Gundam Wing Model Kits

Gunpla Build - High Grade Leo (Part 0) 2021-05-02

Despite this being a simple build of a mobile suit I don’t particularly like, there are a bunch of topics I still need to cover before starting the build!

Gunpla Evolution Project

When we last left off, I mentioned that the HG Leo was part of something called the Gunpla Evolution Project, and specifically featured a gimmick called “Evolution Fine Point Build”.

Here is a page from the instruction booklet that kinda-sorta explains what this means:

The parts are organized on the runners in roughly the same place where they appear on the mobile suit. I’m not sure how exactly this makes it a “fine point build”, but it is a cool idea nonetheless. I imagine that a seasoned builder could put this thing together without an instruction manual.

Gunpla Build - Gundam Heavyarms (Part 3) 2021-03-20

These final sections of the Heavyarms were the easiest to build. For one reason or another there simply wasn’t a lot of painting or detailing to do.

Shoulders

Like the chest, and the legs, the shoulders are filled with ordinance. This time though, there wasn’t any need for painting. I applied some gunmetal weathering compound, and that was that:

Gunpla Build - Gundam Heavyarms (Part 2) 2021-03-18

Onward and upward (literally)!

Upper Torso

I got out of the habit of posting photos of loose pieces, but allow me an exception here. The Upper Torso uses a quite a lot of pieces, and I felt compelled to share:

Like with Sandrock, Heavyarms uses a lot of parts layering (and a little help from some clever use of decals) to create a level of detail you don’t often see in a High Grade.

Gunpla Build - Gundam Heavyarms (Part 1) 2021-03-13

Since the High Grade Heavyarms is the same(ish) price as the Sandrock - and that they are both from the same series - I assumed they would have similar part counts. That does not seem to be the case.

Here are the runners for Sandrock:

And here are the ones for Heavyarms:

Granted, the runners are different shapes, but it still feels like Heavyarms has more going on. For example, its “A” Runner (the one in the center) is the full size of the box.

Gunpla Build - Gundam Heavyarms 2021-03-04

From 2018 - 2019, Bandai released three new model kits of mobile suits from Gundam Wing. These included the Leo, the Maganac, and the Gundam Sandrock. All three models were very well received due to their excellent detail and articulation. Sandrock in particular got the Gunpla community very excited to see what Bandai would do with the rest of the show’s five Gundams.

In October 2020, roughly a year later, we finally get to another with the release HGAC Gundam Heavyarms:

Let’s see if Bandai was able to work some magic again.

Wing Zero with a Lance 2021-01-21

Last month I claimed that the Wing Zero would look better with a melee weapon than with a rifle. I finally got around to testing my theory out. Let’s see how it went.

The Weapon

I don’t have that many loose/spare melee weapons, and of the ones I have, most of them are Zaku Heat Hawks. Those are a bit too small for what I had in mind, which left me with only one option - the Lance that came with the Iron Blooded Orphans accessory set I bought years ago. There was just one little problem - the lance was the very first thing I ever tried to hand paint, and it looks like …. well, it looks like this:

Gunpla Build - High Grade Wing Zero Followup 2021-01-09

This build went off the rails. Several times in fact.

First, I found myself in a bit of a foul mood around halfway through. I decided that I was tired of taking so many WIP photos. All the shots of loose parts, and semi-completed components - I was done with it all. I felt that it wasn’t really offering anything interesting or insightful to the audience. I decided that I would just work on the build, and maybe take photos of the finished body parts.

It was around that time that I had a COVID-19 scare. I ended up having to isolate in a room for three days while awaiting my test results. When they came back negative I was beyond relief, but I was also mentally and emotionally drained. Once I started feeling better¹, I went to the basement and realized that almost all the individual components of the Wing Zero were either complete, or were ready to be assembled. However, I hadn’t taken photos of any of them. After everything that had happened recently, I decided that I wasn’t in the mood for photography, so on Christmas Eve I did the final assembly, and that was that. The completed model looked great, and I was happy.

Gunpla Build - High Grade Maganac Followup 2021-01-04

In 2019 and 2020, I built a number of model kits without finishing my writeups on them, and without doing any photo shoots. I got a whole bunch of new kits for the holidays, and one of my short term New’s Years resolutions was to go back and revisit these older kits before building anything new. I decided to tackle them in the order I built them. Here then is my followup on the High Grade Maganac, which I built back in March of 2020.

I actually wrote a final post for the Maganac where I went over its pros, cons, articulation, etc. I even took a couple of decent photos. The only thing I didn’t do was take any action shots. Let’s fix that.

But before we do, let me just say that after all these months, I still dig the look of this model:

It is so bulky and … polygonal. You don’t see many mobile suits that this kind of blocky look. Yet at the same time, it also looks very much humanoid, like a desert soldier.