Gunpla Panel Lining Practice

I've been collecting Gundam model kits for only a few months now (starting with a First Grade Red Zaku from SEED Destiny) and I've just reached kit number 5. I'm mostly in it for the building process; collecting next. So far, I've avoided doing any sort of polishing after I've completed the kit.

However, a friend has successfully nagged me into at least panel lining my kits and during one of my trip to GreenHills (surprise, surprise), I got me one of these bad boys:

GM01 200 Gundam Marker 

A fine tip Gundam Marker for panel lining. I actually got two. One black (GM01 200) and  one grey (GM02 200) marker. I got them from Wasabi Toys for 125 PHP each.. along with a 1/144 HG Gundam GP02A Type MLR-S. :)

I've done my homework and have been reading/watching tutorials on panel lining online. It seemed simple enough; fill in the panel lines using the marker. On to my first victim:

A 1/144 HG Gundam HeavyArms (Endless Waltz Edition). It's a really old High Grade released around 1998. I got it for cheap at Best Toys in GreenHills (supplies, supplies) for 650 PHP.

I've always wanted a HeavyArms kit, and I really did want to do more than just assemble kits. I was just afraid of ruining them. However, at the price I got this kit for, it was the perfect practice platform along with my Red Zaku.

I won't go into the details of panel lining as there are plenty of resources available online to get you started. Here are the results of my first attempt:

The only thing I could panel line..

Not much going on up top.

More places to panel line in compared o the upper body, but not by much.

White everywhere; decided to panel line out of the grooves as well to add more definition.

There aren't that many panel lines to fill in this kit. Most of the lines are in the legs which really needed additional detail as they were predominantly white. For the upper body, I only had to line the inner elbow of each arm. I initially used the GM02, but would apply a second coat using the GM01 so the lines would stand out.

A shot of the panel lined HeavyArms. Again, there isn't much to work with.

Posing with quad Gatling guns.. which will probably make their way to a kit-bash at some point. 

Gatling guns in action. 

Being a really old it, it doesn't offer much in terms of detail specially when compared to the newer Gundam 00 kits. Even additional panel lining, it really didn't change that much but I do think it definitely looks better than it did stock (specially around the legs which previously looked like one massive chunk of plastic).

Overall good practice. Definitely went better than I thought it would. For anyone reading this who would like to give panel lining a shot - go ahead. My only tip is to start out with a kit you wouldn't mind messing up a bit.