Need help building my 1st Gundam

Well most people find their own way of building them. But of course that comes with experience so I'll give you some hints about my way. It isn't perfect it's just my current way of doing things. So here we go:

1.I paint the parts after I cut them from the runners and sanded the imperfections. It's quite tedious but you have the advantage of the end result look on the parts. It really pays off to think really hard about each piece before painting it or you could repeat the operation with a different color.

2. After the sanding you will need to paint them white. At least I do because I can't stand even the littlest imperfection.

3. Personally I didn't master this step yet. You will never get a perfect cutting tool that will give the piece the look you want. I do it like this: get a pliers and cut the support piece of the runner about 5mm away from the piece. After I take out the piece I use my scalpel set to remove the extra plastic then sand down the point where it was attached to the runner. Through experience I figured out it pays of to cut with pliers and then with the scalpel to reduce the imperfections.

I hope it helps you if you actually have the patience to read all this.

To be honest... if you want something to look nice usually panel lining and top coating will do. You really don't need to prime and recolor all the pieces as well. Especially not for a high grade.

But if you really really wanted to and you had the cash to spare. I find the easiest way to do this is to take a look at the manual first and try to figure out what will be seen and what will not. Usually the gray pieces will be on the inside, and will be joints and what not so prime them on the runner, wait ~20 minutes and spray again while still on the runner. For outer armor parts, or parts that will show you need to be far more careful. You need to sand or cut off all the nubs, assemble and spray otherwise you'll have really apparent nubs and they will be a pain in the armpits (haha) to remove. Believe me I have a Sinanju with way too much plastic on it.

I find the best way to remove nubs from white parts is to sand. But from colored parts you need to cut since they'll leave white marks. If this happens just dab it with a tiny amount of paint, of the corresponding color or dab it with a permanent marker. The best cutters I've used so far are the Tamiya sharp pointed side cutters, but they're relatively expensive.

You really don't need to know the Japanese. It's pretty easy to follow.

theres no such thing as an english manual, but tis pretty straight forward really. just follow the letters and numbers and youll be on your way

Guess ill share my way. but mind you, im still a beginner

pretty much cut the corrosponding parts for instance the shoulder parts which are in 3 parts, the 2 halves of the blue shoulder amror part and the grey part which has a hole to hook the shoulder armor onto the shoulder peg.
Pretty much join these together making sure you use plastic cement to glue the shoulder part. sand the part so it dhoesnt show any pmperfections like seam lines, the warped looking shiny plastic and any plastic hanging. it comes down to the parts/sections of the parts youre given. sometimes i paint the parts before assemble, othertimes i assemble, glue and sand before i paint.

Like i said before, sanding the part gets rid of the oily like glossy looking plastic on the surface, but some people wash their parts or prime the thing. what ive done and some poeple do is do a wet sanding as it takes little to no effort to get rid of the ugly gloss look

as for tools, youll need hobby clippers, hobby knife and some fine grit abrasives and water in hand ( 800-1200 grit should do). when you cut a part out, youre left with excess sprue marks. just trim the excess with a hobby knife, making sure its straight otherwise youll overcut the part and it can get sorta troublesome ( thats where some people use putty to fix their overcutting mistake. anyway you should be left with a sorta nubless part. just wet the abrasive in water and give it a good sand and you should have a part ready for painting and assembly. whatever you do, do NOT use nail clippers

i ask too about sand papers...what is the best sandpaper use in gunpla? i brought some 400 CW & 1000CW..it is good? i build my new 2nd MG & i don't want to fail again..please help me too guys XD

Here's how I do it.
1. pre-build - build the kit all the way up as you would build it straight out of the box with out any decals.

2. Clean off any seams, nubs, sprues, or unevenness by way of cutter, 400 to 600 grit sand paper and even so far as using surfacer or like what DC23's did. Sometimes I do painting here as well depending on my color scheme and if I'm painting inner frames as well. Seeing as yours doesn't or has very little, you may not have to worry.

3. Disassemble major parts and segregate into color batches depending on how you want to color your plamo. I color in batches, saves in time, effort, and paint.

3. You can skip this if you aren't planning to slap on decals. Usually I apply decals/ waterslides before I top/matte coat.

4. Top/matte/clear coat which ever takes your fancy.

There are alot of ways, but if you plan on playing with the model a few times, I suggest you avoid using non-Tamiya/Mr.Hobby paints since most other brands cause plastic deterioration faster, as well as avoid sanding.
Panel lining can be done either on-runner or after the model is completed, but if you're panel lining on top of paint, it requires much more finesse as the marker can't be rubbed off a layer of dried paint, and thinner would get rid of the layer.
To get rid of nub marks, a hobby knife should suffice to (carefully) scratch it off, then scratch the flash it leaves with your fingernail. This should get rid of most visual traces, but sometimes an indent will be left and can be seen if you look closely.
Personally I find hand painting to be much more convenient, as spraypainting parts when its not really warm outside can mess up the layers.

I also just built my first gunpla and I even bought the same one!

Personally, I never paint mine. >_< I can't bring myself to paint a blue piece of plastic the exact same color of blue.

Yeah I'm aware it gives it a better surface and stuff, but that's hours of work for minimal reward. Unless I'm entering a contest or customizing it, I don't see the point.

I just snap mine together, usually in one day, and they look just great in my display case. If I had to paint every one I'd barely have any built at all.

1. Entirely up to you as to which method you will be comfortable with. For me I always assemble the whole kit first to see what will it look like and to see what possible problems I will encounter. Then I disassemble then segregate the parts (left arm, right leg, etc...). Then I collect all of the same colored parts, paint them then apply panel lining on them. After painting everything, I'll assemble them again then optional decal then top coat.

2. If you don't want to paint it, just sand the whole part then top coat.

3. Use a hobby knife to cut it down until it is level with the surrounding . Sand it down if you can still see traces.

All in all everything is just trial and error while you look for your 'style'. Although it will help to adopt other peoples style XD.

Simple my friend....
just get a fine edged nail clipper...an X-acto knife, a cutting board and your gunpla with instructions. If you want your model to accurately exact according to the box or the anime then get yourself some markers. Markers can either be sharpee, or bandai brand "gundam markers" and an eraser. No need to rush into making a very grand build, do it one baby step at a time. ^_^

When building my gundams I cut the necessary pieces, for example the shoulder, when I get all the parts I sand them down using a 600 grit sandpaper bought at a local hardware store. If removing nub marks(marks left behind when cutting), I suggest you use a 400 or below grit sandpaper to remove the nub marks after cutting, then use a 600 and above grit to make the surface smooth. In normal parts this process would be okay but in chromed parts like Akatsuki, MG Exia's GN blade and other chromed parts this would be a bad idea since the chrome paint will be removed.

Pre-building, then paint works pretty good for me. As I cut off parts from the runners, I use a scalpel to scrape off the nubs. Be careful ! I cut myself quite a bit, and it kinda hurts haha. Then depending if Im going to give my model a custom color scheme or not I decided what to do next. If Im going to change the color scheme completely, I sand each part (besides the inner frame)so the paint sticks better. Primer then a few thin layers of paint. After the painting is all done, I check for inconsistencies and repair them if needed. After thats done, I apply either gloss or flat coat depending on my model. I also apply 2-3 thin layers of topcoat. Dont use thick layers because the paint will likely drip and itll be a pain in the arse to fix. Then let it dry for a good few hours. First time I painted a model, I didnt wait, and decided to pose it and I left some permanent fingerprints that had to be re-sanded and painted again.

This method works for me quite well, but as you build models, Im sure youll find one that suits you ! Have fun !

First off, if it's your first gunpla why not just straight build it out of the box?

Also, if you really want to put in the time here's a link.

http://fichtenfoo.net/blog/how-to-build-master-grade-gundams/

I find it's a very easy to understand and comprehensive guide to use.

Heres my process,
1. Cutting out the parts from the sprew with a pair of nippers, with a flat edge to get against the part. Sand down the nub marks and injection marks (the swirls sometimes in the part although if you paint don't worry about it. I paint) Sanding down the parts from Coarse to extremely fine, sandpaper or files doesn't matter, sandpaper is better for round parts, and those hard to reach places. Remove all nub marks through this process.
2. Assemble the Gunpla, don't put on any stickers or decals, build it very basic and no model cement. Let those nasty seam lines, and imperfections show!
3. Take a really good look at it, look around the kit and see any problems you might have painting, or observe the seam lines that you cant stand-newer kits have less seam lines or they're well hidden. Figure out how to kit works, observe parts that you might have to tape off or cement together
4. Unassemble Gunpla as necessary.
5.For your Exia, you might have some extremely visible seam lines, so using cement (i use mt.cement) cover the edges of the two pieces and push them tightly together as long as you can paint them while they're together. Then when the cement has dried, sand the excess cement away leaving a filled in seam line, and two permanetley binded parts. Do this for all the parts that really bug you with crazy seam lines.
6. Take parts and place them on wodden sticks, since your just starting out use Tamiya spray cans (if you can find them where you are) and paint all the parts. Exia, I would recommend buying Gundam Color Blue, Tamiya White (careful with this it can lay on thick), Gundam Color Red, Tamiya Park Green (if you want to paint the chest piece, the stickers for this are cool too), Tamiya Black, or Tamiya Gunship Grey for the internals that are exposed, and DONT paint the rubber parts that are on the thigs and arms. If your looking for a shiny look, use semi gloss paints, if your looking for a non shiny military old school Gundam look (most people prefer this, its all preference) then use flat paints
7. Panel line the kit either using a Gundam Panel Line Marker, or thin out some grey or black paint using Tamiya thinner, or Zippo lighter fluid. Take the brush and dab the paint at the begining if the panel line and let ir drip down, wiping away any excess, or waiting until later and carefully scrape it away (CAREFULLY) for you I recommend a Gundam Marker, its just easier in your case. Either way when its cleaned up let it dry well, after dry look over it later to make sure it meats your satisfaction, make sure you panel line after you paint.
8. Make sure all the parts are clean, and painted to your satisfaction. After you've looked it over and it meets your requirements, seal it with top coat. If you want a toy like glossy look then use Gloss (really shiny) or Semi Gloss (less shiny). If you want it too look tough and non shiny (most of the posts on FigureFm) use Flat Coat.
Thats what I do :) Hope this helped