Building robot model kits has become one of the most popular hobbies in today’s era. While it is not as simple as some other hobbies like playing video games, building model kits is surprisingly more satisfying to do, as finally completing the assembly of a robot you built feels very rewarding and exciting. In addition to building, there are hobbyists that also enjoy posing and displaying the robots, which is technically another hobby on its own since it is more related to collecting.
While model kits are already fun to build on their own, there are some great ideas that you can apply to the hobby to make it more enjoyable. Here are some fun ideas for building robot models.
Build With a Fellow Hobbyist
There is nothing more fun in building model kits than assembling with another fellow hobbyist that will help or guide you in connecting complex parts and other difficult aspects of the hobby. If your relative or friend is an expert in building model kits, then it would be great for you to get some tips from him or her on how to build the more difficult kits that would require skill and knowledge.
But, it would also be fun to build with a beginner or with children, as it would be interesting to see how they slowly learn to assemble robots for kids on their own. No matter who you are with, building a model kit with a loved one will make even the most mundane processes of building fun.
Know How to Do Panel Lining
To make the robot models more realistic, veteran hobbyists would often perform some panel lining on the parts that needed to be blackened with a thin marker. Panel lining is a process wherein you can draw fine lines on several details of the robot to make them stand out more. For example, if the shield of the robot has some debossed lines on it, those lines would appear more if you can apply panel lining to them, thus giving the shield more detail.
Learning how and what to panel can be difficult at first, but you will slowly get the hang of it as you constantly build more kits. If ever you make a mistake, the good thing about high-quality panel lining markers is that they can be erased using alcohol and tissue, so don’t worry about making mistakes while learning how to do this process.
Learn How to Paint
If you want to make the robot kit unique, you will need to learn how to paint plastic parts. Much like panel lining, learning how to paint model kits can be challenging, especially if you are trying to tiny parts. But, through trial and error, you can soon paint parts more neatly and accurately.
There are many videos online that will give you tutorials for painting model kits, so learning is quite easy nowadays. If you are really afraid of making mistakes, you can apply paint that can easily be erased or removed first before moving on to permanent paint.
Customize the Robot
What’s great about most model kits is that they are highly customizable, so you can add accessories and extra parts to the robots if you want to. Many model kit companies would even sell accessory packs so that their customers can make unique robot models besides painting them in different colors.
Of course, before you can purchase an accessory pack, you would need to make sure that the accessories included would actually be suitable for the kit you bought. Model kits can come in different sizes, so you would have to buy accessory packs that are compatible with the size or scale of your kit.
Do Some Kitbashing
Kitbashing is the art of combining two or more model kits to make a truly unique robot model. This process is often done by veterans who wanted to build robots that are exclusive in their collection and cannot be seen on TV shows and movies where the original kitbashed kits first appeared.
This activity is arguably the most difficult to do for beginners, so make sure that you have the experience and the knowledge before you can kitbash your own robot model. Luckily, there are also many kitbashing tutorials online, so watch those first and be amazed at how they are able to create such an amazing robot model from two or more model kits.
And, those are just some of the most fun ideas that you can apply while you are building robot models. Most of the ideas mentioned above can only be done by veterans in building model kits, so try to improve your building skills so that you can apply these ideas easily in the future. If you are still a beginner, it would be best to build simple model kits first and try to practice panel lining and painting before you customize the robot or do some kitbashing.