Gunpla Build - High Grade Gundam Ground Type Urban Combat

For the second build of Home Alone 2022, I went with this color variant of the Ground Gundam, one of my all time favorite mobile suits.

About the Model Kit

This “Urban Combat” color variant is basically what you get if you crossed the Ground Gundam (pictured right) with the Gundam Local Type. It has the former’s body, and the latter’s color scheme:

On one hand, this feels a bit lazy as far as color variants go, to just take an existing color scheme and copy/paste it to another (also existing) mobile suit. But on the other hand, there’s something about the idea that not only feels so right, but so obvious (though if you asked me why it is obvious, I’m not sure I could tell you. It just … is …).

Anyway, I’m not going to chronicle the full build of this model, since it’s going to be identical to the original Ground Gundam. However, there are a few things I wanted to go over.

Extra Stuff

While the model itself is a palette swap of the Ground Gundam, the kit itself is not identical (if that makes any sense).

First, there is an extra runner, labeled “XA”, which I circled in the photo below:

According to my research, the runner contains replacements for some of the original parts. They’re exactly the same size, shape, and color, except for the ball joints (and ball joint sockets). Those have been made slightly larger, making them the same size as (and thus compatible with) the ball joints on the other Gundam Breaker Battlelogue kits (so that you can swap parts and create custom builds).

The kit also comes with a second decal sheet, containing all the orange marking decals that are applied across the body.

Lastly, the original decal sheet is now larger, as it contains both orange and red stickers for the eyes and head cameras.

Why red, you ask? That has to do with the Urban Combat’s role in the Battlelogue ONA videos. The villain of the story peppers the virtual battleground with several custom units, each piloted by an AI based on a famous Gundam pilot. The Urban Combat is piloted by an AI based on Yuu Kajima, and if you’re familiar with that name, then you might be able to guess what the red decals are for …

That’s right - the Urban Combat type is equipped with the Exam System.

Of course, you’ll have to choose which of the two colors to use, but it’s a nice little addition.

Missing Weapon?

This kit has all the same original weapons as the Ground Gundam, but in Battlelogue it also uses this cool rocket launcher:

This is not included in the kit, but it would have been super cool if it was. Oh well.

Gloss Coat

In all my years of building, I’ve almost exclusively used matte top coats. The first time I tried using a gloss coat was on the Kampfer, and suffice to say that it didn’t work out too well. The second time was on my SD Sarge, and while it didn’t come out terrible, it still had an oddly rough finish that isn’t characteristic of a traditional gloss coat.

I figured that the problem was that I was using the wrong kind of spray. The large cans of off the shelf spraypaint can work on models, but it’s not really formulated for them, unlike hobby-specific paints like Mr. Hobby. So when I decided I want to do the Urban Combat in a gloss coat, I sprung for the good stuff:

Deep down in my heart, I know I should be using Mr. Hobby on all my model kits. It’s specially designed to look great on the kinds of plastics used in Gunpla. I’m sure that if I were to use it exclusively, I could avoid all the instances in which my cheaper Krylon sprays eat into the plastic and make it look rough and distorted.

Unfortunately, this stuff isn’t cheap. This one can cost about twelve bucks, which is the cost of two (bigger) cans of Krylon matte¹. I would have to factor this increased cost into every model purchase I made. Assuming the can is large enough to use on, say, 2.5 kits, I’d have to tack on roughly $5 extra to the cost of any given model. Whereas if I can get at least 2-3.5 kits out of a can of Krylon, the extra cost is three bucks or less. That will add up over time.

For now, I think I’ll reserve the use of Mr. Hobby for special situations. Because while the cost is high, the results are phenomenal:

And that’s just the shield!

The Finished Model

The while palette swap idea doesn’t work too well for the weapons:

The machine gun and the cannon don’t look good in tan². On the other hand, the beam rifle is fantastic with its two toned look.

As for the shield, the colors are great, but it looks weird without any numbers or logos on it. I would have added some, using leftover decals from other kids, but I didn’t have any that were the right size and the right color.

Now for the mobile suit itself:

A few notes:

• The model does come with the big backpack, but I didn’t put it on. For some reason, I thought this version of the Ground Type looked better without it.
  • That’s a good thing too, because for some reason this model tends to fall over a lot with the backpack equipped. This doesn’t happen with my original Ground Type model, so I’m not sure what’s going on.
• I forgot to take photos of the back of the model. Sorry about that.
• The color scheme really brings out a lot of the small details, particularly on the head and the legs.
• Yes, I did end up straightening out that triangle decal on its chest. It’s very crooked in one of the photos above.
• The orange decals on the Urban Combat are thicker than the ones on the Local Type - and I think I actually prefer the look of the thinner ones. I would love to see what the Urban Combat would look like if it used them.

And now for the comparison photo:

I’m really glad I chose to use gloss coat here, because otherwise I don’t think it would have looked different enough than either the Ground Type or the Local Type. But with the gloss coat it ends up having a slightly darker body than the Local Type, and the change in colors gives it a more high tech and menacing look than the original Ground Type. It’s not the most game changing palette swap I’ve ever seen, but it certainly justifies its existence.