About Gundammodels.net

What is this website all about?

I’ve been messing around with various plastic scale models since the 70s, back when you could still wander down to the local shop which was just seven miles away and grab an Airfix or other model kit, sadly that’s long gone now.

One type of kit I’ve really fallen for over the years is Gundam and other anime style kits. They’re a nightmare to find in the UK and cost a small fortune to ship from Japan, but recently the availability has increased. These kits are totally worth it.

Straight out of the box are designed to be quick, snap-fit builds you can finish in a couple of hours, but I can’t help myself using my previous skills on other kits by painting most, if not all the kit.

This starts the effort of filling in seam lines I don’t like by repeating the filling, sanding routine till I’m happy, then the repainting stages of priming, sanding then onto topcoats and sanding between them to get the desired feel. With there being no true colour scheme to rigidly follow I can try and match the original colours or going completely freestyle with the airbrush depending on my mood. My stash is mostly these Gundam and Aime kits, but still have Sci-Fi, ships, and larger-scale cars and armour.

My hobby has basically taken over what used to be the spare room. Picture stacks of unbuilt kits arranged like some chaotic Jenga tower. Also, apologies to my wife for permanently “borrowing” the ironing board, dining table, pegs, cloths, and anything else that looks even vaguely useful…

With for years running an airbrush and compressor division I’ve been getting more into airbrushing techniques and various paint manufacturers to get better finishes, shinier metallics, panel lining and weathering experiments. I’m hoping to try out some more detailed stencil work soon, but I’ll be practising on scrap bits first before I risk an actual kit.

I’m also proud to be a founding member of the UK Gunpla/Mecha S.I.G. (Special Interest Group) within the UK IPMS. We set it up so we can show off our builds at events and chat with fellow modellers—and hopefully get a few more people hooked on mecha kits.

When I’m not building Gundam and Anime models, you can see my what others would call “traditional” models on Plasticandplasters.com, and you can find my other hobbies over on the personal website my wife and I run: msrigby.co.uk. It felt like the right time to pull everything together across the various social platforms and keep all the pics and posts in one tidy place.

Anyway, enough rambling—enjoy the site, and let me know what you think!