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Final version of Tamiya X-21 Flat Base review
Posted by Martin on June 2, 2012
After dipping my toe in the experimental video waters last month, I’ve now revised and re-recorded my review of Tamiya’s X-21 Flat Base product. I’ve certainly been on a steep learning curve and this version is a great improvement on my first attempt. And not just because it now has audio. I think I’ve achieved a better image quality overall and added on a demonstration of actually working with X-21 Flat Base.
However, there’s still plenty of room for improvement. The autofocus on the webcam I used gets confused sometimes so it might be a good idea to try switching off that feature in future. Plus I think I could improve the lighting. It only took a couple of hours this afternoon to record and edit this version, including doing some re-takes. So that’s not a bad effort-to-reward ratio and the whole process certainly benefited from being thought through beforehand. Especially when you consider that I was able to do most of the pre-planning during the otherwise wasted time of my daily commute to the office.
Let me know what you think of this version and if you have suggestions for what I should do next.
Befreiungskriege 1813-14 
Jeffrey Smith said
Martin,
You’ve done a very good job here and I look forward to seeing more painting product reviews and the occasional demonstration of your techniques. For me personally, I would love to see a video of your basing of a figure.
Cheers,
Jeff
Dave said
Well done Mr Kelly, as good a production if not better than most of the video tutorials that are to be found in YouTube land. Very wise of you to urge caution when using a matting agent (as I were learnt to call ’em) a little goes a long way and a rather frosty appearance results if over done, my little pun.
I for one certainly encourage your career in film and video.
David said
Martin,
Very useful for the more inexperienced amongst us, like myself.
David
Paolo said
Tank you for the video, very interesting even if camera, sometimes, is slightly out of focus.
When you resolve this little problem, videos will be perfect.
Hope to see early others videos.
Paolo
Jonathan Mimnagh said
I’ve been struggling with this stuff and have been performing a lot of research into the use of X21. I understand that Tamiya suggest it can be used in X22 (Gloss Clear) to flatten it, & that this is the commonest use for the product in Tamiya’s home market. I’m going to have an experiment with this myself over the weekend, I’ve a model waiting for a flat coat that has been glossed with X22 quite successfully.