Illustrated Snap Together Step By Step

Most people looking for mecha/robot models such as Gundam or Macross for example, will find themselves limited to plastic snap-togethers. These usually come in the 1/100 or 1/144 scale, and can more oft than not be obtained without too much injury to the wallet. Unlike resin kits of mecha, which tend to be rare and expensive, a plastic kit can be moved around and posed, *and* for those of you without the time, they don't *need* to be painted as all the parts come in the appropriately colored plastics. So if you want a fast and malleable mech, go ahead and snap away, and get those decals and stickers stuck on. But for that extra real look, painting is the way to go (and that goes for those stickers too!)

"What you need..."

Which ever path you choose, the first few steps should go as follows:

Preparations: Where It All Begins

Lay those parts out and make sure you've got everything you need. Although it sounds stupid to include this as even a psuedo-step, don't come crying to me when 53095394583 steps later in the model, you are missing the final "don't glue me" poly cap of the Gundam Sentinel so the booster units fit perfectly part xp (not that i know)

It's also good to lay out the trees so you get a rough idea of what goes where. We all can't read Japanese--which fortunately I can-- but even I cannot read really squished together small type that come with some really terrible instruction sheets. In the case of the VF-19, the instruction sheet is pretty clear, and offers you the choice of assembling the Lieutenant version (the S) or the plain trooper version (the F). The only difference here is in the color and design of the head markings, plus, the F version doesn't have the spikey ear antennae. Aren't you glad you checked? Ben is making the VF-19S version since who wants the grunt mech when they can get the souped up version? (unless it's a Zaku *drool*)

Now get the cutter, clamps, scissors etc out, and set about taking the tree apart. Most plastic kits are very structured and each tree corresponds to a section on the instruction sheet. Little ziplock bags come in handy if you take a tree apart and don't have the room to leave the parts lying around

Flash the pieces. If you're not going to paint the model, at least make sure it fits right

If you *aren't* going to paint the model, go ahead and put it together, stickers and all (you might want to put the stickers on the corresponding parts first so as not to run into obstacles like arms and standard issue big guns). Remember, the majority of Japanese models of this type don't require glue. They may lose their mobility if you decide to go the glue route. For this specific model, the silver stickers belong with the F head, and the gold with the S head.

If you *are* going to paint the model you can do the above as well, sans stickers, just to see that the pieces fit together and where. This is especially good for a model like the VF-19S because of its many similar looking parts

For you non-painters, enjoy!! Make sure to play with your models, don't just let em collect dust. Now, for you masochists...

Onto the Painting Process...

[ main| preps| step 1| step 2]