Gunpla Build - High Grade Gundam Barbatos Part 3

So the build got out of whack. After a while, I thought about doing a post about just the inner frame. I even considered putting the whole inner frame together and taking pictures (I’ve never done that before).

However, before I got around to doing so, I ended up finishing up all the detailing work on the armor, during one long marathon painting session on Saturday night. Now the whole model (sans weapons) is complete!

Leg Frame

For the legs, the inner frame requires far fewer pieces than you might think. Remember - just because this High Grade kit has an inner frame doesn’t mean that frame will be as fancy as the ones on a Master Grade or Real Grade:

In Iron Blooded Orphans, Barbatos’ inner frame always looks extremely shiny, so I decided to paint all of the inner frame pieces with a coat of glossy black paint, followed by a layer of glossy Pledge. I also deicded to add some color here and there. Gold cabling, gears, etc. I realized that a lot of this coloring was going to be hidden under armor, but in the off chance that it does show up (say, during a pose), it will look cool, and give the kit that much more of an intricate look:

Here are the fully assembled leg frames:

Looks about right. Now let’s test the articulation, to see if this inner frame really makes a difference:

That’s … really good. I doubt the finished kit will flex that much, due to the armor getting in the way, but it is nice to know it could.

Interestingly enough, you can’t really attach the leg to the foot without the armor:

As you can see, they’re attached via polycap, but without the armor there is nothing that secures it in place.

Leg Armor

Again, it doesn’t look like there is much to work with here:

But it actually comes together rather nicely:

I’ve seen the argument that the Barbatos is well armored in the front, but exposed in the back, but I’m not seeing it. Aside from the part where the cabling is exposed, it is quite well protected.

I think the leg thrusters are intentionally designed to have some give to them. You can move them up and down just a bit, but it doesn’t feel like it is at risk off falling off:

Lower Torso

This is one of the only sections of the model where there are significantly more armor parts than inner frame parts. In fact, the inner frame is just two pieces!

Sadly, I don’t have a photo of all the torso pieces lying together, I ended up breaking off one of the front skirt armor pieces, and in my rush to glue it on, I forgot to gather all the parts up. Here are some individual shots instead:

What I can tell you is that, breakage aside, I’m not a fan of the lower torso’s design. It feels much too cramped:

In addition, the rear torso doesn’t move at all, and the front torso only seems to move a little. Either that, or I screwed something up when I glued it back together …

Whatever. It’s probably a good thing for me; less movement means fewer chances for my glue job to break again. But I do fear that it will limit the kit’s poseability if the legs are boxed in so much.

Upper Torso Frame

If there is one thing that all the mobile suits in Iron Blooded Orphans have in common, it is that they all have weird upper torsos. It holds up so much of the mobile suit, and yet they are always so … slight:

Here is the fully assembled frame. You can see the two Ahab Reactors that give the Gundam its great power. As you move down, you can also see how it tapers down at the waist:

And that’s it. That’s the upper torso. Two engines and some support struts. It feels preposterous, and yet at the same time, this torso design is one of the main things that gives Iron Blooded Orphans’ mecha designs such a unique look.

Upper Torso Armor

There isn’t much to the armor.

As you can see, I decided to paint the chest vents gold. I’ve come to enjoy doing that on Gundam-type mobile suits.

Everything just slips on like so.

Obviously there are still more parts to go over, but let’s take a break for now. We’ll leave the rest for a followup post.

Other Thoughts

The red markings on the leg armor (as well as the similar red markings on the shoulder armor) were painted with a mix of “Hot Rod Red” and glitter paint:

Yes, glitter paint. I wanted it to have a bit of shine to it, to stand out against the matte-looking armor, and I thought the glitter might help.

It didn’t.

I guess if you look close enough, you can see some specks of glitter, but by and large it didn’t do much. Instead I did a once over with some Pledge to give, and that gave it the shine I was looking for.