Gunpla Build - High Grade Guncannon Revive (Part 1)

My previous build was a lesson in how a kit’s low part count is not necessarily indicative of the build’s overall complexity. In the case of the Guncannon Revive, however, what you see is what you get. There’s not a lot of parts here, and they don’t require a lot of work. In fact, this is one of the simplest, quickest High Grade builds I’ve ever come across (not counting the Zaku I which was not a “full” build anyway).

Part of this is due to the fact that the Guncannon is a very simple design. It’s largely made out of just two colors, and it doesn’t have a lot of surface detail. That means there’s almost zero need for color correction.

But part of it is also due to Bandai’s improved engineering over the years. There are a lot of sections of the armor that are made out of just one part, but which would have been made out of two in the past. As a result, there’s very little need for seamline removal¹.

The Build Process

There’s nothing terribly noteworthy about the build process. It’s very similar to other Earth Federation mobile suits; even the spherical shoulders are similar to the Guntank.

Beam Rifle

The Guncannon’s Beam Rifle ls satisfyingly large:

Just like with the GM’s Beam Spray Gun, I decided to leave this one pretty plain. It just wouldn’t look right in a more realistic color, or with more realistic detailing.

In terms of gimmicks, the yellow sight can flip out to the side, which is neat.

Head

There’s some nice detailing behind the clear visor. Specifically, there is what looks to be a Zeon-like monoeye:

There’s some debate as to whether this is accurate or not. According to this one particular discussion, some Feddie suits are depicted with a monoeye under the visor, some aren’t, and that it’s largely dependent on what a given artist or model kit engineer wants to do. In this case, we get a monoeye.

This was pretty easy to work on. It’s almost all panel lining, with the usual color correction for the vulcan cannons. Speaking of which, this is the rare instance where the vulcans are classic yellow instead of metallic.

Cannons

The are seamlines here, but they’re pretty difficult to notice, so I left them alone:

There’s some nice surface detail to panel line and shade (or even paint if you so wish).

Chest

Admittedly I went a bit heavy on the decals here, though I hope you’ll agree with me that they look pretty good:

I know it is too early to do an articulation test, but I want to show you some of the joints here:

Notice the circular shape of the cannon joint. This allows the cannon to have a full range of motion while keeping it stable:

And don’t forget the kneck joint, which moves back as far as I’ve ever seen:

When I built the Revive Gundam, I pointed out how its shoulder joints were very specifically engineered to enable the model to pull off “The Final Shot” pose. It seems the same thing is true of Revive Guncannon. These two joints in the chest seem specifically engineered to enable the model to pull off its iconic “fire on all fours” pose.

Backpack

This is an extremely old school design, one that reminds me a lot of the Gogg.

Lower Torso

I added some more decals here, but otherwise this is pretty unremarkable:

Notice the yellow disk in the crotch, just like on the Guntank.

Legs

Since this was the first Revive kit, it’s not surprising that the Guncannon has nice, modern articulation. For example, it has a fully built knee joint:

As for the armor itself, both the ankle and the thigh are each made of a single piece, so there’s no seamlines to remove here.

Feet

The surface detail on the bottoms of the feet are extremely similar to the GM’s, though overall the feet are much bigger and wider:

I love the ankles on this thing. I’m pretty sure they’re unique among Earth Federation mobile suits, and they’re a heck of a lot easier to work with than the ankle guards common to Gundams and GMs.

Arms

The Guncannon shares the Guntank’s big, bulbous shoulders, though the assembly is different between the two kits:

Similar to the legs, there’s a full elbow joint, and there are no seamlines on the armor.

Complete

And with that, the Guncannon is complete in record time!

Seriously, this was one of the most straightforward and painless builds I’ve ever come across. I never expected it to go by so quickly and smoothly.

See in the next post for some photos.