I'll never be cool and steady-handed enough to paint gunpla, but, with this week being the summer's one window of genuinely warm weather, I've been trying my hand at some simple topcoating.

I've been using a matt topcoat experimentally on a few of my HG kits, disassembling them, masking off things like visors, spraying (outside), drying, and reassembling. I've not been getting fancy with multiple coats.

I think it works best on Zeon suits, like the Zaku II, Hygogg, and Juaggu. These tend to have more large, curved expanses of bare plastic that can catch the light; the matt topcoat makes these areas feel a lot less garish. It's also doing a decent job obscuring odd scrapes and nicks. It stiffens up the articulation, which is good for me—when it comes to gunpla I'm a poser not a player—but would probably be a bit annoying if I wanted to do lots of rearranging.

I guess in the long run it might protect the models from dust and wear as well? But I wouldn't know.

Won't be topcoating the MG Hyaku-Shiki, or at least I won't be letting anything matt touch it. That thing's meant to be as garish as possible.