A lot of gundam building jargon is used in this post, so be aware! I will explain these terms once I'm done building my gundam!
The first step is to paint the runners with spray paint. Normally, I would buy cans from Canadian Tire since they don't run/smudge when compared to the model spray paints I used to use. They're also a LOT cheaper than model spray paint. Pros tend to spray each piece separately with an air brush after they cut out each piece and sand/file down the nubs (little bits of plastic left after detaching it from the runner). Unfortunately, I am not as patient as a professional, thus I just spray the entire runner. Ironically, I bought an air brush last year but never really ended up using it...
For a master grade, this normally takes about 2 hours or so, depending on the size of the kit. (PG Strike Freedom took me 3 and a half hours, and I had help from a friend to paint...)
Next step after painting is to build the gundam. I would follow an instruction manual (provided with the kit) thoroughly since if you leave out one part, or put it in incorrectly, then your model will tend to not "fit" together. There are many times where I would have to pay close attention to how I insert a specific part into another part.
For a master grade, this normally takes me about 25-30 hours or so, spread out over a week. If it was me last summer, where I built three gundams, then it may take as little as 15-20 hours (due to experience/"ready" state, whatever its called).
The third and final step is detailing. This involves putting on stickers, decals and touching up nibs with paint. Depending on the amount of stickers/decals in the kit, it can take as little as 6 hours to as long as 30 hours... My PG Strike Freedom took me almost as long to decal it, as it is to build the actual kit!
What I usual find that if I build a Katoki (Ver. Ka) kit, there is a HUGE sticker sheet attached to it.
WELL with FA Unicorn... not only is there a pretty large amount of stickers, there is also a substantial amount of tiny decals to be placed on the kit (especially on the mass amount of weapons that this kit has).
So far, I spent yesterday afternoon and about 4 hours today putting on decals. The tiny ones are an EXTREME pain in the butt to put on, especially if the surface I'm working on is small.
How it normally works: I cut out the decal from the decal sheet, remove the translucent-ish protective wax-like paper underneath it, place a piece of scotch tape on top of the decal, place the decal on the desired location, make sure the decal is firmly in place (so that it doesn't move during the transfer process) by placing more scotch tape on top of the decal, AND finally scratch it on!
[Pardon for the run-on sentence]
So... the problem is, if the surface I'm working on is extremely small, then I would need to cut the decal out so that the piece I'm working with is small (which is hard with my fingers). Then I would need to use a very tiny piece of scotch tape to cover the decal and to secure it into place...
So key point is
I have difficulty working with very fine motor coordination! =(
To illustrate how small these decals are
Oh well... that's just part of building a gundam! =)
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