Gunpla Build - HG Woundwart Psychoblade Custom (Final)

This is it. After five dense posts, this is my final word on the Woundwort Psychoblade Custom.

Equipping the Rifle

The Woundwart’s rifle is the very definition of a boomstick. It completely changes the way she looks. Without it, she still looks good, if a bit small and slight. But with it she looks like your worst nightmare:

Granted, that makes sense when your mobile suit’s primary weapon is bigger than the MS itself.

The design of the rifle is another reason why I think this model should be a statement piece. Simply put, it’s extremely unwieldy.

For instance, due to the position of the grip, it’s extremely difficult just to attach the rifle to the hand. You have to flip the grip outward, attach the hand, and then flip it back inward without the two pieces of the hand popping apart. It’s more difficult than it probably sounds, especially if the hand is placed at the wrong angle.

Another problem is that the rifle is very heavy. Surprisingly, it isn’t so heavy that it runs the risk of causing the hand to pop off its socket (indeed, the hands plug in so tightly to the wrist that they’re actually pretty tough to remove). Rather, the problem is that the rifle has a tendency to sag and lean away from the body. You can see this in the photo below:

The weight also makes one handed poses tricky. Thankfully, she can support it with her free hand:

Equipping the Wire Claw

We already know how to convert the rifle into Wire Claw mode, so let’s see how to equip it.

First, the “tail” of the rifle plugs directly into the shoulder, like so:

Then it’s just a matter of propping the claw up on its own display stand, and attaching the wire:

From above, the claw looks pretty nasty, and from below it looks like, well, a different definition of nasty:

There’s just not much detail underneath. I suppose it’d look better if you painted it, but I’m not sure the juice is worth the squeeze. Better to just not photograph it from this angle.

Crotch Arm

Yes, crotch arm. I’m not sure how else to describe the long control arm that pops out from the lower torso:

I’m not sure what weapons fit in it, but there you have it.

Mobile Armor Mode

Finally, let’s look at how to transform the Woundwart into Mobile Armor mode. The basic process is like this:

1. Take the whole thing apart
2. Put some of the parts (mainly the head and upper torso) off to the side
3. Take all the reamining sections and rearrange them for MA mode
4. Attach them back together (in addition to the few MA-specific parts)

Here’s how we convert the legs:

And then the arms, which fold up quite compactly:

The arms plug into these two MA-specific parts:

I mentioned in a previous post that these two parts represent the head and the back of the Woundwart, which would lead you to believe that they should be painted for the purpose of color correction. But it turns out that this isn’t necessary, as both parts are covered over by the Woundwart’s booty:

This here is what the Mobile Armor mode looks like when it is complete:

It’s best not to think too hard about how the transformation is supposed to work. You’ve got some bits of its frontside, and some of its backside all facing forward:

In any case, I still think it’s a pretty sleek looking MA mode. Nice and fast, if not particularly heavy on firepower. Though if you used its crotch arm, I think it would look a lot like the ship from Einhander:

Conclusion

What a long, strange trip this has been. The Woundwart really is unlike any other Gunpla I’ve built, and for that alone it was worth the experience. It has such a different look and vibe, and while I don’t want to take it apart ever again, it was actually a lot of fun to play around with its hands, and the Wire Claw, and the Mobile Armor mode.

That being said, I’m not entirely sure that I’m sad that this is locked away as a Premium Bandai product. I think the Woundwart is a bit too weird to have mass market appeal, and between the color correction and all the tiny parts (not to mention the two different options for the build), I can even see some HG builders finding it a bit too finicky to deal with.

But if any of this does appeal to you, then I’d recommend hunting one down. It really is its own little thing.