How do I paint the lenses and eyes on my kits? This topic has been brought up at message boards and I’ve gotten quite a few e-mails about it. So since I was taking pics for my MG Wing Gundam Ver. Ka., I thought I’d kill two birds and make a tutorial as well.

Most Bandai Gundam and mecha kits come with shiney foil stickers for the eyes and lenses. These tend to be ugly, a pain to work with, and in the end, they just look like stickers. Blah.

Some of these kits come with clear plastic parts for the eyes and larger lenses like the forehead sensors on a Gundam for example. These come with stickers too, but why cover up a clear part with a sticker when you can make them have depth and interest?

What about the parts that don’t come with clear parts? How can we make those look good? How can we we avoid masking? The answer is not too difficult and we’ll be using the stickers to boot!

Get some clear plastic. Several companies make it, or you can just use leftovers from an action-figure blister package. For this example, I’m using leftover bits of clear vacuform plastic.

Place the stickers on the clear plastic and use them as a template to cut out your new lenses. Remove the stickers and place them back onto the sheet for future use if needed.

Next we’ll place the lenses onto some tape rolled backwards on a skewer so that the sticky-side is out. This will make them easier to paint. Do the same with all of the clear parts supplied with the kit if any.

Next we’ll paint the backs of all of these clear parts with Tamiya Chrome Silver or any silver model paint. After they dry, take them off of the tape and flip them over onto fresh taped skewers. Notice how the silver is behind the part giving the lens some depth. Since eyes on the MG kits are very deep, I normally just paint the front of the eyes silver or else they tend to look too dark and not catch the light.

Next we’ll airbrush Tamiya clear colors onto the tops of the lenses. For this example, I used a mixture of Clear Green and Clear Yellow mixed with a little 91% Isopropyl alcohol to thin the paint. Any of the Tamiya Clear colors will work.

After we spray the clear, you may notice if looks a little fuzzy and frosted. Don’t fret, our next step will fix that.

To make the lenses really glossy and shiney, we’ll use Future Floor Acrylic. I brushed on 4 coats of FFA letting each coat dry for an hour in between. Notice how glossy and much nicer these look than the stickers already. Using the clear plastic gives you thicker lenses than the stickers would have and adds a nice touch to the kit.

After the FFA has cured completely (about 24 hours) we’ll remove the parts from the tape.

Next we’ll use a technical ink pen to outline the outside of the eyes with black ink. After the ink dries, give that part another coat of  FFA with an airbrush as to not smudge the ink.

After the kit is completely done and all the clear and flat-coats have been applied, glue these into place using a very small amount of white glue. (Elmer’s Glue)

I love thin, clean panel lines done with a technical pen and black ink. However for realism this doesn’t work too well. Now generally people will use a “wash” to fill in panel lines. A wash is done by brushing very thin enamel paint into the crevases, then wiping the excess away with thinner. It’s a very mess process and doesn’t allow much room for error.

I like to use my koh-i-noor technical pens for panel lines. The lines are crisp and smooth, and allow you to get to deep areas cleanly. At first if I screwed up (went out of the lines) I was screwed and had to repaint. I discovered though through trial and error that there is an easy way to use the pens which allow for many screw-ups.

Black Lines »

First, paint your kit, then give it a coat of Future Floor Acrylic sprayed through an airbrush. When that is dry completely (24 hours) use the pen and ink your lines. If you go out of the lines, dip a bit of paper towel in a solution of water:409 (70:30) so that the towel is just barely damp, and wipe away the mistake. Easy!

Faux Wash »

Now for the look of a wash. Koh-i-noor makes colored inks. For my martian Zeta + I used a mixture of red, orange, and a drop or 2
of black to make a brown. I filled my pen with it and used the same method as above. The only difference is that instead of wiping with the 409 solution for mistakes only, you do it to all the lines to make it look dirt encrusted. That’s all there is too it. You could potentially make any colored ink for the washes.

Step-by-step »

Mix your inks and fill your pen. Test the color out on paper with a paintbrush beforehand.

Ink your lines on your piece. The piece should already be painted and have a coat of future on it. Notice how I went out of the lines and wasn’t very neat.

Finished piece is cleaned up with wad of paper towel and 409 solution. The end result with the brown ink looks like a wash.

When your parts are inked, give them another coat of future before decaling as the water from waterslide decals will cause the ink to run and make a mess.