Gunpla Build - High Grade RX78-2 Gundam Revive Part 1

Let’s see what this Revive Gundam kit is all about.

First, a look at the runners:

One is for polycaps, and one is for the beam sabers, leaving us with a total of three whole runners for the entire mobile suit and its weapons.

Granted, they are all fairly large runners, but still – this may be one of the simplest High Grades I’ve come across.

I mentioned this in the intro, but it does not look like the mobile suit itself has much of a need for any sort of panel lining or detailing. There are very few panel lining grooves, and by and large it looks to be color accurate out of the box.

The situation is a bit different with the weapons, most notably the Hyper Bazooka. It is usually depicted looking something like this:

However, the one in this kit is molded in that dark grey plastic that is typically used for High Grade accessories. It could be a bit of work to replicate the proper look, but I may give it a shot.

In regards to build order, I think I am just going to assemble the parts in the order they appear in the manual. That would mean upper torso, head, arms, lower torso, etc, with the weapons rounding things out.

Upper Torso

Here are all the parts:

Quite a colorful bunch!

I managed to pull off a little bit of detailing here:

• As usual, I painted the chest vents gold.
• I added a bit of color to the backpack, but not too much. It is a very simple design, so there isn’t much to paint even if I wanted to. I also didn’t want to try and weather it, since the rest of the build is/will be “clean”.
• You can’t see it in this photo, but I did a bit of panel lining on the red pieces using brown paint. I’ve seen a lot of modelers who use different panel lining colors for different colors of plastic. For example, brown is popular to use on red, while white or grey is sometimes used on blue. I’m not sure if it will look any better, but we shall see.

Here is everything once it is all put together:

Granted, the lighting in these photos is not a good as it could have been, so these aren’t the most flattering pics. Still, they do convey the basic gist, which is that the kit really is as simple in appearance as you think it is. Though I have to say, it feels like something is missing, something like … ah yes, the beam sabers.

They aren’t fancy, but they’ll do:

Head

Here are all the parts:

There was more detailing work than I anticipated (most of it on the front half of the helmet), but nothing out of the ordinary.

This model provides an alternate (but entirely optional) approach to assembling the eyes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this before¹. First, a photo to provide some context:

The clear piece on the left is the “eye piece”, and the red piece on the right is what I will call the “core piece”. You plug the eye piece into the core, but first you must decide which approach to take.

Option A is to apply a standard eye decal (pictured below) to the clear eye part, and proceed as normal:

Option B is to take the #2 and #3 reflective decals and apply them to the core like this:

Next, you paint the eye piece black like so:

And finally, you plug it into the core. The idea is that the reflective decals rest right behind the eye piece, and will reflect any incoming light back out, giving the impression that the eyes are glowing.

Does it actually work? We’ll find out, but first, the fully assembled head:

That is certainly a Gundam head!

Now how about those reflective eyes? Does the gimmick actually work? Yes, but only at certain angles. In the photo above, the eyes look dark and dead, but get it up to the light like so, and you get:

It looks a lot better in person, but you get the idea.

I’m torn on how I feel about this. On one hand, when it works, it looks fantastic. There is a certain sense of physicality to the eyes that you don’t quite get from a decal. On the other hand, when it doesn’t work, the whole head looks dead, as if the Gundam was switched off. The decal gives a sense of consistency that you just don’t get with this approach. The good news is that I can always toss the sticker on to put it back to “normal”, but for now I think I will leave it like this and see how it plays out.

Shield

This is where the build order got out of whack.

For context, I got all of the upper torso and most of the head finished on the first night of building. That left me with a lot of parts to topcoat, though not enough to fill up all my alligator clips. Out of a desire to minimize the number of evenings in which the house smells faintly of spraypaint, I wanted to fill up all the clips, and that meant finding other parts to work on.

I chose the shield for two reasons. Firstly, it was five parts, and I had five alligator clips. Secondly, I wanted to get it over with. I had a lot of problems when topcoating the shield on my Real Grade Grandaddy, to the point where the red piece became slightly discolored. If the same thing were to happen this time, I wanted to get through the grief now, rather than at the end.

Thankfully, the topcoat dried nicely, so crisis averted on that front.

First, the parts:

Not much, but what else do you really need?

Like with the head, there was more detailing to do than I first thought. On the front, you have the rectangular markings at the top and bottom, and the, um, screw thingies near the top.

Obviously I colored the markings grey. As for the screw thingies, they are sometimes portrayed as being a different, more pinkish color than the rest of the shield, so I did the same here. I also painted the insides. There’s no detail in there, which was all the more reason to color it in and add some contrast.

Flipping over to the back, I added a bunch of color, though honestly it felt like grasping at straws. There is a lot going on back here, but none of it is particularly interesting:

There are no spare ammo packs molded in, nor is there any place to hold the beam sabers. Just a bunch of grooves and circles. What matters is simply adding enough color to make it look like more than a bare hunk of plastic when viewed from behind.

Throw the handle on, and you’ve got yourself a complete shield:

That’s all I have completed for now, so let’s switch over to something else - comparing it to the Real Grade Gundam.

Comparison

Let’s start off comparing the shields. High Grade is on the left, Real Grade on the right:

A few things of note:

• The shades of red are surprisingly different. That RG shield is quite a bit darker.
• The decals and detailing along the white edge of the RG shield are not doing it any favors. I kind of wish I left it alone.
• The screw thingies on the RG shield are definitely nicer looking. I wish I would have been able to paint them.
• I’m not sure the panel lining on the RG shield brings anything to the table.

Now to flip it over. Again, HG is on the left:

The inner details are surprisingly similar. There really isn’t much to compare. Well, there is one thing. This photo does a wonderful job of showing off the weird, minty green tint of the white plastic used in the HG Revive. It seemed bizarre at first, but it is growing on me over time.

Here is one more shot from the side, presented without comment:

I’m surprising myself in saying this, but I think I like the HG Revive shield more. The colors are just perfect, and the simplicity works in its favor. Gundam shields are just hunks of painted metal. They don’t really need or benefit from parts separation or tiny details.

Now let’s move to the upper body. This time, the Real Grade is on the left, the HG Revive on the right:

Oh bother, what have I gotten myself into. There is a lot to unpack here:

• I like how the chest vents angle downward more on the Real Grade
• I never realized until now that the Real Grade uses two shades of blue
• The Real Grade looks a bit wider

And for the heads:

• All of the details I had to paint in on the High Grade are achieved in the Real Grade through part separation
• The heads are surprisingly different in shape. The High Grade is a bit more narrow and boxy
• The eyes on the Real Grade are at a slight angle, which gives them a bit of emotion. The High Grade’s stare straight ahead
• The V-fin on the High Grade looks a little funny, what with those bits sticking out from the tips. I cannot find any images of the Granddaddy Gundam where the V-Fin looks like this, so what gives?

Now a side view:

• Once again, extra part separation on the Real Grade, and two shades of both red and blue. I’m not sure it does much to enhance the look
• You can sort of see it here, but the two red parts on the Real Grade can move independently of one another. The High Grade has a bit of movement, but not enough that I could capture it in a photo
• The head on the Real Grade does a much better job of hiding its seam line. It simply looks like multiple pieces of armor plating stiched together, with natural separation between them. On the High Grade, it looks full on like a seam line.

And finally the back:

• Holy crap, I forgot how detailed the backpack is on the Real Grade. It looks very cool and very high tech. As for the HG Revive, it somehow manages to make it work with its much simpler design.

There are two more things I wanted to point out. First, on the Real Grade, the beam sabers attach into the backpack by plugging into tiny swivels. I cranked up the lighting on this photo so you can see:

Meanwhile, on the HG Revive, you just stick them into a hole². I like the Real Grade design much more. It feels more natural, and the fit is slightly better too.

Finally, here is a shot where the HG Revive’s eyes are glowy:

Do you see what I mean by that extra sense of physicality?

Conclusion

Well, that ended up being quite a long post. If all goes according to plan, I will work on the … * checks instructions * … arms next, then the lower torso.

Other Thoughts

If you were wondering why the HG Revive has a minty green tint, just take a look at this old illustration:

Can you see it in there? In fact, all of the colors on the kit are extremely similar to the ones seen here.