How to Build Gunpla Part 4 – Using a Gundam Marker

A Gundam Marker is a marker with paint in it, and is an alternative to painting. While I don’t think that it can be a replacement for painting, it can be used to fill in small details on a model kit. So, in this final part, I will teach you how to use a Gundam Marker.

Before you paint a part, an easy way to prevent paint from spreading is to use the hobby knife and scratch around the area you want to paint.

The curved area needed to be painted, so using the hobby knife, I scratch out the area around it so that the paint will not flow out of the area.

Here is another example of using the hobby knife. You may notice that I’m preparing the parts for painting while they are on the runner. I just find it easier to paint like this, but you can definitely cut it out and then paint it.

This is a grey Gundam Marker that I have used for painting.

Shake it a few times before you start using it. This will help the paint to mix again, since it may have separated when it wasn’t been used.

Then, press the pen down on a surface. Press it for a few times until the ink comes out.

After a few presses, the ink will flow out.

After that, start painting the part where you want to paint. You may want to wait for it to dry. Try to paint only one or two coats, because if the paint gets thick, the paint surface will be uneven and it will not look good.

If there is an excess paint spilling out, use the hobby knife to shave it off. Try to get paint within where you want to paint, so that you only need to shave off little bit of excess paint. If the paint has spread over a large surface, and you use the hobby knife to scratch it off, it will leave a lot of scratch marks on the plastic and it wouldn’t look good, as the surface would be too rough.

Here are the parts painted. It’s not perfect, but it will do.

After that, if you left it on the sprue, just cut the part off.

Another use of the Gundam marker is to clean up nub marks. As you can see, there is a noticeable nub on the foot of this Gundam. So, you can use it to color in the white stress mark.

Here is a closer look at the foot.

Here is the foot after coloring it in using the red Gundam Marker. You can wipe off the excess using your fingers or more preferably, a cotton bud. Gundam Markers are very helpful if you want to hide nub marks or add in small details to a model kit. However, they are not required, and are only optional. And that’s all. Gunpla is a really fun hobby, and I love it. I hope you have enjoyed reading my posts on building Gunpla, and I really hope it has inspired you to try it out yourself.