This build ended up being a bit different than usual. For one, I didn’t document the it blow by blow. In fact, I may take a break from doing so for a little while. I realized that my (current) aversion to doing all the prep and staging for pre-build photos was keeping me from building at all. At that point it’s just not worth doing.
Second, I didn’t just prep, but fully assembled all the body parts before doing any painting (I’ll explain why in a bit).
The Parts
The Darilbalde has surprisingly few parts:
That’s not a judgement, just an observation.
No wait, it is kind of a judgement actually. Or maybe more of a concern.
This is a $25 model kit. But just looking at this spread, it sure as heck doesn’t feel like one. And that’s what concerns me.
I’ll admit that modern parts can have have a ton of detail molded into the surface. We saw as much in my most recent build (which happened to have been another GWitch kit). Sheer part count doesn’t always tell you much about how a model is going to look or feel.
I guess the problem I have is that both Ilfrith and Aerial are cheaper kits ($22’ish and $18’ish respectively), yet they have more parts and nicer decals, in addition to those fancy chest pieces with the Permet lines baked in1.
Now, I’ve read some things that suggest that Bandai intentionally lowers the price of “main” mobile suits like Aerial to act as a hook for new builders2, so maybe that comparison isn’t fair. But Ilfrith is only a few bucks cheaper, and yet still feels more complex. And going by the current prices on USA Gundam Store, Darilbalde is the same exact price as the newly released Gundam Schwarzette and the Gundam Calibarn.
So what’s the reason for pricing the Darilbalde at $25? I honestly can’t think of one. Even if you consider that it comes with a stand, it still doesn’t feel like a $25 kit (in fact, I almost think they added it just to help justify the price)
But hey, maybe I’ll change my mind once it’s finished.
Painting and Detailing
It turns out that not only does this kit need very little in the way of color correction, but most of it can be done with a single color (that color being black, or if you’re feeling fancy, some sort of dark gunmetal grey). That’s why I assembled all the parts before painting. That way I could whip up a single batch of paint and get it all done in one go.
I have two more notes regarding detailing:
- I used a brown panel lining marker for this build. I agree with veteran builders who assert that brown panel lines look nicer on red plastic than black ones. They’re just a little less harsh.
- I ended up using some weathering compound to add a little bit of extra shading here and there.
With all of that out of the way, let’s get started.
Beam Javelin
This is a pretty simple construction. Each of the two blades is made of two halves with a beam effect part sandwiched in between. Then you can panel line and detail them to your heart’s content:
There’s a small spacer piece that holds them together in the center:
Drones
The drones really do look like - and are even built like - a pair of forearms:
The only difference is that instead of having a socket joint for holding hands, they have two black beam saber emitters.
This design is both obvious and practical, though it’s not aesthetically pleasing. It would be great if there was some sort of small thruster on the inside - anything that might explain how it is that it’s able to fly around. But of course, putting something like that on the inside of the drone would make it difficult, if not impossible, to attach them to the Darilbalde’s arms. We’ll just have to use our imagination instead.
Head
There is a nasty seam line running along the top of the head. Actually, I’m not even sure if it’s a seam line at all. The two pieces don’t sit entirely flush (at least not on my model), which would make it extremely difficult to buff out if you tried.
Other than that, it looks pretty great. A little weird (what with the halo-shaped thing running along the back), and a little beetle-like (what with the horn and all), but that’s all part of the charm.
Upper Torso
The upper torso is almost entirely a single color. It also has very little in the way of surface detail. Both of those things are highly unusual for any non-grunt mobile suit (and even a lot of grunts too!).
It’s something you don’t really think about too much when you see the fully built Darilbalde, because the rest of the body is so visually striking. But when you see the chest all alone like this, it becomes obvious just how boring it is.
Well, maybe “boring” is the wrong term. It’s made out of a lot of different shapes and curves. In that sense, it’s fairly complex. But because of the dark color scheme, you can’t easily see any of it, so it ends up looking like a (mostly) black cube or something.
My other observation is that the white screw-shaped parts on the sides of the chest are sunk so far in that you can’t really see them that well. I’m not a fan of that decision.
Backpack
This is similar to the chest - it’s an interesting design, but it’s kind of hard to see any of it because of how dark it is.
I ended up using some of that color shifting chameleon paint on the thrusters, and a little bit of weathering compound, but otherwise left this alone (I tried panel lining using some metallic paint, but it didn’t look great).
Lower Torso
The Darilbalde has a bit of flair on the sides of its legs, but it has no actual side skirts. Even its front skirts are extremely simple:
Clearly the centerpiece is the rear skirt, which is not only huge, but also has a ton of detail on the inside:
At first I tried to go to town on all this, but eventually stopped myself. The truth is that this side isn’t going to be very visible on the finished model, so all this detail is largely going to go unseen.
As for the outside, there’s also plenty of detail to take care of.
Take particular note of the bottom half - I used some thick panel lines to create the illusion of shadows, to make it look like a set of vents. This is in line with the way it looks in this illustration:
Feet
The feet are kind of funny. Once again, there’s just not much detail to speak of. There’s a tiny thruster in the center, and seemingly a little bit of detail inside of the (weirdly hollow) toe piece (which I decided wasn’t worth dealing with).
They also don’t look very supportive. Those claw-shaped heels are (intentionally) on a hinge, to support the Wire Claw gimmick:
Which is all well and good, but it makes me wonder how steady the Darilbalde will be on its feet. If the heels aren’t flush with the ground, is the toe alone enough for the model to balance atop? I’m not entirely sure.
C-Clips
Here is something else that frustrates me about this model - it uses those dreaded C-Clips for most of its joints:
This is something we've been seeing more and more from Bandai, particularly among the Entry Grade line of models. They're presumably sturdier than polycaps, and easier to assemble, but I can tell you from firsthand experience that they can get very loose over time.
Of course, there's no telling whether it will affect the stability of this particular model until something happens, but it doesn't leave me with a good feeling.
Legs
The bottom half of each leg is fairly complex, with a thruster on the back, and another big white piece on the front:
Then we get the knee assembly, which not only has its own large joint, but also features the pellet mine launchers on the armor:
Finally we round it out with the upper armor:
This is our first look at part of the Darilbalde’s “Shell Unit”, which refers to the green things you see in the front:
Speaking of which …
The Shell Unit
Witch From Mercury has a lot of flaws, one of which is its relatively half baked attempt at worldbuilding.I can tell you that the term "Shell Unit" refers to the glowy lines seen on mobile suits like the Darilbalde, the Aerial, and the Ilfrith, but I couldn't tell you for the life of me what purpose they serve. "Shell Unit" implies some sort of outer shell, which they're clearly not. It might instead refer to the interior - that is, the shell unit may refer to some sort of inner frame component, and the glowy bits we see are parts that poke out from the armor.
But in the end, I don't really know, and apparently no one else knows either, as I can't find any wiki pages, or even any social media discussion about it.
Shoulders
We have more Shell Unit on the front side, and a nice little vent on the backside:
Arms
The forearms look pretty much the same as the drones, albeit with hands:
I’m not sure what to think about the white hands. They’re certainly unique; however, they make it look like it’s wearing white gloves, which I tend to associate with butlers or fancy ladies in Victorian era dresses.
Shields
The shoulder mounted shields are simple in construction, but there’s lots of detail to unlock:
One cannot understate just how big these things are. But we’ll talk a bit more about that in our next (and final) post.
Finished!
Here now is the finished Darilbalde:
I’ll have a lot more to say about it in the next post. Stay tuned until then.