Gunpla Build - High Grade GM Custom Part 1

Folks, I was wrong about this model kit.

Extremely wrong.

Quite frankly, I’m embarrassed. If I had only paid a bit more attention, I wouldn’t have said something as stupid as this:

While I may happen to love this mobile suit, a cursory glance of what’s inside the box suggests that this particular model kit isn’t anything special. By all appearances it is a standard GM model kit, like all the others that have come before. Most of the pieces look very familiar, even if they aren’t exactly the same. It comes with a standard “sword, board, and gun”, without any additional accessories. And there’s quite a lot of painting to do. All in all, I don’t expect any surprises.

It turns out that the High Grade GM Custom is one of the most unique and interesting model kits I’ve come across in quite some time. Yes, it is “just” a GM, but it’s also so much more.

I can’t yet go into detail about all the cool surprises I encountered. Not without getting ahead of myself. So for now here is a high level list. Consider it a sneak preview:

1. The GM Custom really, truly is a descendant of the Gundam Alex. I don’t know how I never noticed it before, but some of the similarities are uncanny.
2. Overall, the GM Custom is a lot more detailed than I thought it was.
3. This model comes with a stupid amount of holding hands, many of which I have never seen before.
   • There is one particular hand which is absolutely brilliant, and it boggles my mind how it hasn’t become standard issue in all High Grades.
4. It comes with a generous decal sheet, almost all of which are optional. The instructions don’t even offer suggestions on how to use them or where to put them. It’s all left up to you.

Right then. Let’s get into it.

Runners

I think that maybe that grey runner on the far right is reused from a different GM. There were a bunch of spares left over after the build. Let me fast forward in time for a second to show you what was left over when all was said and done:

They’re not exactly the best spare parts, but I’ll take what I can get. You never know when you might need one.

Decal Sheet

I don’t think I’ve ever had a situation like this one before.

I’ve had kits with a few extra decals, or even a lot of extra decals. But that’s not quite what’s happening here.

If we count the two rows of numbers as being just two decals (rather than 27)¹, then what we have here is a sheet with roughly 16 decals. But the instruction manual only tells you to use three of them (the front and rear head cameras, and the yellow crotch-V).

The rest of the stickers make absolutely no appearance in the manual. They don’t show up in the instructions, and you won’t see them in the reference photos. Bandai just put them in there and left it up to you to determine what, if anything, to do with them.

And no, it isn’t because this sheet is reused from another model. In fact, this decal sheet is extremely specific to the GM Custom. In addition to the very obvious sticker that says RGM79-N (which is the model number of the MS), there are also two insignias that I can only describe as “deep cuts”:

• First, you've got the logo of the Albion, which is the ship that the GM Customs are assigned to during [Stardust Memory](https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/Mobile_Suit_Gundam_0083:_Stardust_Memory):
• Second, you have the logo for the Immortal Fourth Squadron, a team of four pilots who never suffered a single casualty during the One Year War. The unit was led by Lt.South Burning, who is reunited with his mates during the events of Stardust Memory, all of whom are given GM Customs to pilot.

I am extremely impressed that the kit bothered to include these insignias. It tells me that someone took these decals extremely seriously.

I only have two minor “criticisms” of this decal sheet, though I’m loath to call them criticisms in the first place:

• There’s an Anaheim Electronics decal, which is nice to have, but all evidence suggests that the GM Custom was not designed by Anaheim
• There isn’t an obvious “good” location for a number of these decals. For example, I would (and did) put the large Earth Federation logo on the shield, but I have no clue where you’d put the two smaller ones (maybe the shoulders?). Similarly, the white printed numbers, and the white printed E.F.S.F decals clash with the light color of the GM Custom’s armor. The only places I could think of where they might work is on the lower half of the shield, or on the rifle.

Again, I hesitate to really consider these complaints. The fact that these decals are here means I have some nice extras for the future, and that’s never a bad thing.

Comparison to the Gundam Alex

So we know that the GM Custom is based on, and even uses leftover parts from the Gundam Alex. And it turns out that this isn’t just someone’s attempt at arbitrary world building. I embarrassed to admit that I didn’t see it before, but so many of the individual parts on the GM Custom are slightly modified versions of the Alex’s. Once you spot it, the resemblance is unmistakable.

For each section of the build, we do a comparison to the Alex. Note that these are purely observational, rather than judgement calls. Some are going to be very similar, but others will not.

Head

I had some problems while working on the head. Some of the panel lines managed to smear after clear coating, and my attempt to make the face shield extra glossy ended up making it extra … foggy? Frosted? I’m not sure how to describe it. It isn’t “frosty” in the way topcoat gets in humid conditions. It’s more like it looks rough and textured².

Normally I like GMs to have super shiny face visors, but the GM Custom’s is always depicted as being fairly opaque. I think this ended up being a happy accident.

Visually, it certainly is a GM-style head, but as I said before, it looks straight up mean, like it has a permanently furrowed brow.

Compared to the Gundam Alex

They’re not identical, but there are definite similarities. They both have those rectangular panels on either side of the “mouth”, and even their general shape is alike.

Chest

The chest itself is not terribly hard to assemble, though I’m impressed with the degree of parts separation. The chest vents are (of course) separate pieces, but so is the red cockpit hatch:

They arm joints are definitely of the “old school” style, in that they use a combination of polycaps and rigid pegs. However these joints also happen to swing forward a decent amount:

This is not something you’ll find on, say, the High Grade GM Command:

Also, for some weird reason the arm joints have panel lines on them. This is one of several examples of how this kit gets unexpectedly fancy sometimes:

Compared to the Gundam Alex

The chest is not identical to the Alex’s, but they’re basically the same. The hatches are a bit different in shape, as are the chest vents. Also, the Alex has some more panel lines running along the to. But the overall silhouettes are the same, and they both have those two rectangular panels near the shoulders. There is no doubt in my mind that one is based on the other.

Backpack

The GM Custom has a nice, big, chunky backpack:

Those sidewalls make it look that much beefier, and the two bottom thrusters are huge.

Compared to the Gundam Alex:

But seriously, they’re exactly the same. Everything on the GM Custom’s backpack is a bit larger, but beyond that they are identical.

Lower Torso

I just want to say how much I appreciate having a decal for the crotch-V. Not a lot of High Grades model kits do such a courtesy, even though it is one of those easy wins that makes a straight build look that much better:

Interestingly, this might be the first model kit I’ve ever built where the side skirt armor is a plain, flat square. It doesn’t really take away from the rest of the design, but I do find it peculiar. It’s as if Hajime Katoki was really tired after a long day of work, so he just sketched out a square as a placeholder so he could call it a day (and then maybe he accidentally sent those sketches to Sunrise, and they just rolled with it).

Oh, let’s not forget the two tiny thrusters in the butt:

None of these thrusters are quite as stylish as the ones on the GM Sniper II, but I think the GM Custom has it matched in terms of sheer quantity. This has to be one of the quickest grunt mobile suits of its era.

Compared to the Gundam Alex:

Are they identical? No. Are they extremely similar? Absolutely.

First off, the front skirts are the one place where they’re completely different. The GM Custom’s look very traditional, while the Alex’s are super boxy and rectangular.

The side skirts have different details, and are different sizes, but they are also the same shape, right down to the way they curve at the bottom.

The rear skirts are a different size, but are otherwise the same.

Lastly, we have the butt thrusters. They both have them, and the GM Custom’s are at a more severe angle, so that they’re facing almost straight downwards.

All in all, they’re more alike than they are different.

Conclusion

So far so good. Let’s stop here, and we’ll get back to our examination in Part 2.

Other Thoughts

It took me paragraphs to explain what it is I like about the look of the GM Custom, but it took this one reddit user a single sentence:

(I mean, it’s true).