Devil Gundam Creation Part 1: What Did I Get Myself Into?

Honestly, I never saw this day coming....building my very first Gundam model. Bandai NG 1/144 Devil Gundam looked very tempting for something affordable from Hobby Link Japan. I originally planned to stick with the model's original colors, but seeing images of great custom, painted models of this kind definitely changed my mind. Experts say cheap 1/144 models are great for beginners, so I hoped this was the case too. However, coming across many headaches, unprecedented challenges, and noobish mistakes were something I did not expect.

The biggest complaint about these pieces are color separation. Some parts that should be a specific color were molded out of a different colored plastic, which gives you the dubious honor of correcting them. I guess this is how models from the mid 90's were always made. Buy hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.

All the runners were washed with soap and water before painting.

The first thing I wanted to do was paint the legs black and the shoulder pieces red. To keep track of every piece and what they were labelled according to the instructions, I decided to spray paint some parts that are still on the runner.

The first mistake I made was buying the wrong kind of red spray paint. The problem with this one is the glitter mixed with the red color, which is good for a model car, but not for a Gundam model. Especially for something purely evil, like Devil Gundam. I realized my mistake too late, so I must buy another can of spray paint and take the loss.

I shifted my attention back to Devil Gundam's legs, and after snipping the pieces off the runner, all of the excess sprues were sanded down then touched up with black paint again....at least that was the original plan. The paint I bought could not stick to the plastic at all without primer, so I spent the next couple hours sanding everything down, to prime then paint them again.

Masked all the parts that shouldn't be black.

I also found out that the yellow paint I originally had came out rather pale instead of bold like the cap would suggest. That old can was replaced with another one and white primer (that fuses with plastic) to go with them. Another terrible lesson to learn in this situation is the special primer that are meant for plastic comes off rather sticky and a pain to sand off.

Yellow paint flakes off.

On top of those other setbacks, I ordered some water transfer decals without realizing that I need a bottle of Mr. Mark Setter and Mr. Mark Softer. Also, a purchased set of HG 1/144 Gunpla hands were assumed to be super poseable, when they actually aren't.

I was too eager to build Devil Gundam in a week, and that created a few slip ups that could have been corrected sooner, if a little more research was conducted. To simply put it, I had no idea what I was getting into. Regardless, there were many useful lessons learned along the way, and I plan to get everything straightened out as soon as possible.

That's all for now, check back for more updates!