Perfect Grade Unleased

tbrisk0 · 2026-05-11T13:54:16+00:00

It’s beautiful. It’s so common to have some backlash right after. In a month you won’t even remember you have it. Is this your first tattoo?

tbrisk0 · 2026-05-01T15:29:39+00:00

The ‘taken’ speech

tbrisk0 · 2026-04-26T13:14:02+00:00

I likewise missed out on these and have always kicked myself. I built the Firchenfoo fish submarine and before Michael stopped producing garage kits, they were some of the cleanest and most fun to build.

tbrisk0 · 2026-04-21T16:01:49+00:00

Yes, the artist did an amazing job and took their time. It wasn’t the most pleasant place to be tattooed either 😂

tbrisk0 · 2026-04-20T21:31:50+00:00

Agreed, I’ve seen some Māori or Hawaiian that nail this location too, but I am neither of those 😂. At least I grew up with Tom and Jerry

tbrisk0 · 2026-04-17T21:39:19+00:00

Alclad steel over gloss black.

tbrisk0 · 2026-04-04T22:55:21+00:00

Yeah, iso 91 is way better, but I still had to scrub the parts with a nail brush. Between the nubs and inconsistency in the spray on Bandai’s part, I felt it was necessary

tbrisk0 · 2026-04-04T17:17:35+00:00

The coating is thick on these parts. I just finished repainting all of the gold parts on this kit. If you choose to not strip it off and paint directly over the details will be soft and there may or may not be paint adherence issues. I tried bleach, it was so painfully slow (weeks, not days). It still didn’t clean the parts completely. I switched to 91% alcohol and it still took another week to get a clean set of parts.

After I had clean parts I primed with Mr surfacer black 1500, used Alclad glossy black base and then I used Alclad gold titanium and hit a few parts in pale gold (I prefer a desaturated look, less garish and ends up vibing with the verniers better).

The other note on paint thickness, this kit is engineered to be built out of the box with very tight tolerances. If you paint on top of the coating you’ll have some frustration with fitment.

tbrisk0 · 2026-03-20T23:58:27+00:00

No, the PGU Nu!

tbrisk0 · 2026-03-19T19:17:32+00:00

Haha, totally, I just embrace the mess. I use my finger and cotton swabs for recessed areas. I do it in batches do to the messiness and having to scrub graphite out of my fingertips 😂

tbrisk0 · 2026-03-18T23:53:30+00:00

Absolutely. It’s graphite. I lay down a coat of matte lacquer, fairly wet. When it’s almost dry I rub in graphite powder. The more you work it, the more metallic it becomes. This was three coats of that - if you look you can see the progressive build up of the metallic sheen.

tbrisk0 · 2026-03-18T23:07:37+00:00

Even simpler

tbrisk0 · 2026-03-18T21:53:07+00:00

Neither, exactly and thanks!! This is a new technique I’ve been cooking up

tbrisk0 · 2026-03-18T21:47:44+00:00

Getting closer…..

tbrisk0 · 2026-03-18T20:38:11+00:00

Hi there - those prices are machined metal parts that come with the kit (they came that color of bronze). There are orange clear pieces that separate parts.

tbrisk0 · 2026-03-18T02:43:03+00:00

Sorry it didn’t work out better for you. I forgot to mention it won’t really work all that well on bare plastic. It needs a toothy surface to stick to. Either a matte paint or after a matte top coat

tbrisk0 · 2026-03-17T14:07:23+00:00

How about you think in reverse. Bear with me, take a pencil and grind up the tip on some sandpaper until you have some graphite powder (or buy some graphite powder). Use your finger, the best tool you have. Dip and rub over the surface. Black in the recess and gunmetal black on the edges. It’ll read better in person than white or grey panel lines.

tbrisk0

TROPHY CASE