Gunpla Build - High Grade Gundam Sandrock Followup

In 2019 and 2020, I built a number of model kits without finishing my writeups on them, and without doing any photo shoots. I got a whole bunch of new kits for the holidays, and one of my short term New’s Years resolutions was to go back and revisit these older kits before building anything new. I decided to tackle them in the order I built them. Here then is my followup on the Gundam Sandrock, which I built way back in November of 2019.

On November 25th, 2019, I wrote a post about building the High Grade Gundam Sandrock. The final line of the post is as follows:

In the next post I will show you all the final assembly. Trust me, you’re in for a treat.

I never got around to writing the post. I had (and still sort of have) a problem about procrastinating any time I have to pose and photograph a Gunpla. I like the end result, but I hate the process. I decided to punt until December.

Then December 2019 passed by, and I still hadn’t gotten around to it. In January and February, I got a bunch of new Star Wars and Gundam kits. I told myself I had to write that last post about Sandrock before building them.

Then I proceeded to ignore my own advice. For all of 2020. Five Star Wars models, eight Gunpla, and one global pandemic later, I still hadn’t finished writing about Sandrock.

So there I was on New Year’s Eve, mere hours before midnight, taking photos of Sandrock in the basement. It was my way of getting closure before the end of the year.

So here it is at last. My final post, and review, of the High Grade Gundam Sandrock.

But first, allow me to indulge myself with a bit of late 1990’s nostalgia, with a litt —

Wait a minute, what’s that in the distance?

That’s a mobile suit …

IT’S A GUNDAM!!!!!

THERE’S A GUNDAM DOWN HERE!!!!

(Thank you for indulging me. Let’s move on)

Looks

Back in 2019, I thought the Sandrock looked like a Gem. That hasn’t changed much. I do feel more critical about my detailing work - some of the panel lines are too thick and/or uneven. Even still, I find myself stunned at just how much color separation and layering this kit manages to pull off with relatively few pieces.

This kit is Exhibit A in demonstrating just how much even a little bit of panel lining goes toward improving the look of a Gunpla. That’s … not necessarily a good thing. There are some models that can get away with no panel lining, but this isn’t one of them. Here is a photo from somewhere on the Internet of a completely undetailed Sandrock:

That’s looking pretty rough. Here’s my attempt at recreating that same photo with my model:

And the side to side comparison:

Part of the problem is that Sandrock has large sections of pure white without other colors to break it up. Since white is such a bright color¹, it camouflages all the detail in the plastic, and these body parts start to look like formless blobs. And that brings us to a certain dilemma - I am loathe to tell anyone that they should or shouldn’t do anything when it comes to building model kits. After, Gunpla is Freedom. However, I will at the very least seriously encourage anyone who builds this kit to try at least a little bit of panel lining. Even if all you have is a fine tipped Sharpie marker, a bit of color on the shoulders and legs does wonders.

Articulation

Back in 2019, I remember seeing a lot of folks online going nuts over this kit’s articulation. It looked incredible, even relative to other modern High Grades. I myself had some very kind words to say about it during the build.

However, testing the articulation of a model during the build is not the same as testing it when fully assembled. There are all sorts of ways in which parts can interfere or block one another.

Indeed, I have to admit that it took me a while to get the hang of this kit again. At first it looked like it was going to have a ton of problems with armor parts limiting its potential range, but it turns out that I’m just dense. The articulation really is as good as I remember.

For instance, the Sandrock can do a full on split:

Yes, one of the side skrits did fall off, but the other one didn’t! That tells me that there’s a way to keep them both on if you’re careful, and that’s impressive.

The knee bend is great - just be sure to get that front skirt all the way up:

And while you’re at it, go for a nice high front kick:

I suppose this could be even higher, but I’m not really sure what you would do with that. This is still leagues better than most High Grades.

Moving in the other direction, you can pull back the leg far enough to get the foot to touch the head:

There are two cool things to observe here. Looking at the photo on the right, notice how the leg fits neatly in the space between the side and rear skirt armor. This is one of the reasons why you can get the leg so far up. It can’t be blocked.

But even if it was blocked, it wouldn’t matter. In the photo on the left, you can see that the rear skirt is flipped slightly up. That’s right - the rear skirt armor is articulated, and thus can get out of the way if it needs to.

While we are here, let’s look closer at the feet. In a rarity for a High Grade, the foot has a single point of articulation, allowing the toe to bend independently of the heel:

Granted, it isn’t much, and if I am being honest, this is the kind of articulation that always seems very useful in my head, but which isn’t as useful in practice. Still, it is there, and it counts for something.

The feet also have some good side to side articulation, though it isn’t immediately obvious:

It looks like the leg armor is going to get in the way, but give it a push and the foot will go farther than you think.

The articulation on the arms is perfectly fine. You get that super nice elbow bend just like on the Revive Gundam and others, which means it can perform its signature pose:

The HG Sandrock is one of those kits where the shoulder armor, rather than the arm, plugs into the body:

You typically see this on models where the shoulder armor doesn’t really need to move around, and at first this had me worrying. Sandrock’s feather-like shoulder pauldrons are a big part of its look. You can change its appearance - or at least its demeanor - simply by changing the angle at which the shoulders rest.

Amazingly, the articulation is so good that you can still position the shoulders independently of the arms. You can have them as normal:

OR you can flare them up like an animal ready to strike:

Notice how the arms are in the same position in both photos.

Finally, let’s look at the head. It is on the usual double ball joint, but this one feels like it is raised up slightly more than usual. It also has a lot of clearance. You can easily move Sandrock’s noggin any which way you want:

Truly, the articulation on this kit is a sight to behold. It does so much with so little strain. Truly a masterclass in High Grade engineering.

Accessories

Can I dunk on Gundam Wing’s animation quality again?

I can? Great!!

Aside from having extremely stiff animation, Gundam Wing does a terribly job at conveying a proper sense of scale. I can think of a number of examples, but for this post, I want to point out just how poorly the show portrays Sandrock’s shotels. Sometimes they don’t look very long, and sometimes they don’t look very wide. Sometimes they don’t look long or wide:

Those just don’t look menacing compared to the beam sabers and beam scythes and massive laser cannons that the other Gundams wield. Neither do they look impressive in this otherwise cool looking shot:

The TV show fails to answer the question of “Why should we care about Sandrock?” No wonder it is considered the least popular of the five Gundams.

Thankfully this model kit gives us an answer. I’m going to repost a photo I used near the top:

Look how big those shotels are. How nasty they look. And it has two of them. Imagine being a Leo pilot and seeing a mobile suit running toward you with swords that big, with enough strength to swing them at lightning speed. I’d crap myself.

It is a very good thing that the shotels are so well modeled here. Without them, the model can’t do much in the way of interesting poses. Bandai themselves seem to be aware of how important they are, which is why they tossed in so many extras. For instance, you can use these clear red “hot” blades:

You also get three pairs of hands, including a pair of what I can only describe as “angled holding hands”. To compare, here’s a standard holding hand:

Now here’s an angled hand:

Basically, it allows the blade to be closer to parallel with the arm, rather than perpendicular to it.

These are all well and good, but they can only do so much without human intervention. What I mean is that they can only help if you can come up with good sword-based action poses. It sounds easy - anyone with a solid background in anime or general fantasy can conjure up dozens of cool sword poses. However, in my experience it is easier said than done to translate what’s in your head to the model.

Ironically, it’s the legs, not the arms, that are the trickiest part to get right. Here’s a pose where the legs are obscured and slightly cut off:

The legs look perfectly fine. Now here is the same pose from further away:

This time, the legs look goofy and weirdly positioned.

Here are some better shots:

How about this - what do you do with the legs and feet in a midair pose? In some cases the answer is easy:

But as you can see below, sometimes I just couldn’t figure out what to do with them.

I honestly don’t know what I was thinking in these photos down here. It looks like it is playing with signal flags:

Now this one would have been much better from a different angle:

How about the Cross Crusher? That’s when Sandrock straps its backpack and shotels to its shield to create a giant pincer:

Honestly, it isn’t any easier to pose with. Having the two swords in such close proximity makes the Cross Crusher a little too big and unwieldy. Furthermore, it isn’t strong enough to actually grip and lift other model kits:

Though you can still pretend that you cut them in half:

So yeah, it’s hard. Compared to posing with a gun of some sort, sword poses require everything to be in the right place, and at the right angle, if you want a chance for it to look halfway decent.

Of course, the HG Sandrock doesn’t come with a gun - but what if we could steal one from elsewhere?

This is a spare gun I had from an accessory pack. I felt that its small size would best fit Sandrock, which doesn’t really feel like the kind of mobile suit that would carry around a big piece of ordinance.

Surprisingly, it looks pretty good with it:

Conclusion

The High Grade Sandrock is an easy recommendation. It is a kit that looks great with only a little bit of extra effort, and the articulation is everything you could ask for and more. The only real problem is its limited arsenal. The shotels look great, but Sandrock doesn’t always look good while holding them. Of course, that isn’t the model’s fault, so I don’t want to hold this against it.

The good news is that even if you can’t come up with decent poses, the regal, majestic appearance of this model is strong enough to sell even a simple standing pose:

I have never changed my opinion on a mobile suit so strongly and so swiftly as I have thanks to this model kit. You can consider me a Sandrock fan now. I guess that’s the true power of Gunpla.