blueprints from the Bozanian empire or something. I just couldn't bring myself to like them. The Neo Zeong however, could be the sole exception. After all, it does have a Sinanju inside it.

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Weathering - Drybrushing

Good day fellow otakus! Today I'll be sharing about Drybrushing - a simple yet highly effective detailing and weathering technique that can bring out the dormant details on your model.
Here's what you'll need:

1. paint and appropriate thinner
2. old but clean flat tip paintbrush
3. paint mixing dish
4. paper towels

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Back to Basics 2: Getting Rid of Nubs

Nubs - those unsightly bits of protruding plastic on a part that has been liberated from it's sprue - are an inevitability. The best a manufacturer can do is to undergate (to design a sprue in such a way that the gates will have minimum effect on a kit's appearance once assembled), but even then they still need to be cleaned off. Luckily this isn't difficult to do in most cases. Here's what you'll need:

1. Hobby Knife
2. Waterproof sandpaper in increasing grits (ex. 600 grit, 800 grit, 1000 grit, 1200 grit...)
3. Wash basin with water
4. Old soft-bristle toothbrush
5. Nail buffer (optional)
6. Paper towels


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