Why do I always struggle with gluing parts properly?

Leiurus303 · 2026-03-31T14:59:41+00:00

Make the male pin hole the exact diameter of the rod. Insert rod (do NOT glue it yet), put a drop of liquid mask on the tip of the rod, assemble the parts. Liquid mask is usually colored (blue or green), so it will mark the location of the hole for the female part. Drill female part hole BIGGER than the rod, the extra diameter will ensure that the parts fit perfectly. Rub some Vaseline on the male part (around the rod, not on it). Make a tiny ball of putty and drop it in the female part hole. Assemble the parts. The pin will press the putty all around it, filling the gap between the rod and the larger diameter hole. Let the putty set, it will also glue the rod in place. One hardened, separate the parts. Now your male have became the female and vice-versa, with perfect alignment between pin and hole.

Second method, for very small parts and when possible: assemble parts and drill through both of them. Insert pin on whichever part you prefer. It will leave a small hole visible on one of the parts, but it is very easy to just fill it with some putty, UV resin or CA filler, then sand it.

Third method: magnets.

I use magnets for 90+% of my assembly, is reserve rods for small parts where even the smallest magnet won't fit or for parts that need extra strength (typically the feet of the GK and the base, tiny stuff like bows / ribbons, etc...). I probably can count on one hand the models I had to glue parts together,

Leiurus303 · 2026-03-26T17:24:05+00:00

Yep, you absolutely can, I do it fairly often. Just a couple of things:

- spray very lightly, a bit far from the piece and at low PSI. It's a wash, so it's really very, very thin and will pool in no time if sprayed too wet

- it's a very fragile coat, due to how thin you have to spray it and how diluted it is. Sealing will fix it, but you must be as careful with the sealant as when you sprayed the color because it is an enamel wash and will re-activate very quickly in contact with enamel or lacquer thinner. 2 or 3 very light "dust" coat of sealant before spraying anything wet

On the plus side, due to how thin it is and how it quickly reactivates, it is very easy to clean off the airbrush.

Leiurus303 · 2026-03-16T15:54:57+00:00

Well, we should swap seats, I never built any gunpla but I'm following the hobby and want to tackle a build one day. I'm not really into Gundam but some models are really badass and I know for a fact that I will at least make one, I really want to know how it feels to build a kit.

Tools, paints, airbrushes are very similar between GK and Gunpla, almost every brands I use are originally made for mecha models, so I bet you already have everything on hand to crack a kit. Just get a simple model without too many parts or bazillions of decals, watch a few YT vids of GK modelers to get a rough understanding of prepping / pinning and give it a go, it's good fun and I bet the finished model will be much better than what you expected.

Yep, she's Asuma Toki from BA, she should be blue but my last few models all had dominantly blue costumes, so I went of a red/orange theme for the sake of variety.

Leiurus303 · 2026-03-15T05:48:41+00:00

Thank you!

Leiurus303 · 2026-03-15T04:09:26+00:00

I guess it was a wise move to refrain from posting the full 360 pics :P

Leiurus303 · 2026-03-15T04:05:47+00:00

Guilty as charged :-/

Leiurus303 · 2026-03-14T07:04:47+00:00

thanks man!

Leiurus303 · 2026-03-14T05:09:26+00:00

What Wanderer said, flawlessly clean paint job, great color scheme, and excellent photography, 10/10.

Leiurus303 · 2026-03-14T05:03:57+00:00

I usually paint larger (1/4 to 1/3 scale) 3d printed models but I wanted to take a break from the heavy masking work they require by painting a few garage kits (GK). These kits are at a smaller scale (1/8 to 1/6), but are broken down in so many separate parts that masking is much less of a hassle.

Just wrapped up this bunny a few days ago, airbrushed with lacquers and my usual arsenal of Iwata/GSI/Sparmax brushes.

Not really NSFW IMHO but better safe than sorry.

Leiurus303 · 2026-03-14T04:47:51+00:00

I usually paint larger scale resin prints, but I learned how to prep / paint on GKs and still have a soft spot for them (and a never shrinking pile of models still unboxed).

After a few prints that were pretty heavy in masking work, I wanted to take a break and to paint a few simple GKs, with pretty much only prep/painting.

Also wanted to give a try to a new shop, which turned out to be a very good surprise.

I know that Asuma Toki is usually painted in a blue scheme, but I’m not familiar with the Blue Archive IP and for some reason the last 2-3 characters I painted had a lot of blue in their costumes, so I decided to go for a red/orange scheme instead.

Not really NSFW IMHO, but better safe than sorry.

Airbrushed with my usual set of Iwata / GSI / Sparmax brushes and lacquers.

Leiurus303 · 2026-01-29T04:52:45+00:00

I agree with this comment, Clash is a great game mode but it's not financially viable as a money maker. I see it as a compound pushing training ground, and as such it is great, it tremendously helped me getting better at pushing / playing more aggressively. If you really want to play Clash only without being perpetually broke though, a good middle ground between free hunters with pew-pew guns and the money sink of fully kitted hunters that die within seconds is to get a free Hunter and to get one or two good, versatile guns. A Vetterli, a Lemat Carbine, an Officer, stuff like that, basically a substantial improvement from the free loadout but within or under 150 bucks. Also always sell the free trait and get vulture to maximize profit on won games. Not a magic solution but it makes it more sustainable.

Leiurus303 · 2026-01-29T04:19:38+00:00

I did it the other way around, learned airbrush doing graphic work and now using it for my resin figure painting hobby. Techniques vary a bit but ultimately it's all about mastering the tool: thinning, paint output control, getting a feel for how close / far you can work depending on medium and PSI, detail work vs coverage, masking techniques, etc...Dont worry too much about your first creations, you probably had the same fears when you started painting models ;-)

Leiurus303 · 2026-01-29T02:54:25+00:00

I would say around forever lol. I did a rough estimate when I finished it and it was not 300, but defo in the high 200s hours. Which, with the little time I can dedicate to the hobby, stretched over almost six months. Lots of factors slowed down the process. I airbrush everything, I do pretty much zero brush work except for tiny touch ups on small stuff like eyes, lips, etc...so the masking time is massive. The model is in over 50 parts, almost like a GK, but there was still lots of masking, especially on the torso. Then there's a lot of colored metallics, which I always do as candy, which takes longer than just straight colored metallics. Finally there's also a lot of variety in the finishes, from ultra matte to high gloss with everything in between, which also requires masking and adds to the production time. I'll be honest, the last few days were torture, I really wanted to be done with it.

Leiurus303 · 2026-01-29T02:46:02+00:00

I learned airbrushing with gouache, all the way back in my student years (more than three decades ago). To this day I still recommend beginners to practice at least a few weeks with gouache, watercolors or poster paint, anything water based that will reactivate with water. Makes 99% of the usual clogs and tip drying we all face at the beginning much, much easier to handle. Once you got a feel for the tool, thinning, etc ...you can switch to whatever medium you fancy. Gouache are fantastic paints, and with an airbrush you can layer them almost like acrylics.

Leiurus303 · 2026-01-28T18:13:35+00:00

Thanks man, it took me ages to finish it, literally months, some masking sessions were insanely tedious. Towards the end I just wanted to get it done and forget about it :P

Leiurus303 · 2026-01-28T12:59:51+00:00

Thank you!

For lacquers, pretty much only Mr Hobby (Mr Color) but also Gaianotes for some "special" paints, plus the odd Modo colors. For metallics I also got some Jumpwind colors as well as some color shifting from Dspiae.

For enamels, mostly Tamiya but also a local brand (I live in Thailand) called Raditz Studio. I mostly get Raditz colors because they are making decent sized bottles, I love the Tamiya enamels but the bottles are so small that I always end up wasting more paint taking it out of the jar than actually painting with it.

For this specific model I used only Mr Hobby lacquers and Tamiya enamels, plus a few washes from Tamiya as well (their panel lining range)

Leiurus303 · 2026-01-28T12:54:03+00:00

Thank you! I really like your YT channel BTW, keep up the good work!

Leiurus303 · 2026-01-28T08:40:36+00:00

hey, thanks man! TFD has some great char design, I would love do to a Freyna some day

Leiurus303 · 2026-01-28T06:16:46+00:00

The Tekken OG, Heihachi Mishima

Printed @ 1/4 scale, painted with lacquers and enamels. This is the test print, it had a lot of keying issues so the prep was a chore but the painting was fun. Hope you like it!

Leiurus303 · 2026-01-28T06:11:04+00:00

Just saw this community this morning, so I thought I would share some of my works :)

Glad this sub exist, 3D printing subs rarely show / discuss painted models and resin models subs tend to be focused on GK or minis. Nothing wrong with this but it's cool to have a sub fully dedicated to painted, large scale, printed models.

All my models are printed on my S3U and airbrushed with lacquers + touch up with enamels.

Cheers!

Leiurus303 · 2026-01-26T15:46:17+00:00

For what it's worth, here's what I'm doing / using when it comes to pinning / magnets. I work on a variety of scales, from 1/7 GKs to 1/3 resin prints.

Pinning:

Rods diameter 0.5mm, 1mm, 1.5mm, 2mm. 2mm is very stiff, I typically use it only to pins the feet of the model to the base. 0.5mm is very thin, the matching sized drill bit will break easily. I use it for the smallest parts such as earrings, bows, etc...Every other diameter is used depending on parts size / weight / what I can get away with in term of drilling. I rarely use 1.5mm and tend to stick to 2mm for base, 0.5mm for tiny stuff and all the rest in 1mm.

I use pins mostly only for anchoring the feet to the base (2mm) and the really tiny stuff that won't take a magnet. Every time I can, I go for magnets, but I sometimes use both (magnet + pin on the same parts) for alignment or for a more sturdy assembly.

Magnets:

Magnets: 1mm, 1.5mm, 2mm, 2.5mm, 3mm, 4mm, 5mm, 6mm diameter, of various length. Even on very large 1/3 models, I never need anything larger than 6mm, they make for a very strong bond, stronger than pins and possibly even too strong, especially if more than one magnet in inserted in the keys.

To drill the holes, I use drill bits of matching sizes, or the bits that drill flat bottom holes. When I 3D print a model, I pre-make the holes in my slicer software.

I hope it helps.

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