What a build looks like

A kit arrives as a stack of plastic frames called runners, each stamped with a letter, with every part numbered. The manual is mostly pictures: it shows which part to cut from which runner and where it goes, so you can follow it without reading Japanese. You build in sub-assemblies (torso, head, arms, legs, backpack, weapons) and join them at the end. Parts press together on pegs, and soft plastic joints let the finished model bend at the elbows, knees and waist. Most of the work is cutting parts free and removing the small stub, called a nub, that each cut leaves behind.

A green cutting mat covered in black, white and yellow part frames, with a white robot model, a craft knife and instruction sheets — Runners, manual and a half-built kit

A wooden shelf crowded with small white, blue and red robot models holding red shields

Picking your first kit

Read the box before you buy

Scale and grade are printed on the box. Scale is the size of the model against the fictional robot: 1/144 stands about 5 inches tall and 1/100 about 7.
Entry Grade (1/144) is the simplest. It has the fewest parts, needs no stickers, and the parts twist off the runner by hand, though nippers still leave a cleaner result.
High Grade (1/144) is where most people start. Expect 100 to 200 parts, 2 to 4 hours of building, and a few stickers for eyes and sensors.
Real Grade (1/144) and Master Grade (1/100) add an inner frame and several hundred parts. Save them for your third or fourth kit, when small parts no longer slow you down.
Perfect Grade (1/60) is a project measured in weeks. SD kits are short, cartoon-proportioned versions that build fast but need paint to match the box art.
Check the release year before you buy. Kits from the last ten years fit tighter, hide their seams better and use more colors of plastic than older kits of the same grade.
Choose a design you like looking at. You will spend hours with it, and that matters more than which show it comes from.

Your first build, step by step

Tick these off as you go

Close-up of a white and red robot model with a gold V-shaped crest, surrounded by black armor parts — A finished kit up close

What you can build in your first month

A straight-built 1/144 kit

Your first model, assembled as molded with the nubs cleaned and the stickers on.

The same kit with panel lines

An hour with a marker along the armor grooves makes the molded detail stand out.

A second kit with a different body shape

A bulky one-eyed enemy design after a slim hero design teaches you new joints and curved armor.

A posed display

One finished kit on a stand in a mid-air pose that its legs alone cannot hold.

How far to take the finish

Straight BuildAssemble the kit as it comes, clean the nubs, and add stickers and panel lines. The molded colors do the work, and plenty of builders never go further.

Start here

Build your first kit exactly as the manual shows, then run a panel line marker over one leg and compare it with the other before doing the rest.

Hand PaintingBrush water-based acrylics over details the plastic leaves in the wrong color, such as thrusters, weapon barrels and small vents, or repaint whole armor pieces in your own scheme.

Start here

Pick three or four details on a finished kit that are molded in the wrong color, prime those parts, and brush on two or three thin coats.

Layman's Gunpla Guide

WeatheringRub pigments and pencils over a finished model to add soot, rust and worn edges, so it looks like a machine that has seen use.

Start here

Take a kit you have already built and rub dark pigment into the feet, joints and thruster bells, then wipe back anything that looks too heavy.

Open a card to see its first step. Hand Painting and Weathering each add their own supplies to the build tray, and you can switch them back out from the kit.

What trips beginners up

White stress marks appear when a part is twisted off or cut flush in one pass. Two cuts with sharp nippers prevent nearly all of them.
Nubs you skip stay visible for good, most of all on dark plastic. Clean each part as you cut it instead of saving the job for the end.
Small parts launch off the nippers and vanish into carpet. Cut over a tray and cup your free hand around the part.
Stickers lift at the corners if your fingers touch the adhesive. Place them with tweezers and press them down with a cotton swab.
Antennas and other thin parts snap under very little force. Fit them last and support them from behind as you press.
A joint that will not move usually means a part went in backwards. Take it apart and check the manual before pushing harder.
Buying a pile of kits before finishing the first is so common that builders call the stack a backlog. Finish one, then buy the next.

A blue, white and red robot model posed with a black rifle against a dark blurred backdrop — Thin parts and tight joints

A white, blue and red robot model striding in front of streaks of colored light

Where to learn more

Guides, reviews and other builders

Free written guides cover every step past this page, from top coats to airbrushing, and kit reviews show the runners, part fit and finished look of a model before you spend money on it. The largest online community posts beginner builds daily and answers questions in its help threads. In person, look for a hobby shop that runs build nights or a local model club, where someone can show you how they handle nubs in about a minute.

Free guides and communities

Why the kit list looks like this

The model is the cheap part. Nippers are where the money is best spent, because a clean cut means less sanding on every one of the hundreds of gates in a kit. A basic pair is fine for a first build, and the expensive single-blade pairs are fragile enough that most builders keep a cheap pair for the rough first cut anyway. No glue is on the list because nothing needs it. The marker, tweezers and mat are small upgrades that make a first build look better and go faster. Paint and weathering supplies are separate add-ons: choose Hand Painting or Weathering below to add them, or skip both for a Straight Build.

Close-up of a white and orange robot model holding a thin sword, against a warm blurred background — A posed kit with its sword drawn

Load the build tray

The kit, nippers, knife, sanding sticks, marker, tweezers and mat start on the tray. Paint and weathering supplies join once you pick Hand Painting or Weathering, above or from the add-ons in the kit, and the top coat and stand stay off until you want them. Compare the options, then set your tiers and check out from the kit. Clicking a card selects it there.

1/144 scale Gundam model kit

essential · The kit

This is the model itself. At 1/144 scale the part count is low enough to finish in an evening or two, and the price is low enough that mistakes do not sting.

budget

Hobby - Mobile Suit Gundam - 1/144 RX-78-2 Gundam, Bandai Spirits Entry Grade Model Kit

4.8(3K)

$14.50

Gunpla

What a build looks like

Picking your first kit

Your first build, step by step

How far to take the finish

What trips beginners up

Where to learn more

Why the kit list looks like this

Load the build tray

1/144 scale Gundam model kit

Plastic model nippers

Hobby knife

Sanding sticks or sponges

Panel line marker

Precision tweezers

Self-healing cutting mat

Acrylic model paint set

Fine detail brush set

Gray spray primer for plastic models

Weathering pigment set

Matte clear top coat spray

Display stand for 1/144 models