Tools and methods for painting.

All right. Some readers have been asking me the tools for painting and how I paint my kits. Therefore, I decided to do a post on painting. Again, like the previous post, my methods might not be correct, but I do hope that this will help you guys out.
So yep, here's the tools you need!
Firstly, you have to get paints and brush! Obvious heh? Haha!

Here's a set of gold and silver paints I have. However, they are all not the same. ^^ Basically, there's 3 different types of paint here. Aqueous Hobby Color, Mr Color and Mr Metal Color.

This is Aqueous Hobby Color as you can see. And well, Aqueous Hobby Color has always been my favourite. They don't stink as much as those from Mr Color, and water can be used to thin the paint.

Mr Metal Color uses thinner to thin the paint and well, if you want a metal-like finish for your kits, this will be great! However, it can be scratched a little to easily (eg. Chrome Silver). Therefore, always remember to seal it up with Top Coat!

Mr Color comes in many varieties of colours and it uses thinner to thin as well.

For brushes, you can get any brush you want. For me, I got myself a Tamiya flat brush.

Flat brushes are good for painting wide areas. Even though there's also pointed brushes for detailing, I never use them. Instead, I use the flat brush or markers for the job. The tip of the pointed brush is a little to hard to mantain for me. =X

If you are a beginner, markers would be a great choice for a start.

I've been using markers for a year, and I'm still using it now. It really helps a lot when it comes to detailing. ^^ Everytime before use, you got to shake it well. However, don't shake it side ways as there will be too much paint flowing out from the tip, resulting in wastage.

For panel linings, I always use Fine Tip Gundam Marker to do the job. Sometimes, the ink can be too thick or you might accidentally drawn the line wrongly, that's when the eraser comes to use. Also, if you have drawn the line wrongly on parts that you've painted, don't use an eraser as it might scratch the paint. Just cover the line with another coat of paint. Other than this marker, there are many other ways to do linings, but for now, I'll just stick to this. ^^

This thinner helps to clean off paints from the brushes. There's another type of thinner for thinning paint. All thanks to Jay for telling me that. ^^ This is a must-get when it comes to brushing.

Hmmm.... So basically, the ones above are all basic tools for painting. Now, I'll share some tips on painting. ^^

When painting, always paint the part in straight lines and never change the direction of it. ^^

When you accidentally paint a part wrongly, use a toothpick and gently scrape the excess paint off. When it comes to tougher or stickier paints, wet a cotton bud with thinner and clean it off. However, when the excess paint is covering another coat of paint, use the color for the original coat and cover it up. For example, in the picture above, red is covering yellow. Therefore, paint yellow over the red to cover it up. ^^ However, small excess paints can be easily covered up panel lining.

Sorry for the really crappy drawing. Anyway. before you paint any really small and detailed parts (Eg. Fancy designs for Sangokuden kits.), line the parts up first. It helps you to see the small details a little better when you are painting.

So yeap, that's all for this post. Hope this little guide will help you guys out in painting. Some methods might be wrong, therefore, help make ammends if there are any.

Till the next post!