Now that we’ve taken a look at Core Gundam, it is time to look at the Earthree Armor in its “Support Mecha” mode.
It’s kind of a “blink and you’ll miss it” detail, but the Support Mecha is not just a bunch of armor parts stapled together. It actually has an airframe … with a bunch of armor parts stapled onto it:
And sure enough, the airframe is where we begin the build:
It’s made out of just two parts, but I guess that’s all it really needs.
Now here’s the million dollar question – is this same airframe used across all the Planet armors? I don’t yet know the answer to that, but I’m going to take a guess and say that it probably is. After all, Bandai loves reusing molds as much as possible.
There’s also the fact that, if you look really close at all the different Planet Armors, you’ll notice that they’re not that different from each other visually. Sure, there are a few unique flourishes here and there, but by and large each piece of armor has the same basic shape. It shouldn’t be that hard to get them all to fit onto the same frame.
But enough of that. Let’s look at how this one comes together. We’ll look at each individual piece of armor, and then look at where it goes on the Support Mecha.
We’ll start with the chest armor:
These parts go around the center of the Support Mecha:
Next is the hand armor:
And they go on the back “tail” of the Support Mecha:
Next we have the front and rear skirt armor:
Which go together near the back:
There’s this wing-shaped piece that goes over the Core Gundam’s backpack:
And the other half of the shield (See! I was right about the Core Gundam’s shield looking like it was sawed in half!)
These go near the front and back of the Support Mecha respectively:
Here is the arm armor:
These attach to the “wings” of the Support Mecha:
The legs are by far the most elaborate bit of the armor. They are almost - but not quite - a full set of legs:
Which then go on the underside of the Support Mecha:
These probably look the “worst” here. All the other bits of armor look somewhat natural on the Support Mecha, but there’s no denying that these are legs and feet.
We’re almost done. We’ve got the shoulder armor:
Which go right up at the front:
The little crest that goes on the head:
Naturally, this goes on the top of the Support Mecha:
Finally, we have the rifle attachment:
This goes on the underside:
And with that, we are done!
Finihsed
The Support Mecha looked fine enough in the show, but it looks really cool in person.
Aside from maybe those feet and legs, it really does look like a fighter craft. And with so many pieces of armor attached, it looks quite layered and intricate:
Now for some action poses.
First, you can get the Core Gundam to ride on top of the Support Mecha. It’s not easy, perse, but it’s also not as hard as you might think. If you can get the front foot tucked in the right spot, Core Gundam will stay in place pretty well.
And well, it looks pretty cool:
Next, I wanted to recreate the pose where Core Gundam hangs from the bottom of the Support Mecha. This was quite a bit more challenging to pull off. There’s no actual way to attach the two in this pose; all you can do is prop them up on separate Action Bases at the right height, and hope they stay in place:
In the end, it was worth it, as this is an even cooler pose.
Conclusion
I have yet to combine these two into the Earthree Gundam, but I’m already in love with the combination of the Core Gundam and the Earth Armor, so much so that I may just put them on the shelf this way. But I still have to give the Earthree Gundam a fair shake, and we’ll do that in the next (and final) post.