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Hello! Please introduce yourself

Hello, my name is Cory or Side6 Gunpla. I was born in the United States and am currently living there now in Florida. I’m fairly new to gunpla as this is my 3rd year doing the hobby and my 2nd year airbrushing.

RG Zaku II

I have always known about Gundam and watched a few of the anime’s but in 2020 I got my first kit which was the HG Barbatos(1st form). I saw it in the store and figured I'd try it out since we were all stuck quarantined and I was hooked. I snap- built a few kits and then started detailing a little with spray cans and panel lining and top coating. Finally I invested in an airbrush mainly because of the builder/youtuber Otaku Builder as the painting style I wanted to do used a lot of pre shading and highlighting like he did which is difficult to do so with spray cans. My favorite Gundam designs are the MK II, Full Armor(Thunderbolt Version), Kampfer, Strike, and Duel.

The first kit I airbrushed was a RG Unicorn and it was a mess. I wanted to practice preshading white as I figured most Gunpla had a lot of white so it would be good experience. I preshaded with black but since I had no experience airbrushing, modeling, or shading, I ended up covering up all the preshade so it was just all white with no tone or shading. Overall it wasn’t as bad as it could have been but definitely gave me a good introduction to painting and airbrush control.

HG Heavyarms

Since then I have just been continuing to try and increase my skill with the shading and highlighting style or what I would describe as a variant of the “max” technique. Gunpla is my main hobby and I have recently been getting more into photography as I have discovered it’s a whole new experience getting into that and can really help show off all those hours of work. My other hobbies that I try to do if I have time is Gaming, Archery, Drawing/Painting.

Tell us about your favorite gundam project you have worked on so far?

It’s hard to narrow it down to one but it would be the MG Hyaku Shiki, the MG FAZZ ver. Ka, and my recent MG Aegis.

MG Hyaku Shiki

The Hyaku Shiki wasn’t anything too crazy but it was on my list because most builds you see of it are either just a straight gold paint job or they will omit painting the gold parts altogether. I wanted to add my style of shading to the gold and also go with a more matte/flat version instead of the mostly used gloss. I was worried painting over the gold plating would be problematic but it turned out fine and just took a little heavy coat of primer/surfacer. I laid down a base coat of mr. surfacer black 1500, then highlighted with Mr. color gx red gold. I did use Alclad pale gold to preshade and blend a little as well.

MG Fazz Ver Ka

Another one of my favorites was the FAZZ ver. Ka. Mainly just due to how complex the kit was and the amount of masking and frame detailing it took. The paint job is pretty basic color wise since I have chosen to leave mine without the ZZ Full Armor which leaves it mostly with the dark grey color scheme. I did this mainly because one of my favorite builders, Saintism had some photos of his without the armor and I thought it looked great. I was really happy with my shading on this kit as well as it really helps the limited colors pop more in my opinion. I do plan to add the extra armor later.

MG Aegis

Finally I would say the Aegis because this kit really challenged me with color mixing and getting that perfect amount of shading that I strive for. It also was the first kit that I started to take my photography more seriously and started using a DSLR and proper lighting techniques. The Aegis has a very unique shade of reddish pink and due to this, I had to really be careful when it came to the shading and highlighting so it didn’t lose that. I ended up finding a mix of mr. color paints which were wine red, orange, white, and red madder, and after the base coat and highlighting, I misted over it with orange to keep it from looking too pink. Also Gundam Seed is my favorite of the alternate timelines and Bandai really did a great job with the MG Seed kits where you don’t have to do much at all seam line wise or joint sanding.

Define your style in one word

So I always struggle with how to describe my style and even more so in one word but if I had to use one word, I would say “layered”, or “shaded”. Overall though, the best I have come up with to describe my style is Out of the Box, Semi-Clean variant of the “Max” technique (which I’m referring to the Max Watanabe style of painting.) It’s very much inspired by two of my favorite builders, Anubispla and Saintism.

MG RX-79G

The main focus of all my builds is the painting. I feel that’s where I express myself the most and what gives me that feeling of enjoyment we all get from the hobby. Don’t get me wrong, I love the whole process but the painting is where I really take pride in. I use shading or highlighting techniques in my painting to try and add slight weathering or dimension and like I mentioned earlier, I was introduced to this version through the school of Saintism. It’s a brighter style of shading that usually will favor highlighting with a brighter color rather than pre shading with black or building up from black on all colors like with the traditional “max” technique. That being said, I still use all forms of shading when needed and have found that you have to adapt with what kit your painting.

MG Astray Red Frame Kai

My process is to snap build the kit first to see what areas will need sanding to get the least amount of scraping and to get a feel for posing the kit and how it’s joints and limbs move without having to worry about paint chipping. After that I will add any scribing that I feel is needed and then clean all the pieces before priming. After priming I live to paint the dominant color first or which color has the most pieces. After I find the mix I like, I will lay down a base coat and then highlight on top of that or post shade with a darker tone. Then I gloss coat everything, add decals and panel lining and add a second gloss coat to seal everything. Finally I will matte coat or semi matte(depending on the kit.)

MG Buster

MG RX-79G with pilot crew

As for scribing and pla plating like in my HG Dom Test Type, it’s not something I do all the time but is something I enjoy. When I do scribe, it’s mostly on HG’s or older MG’s that just seem a little too plain and need some extra detail. I like my scribing to be very subtle though and to look like the kit came like that. A good example is my MG Tallgeese where I just added the few lines on the shoulder since it was a big plain piece. Most modern MG’s have enough detail for me though so most of the time I will focus all my extra time and energy on getting my shading and highlighting to my liking. I mainly paint my kits Anime accurate and this is because that’s one of the reasons that attracted me to that mobile suit in the first place. I mainly use Mr. Color lacquers and Alclad for the metal parts.

HG Dom Test Type

MG Tallgeese

Who do you follow on social media?

So as for builders I follow, there’s two that have been a huge inspiration to me and that is

Anubispla(IG)

Saintism(IG and saint-ism.com)

Some other people who I follow and have amazing skills are

TSGunpla(IG and Reddit)

Otakubuilder(IG and YouTube)

Itsagunpla(IG and YouTube)

Wayward Nippers(IG)

Mildcustoms(IG)

Gennai workshop(IG)_

Jlgunpla(IG and YouTube)

Acepilotgunpla(IG)

Your next gunpla project? (or current)

I’m currently working on the MG ZakuII Black Tri Stars and the MG Full Armor Ver. Ka. I’m currently doing the scribing on the Zaku II as the MG has a few plain open sections like on the thighs that could use some detail. After that I will be ready to start painting. As for the Full Armor, it’s still pretty early as right now I’m just getting the paints planned out and separated parts for masking. I will more than likely have the Zaku II finished first.

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