I guess it’s time to reveal the finished model, paint job be damned.
Normally I’ll tell you that some mistake or error is impossible to see from a distance. But I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to notice the difference in the paint’s finish in a lot of these photos. I’d love to get some feedback and critiques of it, but that would require a readerbase :(
As for the particulars of this kit, there’s a lot of good, and some not so good:
The model’s feet have no articulation, which makes some poses challenging.
On a similar note, the sheer bulk of some of the Kämpfer’s armor makes it tough to get a large range of motion from many of the limbs, especially if all the weapons are attached. At the very least I’ve been able to strike all the action poses I can remember from Gundam 0080, and for me that’s probably all that matters.
In regards to balance, the Kämpfer is very stable while weaponless, but wobbly when fully armed. I suppose that’s to be expected, because …
It is crazy how many weapons you can strap on to this thing. If you make the Kämpfer carry one of its shotguns and its chain mine, you can have it carry every weapon except it’s two beam sabers. Very, very cool.
With so many guns, the possibilities for action poses are endless. One shotgun? Two shotguns? A shotgun and a rocket launcher? How about no shotguns at all? It’s a lot of fun trying out different combinations. There are some mobile suits that don’t need a whole lot of weapons to look cool, but part of the Kämpfer’s appeal is that it is a walking armory. It simply would not be the same of it was missing any of this stuff, and thankfully Bandai didn’t skimp out.
- The Kämpfer still has a lot of personality even with all its weapons stripped. I think it comes back to the fact that it looks so tough. If I were to remove the EZ8’s weapons and have it point its finger at you, it’d look like a joke (or an awkward recruitment post). If the Kämpfer strikes the exact same pose, it looks like a threat. No matter what pose I try to put it in, it looks like it wants to kill something. There’s something about its design that takes the best aspects of Zeon mobile suit design and streamlines them. It is the lack of skirt armor, the double shoulder armor, the multitude of thrusters. There’s no ceremony here, just ruthless efficiency and a bit of style.
Overall, I think this is a great kit when finished, but not a fun one to build. I appreciate its size, and the fact that it has so many gimmicks. The Kämpfer recalibrated my expectations for what a HGUC kit can be. However the sheer number of individual components makes for a lot of busywork, and over time it becomes easy to lose track of them all. Just when you think you’re finished, you remember there’s something else that needs panel lining, or topcoating. By the end, it was a slog. And with the mistakes I made while painting, it wasn’t like I could even take solace in the fact that this was a job well done.
When I was halfway through this build, I was still feeling excited. Building two kits back to back was a huge thrill, and I didn’t want it to stop. I was very much contemplating buying a third kit to feed the addiction, so to speak. But by the end of it, I was feeling exhausted and more than a little bit deflated. This didn’t mean I changed my mind about buying another kit. No, the problem was that now I wanted one to try and prove to myself that the Kämpfer’s paint job fiasco was just a fluke. In other words, I made a mistake, and wanted to immediately rectify it.
I know me better than anyone, and I know that that’s a bad thing. Any time I try to immediately course correct after a failure, without taking the time to slow down and reflect on what I did, I tend to overcorrect and make things even worse. That’s why I’m taking my usual break. In the meantime, maybe I’ll spend some time practicing photographing these two models, to see if that cheers me up.
The gallery for this build is here. I’m likely to add more photos to it over time, so keep an eye open.