Backpack
The backpack is huge. I would have taken a photo of all the loose parts, but I was afraid I’d end up losing something in the process. Instead, I broke them up into two sets. Here are the pieces for the “core” backpack and the satellite cannons:
And here are the wings:
It’s a lot, but as I found out, it’s not so scary if you tackle it all in sections.
Backpack
The backpack itself is surprisingly small. Both satellite cannons and all of the wings literally hinge on this tiny getup:
I guess that as long as it has four mount points, it doesn’t really matter how large or small it is.
Satellite Cannons
The satellite cannons are quite simple to assemble, though there are a few things I want to point out. First, if you look very closely at the manual, you will notice that the inside of this grey piece is painted red, so I did the same:
Second, both the grey piece and the tip of the barrel can extend out into “firing mode”:
The rest of the assembly involves a bit of parts layering, and is topped off by plugging the beam saber handles into the back. They ended up being a tight fit, but not tight enough that I can’t pull them back out.
Once finished, the satellite cannons are long:
So long, in fact, that if you accidentally leave the barrels extended they’ll scrape the ground:
They’re also so long that I found it difficult to swing either of them up into firing mode without scraping up against each other. You’re better off just unplugging them, moving the control arms into position, and then plugging them back in.
With the guns attached, the Helios is looking a bit odd. It’s a matter of bad proportions - the model is now much deeper than before, but not any taller or wider. The only way to fix this, of course, is by adding the wings.
Wings
I want to show you what the Helios’ sticker sheet looks like after everything I’ve built so far:
Most of the stickers are still unused, and I know I didn’t miss any. That means all of these are for the wings. But once again, it’s not as bad as it sounds. The reason why are so any left is that most of these decals are placed in pairs, both sides of each wing. One you know where to put them, it’s not really challenging at all:
As far as assembly goes, it starts by attaching some of the individual wing pieces together:
The most “complicated” bit are the two on the left, which have guns in their tips. Those each have a special swivel joint you’ll need to assemble.
Once all these pieces are ready, you simply sandwich them together:
This ends up creating two new swivel joints (that you can’t see here), which is what allows the individual wing sections to move and pivot.
Here they are from a better angle:
It should be noted that these wings are technically upside down compared to their orientation on the Freedom Gundam. It’s a bit of an odd look at first glance, but I agree with Mecha Gaikotsu’s opinion that the upside down wings are part of its charm.
Now let’s see how they look when unfurled:
It’s … a lot. Again, they look a bit weird because they are upside down. Also, with so many movable, individual pieces, I find it a bit hard to keep them all aligned.
Conclusion
And with that, the Gundam Helios is really, truly, finally done. I can’t wait to take it for a “test spin” in the lightbox, but until then, here’s a (non-lightbox) sneak peek:
