#model weathering

30MM P-Bandai 1/144 eEXM-30 "Espossito ϴ"

Another 30 Minutes Missions build! I haven't really done a 30MM build other than my Acerbies, apart from the Volpanova Quad Bike last year. Just like the Volpanova, the Espossito is part of a transforming line of mechs, and it definitely has a lot of the same flaws as the Volpanova as well.

Unlike the Volpanova, the Espossito line is a set of more traditional transforming mechs, transforming into various flying machines. The Espossito ϴ in particular most closely resembles a traditional fighter jet, aside from its unqiue x-shaped set of fore-wings.

Being a P-Bandai variant kit, this kit includes a set of waterslide decals. There isn't a huge variety and they're all mostly in gret and white, but there are enough to give this an overall premium look, even if the build isn't that different to the typical Espossito build. I also added a healthy amount of sponge chipping, and painted in a few blue stripes and a set of eyes to the nose-cone, and I think the final look is really nice.

The weathering is otherwise fairly light, with only some soot staining around the various thrusters and around the beam rifles. I also added a little chrome behind the visor which really helps it look a lot more eye-catching. There's a nice level of detail behind the visor, with a little camera sensor detailed for the front portion.

There are a ton of optional extra parts to help detail this kit, including a whole extra set of "option parts" sprues. I didn't end up using any of these apart from the small plasma turrets, which sit nicely on the forearms as some extra weaponry, and a set of sponsons for the wings. The rest of the parts have been set aside for future builds.

Just like the Volpanova,the kit suffers from the old ball-joint polycaps, especially at the hip joint, with the legs often flopping around rather than holding a proper pose. This is most frustrating when transforming the suit, as unlike the Volpanova there are no 3mm hardpoints to lock everything into place. You can still get some decent posing from the whole thing, however.

The "plane mode" involves some unfolding of the various wing parts, which in the "robot mode" resemble a sort of armoured cloak. The torso pivots backwards and the chest piece folds into place becoming the plane's nose-cone, and the legs fold backwards to form the body of the plane. The overall sillhouette is super impressive, and despite being very fragile you can get some really nice photos of the transformed mode.

For the transformed mode, I rotated the turrets forward, with the weapons held facing the rear of the plane. However, the x-shaped fore-wings allow for enough articulation for the Espossito to hold the weapons facing forwards and be actually utilised in mid-air combat.

Generally, this was a pretty fun side-build, and the actual model looks really nice on the shelf, even if it is hell to pose and keep together. I probably wont go for any more of the older 30MM kits, but I'm definitely excited to try out the Spinatio or future Acerby kits as these generally feel a lot more stable when put together.

Sketchbook April-… 2025 : Page 3

Tiny house model

After spending weeks on plans and models for my midterms presentation, I decided to simply.. make another one ?

Tamiya 1/48 Mitsubishi A6M2 "Zero (Zeke)" Fighter (Warrant Officer Yoshiro Hashiguchi Markings - 3rd Air Group, Kendari Base, Celebes Island, March 1942)

So here is my recent kit and a little announcement...

 I have recently joined up with Team Helios!

Beyond stoked to start getting some builds out for the team and being able to work with such a great group of builders. I will leave links for Team Helios social media accounts in this post so you can all check out the amazing builds on there. 

30MF 1/12 Drloskeleton

30 Minutes Fantasy is back, with a really really interesting new kit, the Drloskeleton twin set! This is a realiatively simple set, consisting of two simple but super detailed skelton figures and a few extra weapons.

The skeletons themeselves are moulded in a simple slightly off-white plastic to give off an "aged bone" appearance. I lined everything in a pretty heavy run of Tamiya brown enamel panel liner, using it as more of a wash than a liner, which really helped to accentuate the aged and dirty look. This is a really detailed kit, but to help it look more detailed, I painted a few small cracks in with white paint, as well as some smudges of a red gloss paint to give the build an almost bloodied appearance. I made sure to add in some various runes to imply the magical processes behind ressurecting the skeletons as well.

The weapons got my usual metallic weathering, with some heavy patches of rust. The rust pigment powder in particular played really well with the large areas of pitting detail moulded into the weapons. I also painted the eyes to help them stand out within the sockets (as they're recessed really far back into the orbits), but unfortnuately they don't stand out in my photos as well as they do in real life.

The build itself includes a lot of hidden hinges and ball joints to give them some really impressive articulation and range of movement. There's a neat little feature that allows you to open up the jaw. The kit includes two sets of hands - an open outstretched hand option and a set of open fists to hold the various weapons.

There are three weapons included in the separate weapons sprue; a sort of falchion, a cleaver, and a small knife. There's also a polearm adaptor to which the various weapons can be attached to create a spear or a glaive. There's also a sort of thick chain piece that can be used as armour for the skeletons, which attaches to one of the several 3mm pegs on the back.

There's quite a few points of attachment hidden alongside all of the bony detail that makes these skeletons compatible with some of the armour sets from the 30MF line (and probablyt the 30MS and 30MM line as well). I might pick up one of the option armour sets in the future to help give these skeletons a little more customisation.

These skeletons pair up really nicely with my other 30MF kits, like the Rosan Holy Knight I built earlier this year.

Overally this was a fun and super quick little side project. The skeletons go together very quickly and I'm sure they'd be perfect for army building. If I ever get a larger display case I definitely want to try customising a new set of these with one of the proper armour sets. I definitely reccomend picking up a few of these if you can find them.

MG 1/100 E.F.S.F Prototype Long Range Support Mobile Suit RTX-75 "Guntank"

Last month I rounded out my collection with the HGGTO version of the Guntank, and now it's time for the MG version of the kit. This is a fairly old MG kit, from 2009, and it definitely shows its age in some aspects, but despite its age it definitely holds up with my other Master Grade kits.

The Guntank in the original series was the oldest prototype from Project V, consisting of little more than a scaled-up tank body with the top half of a mobile suit on top. It acts as a form of mobile weapons platform, with two long-range 120mm cannons and two sets of quad-missile launchers, and was mostly piloted by Jose Ryu (in the Core Block) and Hayato Kobayashi (as the main pilot).

This kit is very well colour separated for its age, with pretty much nothing aside from the pilot figures and cockpits requiring painting. Unfortunately a lot of the kit has some fairly weak connections, especially the Core Fighter wing connections (which unfortunately snapped and had to be glued into Core Block mode) and the track link connections. I gave this kit a fairly simple weathering once-over with some metallic weathering for the grey sections, and plenty of soot and oil staining around the track sections.

I gave my best shot at the pilot figures as well. Alongside two seated figures for the two cockpits, there's a standing figure of Ryu Jose, Hayato Kobayashi, Mirai Yashima, and Bright Noa, in their UC0079 millitary outfits. Unfortunately the details are a little too tricky for 1/100 scale so the outcome is a little sloppy.

A really cool included feature of this kit is a small green LED unit, which with the aid of some light piping lights up the auxillary targeting cameras as well as the control panel in the "head" canopy cockpit. Combined with the painted cockpit and trans-clear windshield, I think this is probably my favourite part of this build.

The other detail I painted for this kit were the 120mm shells, hidden underneath an armour panel on the "backpack", as well as some hidden copper detailing on the track suspension.

Just like the other older MG kits I've built, like the MG Ball, there's a mix of sticker decals and rub-on dry decals. I'm not a fan of the dry decals from this kit, as I felt they were very delicate and implemented in some very awkward positions that led to them getting smudged or distorted too easily. The sticker decals are nice, but there's a very limited supply and I ended up supplementing everything with my HGGTO spares. I do feel that the successful dry decal placement are a lot better looking than the stickers though. I also included some caution tape around some of the moving parts for extra detail.

Unlike most MG kits, the Guntank lacks any accesories, and has very limited posability. It makes up for this mostly in gimmicks. The in-built weapons can somewhat move, with the quad-missile launchers in the hands moving back and forth when the forearm is rotated.

The large 120mm cannons on the shoulders can pose fairly freely, and have a hidden spring to replicate the effect of recoil. There's also a set of struts that can deploy from the shoulders to provide extra stability when firing.

The chest vents can open up, and a set of panels can fold down from the tank section to provide a more stable firing platform.

The tracks are super impressive in and of themselves. There's a very intricate system of functional suspension, including real actuating springs, and there's a set of hidden pistons that let the track pods move out from the body for better mobility. The tracks are made up of a set of 76 individual track links, and they're fully articulated, allowing the kit to roll along (although this feels more like a play feature as it doesn't add much to the posing at all). There's a hidden switch in each track-pod that raises or lowers the suspension as well, changing the overall profile of the tracks.

Overall, despite its age, this is an incredible build. In terms of posing it can feel just as limited as the old HGUC version, however in terms of detail and hidden gimmicks it's definitely worth the much higher price.

It's definitely a very time-consuming build, however, so I'm looking forward to some much simpler quick builds in the meantime before building up to another MG.

HGGTO 1/144 E.F.S.F Prototype Amphibious Mobile Suit RGM-79U "GM Sloep"

Its finally done! The last of my Gundam: The Origin GM variants! Unlike the other builds I've done so far, this is technically from Mobile Suit Discovery, like the GM Missile Pod that started this collection, although it does share the same designer, Kunio Okawara.

The GM Sloep is the precursor to the much more well-known Aqua GM, and represents a somewhat incomplete retro-fitting of the GM into an amphibious machine. While the later Aqua GM was purpose-built for aquatic operations, the GM Sloep is pretty much the standard space-capable GM design (with this kit featuring one of the closest recreations of the original GM kit from the HGGTO line) with a new boat-like backpack designed for submersible thrust and attitude control, and a set of new custom sensors that let the GM Sloep actually see things underwater despite its sensor suite being designed for space.

I think overall, this is one of my favourite HGGTO builds. It incorporates a lot of supplemental runners from a lot of the different HGGTO GMs, including the GM Sniper Custom/GM Intercept Custom and the GM Night Stalker, while the overall build still follows the basic structure of the other GMs from this line. The stand-out feature is of course the backpack, which sits rather neatly on a poseable hook allowing it to be angled slightly.

Just like the other HGGTO GMs, the colour separation is near-perfect. There is some colour correction required for the white sections on the tips of the hydroplanes, recreated with foil colour-correcting stickers, but otherwise the only painting required is for the yellow and grey on the forehead vulcans. I also added a touch of yellow to the speakers on the sonar gun for a little extra visual detail, and added my (standard by now) chrome paint behind the visor.

I gave the grey sections my standard metallic weathering, swapping out the silver pigment powder for the slightly greener titanium to help tie everything together. I noted that Kunio Okawara's original sketch for this design included some rust staining, so I added my own (although I think I weant a lot farther than implied by his sketch). Most of the extra weathering is standard sponge chipping is black and gunmetal, with some extra large pale brown/clear rust oxide splotches sponged on top and mottled with a bright orange. However I also tried out a new technique by using an extra thin brush to carefully paint some rust streaks dripping down the body of the suit in clear rust oxide, blending them into the build with some of my rust pigment powder. I think this gives the suit one of my best ever attempts at rust staining and I'm super proud of how it turned out.

As usual I touched up the existing thrusters with red heat-retardant coating and some gold detailling, although this suit only has the vestigial feet thrusters from the base GM, that likely see minimal use while the suit is submurged. There are some auxillary submarine thrust packs on the calves, and all of the waterjet outflow vents got some nice staining with my oil-stain pigment and a black drybrush to imply heavy use.

I think the sticker set for this kit is by far my favourite. Most of the caution detailing is the standard HGGTO fare, but there are some great striping details and text-stickers that faithfully recreate Kunio Okawara's lineart. Of course, there are plenty of spares that have been set aside for future use. I even stole an E.F.F. logo from my GM Night Stalker II for a little extra detailling.

The kit includes the standard set of HGGTO GM hands, with two open hands, two open fists, and two pistol-grip hands. The open fist options feel a little redundant aside for posing, as the design of the suit necessitates foregoing a beam saber.

The main feature is the backpack, which is designed to let the GM operate like a form of submarine. There are 3 large propellors that allow for forward and backward movement, and a set of retractable and poseable hydroplanes for attitude control. You can retract the hydroplanes by turning the white ring on the centre of the backpack.

There are plenty of smaller vents implying a form of ballast system to help the otherwise space-designed machine to sink and float. The backpack also carries a small wired sensor-pod with two cameras on it, that can be launched on a 45m cable to act as a sort of periscope while the rest of the suit remains submerged. The included lead wire isn't quite long enough to imply this length, but it's a perfect size to get some great poses.

The other major inclusion for the GM Sloep is the handheld Sonar Gun. This isn't really a weapon, but essentially the front sensor components from a submarine modified into a handheld format as it was deemed impractical to mount the hardware directly to the base GM (despite there being two perfectly good hard-points on the arms that were not being used for a shield). There's a large auxillary camera for better submarine visibility (with some chrome added to the camera component to help it stand out) as well as a large nose-cone housing the sonar hardware.

The other inclusion is the standard beam spray gun, which this time comes with some small stickers to help provide extra detail. I added some heat discolouration to the barrel as usual.

Overall this is a really fun and solid build, with great posing and a few simple gimmicks that manage to not get in the way without feeling uninteresting. Out of all of the P-Bandai builds I've done from this line, this one feels the most like it justifies its P-Bandai price tag.

Now I've only got a single HGGTO kit remaining, and then it's on to some less traditional builds. Keep an eye out for them!

Thought I'd write up a quick tutorial to how I approach weathering for my gunpla kits. Typically, I'll do a quick gunmetal drybrush of the grey parts of a kit before I start building, as well as correcting any colour inaccuracies. This tutorial covers some of the things I do to a kit after it's built, to give it a more "lived in" look.

For the best effect, I apply stickers and other decals before weathering, as well as graffiti. This way, weathering cuts through or over these designs, helping tie them to the kit a little better.

The example kit here is the HGUC 1/144 Nemo, which I'll upload a review for soon that should be linked in the future.

Bullet Holes & Impact Points

I typically use a hobby knife, pressing it into the surface of the plastic to make a small mark where I want the bullet impact point to be.

Usually with a blade that has a damaged or flatter tip, I'll spin the blade around, just like you'd use a hand drill (although I don't have any of those, so this suffices). Holding the blade at a slight angle will make the hole wider and a little more bowl shaped, just like a dent from an impact point.

Using a round metal file, I widen some of the holes and bevel the edges. Apart from making the hole a little more visible, this also creates a bit of a raised edge.

A starburst pattern can be created by cutting a few shallow lines with a knife traveling out from the centre of the hole, creating the implication of shrapnel from a shattered round.

Armour Chips and Edge Damage

Using a round file, I carve a rounded indent into the edge of the armour section. Depending on the angle you use and the position of the indent, this can come across as a dent or a chip of armour blown off. You can see what this looks like in the second image.

After this, I'll use a hobby knife or an angled file to cut deep grooves heading outward from the dent, as well as on their own to create cuts and chips along more acute angled on armour pieces (think the 90 degree angle on a square leg piece). As additions to the rounded damage, it can look like shrapnel damage from an intial angled impact. On their own, more angled chips give high points on armour a more worn effect.

Paint Damage (Sponge Chipping)

This utilizes a technique I learned from @radiofreemagica a few months ago. Give their blog some love!

Sponge chipping involves lightly applying paint to areas you want to appear chipped or worn using a sponge. The effect is that paint is applied as a series of small spots, which if done right should look as though the pain has fallen off in large flakes. The sponges here are simply offcuts of an old kitchen sponge.

For my first pass, I use a slightly heavier application of black paint.

Dab a little of the excess off on a piece of paper - you want the impression of the sponge to come across clearly for the small little dots. If there's too much paint on the sponge, it'll blot onto the model and obscure detail.

Apply the paint across raised edges, especially corners, where the mech or vehicle is likely to experience the most friction. Try to be measured on application - not every raised edge needs to have chipped paint!

For the second pass, a gunmetal is appropriate. Use an even smaller amount of paint.

Dab the gunmetal over the top of your black. This will make it look as though underneath the black "primer" is bare metal.

Drybrushing

This step helps to augment the wear and tear established with your sponge chipping. Using a lighter metallic, you can emphasise the idea that under the bright colours of the model kit is tough metal plating.

My go-to drybrush for this is Citadel's Necron Compound, which is a drybrush-ready silver. Usually I prefer cheaper and more dilute Vallejo Air, as it reduces the risk of drying out or clogging in the bottle, and doesn't need to be thinned. However, Citadel's technical paints are really well made, and worth the extra cost.

For a drybrush style paint, you only need to wipe a little excess of your drybrushing brush. For a typical silver acryllic, you'll need to keep wiping until only a little silver comes off the brush, enough to only stick on the high points. You can use a specific drybrushing brush for this, or just any old brush that you don't care about abusing a little.

Only lightly tickle the raised edges with silver. A little goes a long way - you just want the edges of the armour segments to catch the light and give the implication of worn metal.

Painting the Damage

Coming back to the damage we carved with files and knives, it's time to give the impression of metal underneath them, rather than plastic.

For this, I'll use a plain silver acryllic, something around a flat aluminium rather than chrome or purer silver.

With a small brush, apply the silver paint into the chips, cracks, and bullet holes you made earlier. Make sure to work it right into the thinner recesses, and wipe away any excess with a cotton bud.

Next, to bring down the tone and to add depth to the damage, I use a black wash. You can buy premade acryllic washes, or even use something like liquid panel liner, but I prefer to just make my own.

Make sure your brush is very wet, picking up water with your brush.

Mix with the paint until it is very thin. You should be able to see through it.

Apply it into the bullet holes and cracks, letting it flow into the deepest sections just like with a panel liner, and wiping away the excess.

This should make the damage look a little deeper, and give it a bright edge from the silver.

Finishing Up

Make sure to give your kit a protective topcoat, so that all your paint doesn't get chipped off when posing or moving your kit! I use a matte finish pray on sealer. Right now I'm using the Mod Podge clear acryllic, but in the past I've also used bog-standard Rust-O-Leum Matte Clear varnish without any issues. It's important to cover or mask off any clear or gloss parts when doing a matte finish, as these will ruin the parts and it's very difficult to clean them once the topcoat is set.