In the last post, we looked at the articulation of the High Grade Gundam Barbatos, and looked at some of its more unfortunate limitations. Now, in this final post, we take a look at some action poses to see how it fares.
Sword
The sword is katana-shaped, which makes it easy to come up with all sorts of cool poses:
As luck would have it, it can easily pull off a two handed grip:
And it can get it well over its head for a jumping slash:
I could probably do a photo shoot of nothing but sword poses, but in the interest of time, let’s keep move on for now.
Mace
This kit’s holding hands do a fine job of holding onto the sword, but not so much the mace. It tends to slide around when held, at least when held with one hand:
With two hands, things get easier:
All in all, I can’t think of a single pose that I could not achieve because the mace wouldn’t stay put.
One thing I noticed is that it doesn’t take much effort to strike a cool pose with this weapon.
My guess is that it is so big and intimidating to lend itself to goofiness.
In fact, this thing has me fired up to do some real action poses. But first, I’ll need a target.
Any volunteers?
Oh, hello there! Are you sure about this?
Okay then, here comes the pain:
What’s that Zaku? You’re still good for more? Okay then …
Oof. Right in the robo nuts.
There is a pose from an early episode of Iron Blooded Orphans that I wanted to recreate, where the Barbatos throws its mace like a spear. Unfortunately, this is yet another kind of pose that doesn’t work too well without an open palm hand, so I had to steal one from my High Grade Dijeh (hence why the throwing hand is green).
Smooth Bore Gun
In the last post I talked about how the Smooth Bore Gun cannot easily be wielded by other mobile suits, but the Barbatos handles it like a champ:
Having that control arm to hook it up to the backpack makes all the difference. It does a great job of keeping it in place, and it gives you a decent range of motion:
During the show, the Barbatos often used the gun in space, where it tended to fire upward:
No problems here. Against all odds, it makes this gun work.
Backpack
The Barbatos’ backpack has clips upon which it can hang all of its weapons:
They work, but the fit is awkward. The two melee weapons cause the clips to bulge out, and no matter how much I tried pushing them in, they never seemed to snap in place (the Smooth Bore Gun doesn’t use the clips. You take one off, and it fits in using a peg).
Let’s wrap this thing up with my favorite photo of the bunch, of Barbatos hanging out with a mobile worker:
Conclusion
My feelings on this build are mixed.
On one hand, I am impressed with just how much detail is crammed into such a cheap High Grade that uses relatively few parts. No matter what flaws it may have, this thing looks darn good.
On the other hand, the amount of painting and detailing required to make it look decent is significant. Not in terms of sheer surface volume, but rather in terms of difficulty. If this were one of my first kits, or one of my first attempts at painting, there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that I would have been able to do some of this detailing with the level of precision needed to make it look halfway decent.
The inner frame provides amazing articulation, but the armor hinders most of that range. And yet I found ways to work around this with some creative poses and positions. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like the kinds of moves that better articulation would unlock are (mostly) not a fit for the Barbatos’ style.
Part of me wants to admire the fact that Bandai devoted time, talent, and material towards making the extra arm needed to replicate the Barbatos’ First Form. Then I see all the other ways in which the kit is lacking, and I cannot help but consider it a waste. They could have used that time and energy and plastic to make the mace better, or to create more hands, or something, and it would have been better than making a f*cking third arm.
Out of the box, the HG Barbatos is missing so much. Having both the Smooth Bore Gun and the Mobile Worker really enhances the camera-readiness of the HG Barbatos, but I cannot help but wonder how I would feel if I didn’t have them. “Cheated” is the word that first comes to mind.
All in all, I’m not really sure who this kit was meant for. I mean, ostensibly I know who it was for, but it doesn’t make sense to me. It doesn’t look good enough as an out-of-the-box build to appeal to Gunpla newbies, and the kind of people who can make it look better are the same kinds of people who are going to be more discerning about the kit’s limitations and shortcomings. Nowadays, I would advise anyone interested in the Barbatos to first look towards the Master Grade, as it seems to iron out a lof of these issues.
As for this High Grade, my honest assessment is that it is exactly what it looks to be - a quick and dirty kit originally meant to tease a brand new show. It does just enough to feel like a decent value, but since no one had yet seen the Barbatos in action by the time it was released, its flaws were a lot less apparent.
Wrap Up
Having said all of that, I am glad I got this kit. It offered a welcome challenge, as well as a welcome change of pace. I’ve never had a kit that needed detailing on quite this level. It was fun to really try to up my game and do as good a job as possible.
This kit all but forced me to be more patient, a quality which I’ve lacked for most of my eight years as a builder. All of the painting meant a whole lot of drying time, and somehow, this time, I was able to let the pieces sit, and only came back to them when they were good and ready. The final model is far from perfect, but I can honestly say that no mistakes were the result of me rushing to get something done. That is something I am extremely proud of. I sincerely hope I can carry this level of patience forward during future builds.
On a related note, I am also proud of myself for taking the time to stop and write these posts during the build process. Granted, most of these were written at the very end, but that was a natural consequence of how the build went down. The point is that I wrote them as soon as I had something to write about. In the past, I sometimes waited until the very end to write all the build posts (which I would then backdate). This is not a good idea – I found myself looking at photos I took a week prior and wondering what exactly I was trying to show with them.
In other cases, I gave up on writing (and even taking photos) because I had another kit lying around which I wanted to get to next. I currently have a stack of four additional kits to build, including one I have wanted for years, but I can happily say that as of writing this final post, I have not begun work on any of them. Not until this gets posted.
So there you have it folks. Not the best kit in the world, but one I am glad I got to. For now, it will go on the shelf, where it will pose like a sassy magical girl:
You go girlfriend …
Other Thoughts
- From the day I snapped the photo of the box, to the night I published this post, the total build time for the Barbatos was just a day shy of three weeks. Considering that I built the Gundam Sandrock in a single evening, three weeks is a long time. Part of that was due to all the painting, part of it was due to stopping to write these posts, but part of it was simply due to the fact that some nights, I just took a break. It was nice not to push myself every single day, and while I wasn’t intending to drag out the build and maximize my time with it, that ended up being a nice side effect.
- I’m not sure what kit I’ll start next. I’ve got a whole bunch of them, and I’ve been waffling back and forth as to which I want to get to. I have a feeling my decision will be driven in part based on what happens on Election Day.