Reddit reviews Finish Master by Gaia Notes

1. You can, but you don't have to. If you like the color your kit came with then why bother clear coating. The clear coating will alter the kit's shine slightly and if you don't want to change the gold, why bother. Clear coating is really a way to protect paint jobs, or have your kit look less plastic-y so if you're not doing any paint jobs on the kit, a clear coat really isn't needed. You might want to have it on if you've got decals on though.
   
2. Depends on where you are in the world, some countries sell gunpla at a lower price than other countries. I often visit family in Australia and on average prices are higher compared to where I am in Asia. HLJ.com is probably the best place to get gunpla as they tie the prices to what they are in Japan. But if you're in the US you definitely have more online options (NewtypeHQ, USA Gundam)
   
3. There isn't a best overall product line up. Each individual kit has it's good and it's bads so it's more of a case by case basis. If you're interested in a kit, do your research.
   
4. You'd want to use a variety of sanding tools to get the best results. But generally you'd want to use a firm sanding stick like this from GodHands for flat surfaces (you can custom make these using wooden ice cream sticks) and sanding sponges like these for rounded surfaces. Don't use a sponge-y sanding product on flat or angled surfaces because you risk softening the edges. Hobby file have their place in the toolbox as well.
   
5. Try the hobby branded brushes (Tamiya, Gaianotes are good long living brushes in my experience). They can be a little bit pricey but these guys know what they're doing. Check out youtube channels that focus on painting miniatures, they do a lot of hand painting and generally have good recommendations for brushes.
   
6. Nope, cotton swabs are cotton swabs. The hobby brands usually carry different shapes of cotton swabs that might help you get into places that regular old cotton swab won't reach. But if you just need regular old cotton swab go to your nearest pharmacy, not the hobby store. Unless you're interested in something like this from gaianotes for cleaning up panel lines and detail painting, which I've been using for the past month or so and these are just great.
   
7. Aside from paints that can harden and become unusable after some period of time, you don't really need to store things like thinners, glue, decal softeners in a special environment. Try to keep them at room temperature and these things will last you a long long time. I've no idea what happens to these things if you put them in freezing conditions though, we don't have winters where I'm from
   
8. Well Tamiya tweezers are of good quality, but you can get good quality tweezers from other hobby brands for say 5-10 dollars cheaper. Look into Mineshima or WAVE (and I'm sure there are other brands out there) for alternative hobby-grade tweezers. But you can't really go wrong with Tamiya either.
   
9. I personally use 1 blade per kit, though I really ever only make MG or RE/100 kits.
   
   Opinionated Answers:
   
   
10. I would build any MG kit, just because it's a grade I stick to. No particular model of mobile suit that I'm really into, but if I had to choose a favorite kit probably the Hyaku Shiki 2.0
    
11. My least favorite gunpla, and this might be sort of an unpopular opinion, would be any variant of the Unicorn. I'm just into the overall design of the Unicorn and watching the anime made me even more disinterested because there was too much newtype space magic in there for it to make sense to me.

Anyone know where to easily obtain Gaia Notes stuff in the US? I can order off Amazon, bit it'll take nearly a month. Looking specifically for the Gaia Notes Finish Master.
It's like a super-dense, flat q-tip. Saw a guy on YouTube use it with lighter fluid to clean panel lines pretty roughly and it didn't pull paint from inside the panel line at all. Good alternative suggestions also appreciated.

Anyone ever use these Finish Master pens. I heard it's just like Mr. Clean's Magic Erasers. I hear people use it matte their pieces but I'm hoping it's not that abrasive.