haha, yeah, I only found out about panelling and painting after randomly finding this video tutorial on Youtube XD Since the kit says "no painting required", I thought you're just supposed to snap it together and viola! XD (at least the HG, MG and PG kits anyway, FG ones are crappy and need paint 'cause they don't have colour in the right places)

yeah, I use a thin Sharpie for panelling. Still a bit too thick for some places, and my hand is too shaky/not patient enough to do it very neatly ^^;; oh well, I just take a knife to it XD

I once used regular acrylic paint for my Skygrasper, and the paint started peeling ;__; (my acrylic paint doesn't like plastic >__< ) so for my Archangel I used Gundam markers. Apparently I heard "experts" don't like using them since they can't really get into the small places too well. But I liked it, it's so much less messy than paint XD

I found the actual acrylic paint used for Gundam-painting to be good though (doesn't peel off), and it's water-based so that's cool (I once tried enamel from regular hobby stores.. it's oil-based and need turpentine or something to wash off, ewwww, but it does give a nice permenant finish, ie can't even scrape it off ^^; ). I'm just not close to any supplier of that stuff to get it... so for now, Sharpies and Gundam markers for me XD

People also use spraypaint, which end up looking the nicest, but very messy and you'd have to do it outdoors XD