YunYunFan Garage Kit Guide

🦄 A little bit of positivity for everyone :D

YunYunFan's Garage Kit Painting Guide[edit]

So you want to start painting garage kits and you have no idea what to do or how hard it'll be, this guide is for you.

I'll go into a little rant about why you NEED an airbrush as a beginner. How many times have you read "just thin your paints" from gunpla or warhammer fags?

But it's actually pretty difficult for (you), a beginner to get large flat pieces with an even coat with a brush, without it looking like a horror movie set, and even I still can't use a brush properly for large flat pieces. But have you ever heard some boomer spray paint a lawn chair with and get really good results? He's not an artist is he? no.

Dedication[edit]

This guide is dedicated to my Chilean wife Sakurai Momoka

May the tranny janny seethe and dilate forever amen.

Tools[edit]

I know what you're thinking, garage kit tools are going to cost an arm and a leg but that's not true. Here's the rough cost breakdown (assuming no more inflation)

Sanding tools (~$60-80), Putty (~$20), Pinning (~$20), Glues (~$20), Airbrush (~$100), Compressor (~$80), Brushes (~$30), Misc (~$60), Paints (~$150-200), Paint Booth (~$100), Respirator (~$30), Safety Goggles ($5).

Total : ~$700-800

Sanding Tools

Sandpaper 400, 600 and 1200 grit - a whole pack of 5 sheets should last you 3-4 kits or more. Alternatively, get sanding sponge.

Needle Files (round + flat ) - Most frequently used sanding tool, get the best ones you can get, mr.hobby is fine. e.g. I have a Grobet #4 used off ebay a long time ago, should be $11 new for each. clean the files with brass brush. Also get a cheap rough needle file sets for removing the bulk of tabs.

OPTIONAL curved files such as Wave HT-423,

Nippers - Get a decent/cheap one, not that important.

Tweezers - get a good pair, there is a huge difference between a cheap and expensive pair of tweezers. don't need to go overboard like me with Dumont no 3 or Peer Vigor Brass Non-Magnetic AM Pattern Tweezers.

Optional sanding tools

Sanding Sponges - A nice alternative to sandpaper, much easier to use.

Reciprocating Sanders:

   Cheap: Aliexpress unbranded corded reciprocating sander or Mr. Hobby Polisher Pro

   Expensive: Artima 7

Dremel -Good to have for those big tabs that you're too lazy to file, but often too powerful.

Putty

Tamiya Epoxy Putty smooth - used to fill in gaps and even sculpt new pieces. Do not stock up on putty. All puttys have an expiry date. buy only as needed.

Tamiya basic putty white - quick and easy to use for filling small holes.

Cyanon (white superglue)- OPTIONAL - hard to find outside of japan, good alternative to basic putty

UV resin - ultra fast curing and cheap.

Pinning tools

Brass rods - Get two sizes: 1.5mm - 2mm and 0.6mm- 0.8mm. For me, I use a 1.57mm and a 0.8mm rod. If you need anything smaller, just glue it.

Drill bits - 0.1 to 0.2 mm larger than whatever rods you use.

MADWORKS PP-02 Mini Pin Punch Model Piling Locator (OPTIONAL) - for locating drilling pin locations.

Drill/ Pin vise - You can use either or. I just use a handheld cordless drill that I already have, just make sure that the chuck can handle small drill bits.

Magnets -(OPTIONAL) Magnets are weaker than pins, only used for holding small parts such as hair and arms where you don't want to finick with the fit. get 3mmx2mm and/or 2mmx2mm

Glues

Museum putty - Good putty to hold pieces in place temporarily, but can be used in the final product.

Superglue - Used for just about everything.

Epoxy glue - Nice alternative to UHU glue, more messy to use

Airbrush

Get at least a mid range $100 dollar dual action airbrush such as GSI Creos or Iwata and its respective cleaning kit. If you were going to get just one airbrush, get a 0.3mm needle size.

Compressor

Get the cheapest one, with a tank. You're not going to use more than 30 psi. The more expensive compressors are quieter, but performance wise it's the same. I use a tankless cheap compressor in my setup without issue.

Brushes

Get cheap disposable size 0 synthetic brushes in order to save your more expensive brushes for the eyes.

Eye Painting brush.

GodHand - kamifude fine point, medium or long, preferably long brush for longer lines.

For other brands: get a kolinsky sable size 4/0, preferably with a large handle. It's as expensive as GodHand, but lasts much longer.

G-06br Finish Master Ultra Fine R clean stick. The clean stick is more important than the brush itself.

Miscellaneous

Tamiya Paint Stirrer - buy it, get 2 packs, I use it for stirring paint and transferring paint to the eppendorf tubes/paint trays with the scoop end.

Painting clips - get as many as needed (around 30)

Painting clip base - OPTIONAL- I use a scrap piece of wood with holes drilled in it

Masking tape (10mm + 6mm) + low adhesion tape

Masking tape for curves (1mm or less), komatsu model have good ones, but other brands work fine.

Masking tape cutting guide OPTIONAL

Masking Putty- I use Rodico 6033 putty, but you can use alternatives such as Mr Masking Clay

Liquid masking - OPTIONAL, use https://komatsu-model.booth.pm/

1.5 ml Eppendorf tubes - get the 1000 pack for 20 bucks

1.5 ml Eppendorf tube rack OPTIONAL

10 ml glass beakers - OPTIONAL, you can use metal paint trays as an alternative

Spray pot

0.5 ml droppers

Paints[edit]

There are three types of paints: Acrylic water based, Enamels and Lacquer. If you have a painting booth, get lacquers, otherwise use acrylics. As for gloss or matte, always get gloss.

Why choose one over the other?

Lacquers are better since you have more colors to choose from, shinier finish, sticks better, dries faster and doesn't clog your airbrush. Whether you choose lacquer or water based acrylic, you will need enamel paint. The list below only contains lacquer paints.

Also unlike Acrylics and enamels, lacquers generally lasts forever in storage since they do not cure. Do not hoard acrylic and enamel paints.

Paint brands

Tamiya Acrylic : ok 7/10, not many colors to choose from since they're mostly focused on tank model kits

Mr. Hobby Aqueous (Acrylics): better selection of colors, overall the same quality as Tamiya acrylic paints. Use retarder for best results.

Tamiya Enamels: 9/10, good quality and color selection, except no magenta.

Mr.Color: 9/10, good quality, huge selection of colors, and moderately priced.

Gaianotes: 9/10, slightly better quality to Mr. Hobby, higher pigment density and lower fillers, but more expensive and harder to find. For the clear/matte coats, I prefer mr. hobby however.

Jumpwind/Modo: 8/10, good metallics, hard to find. Modo needs its own brand of thinners, but their metallics are often pre-thinned.

Born Paint/Model Kasten/Finishers: 9/10, has some nice niche colors, hard to find outside Japan.

Mixing Paint Brands

you can generally mix lacquer paints and thinners from different brands as long as they share the same chemistry, e.g. Mr.Color and Gaianotes.

Where To Buy Paints

USA: Robot Kai, Spraygunner

Worldwide: Sealmodel (ships from Hong Kong), Aliexpress, Ebay (ModelKasten).

Primers:

Mr. Surfacer 1500 WHITE. Get at least 2-3 bottles.

Gaianotes GS-02 - Surfacer EVO White (ALTERNATIVE CHOICE)

Multi primer (OPTIONAL) Gaianotes or Jumpwind. If you need to prime metal/resin. Then use surfacer on top of it.

Thinners:

Mr. Levelling Thinner 400. 1-2 bottles. General use thinner.

Mr. Rapid Thinner (OPTIONAL) for metallic lacquer paints.

Cheap can of Lacquer thinner from the big box store for cleaning your airbrush and tools.

Lighter fuel - Ronsonol or zippo for thinning enamel paints. Do not use enamel thinner for wiping away enamel paint, it is often too strong.

Isopropyl Alcohol - for cleaning tools and stripping paints.

Resin wash (OPTIONAL) - generally dishwashing soap or simple green is enough, but if surfacers fail to stick, then consider buying a Resin wash.

Basic Color Paints

White - (5 bottles of Mr. color C1 or 1 bottle of Gaianotes EX-01)

Magenta (2 bottles). Mr.Color Ironomoto Primary Color Pigments CR1 OR Gaianotes Color 034

Yellow (2 bottles) Mr.Color Ironomoto Primary Color Pigments CR3 OR Gaianotes Color 035

Cyan (2 bottles) Mr.Color Ironomoto Primary Color Pigments CR2 OR Gaianotes Color 033

Black (1 bottle)

Red + Brown (OPTIONAL)

See color mixing section (bottom of the guide) to learn how to mix colors. For the Mr.Hobby primary pigments, make sure to always mix with either GX100 or white before spraying.

Clear Finishes:

GX100 Super Clear III (get 3 - 5 bottles)

GX114 matte (3 bottles)

Gaianotes EX-03 clear 50ml bottle (for clear skin, ALTERNATIVE to GX100).

Skin paints (CHOOSE ONE)

Mr. Hobby Lascivus (OK results, easy to use for beginners)

Gaianotes 059 + 060 (50:50 mix, add clear blue for brown skin)

Model Kasten c-12 or me-01 Mucosal Clear (clear skin without mixing two parts)

Tamiya Flesh (AVOID)

Gaianotes 041 + 042 (Alternative for 059 + 060)

Modo m-214, m-211, m-212

Metallic paints:

Dull metallic - Any gaianotes/mr.hobby/jumpwind/modo

Mirror chrome metallic - Mr Color SM206 (diluted in 14:1 ratio with levelling thinner), Gaianotes GP-08 Premium Mirror Chrome, Modo mirror chrome or Born paint (system). Only get mirror metallic if you need it, it's quite expensive. use clear red + clear yellow (1: 3 ratio) as an overcoat to make chrome gold.

Enamel Paints:

Tamiya Orange - 2 bottles

Tamiya White - get 3-4 bottles, (roughly 0.5 botttle/kit)

Tamiya Blue- 1 bottle

Tamiya Red - 1 bottle

Tamiya Yellow - 1 bottle

Tamiya Black - 1 bottle

Tamiya Brown - 1 bottle

Tamiya Clear Red - 1 bottle

Tamiya Clear X22 - 1 bottle

Gaianotes Magenta - 1 bottle

Testors gold

Alternative Enamel Paint setup

GE-001 White (4 bottles)

GE-002 Black (1 bottle)

GE-003 Cyan (1-2 bottles)

GE-004 Magenta (2 bottles)

GE-005 Yellow (1-2 bottles)

GE-007 Fluorescent red (1 bottle)

Plus tamiya clear + orange.

Testors gold

Safety Gear[edit]

At a bare minimum you will need:

A respirator, p100 for acrylics and/or sanding. For lacquers get NIOSH-Approved OV/P95 (use it even if you have a spray booth)

Safety goggles

Spray booth that vents outdoors

Disposable gloves

Sanding[edit]

I won't cover sanding/pinning/puttying because it's mostly self explanatory. Use a p100 respirator and the painting booth.

Before you even sand, the first thing you do is you have to count all your pieces and make sure it's all there.

Once you confirm all the pieces are there, you have to see how each piece is going to fit with one another. This step is really important since you have to cut off tabs. I've cut off tabs that were actually not tabs, but if you screw up, it's not the end of the world, just putty it.

To cut off a tab, start with the nipper and cut off 80% of it. If the tab looks too fragile to cut, start with the file instead.

If there's a lot of bulk to remove, start with the rougher files. Then, with the finer files, use a gradually decreasing pressure in order to get a fine surface finish. Finally, use a 600 + grit sandpaper or sanding sponge to get rid of any scratches left from the file.

For mold lines, I find it easier to use a 400 grit sanding sponge. It removes mold lines within 30 seconds.

If you have a dremel tool, just be careful to not overdo it since it can take off material very quickly. A reciprocating sanding pen is more recommended and can save you hours of sanding.

Pinning[edit]

The trick to drilling a precise pin is to first drill a hole in the male part of the tab, and temporarily put a brass pin in it. Then mark the end of the pin with masking fluid, and put the male and female piece together. This should leave a pin sized masking fluid on the female part.

Using a cordless drill or a pin vise, slowly drill the hole on the piece while holding it with your other hand. If the hole is off, you can mill sideways with the drill to enlarge the hole, and then fix any misshapen or wrongly drilled holes with putty. To precisely get the right depth for the hole, mark the drill bit with a masking tape, and don't drill past the masking tape.

I prefer to glue the brass pin on the male side, but you can also glue the pin on the female side.

If you have big pieces and/or need extra stability, you may want to consider using 2 pins side by side.

Once you finish pinning, put your model together and make sure it doesn't lean. Use masking tape or museum putty on places where you plan to glue later

Heat Bending[edit]

A lot of times, when pieces come out of the mold, it's not perfect. This is especially true for thin pieces such as hair. In order to fix these defects, what you will need to do is heat up a bucket of water to 70 C, then dip the piece into the water with tweezers for 3 or so seconds, more if it's thicker. then take the part out and hold it in its final position while it cools. You can also do this with PVC figures.

Puttying[edit]

For small holes you can use either the epoxy putty or basic putty. Basic putty is a lot easier to use since you don't have to knead it.

For large gaps, or holes that you fucked up drilling, use epoxy putty. Mix the two piece putty with gloves. Once it's mixed put it where you need to in excess amount. Use water if it gets too sticky. You can save a lot of work by molding the putty before it hardens.

To mold the putty, apply water to the other piece without the putty. Fit the two pieces together and take it apart slowly. The water should prevent it from sticking with the other piece. Reshape any pulled pieces and trim off the excess.

Then once the epoxy putty is hardened after 12 hours, you can sand it down.

Cleaning[edit]

Next you need to get the release agent off your pieces, they usually use something like vaseline. So get a bucket filled with water and dish soap, swirl all your pieces in the soapy water and leave it in for 5-6 hours. Then rinse it in a bucket of clean water and let dry.

Painting[edit]

The general painting steps are: primer --> paint base colors --> paint details --> clear coat

Thinning paints[edit]

Always stir your paints with the tamiya stirrer before getting them out. You can use the scoops instead of the dropper to get smaller amounts of paint, use the gradations of the 1.5ml Eppendorf tubes to get an idea of how much paint you have.

For airbrush (paint: thinner), use 1:1 ratio for surfacers, and 1:1.5 to 1:2 for paints. I usually make a 1 ml batch in an eppendorf tube, which is used to store the paint for up to 4-6 months.

You push the dilution ratio up to 1:5, but working with very thin paints is not recommended since it requires more technique to execute.

For brush painting (with enamels), you can use it unthinned or 1:0.5 ratio.

Airbrushing Technique[edit]

First hook your airbrush up to the compressor, pop up the dial on the pressure regulator and twist it to the pressure that you want plus 3 to 4 psi higher. Press the button on your airbrush make sure the pressure drops to the pressure you want. Use 30 psi for primers/clear coats/base coats and 20 psi for general painting/highlighting/gradients.

If you are new to airbrushing, practice with water in the cup. press the trigger down first before pulling back or else you will splatter.

Put on your respirator, goggles and gloves, check for respirator fit by doing negative and positive pressure test. If you smell paint, you're doing something wrong.

Next practice on disposable plastic spoons.

Spray 3 to 7 cm away from the object in short 1 second bursts. For larger objects, you can spray further away with 10 to 15 second bursts. You'll eventually get a feel for how far you should be away from the object after a bit of practice.

It's important to keep the airbrush moving slowly or else paint will accumulate too much in one spot and drip. Keep checking for an even coat and fill in the missing spots.

You should let the lacquer/enamel paint dry for at least 5 min before a second coat and 2 to 4 hours for acrylic.

Getting base coats should take you less than 1 day to get decent at it. The biggest mistake you can make is getting too much paint on it and it starts dripping or not letting it dry before a second coat, where you'd get popcorning. You can fix popcorning by spraying thinner and re-dissolve the paint.

Primer[edit]

Once you're confident in your airbrushing technique, it's time to prime your pieces. use the airbrushing technique I mentioned above. Always use WHITE primer. Why? Because primer color bleeds through the final paint, So if you use grey, your pieces would look dead and grey. It is not so important for darker colors but for any light colors, it'll show up.

Why do you see so many grey pieces online? Because it's easy to see the details and/or where you fucked up sanding. The only use case for grey primer is to see where you screwed up sanding, which you will have to remove later.

Use a one to two coats of surfacer. You will able to tell which parts are coated with primer by looking at the textural difference.

Base coats[edit]

Lacquer paint re-dissolves any lacquer layers below. Therefore, DO NOT do an overcoat of 1 color and paint the 2nd color on top. Always fully mask the part you don't want paint on.

In my example above, there are 3 colors: light blue, dark blue and skin. Paint the skin --> light blue --> dark blue. It doesn't really matter what the order is, but it's easier if you go from light to dark

Wait at least 4 hours after airbrushing the last coat before masking. Use tweezers to put the tape in place starting from the edges and layer the tape. If you need a thinner tape, use scissors to cut the tape with or without the cutting guide.

You can use plastic wrap in place of tape for big sections after the second layer of tape or so.

For odd shaped pieces of masking, you have two options: putty or liquid mask. I've never had luck with liquid masks. but with putty it's pretty easy to put on and adjust with tweezers.

You can remove the tape right away after airbrushing with tweezers for lacquer paints, especially thin coats. For thick coats or acrylic, wait at least overnight to remove the tape. If you find any spots that didn't have paint, you can just re-mask that spot after it dries and spray it again. Alternatively, use a brush if it's a very tiny spot.

If you screw up by painting too thick and have the paint bleed through the tape, you'd have to strip the paint and start over.

Highlights and Gradients[edit]

Make clear paint. Mix 0.5 ml of gx 100 with a small drop of paint (~0.1 ml) darker or different color paint depending on your model. Then go into the recessed area of your model and start spraying.

If the crevices of the model are hard to reach, then spray lighter colors on the exposed sections of your model instead. For lighter colors on top of darker colors however, you don't have to use clear paint and can use the paint straight out of the bottle.

Here is an example of highlights. I started with grey/grey primer, and sprayed white in the center. Notice that it's no longer pure white compared to if I just sprayed white primer. It'll always be slightly grayish.

Note that you can also use enamels for this process if you're scared of screwing up.

Painting details[edit]

This is where enamels are used. Enamels don't mix with lacquer or acrylic. so you can even paint white enamel on top of black lacquer. You can see in my example above that there's lacquer paint on where the enamel paints should be, but it doesn't matter since it got covered with enamel.

First make sure your surface is glossy. I never buy matt/flat paint for this reason. If it's not glossy, spray some gx100 or any clear lacquer on top before proceeding.

My rule of thumb is, if whatever detail is larger than the brush you use, just spray it. For, buttons and ultra small lines, it's easier to use a brush. Remember to thin your enamel paints with the lighter fuel.

By now, I'm pretty sure you fucked up at this point and get enamel paint on where you don't want it to go. But that's ok, because now would be a good time to bring out the G06br clean stick. Dip the clean stick in a beaker of lighter fuel, dab the excess and wipe off the paint where you fucked up. If the screwed up paint gets to where your clean stick can't reach, use a clean brush dipped in lighter fuel and brush it aside.

Using enamels for details makes sure that it's almost impossible to have a bad paint job.

If there's more than 1 layer/color of enamel detail needed, do another clear coat with GX100 on top of your 1st enamel paint, and then enamel the 2nd layer of paint. This way, if you screw up, it's no big deal.

This is what I had to do in the example where I had to do enamel gold on top of the black enamel, or the silver enamel on top of the blue enamel in the collar.

Once you're happy with the results. spray gx114 and your piece is done.

Painting Skin[edit]

Painting skin with lascivus is pretty easy. Use cl01 for base coat, and spray the crevices with cl03.

clear skin method

now for the clear skin method, it's pretty easy but more tedious. To understand the difference I've made a pictoral diagram below. The goal of clear skin is to get a thick translucent layer, such that when you apply a matte coat, it looks much softer versus lascivus.

First, mix up 50:50 ratio of 059:060 gaianotes in a 1.5 ml eppendorf tube and set aside. It should look like blood.

Then get a 1.5 ml eppendorf tube, fill it with 0.5 ml of clear, 0.5 ml of thinner, and 1 scoop (with the tamiya paint stirrer, roughly 0.05 to 0.1 ml) of the 50:50 mix. The result should look like light tomato jelly (see below picture for reference).

Spray this diluted mix on the model. The guide in Japanese says to spray clear primer (finisher's) but we don't have that here, so spray gx100 all over first. It should take you 4 - 6 coats or so to get light color skin. If it doesn't take 4 coats (too little coats or too many), adjust the dilution. Make sure to dry between coats of at least 10 min.

Now that your model looks like a pale vampire, it's time to add the highlights. Since there's a ton of work you did to get to this point, you can use enamels for highlighting. Use clear red enamel, or fluorescent red/pink. If you screw up, just wipe it off with lighter fuel and try again. start with spraying the crevices and work your way out.

This one is an example of the clear skin I did with the Abigail Williams Kit, I diluted it too much and had to do 6-7 coats. If you err on the side of diluting it too much it's ok, it's just going to take longer. But if the paint is too concentrated, it's no good. From the picture you can see that the clear skin method is clearly superior to lascivus (carlos.jpg).

Once you're done, spray GX114, multiple coats if necessary to get it matte.

you can adjust the ratio of 059:060 depending on your preference. more pink is generally preferred. My Abigail Williams is 60% pink. If you have a tan colored model, go heavy on the orange.

Repairing paint[edit]

if there is a minor paint defect, and you've sprayed with lacquer, it's often worth repairing the piece. There are thousands of scenarios of minor paint defects, so I can't cover everything.

1) paint bumps, dust stuck on the paint sand with sanding sponge or sandpaper, 1500 to 2000 grit, and re-spray paint carefully.

2) a small piece flaked off. (this only works with less than 1mm holes) use a brush and dab carefully dab the tiny missing spot with the same lacquer paint.

3) big chunk fell off. not repairable. refer to (stripping paint section)

Stripping paint[edit]

By now you should be able to paint 99% of the model minus the eye (or skin, which sometimes I leave for last).

But what if you super fucked up a piece and need to repaint it. wat do? Use gloves, dip paper towels in isopropyl alcohol, and start wiping the paint off. You can also dip the entire piece in alcohol. For crevices use a toothbrush.

If the paint is stubborn, use lacquer thinner but make sure to use eye protection.

Eye Painting[edit]

Now eye painting seems hard at first, but it's not hard, just tedious. Don't be intimidated by those videos that did the eye in 10 min, it's unrealistic for unskilled people like us. But with enough practice, you can do it in 4 hours or so. Otherwise stick to decals.

First you either have to clear coat the primed head with gx100 until shiny. If you're painting with lascivus, paint the skin first while masking the white eye part out with putty, and then spray gx100.

outline

First have a reference image. Use this as a guide, for the example below I used this.

Use enamel orange. Why orange and not black? Because I tried outlining with black, and it's a giant pain to erase your mistakes. With orange, it's easy to erase and hide mistakes.

Twist off a cap of the 1.5 ml Eppendorf tube and scoop some orange enamel paint on it, and pour at least two different 10 ml beakers with a little bit of lighter fuel, one for the cleanstick and the other for cleaning your brush.

Use unthinned orange enamel or very lightly thinned with lighter fluid. Dip brush in the lighter fuel if it gets too gunked up or too thick.

Draw the eye lash, it should be on the top of the fold of the eye socket. It's ok if it looks sloppy. Use the g06br to make the eye lash look neat. If you're completely unsatisfied, wipe off the entire eye with the cleanstick. You can wipe off tiny crevices that your clean stick can't reach by using a clean brush dipped in lighter fuel.

Look at your reference photo and see how many different extra lashes you have to add to the eyelash. Start your paint brush from the eye lash and go outwards. Use the clean stick to make it sharp. Try not to fuck up the underside, the top side is easy to wipe off, but not the underside.

This step should take you roughly 1 hr per eye since you will be making a ton of mistakes.

Addendum:

Here is the process in another kit I did to further explain the technique. I was overlaying my outline with a brown enamel, using my brush. As you can see, the paint is all over the place. And that's where the cleanstick to erase the paint where you screwed up. If you screw up the erasing the paint, just add more paint to where you screwed up. Repeat until you get a decent enough result.

then move on to the eye ball. again, try to match the reference picture, and don't worry about wiping off your mistakes. Do the major separations of the eye, but not the details. when you do the other eye, make sure to check for symmetry and/or reference picture.

for the eyelid fold, do the same process, paint a big line on top of the eyelash, and thin the line using the clean stick.

And finally do the eyebrow, which should be very easy at this point.

painting the rest

Check the other parts of the face for any unwiped paint that may have accidentally got there using sunlight or a very strong light. Then spray gx100 on top of the outline and let dry for at least 10 min if you spray thin or up to 4 hours if you spray thick.

Next use the brush to add black/brown to the eye lash/brow. Alternatively spray the eyebrow if there is a gradient. It should take you less time since you already have the outline. Check for unintended paint on other parts of the model, and then spray gx100.

For big sections of the eye, spray the enamel. It is easier to get an even coat with spraying than using a brush. Make sure to let the gx100 dry at least 4 hours before using masking tape. Mask loosely where the paint would go with tape and spray. It does not have to be perfect since you clean the excess with the wiping clean stick.

AND repeat this process until the eye is done. GX100--> Enamel --> Check stray paint--> GX100 --> Enamel and so on.

Above is the cross section diagram of what the eye looks like. The blue layers are all GX100, while the colored layers are all enamel paints.

Below is an example of how I did it:

Here I'm spraying enamel for the eye shadow, note how I didn't bother masking properly and got paint in the middle of the eye.

Here is what eye shadow looks like when you're done using the cleanstick to clean the parts you didn't mask

Repeat same process masking + spray for base eye color. I clean sticked the bottom bit of the blue since it is part of the design

I did not like the color so I repainted it darker blue (not shown). Then it was time to add white highlight at the bottom of the iris. For this, I sprayed white enamel, and took me 8+ attempts since I couldn't align the airbrush properly and sprayed the wrong spot. I had to aim below where I wanted to get the gradient effect. After the white is airbrushed, I used the cleanstick to remove the top part of the white , making a nice clean line that lines up with the eye shadow.

Finally I drew the pupil with a brush and the white/brown outlines for the eyelash. Depending on the model, you can draw the final outline with brown/black before spraying the colors and/or skin. I mistakenly sprayed the mouth before the skin, but that was not that big of a deal. I also sprayed it with too dark of a color, which I later fixed.

Now that your eye is done, mask the eye with the rodico putty or liquid masking. Use tweezers to adjust the putty into the final position. Or you can use liquid putty if you have luck with that.

Paint the skin with the airbrush if you're doing the clear skin method. Then enamel the blush with clear red, spray the mouth and brush the eyebrow.

Finally, re-mask the eye and spray everything with gx114.

If you find that you fucked up something, you can spray with gx100 again and recolor the things that you need with enamel, as is the case with the color of the mouth.

Decals[edit]

Decals are a quick and easy way to avoid painting the eye. They can give acceptable results provided you do it right. In order to decal your part, you have to make sure that it's gloss coated, so spray gx100 on it.

Then cut up your decals so that the non printed area are as minimal as possible. If you have a Cricut machine, this is the best use for it.

Using a pair of tweezers, dip the backing paper of the decal in water for 5-10 seconds; this will loosen the decal.

Brush the area to be decalled with Micro Set. This step is optional.

Then, position your decal right next to the area you want to place the decal in and use a brush to slide the decal in place. At this point, you have 10-15 minutes to get the decal in place, assuming you keep the area wet. you can use a brush, your fingers, or cleanstick to adjust its position.

After you're happy with the positioning, carefully brush Micro Sol on it. Micro sol is important to make the decal thinner and blend in. After you brush with Micro sol, you can't re-adjust the position because the decal will be too fragile.

Let the decal dry at least overnight since it is water. Check the next day for bubbles and see whether you want to reapply the decals or leave it alone. If you're happy with it, spray at least 2 coats of gx 100 on top. This reduces the amount of decal lines, but in order to get rid of it completely, you'd have to sand it with a high grit sanding sponge and then spray more gx100 to smooth it out.

In my case, I didn't bother sanding it, and it still gives acceptable results. The decal lines is still there if I look carefully but overall it is ok.

I wasn't happy with the decals since she looked like an old woman, so I repainted her eyes by hand. Here is the result:

Color mixing[edit]

You can mix any color in the spectrum from 3 primary colors: cyan, magenta and yellow, alongside with white and black. Also known as CYMK subtractive color. Why would you want to do this? because it saves you a lot of money.

Step 1: use a photo editing software such as GIMP and load your reference image.

Step 2: Using the eye dropper tool, click on the color on the reference image, double click on the color box in the top left and then click on the CYMK menu tab.

The sliders show the approximate ratio of cyan, yellow and magenta required to get the color and also the level of black + white.

In this example, I'm using the color from Abigail's hair. It shows a magenta: yellow ratio of 28: 43 (or 1:1.5 approximate ratio), with a little black. Mixing 1:1.5 ratio of magenta and yellow gives the color orange. To get the final color, add a lot of white and pinprick amounts of black at time.

Be very careful when adding black, a little goes a long way. If you add too much black, the color usually becomes mud and is irrecoverable.

If the reference color is too light to get a sense of the target color you should mix, you can adjust the sliders in CYMK by making K to 0 and multiplying the CYM while keeping the ratios.

If you are using Mr. color CYMK pigments, make sure to add either white or gx100 to the final mix.

Mix at least twice the amount you need and save the paint in the 1.5ml Eppendorf tubes and label the tubes with a sharpie.

Below is a general mixing guide on common colors:

Blue - Pretty much cyan, they use a very similar pigment.

Purple - 2:1 magenta + blue

Red - 1:1 magenta + yellow

Pink - Red + white

Blonde - Orange + white

Orange - Red + yellow

Brown - Red + black, or orange + black, or orange + blue

Green - Yellow + blue/cyan

Assembly[edit]

And that is it. Now that you're finished, make a base for it, either buy the acrylic base from e2046, which is your best and cheapest option, or you can be like me and make it out of wood. Glue any small pieces you need with superglue, and hold any temporary pieces together with museum putty (like her bikini). I have since repainted her mouth a lighter color and her hair more orange. Just know that you can always fix/repaint things if necessary.

I hope you find this guide useful. Also make sure to clean your airbrush after every session and use safety googles while doing so.