SD LONG XIAN LIU BEI UNICORN CUSTOM JOURNEY

READ TIME 5-8MIN
YELLOW EVERYONE, this is Unlock Project, we are pleased to bring you this week’s SD Long Xian Liu Bei Unicorn Gunpla custom process. FINALLY, OUR FIRST SUCCESSFUL VIDEO OF A SD CUSTOM!

Big Idea
Process: Putty
Process: Sanding
Process: Priming
Process: Painting
Conclusion

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BIG IDEA

So we did a straight build of this Liu Bei Unicorn quite some time back, intended as a gift as well. As you might know, the horrendous gold color has been bugging us since Valkylander until now. So for this particular SD Lui Bei, we are going to spray a new coat of gold and white on to the kit. Get your kit here!

Materials used for paint

Hobby Mio Grey Primer
Hobby Mio Gold
Hobby Mio White
Mr Hobby UV Cut Matte

PROCESS: PUTTY

Materials used for putty

Tamiya Epoxy Putty Smooth Type

Initially, the hair part for this kit is hollow and the hollow side is facing the top. Thus, we decided to use Tamiya Epoxy Putty on the hollow area while adding a little weight to the kit.
The type of Tamiya epoxy putty used for this kit is also known as A-B putty; where one is the putty and the other is the hardener and you mix them at 1 to 1 ratio.

After mixing the hardener and putty, we filled the hollow area with the putty that we have mixed. In the process of filling the gaps, now and then we will have to wet our fingers with water. This helps us to avoid any putty from sticking to our fingers and it will allow us to have a better grip over the putty mixture.

Once the filling is done, we leave it to cure. Usually, it takes about 24 hrs for the putty to cure but for this instance, we left it to cure for 48 hours due to a large amount of putty used on the middle area of the part.

PROCESS: SANDING

Dspiae Sanding Sponge 400 Grit
Dspiae Sanding Sponge 600 Grit
Dspiae Sanding Sponge 800 Grit
Dspiae Sanding Sponge 1000 Grit

After removing the parts from the runner, we started sanding down the nub marks. We started sanding from 400 grit to 1000 grit in a progressive method. Eg. 400 grit to 600 grit. The method helped to smoothen the deformations not just from the plastic but also imperfections from the putty process.

PROCESS: PRIMING

For priming, we used Hobby Mio grey primer for all the gold and white parts of the kit, in a desperate attempt to finish all Hobby Mio products, the primers also made minor inconveniences, with frequent clogging to inconsistent thinning of primers.

This although trained James and Desmond of their priming and spraying techniques, it caused some parts to be heavily coated while some were not. The second coat was then applied for better finishing.

PROCESS: PAINTING

The painting on the kit was pretty straightforward. All the paint from Hobby Mio is already pre-thinned but we could thin it further with Hobby Mio Thinner. As for the topcoat, we used Mr Hobby UV Cut Matte and the ratio was 1 to 1.

If you were to thin them down further by using their recommended house brand thinner, the paint will clog up. We didn’t believe that it was the paint/ primer or thinner issue until we tried thinning a new pot of primer with the recommended thinner to thin it down a second time. Yes, as you might have guessed, the primer clogged up as well. Since the second thinning test has proven that it clogs up the paint & primer, we took this chance to purchase a bottle of Mr Color Levelling Thinner and put it to the test. Pouring the paint and levelling thinner at a ratio of 1:1, doesn’t give us any issues of clogging.

The next issue we faced was actually with the gold paint. The Hobby Mio gold paint color pigments are so big that even after thinning it, our airbrush pen wasn’t able to release the paint consistently even after pulling the trigger back fully.

Lastly, it will be the airbrush pen that we are using from Hobby Mio. For a cheap airbrush pen, yes it serves its purpose well if you do not have any expectation for the artworks or customs that you are going to or have done. For us at Unlock Project, we were disappointed at the airbrush pen due to the constant splatter that the airbrush pen is doing as we spray paint the parts. The reason behind the splattering of the paint is due to the un-refine inner walls of the paint pot and paint channel. It is also for the same reason that paint and primer tend to stick to the wall when we were trying to clean it with tools cleaning thinner.

After the painting was done, we left it to cure for 24 hrs before we assembled the part together.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, bad paint, bad planning, good putty and not too bad ending!

Desmond looked at Producer and said, “Can I apply funding for an Iwata airbrush pen with 0.3 needle?”

It’s a good experience for everyone if you would like to try out airbrush painting, especially if you do not have prior experience with airbrush painting before. Start off with a small kit like an SD kit.