Let’s get this build started. Or as Heero himself would say:
Yellow to Gold
The first thing I did in this build was paint all the yellow pieces gold. I am pointing this out now so that I don’t have to call it out multiple times.
Runners
Let’s look at all those beautiful runners:
There are nine total, though that doesn’t mean much. Take away the runner with the beam saber blades, the polycaps, and the one with the chest crystal, and you’re really looking at six runners for the weapons and the body.
But even that doesn’t quite tell the whole story. Look at how big some of those pieces are. Now I see why the box is a little thicker than normal - it isn’t that the kit has a lot of pieces, but that some of them are extremely large.
After seeing the runners, my new guess is that this kit is light on parts, but that they’re all very intricate, with a need for a lot of painting and panel lining. Let’s see if that ends up being the case, starting with the weapons and accessories.
Beam Sabers
Gundam Wing mobile suit design is all about fancy flourishes, and these beam sabers are a great example. They looks like fancy sword hilts:
They have no activation switch, but they sure are decorative.
As for the beam blades, I used the old “boil and bend” trick to give one some curvature:
One thing I love is that we get the clear green beam saber blades. I like them much more than the clear red ones. They catch the light much, and it makes it look like they actually glow.
Shield
Here are all the pieces:
If you didn’t already know what it looked like, you’d be hard pressed to imagine that these parts combined into a shield. Or maybe that isn’t funny. Maybe that means the shield isn’t very well designed.
Even once it is assembled, it only kind of looks as much like a small jet plane as it does a shield:
To my eye it looks like it has all the right details, including the vulcan cannons on the side. It even features an obscure little gimmick.During the Wing Zero’s debut on Gundam Wing, there is a scene where Quattre is piloting the mobile suit inside of a colony, breaking things along the way. At one point he smashes a building by extending the shield tip:
Sure enough, this shield does the same:
Comparison with Proto Zero
Setting aside differences in scale, the Proto Zero shield is still longer and more narrow in shape. This makes it look even more like the nose of a jet:
They look quite similar from overhead, but there a lot of obvious differences when viewed from the side:
As far as gimmicks go, the Proto Zero shield can also extend its tip, though it doesn’t look quite the same:
It also swaps out the OG’s tiny yellow wings for large flipout wings:
This feels unnecessary. There is no way they are large enough to provide lift during flight, and they make the shield look that much more like a tiny plane.
Comparison with Master Grade
The Master Grade shield uses many more parts than the HG, but most of them are “under the hood” so to speak. On the surface, it doesn’t look dramatically more detailed.
Buster Rifle
I didn’t take photos of the parts, but it’s not a big deal. Each rifle is made out of just a few pieces - two longs halves, a trigger grip, and the yellow “claw piece” that sits along the top. You also get two yellow stickers to place along the side of each barrel to make them fully color accurate.
There is a lot of detail molded into the plastic on each side. You can add a lot of character to these rifles with just a bit of work:
Comparison with Proto Zero
The Proto Zero redesign changes very little about the Buster Rifles. Aside from the obviously different trigger grip, you have to look real hard to spot any of the other changes. For all intents and purposes, the designs are the same.
Comparison with Master Grade
The Master Grade version does use more parts, but it’s hard to tell. For all intents and purposes, the two versions look just as good as the other.
To be honest, the more interesting thing to compare and examine is the differences in how I detailed each one. I didn’t start painting yet when I built the Master Grade, so all I could do is use a panel line marker. You can also spot some clear coat frosting on the Master Grade. Not my best work :(