Next up is the Dilanza Sol. Among all the Dilanzas, this one was released the latest. But does that make it the greatest?
(Sorry for such a lame joke, but I just had to)
About the Mobile Suit
The Dilanza Sol is the version of the mobile suit that’s outfitted for use by corporations and militaries for real world operations, rather than just school duels. It’s exactly the same as the ones used at the Asticassia school, only with different gear, and with its output and performance limiters removed.
Weapons and Stuff
Speaking of different gear, here’s what it has:
- A pair of massive shoulder shields, bigger than any others found on other Jeturk mobile suits
- It’s beam rifle has a “beam bayonet” attachment, which gives it another option for melee combat
- It has missile launchers strapped to its backpack
- The head crest found on the school models is replaced with a military-grade radar system
- The paint job is much darker and more serious looking
About the Visual Design
I’m going to leave this discussion to later on, once the build is finished. I think it will make for an easier comparison.
Appearances
The Dilanza Sol shows up a few different times in the show. It’s mainly used as the show’s not-so-subtle symbol of oppression. It’s the mobile suit equivalent of the nameless, faceless cop in riot gear that always shows up as part of peacekeeping forces, and which inevitably inflicts violence on protestors and counterinsurgents.
In that way, it’s not exactly portrayed in the best light:
Though of course this also means it becomes the target of their ire:
We also see it in one space battle, where arguably fares a little better:
But who am I kidding? This is GWitch. Most non Gundam mobile suits are portrayed as being garbage. It’s one of the things I dislike about the show.
Build Notes
Since this build is so similar to the last one, I’m not going to do a full build post. Let’s just go over the highlights.
Beam Bayonet
The bayonet attachment literally just plugs onto the end of the standard beam rifle. I will say that I do like how it makes the entire rifle look bigger and “heavier”.
Here it is with the beam effect part attached:
That’s quite a blade. It’s almost as long as the gun itself.
Shields
The shields attach to the shoulder just like they did last time. I just wanted to show them because:
a. They’re so huge b. They’re made out of a nice matte plastic that has an almost gunmetal finish. It’s quite nice even without topcoating.
Missile Launcher
The missile launcher slides right onto the backpack, in the same spot as the little fin that’s on Lauda’s Dilanza:
The kit comes with six little stickers for each of the missiles, which is nice considering that the model has the same struggles with color accuracy as its siblings.
Color Correction and Topcoating
I didn’t do much panel lining on this kit, on account of its dark color. In the past I would have tried to panel line it anyway, using a paintbrush and some light colroed paint, but I think that only works on certain mobile suits and certain paint jobs, and it didn’t feel right this time.
In terms of color correction, rather than fill in the vents and other details with black paint, I went with grey. Ultimately it has the same effect.
Lastly, one thing I was surprised by is how the model looks with topcoat. On the standard Dilanza, the matte coat made the green armor go from looking extremely cheap and plasticky, to nicely muted and textured.
That wasn’t quite the case here. The dark blue plastic on the Dilanza Sol already looked halfway decent when bare; what’s weird is that when sprayed with matte coat, it took on a look that I can only describe as “semi gloss”.
At first I thought that maybe I just needed to apply additional coats, but all the grey plastic looks as good as they did on the standard Dilanza. I think it’s just something about this blue plastic that creates a different looking finish.
Decals
I don’t think Bandai’s come out with waterslides for this one, and I didn’t have many leftover from my previous build, so this kit is (almost) bare. I was able to slap on a few identification numbers, but that’s it.
I’m curious to see how this will effect the look of it. My guess is that it won’t be that bad. The official GWitch waterslides look less like technical markings and more like the mobile suit equivalent of racing stripes. They make perfect sense for the showy units used in school duels, but less so for a serious military unit.
Finished
That’s all there is say about the build. We’ll take a look at the finished model next time.