Just a little update on my painting progress. Luckily I had the weekend to myself so I took out my paint brushes and started painted my SD Sangokuden Yuan Shu. Its been quite some time since I last hand painted something so I am taking it slow. Also its the first time handpainting with Gaia notes white and starbright gold. I must say I am loving this gold a lot!! Will use more of this gold for my other kits in the future!
Colors I used so far for those who might be interested
1) Gaia White for the chest and head area
2) Navy Blue for the main body
3) Gaia Starbright gold for the gold parts with and undercoat of flat black.
4) Susie Blue for the cape.(not in the picture)
Its has been sometime so this time round I found the cape’s painting to be a wee bit too thick…gonna have to sand and redo that portion again!!
The toughest part about Sangokuden are the gold trims…if you are lazy like me when it comes to masking, handpainting is the next best thing….I had to go really slow on getting that first coat of black on first!
Well just a little update from me today ^^
Till the next post!!
The Toy Room 
I really admire your patience on these SDs, they have such small details its hard to keep the brush on the lines 😛
Heh thanks! SDs helps to train up my patience. I am quite an impatient person during work actually 😛 Gunpla just helps to quiet me down ^^
Blink Blink!! The Gold stand out alot than tamiya’s gold..I might give it a try on my PG RX-78-2
What the??? PG RX78-2??
What gold did you use previously? I think goldleaf not too bad from Tamiya.
Yup.The PG RX-78-2 I got it at a reasonable price^^
I use tamiya gold leaf but i think that it’s abit dark.Is it that i didn’t mix with thinner probably?
properly*
Ah I encounter that before. You’ll need to stir the paint in the bottle some more. Metallic pigments tend to sink to the bottom so they will require a lot of stirring to mix the paint properly before you paint.
That gold is sexy! 😀 hmm… I’ve never tried flat black underneath before… maybe that’s why my gold paint doesnt turn out so well =/
Ah I did try without a black base coat and it didn’t look as good. In fact gloss black will be the ideal base color for metal but I am trying out with flat this time round instead 🙂
I’ll be sure to try it out the next time I paint! 😀
Nice gold! What thinner do you use for the Gaia Starbright gold? Gaia have this special thinner for metallic color, do you use it?
Heh thanks! I used Mr Hobby leveling thinner for the gold. I haven’t tried the one from Gaia but i heard it gives even better results. The effect for this gold will be even better if you use an airbrush though 😛
oh my, handpainting~ you got the courage i dont ^^ and looks so smooth, minimal brushstrokes 😀 i rather go for dead masking ^^;;;
haha i am complete opposite…i absolutely hate masking 😛 I can’t bear the thought of using half a day to mask the shoulders lol!!
same here… I hate masking too xD
haha hi five man!
Man.. i can feel my hand getting rusty.. my last build is on early august XD
Start busy with my marriage things now >_<
Haha marriage is like that. You’ll be so busy you won’t be thinking of anything else. That is why I took a break halfway this year for my marriage!
That’s a really nice gold there and the paint job seems to be going really smooth so far. I haven’t even started mine as I’m currently stuck with other Sangokuden models and Sango kits take quite a long time to have a perfect finish. ^^;
Heh thanks!! Haha you are right bro, Sangokuden SDs are require killer paint jobs to look good due to their emblems. I dare say they are harder to paint compared to HGs or MGs!!!
How is the gaia colour work so far? Better than Mr.Colour (the smoothness and smell)?
Hope you can get it done before unicorn screening 😛
Gaia color smoothness win, color win, smell win also haha!!!
Hopefully I can haha! Then maybe I can bring down.
hooo looking good… I figure you are also panel lining the gold crown to give it more texture perhaps?
kinda reminds me of *ahem Shinanju 😀
Haha yep, will wash it with brown enamel later or black hehe. Kinda of like a practice before I do this to my sinanju!! I can’t wait!
Your hand painting skill is good. I don’t see many “mistake”. When you said Masking do you mean you tape some area and paint over it?
Ah yes. Masking will come in if you are spray painting with cans or air brush. With handbrush I can skip that tedious step but with handbrushing the chances of a mistake is higher 😛
Wow Gaia Notes Gold is really worlds apart from the other brands. It looks like Silver + Clear Yellow which many people use because the Gold from other brands isn’t as yellow. And it looks shinier too.
Does Gaia Notes paint dissolve in Mr Color thinner? If so, I’ll know what brand to switch to when I reload my metallic colours.
Oh yes, it works quite well with Mr Color Levelling Thinner, but one thing though Gaia Notes is quite concentrated so you have to stir the bottle for about a good minute or 2. I gave one light coat followed by a thicker coat.
Indeed its way shinier than other brands that I have so far!
Wow, the gold is really nice. Gaia notes is what type of paint? Acrylic? Enamel?
Gaia notes are lacquer paints man. They give a considerably brighter finish than the Tamiya or Mr hobby brands!
Hmm…. Maybe I should try some….
metallic colours are sure a pain when handpainting as it is not easy to keep it even. admire ur skills there bro!
Heh thanks man!
ohh hand painting for a more personal building session 😛 that starbright gold really is bright, nice and shiny but i think i still prefer the gold you used on your older SD kits because it looks more umm worn for a lack of a better term lol
you must have steady hands to not go for masking on all those trimmings.
Haha bro I know what you meant by the old gold. Gives a more battle worn out feel if thats what you meant! I might revert back to the old gold for my next SD just to see how it goes 😛 Maybe a little bit of weathering next time. I am going for a clean look this time so I think the bright gold will be more suitable this time round!
Tip here on the gold trimmings, don’t drink coffee or vodka prior to painting 😛
yay! handpainting! lolx.. woah.. but your handpainting level higher le.. i can even tell its handpainted..! haha.. maybe i shld try gaia notes too.. you can mix in some retarder to make it more controllable for lacquer based paints.. =D
TANOSHIMINI!~
Thanks for the compliments bro! I used leveling thinner which already contains retarder haha so probably that helps in lesser brush strokes. Hehe Gaia note paints are quite thick so you will need even more thinner than usual for it to work!
woah a lot of masking for sure 🙂 ,looking forward for this Chubs.
Nah won’t need to do any masking! Thats the beauty of handpainting!
The painting looks cool man. I think I saw some bleeding edges from the photos, didn’t I?
Ah yes but those spots will disappear once the panel lining is done! Haha I do have to rework on the cape though. That one bled quite a fair bit!
Looking nice! The paint job looks so smooth! What kind of brush are you using? =O
I am using those normal brushes. Maybe i’ll take a picture of them when I have a chance and show it in the future haha ^^
yes for details like this I prefer handbrushing, masking is really hard for curvy details.
Haha masking normal kits is already very tedious…to mask all these curves are killer!!
Nice paint job and the touch of chrome! Sangokuden Yuan Shu has got this imperial look which is such a miss match to its personality. Sigh…
Haha well I think if he is name Jia Xu will be so much better instead!
the gold painting, u use the gold gundam marker?
Ah no man, handpaint with gaia gold ^^
Wow!Nice gold for ur Yuan shu!So was it handpainted or airbrushed,if it was airbrushed then how was the result when handpainted?I’ve tried starbright silver handpainted but it has those glitter there if without thinner
Thanks. Ah whole kit is handpainted ^^ Not too sure what you meant by the glitter, I don’t encounter that so far.
Gaia paints are quite thick and definitely need to be thinned prior to painting.
I’m about to try handpainting with Gaia star bright gold too, can I ask what ratio you mixed it with mr leveling thinner to get such good results?
Hmm the base coat must be gloss black. I think that is even more important than the gold itself because how well the gold will show will depend on the base coat. My ratio is about 1:1 or 50% thinner to paint. Mix till its like milk and then slowly brush over!
Well, I tried… and I failed.
When I brushed over the surface (base coat was Tamiya- semi-gloss black which had 48 hours drying time) the gaia paint melted through the black and the primer underneath, I was left with a horrible patchy surface instead of a nice flat silver.
Any tips of how to avoid this happening? I tried to continue anyway for practice but I just couldn’t avoid destroying the paint underneath whatever I did.
Please help!!!
Hmm did you spray a layer of primer beneath? And is your Tamiya semi gloss black an acrylic paint? Did it occur during your initial stroke or subsequent strokes?
What I can suggest is using slightly less paint on the brush and go gently over the surface instead of dragging which might cause the black to be picked up. Hope it helps!
Yeah, it was tamiya surface primer, then tamiya semi-gloss black lacquer. All the same type of paint. I will try it more carefully as you suggest, perhaps if I do it in many layers instead of aiming for just 2 or 3 I will have more luck.
Ah the main thing is you got to practice quite a fair bit for handpainting. All the best for your works!