I just updated my tools section, its not much but here it goes :

Here are the tools that I use for now for my gunpla building, Its not much but its enough for amateur gunpla building. 😀

Tamiya Craft Tools No. 35 ( that’s means they have that much of tools?!) 驚いた!

This one costed me about 850PHP, that’s pretty expensive, but it was worth it, before, I was using nippers ( the one used for toe nails?) and it made a lot of bad nib marks. But now, cutting the pieces and removing nib marks is a breeze due to the cutters sharpness and design. This can be bought at hobby shops like hobbes of asia at Macapagal Highway or Lil’s Hobby shop at Park Square Ayala. Wasabi Toys and Great Toys also sell gunpla cutters, their cheaper, but also lower on quality, they wear out quicker than these high quality cutters. (found out recently that GTO sells this for 1.4kPHP )

It can be seen that it is optimized for cutting parts from runners (or frames as others may call it)

Next  is a cleaning tool, I got it from an LCD CLEANING KIT from CDRKING! Its pretty cheap, anything from CDRKING is cheap anyways. I re-purposed it to clean my gundam from dust before spraying it with TOPCOAT. We don’t want dust to be sealed under the top coat now don’t we?

This one is a tweezer, it is actually a ‘Surface Mount Device’ (the really really small electronic components) picker, I bought it from DEECO Electronics store at Quiapo/Raon. Costs around 130PHP. Again, I re-purposed it to be used for applying the really really small decals and sticker from MG and especially the RG kits. Make sure that the tip doesn’t have Iron Oxide deposits on it! (rust) Or it’ll ruin your clear stickers and cry. T_T

Another extra thing that I use is a rubber eraser, I bought it from National Bookstore, its around what? 10php? Its the best tool to clean off overflowing panel line marks! I use it it after using the cotton buds to smudge off overflowing ink or panel lines.

Here is a cotton bud, used for wiping off excessive panel line ink. 🙂

This one is just a cloth used to wipe off plastic dust after the part has been sanded, got it from the LCD cleaning kit. (cleaning out nib marks)

Scissors I use for cutting the decals before applying them, Danny Choo used cardboard cutters. I prefer scissors. 😀

Super Glue! In case you break anything in the building process, I hope not! This one costed me around 50PHP only.

^This is not recommended as it is too strong for gunpla material and causes white stains to appear, advised is to use Mr. Cement instead or something like that that is made for plastic kits material. <- Tip from BD77, thanks! 😀

Thin strips of yellow tape, for holding the decals into place before applying them on the piece. Only 20PHP? Armak is a cheap brand.

Gundam Markers:

These two are what I use for detailing/panel lining, on the left is a COPIC MULTILINER, and the right is a GUNDAM MARKER.

COPIC MULTILINER costs 140PHP @ Great Toys Online, I use them for small details and panel lines since its point is 0.03! Now that is a really fine point! They have a lot of stock for these brand of markers.

Gundam Markers costs 130PHP for Wasabi Toys, and 140PHP for Great Toys Online but be reminded that they always have limited stocks and only restock every month or so. I use them for larger areas that needs to be shaded in black or when I’m lazy and just go crazy over the lines and just clean them off with a rubber eraser.

I don’t know that COPIC PROOF means :))

GUNDAM MARKERS SET:

This one costed me 780PHP, you can buy this at Wasabi Toys. There are different types of Gundam Marker Sets for different series of Gundam model kits. This one is specifically for Gundam Seed Destiny series but obviously you can use them with other series as long as the color matches!

I mainly use them to hide nib marks or paint parts that are not in the correct color, this usually happens in SD, HG and MG kits since not all parts are in the correct color. RG kits are an exception.

Ahhh the Top Coat!:

For me, this is the most important stage in gunpla building for me! What does it do??

Gunpla kits are made of plastic, and most of the time plastic are glossy and shiny all over, right? and obviously some Gundams should not be glossy (not all of course, some are better off glossy). Gundams are military equipment (read it from somewhere.. can’t remember) and usually military equipment are not glossy, they are usually matte or flat in texture.

Topcoat is used to make your Gundam more realistic and remove the toy-like feel and sheen from the natural gloss of the plastic runners/parts. What it does is that it deposits tiny microscopic beads or clear paint on to the pieces therefore creating a rough upper layer that reduces the bouncing of light from the plastic, (wow science!) creating a matte texture.

Other than that, it seals in the panel lining so that it would not be smudged off when posing your Gundam, it also seals in the decals and the clear stickers. 😀

Its costs 360PHP at Great Toys Online btw.

I usually spray them part by part so as to not miss any area of my gunpla kit.

How to spray them? Just make sure there aren’t any dust particles on your Gundam, if there is, clean them off with a soft brush like what I have shown above. After cleaning your Gundam of dust particles, find a room that is well ventilated and has less dust floating around. Usually the bathroom is the most dustless part of the house and is usually well ventilated. If your bathroom has no ventilator, have an electric fan ready.

You can put old newspapers or the gunpla kit’s box itself on the counter top before putting your Gundam on the surface and spraying it, or else your counter top will be sprayed on too and might become less glossy if it should have been glossy 😀

After setting up, spraying your Gundam is no accurate/precise task, you can go crazy on the spray, just make sure you don’t spray yourself as it may cause skin irritations. Joking aside, you have to spray 20 to 30cm away from your Gundam, or else if you spray too near, then whitish fluid will appear/will be deposited on your pieces, then you might cry. I usually spray about 2 to 2.5 secs on a piece, open the electric fan and wait for it to dry, come back on the piece, flip it over (if the piece needs to be flipped over) and spray again. Don’t forget to turn off the electric fan WHILE spraying, turn on the electric fan only AFTER spraying to ventilate the area. 😀

You can apply as many layers of topcoat as you want until you are satisfied, but usually, 1~ 2 coats is enough to make it look nice. 🙂

*Extra Note: Akashingou gave me a tip recently and spraying Topcoat should be done on a hot weather and not on a damp area or else “space dust” will appear. Space dust is the white blotches that appear on the surface after spraying Topcoat, it doesn’t look nice. Thanks Akashingou for that tip! I will try to spray on hot weather next time! 🙂

I keep a small drawer to store my tools and extra gunpla parts. Its nice to be organized so that things won’t be disappearing suddenly. 🙂 Costs 180PHP at Ace Hardware.

Well, that’s all of my tools for now! Its a small arsenal but as I said it is enough to make your Gundam look nice rather than just building it half-assed.

Oh and another thing is that I made my own ‘cutting board’ out of illustration board to cut costs, I used two 1/2 size illustration boards, put vertical lines that are 1 inch away with each other and horizontal lines that are 10cm away from each other. Covered them in plastic, and viola! I made my own cutting board! I have a smaller separate board the have 1×1 inch boxes that I use for taking pictures of the parts much like above.

次回まで! Till next time! 😀