Getting ready to start Gunpla

My reason to start:
For those people who know me well, will know that I am a big mecha fan. When I was little I used to save up all my money and go to the store and buy the Gundam Wing action figures that were out at the time. I was able to collect almost all of them, other than one or two of them which were Leos any way so I didn't care too much. I would also buy most mech games like Armor Core, Front Mission, Mech Warrior, Mobile Suit Gundam, and so on, which I still do buy them whenever a new mech games comes out. Anyways, since I love mechs that much, it hit me, why don't I start building them as well. I not that big of a fan of models cars, I build the odd one every now and then, but if it was a mech that would be another story. I have known about gundam models for a while now, which I did build one when I was little, but didn't really like it then for a few reasons. The model I build then was a cheap NA made non graded model of the RX-78-2 Gundam that had very little detail on it. The reason I didn't like it then was that I put no work into it, all I did was snap it all together, so it was very ugly to look at which my action figures had much better detail on them my model did. Now that quite a few years have pass, I really want to get into gunpla and other mech models now like painting them, adding panel lines, basically trying to make them look nice. I have done some research and know of some of the different grades that are out there. I plan to start on mastergrades because I love all the detail that is on them. I think the first master grade I plan to start on will be the RX-79(G) Gundam because it is one of my favorites gundams, which it’s also one of the cheapest MG kits, and that it doesn’t look too hard to start on.

Update: Sept, 23/08
My Supplies so far:
This is a list of all the supplies that I have collect so far.

-Dual action gravity fed airbrush
-Airbrush Stand
-Air Compressor
-New 1/8 - 1/4 Air hose
-Spraybooth
-Razor Knife
-Homemade sanding sticks
-Paint brushes
-Testors Acrylic Paint
-Tamiya Flat Base
-Future
-Paint Trays
-Mr. Spare Bottle
-Testors Cement
-Gray Primer
-Masking Tape

This is some of my Supplies

Close up

My Air Compressor & Air hose

Will update list as I get more stuff. Also if by some chance someone finds my blog and knows of some more stuff that I will need, that I don't have listed, feel free to leave a comment letting me know. Your help will be great help to me.

Update: Sept, 23/08
Today my order from Hobbywave come in, which made me feel like it was a mini Christmas for me, as this is my first Gundam model I have ever done before. (I don't count that RX-78 as a model) For anyone who is looking for Gunpla or modeling supplies I would recommend Hobbywave as they are safe and has very fast shipping. I made my order on Saturday, which they got ready Monday, and was at my house by 2:30PM Tuesday. They also have flat shipping which was a plus to me.

For my order, I got a MG RX-78-4 Gundam x1, MG Mk-II Titans Ver.2.0 x1, Mr. Paint Tray x1, Mr. Spare Bottle 18ml x6, and Mr. Stand for Airbrush x1, and for not that much ether. I did change my plan a little bit as I was going to get the RX-79(G) Gundam as my first, but I have other plans for the kit so I got the RX-78-4 Gundam as my first and the Mk-II Titans Ver.2.0 will be my second model.

This is my order I got from Hobbywave

My Spray Booth Plan

This is my basic design for my spray desk that I plan to build. I have already change the design a little bit already making it a little smaller. So far I have only design it on the computer, so I have an idea what it is going to look like and have not started building it yet. The size I plan to build this spray booth is around L2', W1'6", H4'. For the design of this, I plan on making it mostly of wood, and plan on using cardboard for the sides as you can see in my picture to the right. For the air filter, I plan on using a bathroom fan attach to the back of the booth, which is the back wall hole shown in the picture. I then plan to attach a dryer hose to the fan, which will leaded out my bedroom window for the paint fumes to get out. I don't plan on putting on a top bathroom fan right away like I have shown in the picture, which will be a later upgrade. This is my basic plan, which may change as I start building this. Here are some more pics of my booth.

Update: August 29
Here is another update for my spray booth. I have made some changes to the overall design of my booth plan. One of the changes that I made was that I took out the top fan and made the back fan look more like a bathroom fan, then a hole and pipe that I had before. I also added on the dryer tube to the back which now points up to the sky. The biggest change that I made was that I added places to put paints, modeling tools, and so on. Here are some new pics of my updated booth.



Update: September, 6/08
I no longer need to build my spray booth from scratch anymore, as I found a easier and cheaper way now. There is this old desk that has been sitting in one of the rooms just collecting dust and is mostly covered in junk right now. It is a nice desk and needs very little work on it. The only problem with it is that the supports that hold it up are very weak and moving the desk too much will make it break apart, which is a simple fix. Other then that all I need to do is add the bathroom fan to it and some other things and it will be all done. The nice thing about using this desk into a spray booth is that it looks very nice (nicer then anything I could build), and has lots of room for other things like paint, tools and etc. Will add pictures when I move every thing off and move it into my room.

Update: September, 23/08
Funny how things change as you get going. My first plan was to build my spray booth from scratch, but then I found this old desk that was going to become my spray booth and now......... haha funny how it turned out. My friend first word was "Wow, I didn't think you could become any cheaper". My spray booth now is just a box with a bathroom fan on the back with a metal tube going out the window. The reason why I did this is that for one I am pretty cheap, two, it is easy to move and if I every need to switch the box for something it is super easy. Overall I am very happy how it turned out.

The Front View of my Spray Booth

The inside of my Spray Booth

The metal tube going out side the window