AMMO Mecha Painting & Weathering Sets

[Mike]

Mecha Painting & Weathering Sets
AMMO of Mig Jimenez

Following our review and build review of a Gundam Zaku II of the Zeon Republic recently, we're building on the theme with assistance of AMMO, who produce both a Guide to painting Mechas as they refer to the giant robot genre collectively, as well as a crop of painting and weathering sets to help you achieve the amazing effects that are commonplace in the AFV modelling arena, and transfer well to Mech painting. The acrylic colours are suitable for brush-painting or airbrushing, and they are well regarded as a range of colours, either mixed with their own thinners, water or Ultimate Thinners.

In case you haven't a clue what I'm talking about, these giant robots are a regular part of Japanese Anime (cartoons) and Manga (graphic novels) that have become a staple entertainment in Japan, which has spread to the West with the aid of dubbing and subtitles. The industry is worth billions of yen per annum, and there is a wealth of subjects to choose from, with specialist importers such as our friends at Japan:Cool bringing many of the kits into the UK to facilitate your interest!


Mecha & Robots Colours (A.MIG.7127)
Gundam and their ilk are usually quite colourful, especially on the side of right, with white bodies, colourful forearms, shoulder pads etc., which are more pure colours than the muddied shades you often find in the pre-existing armoury of the military modeller. This set contains six 17ml bottles of acrylic paint, with yellow screw top caps and a dropper applicator inside. The new yellow caps indicate that there is also a stainless steel ball-bearing within each pot that assists with paint mixing.

Inside the box are the following colours:

A.MIG-048 Yellow
A.MIG-049 Red
A.MIG-103 Medium Blue
A.MIG-119 Cold Grey
A.MIG-120 Light Brown-Grey
A.MIG-204 Medium Gunship Grey

Green Mecha Colours (A.MIG.7149)
There's a LOT of green in mech painting, particularly the Zeon folks in Gundam, Zentradi in Macross, and the Gamilas of Space Battleship Yamato. This set is also acrylic like the previous set, but instead of a range of colours you get a range of shades to enable you to colour modulate and adjust the tonality of the finish to your heart's content. Included in the set are the following colours:

A.MIG-023 Protective Green
A.MIG-045 Gun Metal
A.MIG-062 Blue
A.MIG-077 Dull Green
A.MIG-082 Interior Light Green
A.MIG-201 Light Gray Green

Chipping Set for Mechas 1 (A.MIG 7428)
Unlike the paint sets above, this set is a small three paint set, with two 32ml bottles and one 17ml dropper bottle. The first of the 32ml bottles contains Chipping Fluid that you apply liberally to the surface of the model before painting, while the second is an enamel wash of Engine Grime. The acrylic bottle contains a brown shade to create weathered chip marks with.

The chipping fluid is applied before the paint, and when dry the paint is gently agitated using a damp stiff brush to give the desired effect. The Engine Grime is applied as a wash to give a dirtied-down appearance to your Gundam, and can be removed or adjusted by either wiping with a piece of towel, or by dampening the edges with a brush moistened in enamel thinners. Finally, the brown paint is applied with a small brush, taking care to keep the marks in scale.

A.MIG-044 Chipping
A.MIG-2010 Scratches Effects
A.MIG-1407 Engine Grime

Weathering Set for Mechas 2 (A.MIG-7429)
Another three bottle set, this time with three 32ml bottles, one each of enamel filter, wash to add layers of detritus to your finished model. Layers of filter can be used to subtly change the hue of the underlying light/white colour, while the Streaking Grime is added to areas where dirt would accumulate or be drawn by rain marks, after which it can be faded, adjusted or drawn in the direction of gravity with a brush moistened in thinners. The Dark Earth pigment is added to areas where mud, dust and dirt build-up, then moved about with a dry brush until you are happy with the look, and then fixed in place by a dot of thinners or pigment fixer.

A.MIG-1500 Filter Brown For White
A.MIG-1201 Streaking Grime For Dak
A.MIG-3007 Dark Earth Pigment

Review sample courtesy of

[whitestar12chris]

Great review Mike, had a look out of interest and can see lots of other applications. Extremely interesting sets for detailing.

All the best Chris

[Pete in Lincs]

Thanks for that, Mike.

Must resist.......

[Mike]

If I were you, I'd give in... resistance is futile, afterall. I've already caved, and am awaiting my first Gundam, which I'm hoping to use the green paint set with

[Will Vale]

What did you go for Mike?

As you can see we've taken the Gundam plunge in our house - I've had one or two in the stash for ages but have been too chicken to build them, the acquisition of a couple of (simpler) HG kits for cheap at our club last weekend prompted some modelling action:

I was assigned the simpler older (1999 copyright) Guncannon after Laura picked the cool detailed one from Gundam Build Fighters. Typical

They are surprisingly tricky to build and paint as a model rather than just snap together - figuring out the best order to do things in is interesting and all the open limb ends are like a plane with many cockpits in masking terms.

Hopefully have some concrete results to share soon

Will

[Mike]

Nice I picked up a Real Grade Zaku II at 1:144 scale, and even though it's tiny, the detail is staggering! The little co-moulded articulated skeleton is mind-blowingly clever, isn't it?

[Will Vale]

It's probably the most complex yet weird thing I've seen in a plastic kit. It's odd that the instructions then have you take some of the bits apart again, or at least they appear to.

I have the same kit but have been too daunted to build it, so I'm hoping to be able to crib off your progress From what I can see though, it should be possible to paint all the armour parts separately and attach them at the end, I'm just a bit concerned to see whether paint thickness will compromise the fit.

Will