This kit follows the same pattern as all the other GWitch kits I’ve built. They may look pretty good when they’re done, but they require quite a lot of extra work to make them color accurate, and both the build process and the engineering feel weirdly dated.
Anyway, let’s look at some of the more notable parts of the build.
Axe
Whether the axe is or isn’t color accurate out of the box depends on whether or not you want the edges to look all yellow and glowy. I did, and even bought special neon yellow paint to do the honors. Unfortunately I had a hard time mixing, and it dried poorly. It looks okay on one side, but not so much on the other.
Thankfully, through the magic of photography, I only have to show you the good side:
I really like the look of this thing. It’s big, but it also has some nice surface detail. Also, is it just me, or does it almost look like the two edges are supposed to be on hinges or something?
Heat Hawk?
I just realized that this axe is highly reminiscent of the Zaku's Heat Hawk. It's just another way that this mobile suit gives off strong Zeon vibes.Beam Rifle
This thing is … just okay. It’s not a bad design, but it’s too small for a mobile suit of this size.
Also, it’s too thin:
I guess I’d expect something like the Dilanza to carry a bigger gun.
In terms of color correction, I used some paint to make it two-toned: I think it really enhances the look. And in terms of gimmicks, for some reason you can remove the magazine. That might make sense if the kit came with spares, or special attachments, or if it came with an open palm hand so you can pose it swapping mags. But as it is, it seems superfluous.
Beam Torch
This isn’t really notable, per se, but I wanted to show you what it looks like:
Technically it’s not different than any beam saber - it’s just a handle with a clear blade. But the shape of it makes it feel somewhat novel. I like it.
Backpack
Lauda’s custom unit has a fin that runs along the top of the backpack:
Whereas the standard unit does not:
These two parts easily slide off, so switching between the two is easy.
Chest
My only comment here is that the chest looks very similar (though not identical) to the Darilbalde’s. That makes sense, but I also feel like they could have stood to look at least a little bit more different:
Skirt Armor
This here is the rear skirt armor, and it exemplifies a lot about what’s wrong with these Dilanza kits:
There are three obvious thrusters on the rear skirt armor. But without any extra parts separation, and without any color correcting decals, the whole thing ends up looking like a big ugly hunk of plastic.
Seriously, imagine this being your out of the box build? They couldn’t do any better? It just feels lazy to me.
We get a similar thing going on with the front skirts, though it’s not quite as pronounced:
Legs
The situation is even worse when we get to the legs:
What you see here is just two large half pieces joined together. That’s it. There is absolutely zero inner framing, or polycaps, or anything inside the lower leg.
(eventually you place a small rectangular part in the bottom, so the foot can connect, but at the time I took this photo I hadn’t gotten to that part)
It’s a giant, hollow, cheap looking (and feeling) hunk of plastic.
And of course you can see the bleedingly obvious seamline running down the side. Now, I understand that, being a High Grade kit, it’s unlikely that this would ever have the parts separation needed to eliminate seamlines here. But I still think they could have done better than make the whole damn thing out of just two parts.
And just like with the skirt armor, there is a bunch of panel lining and color correction needed to make this look halfway decent.
Moving on to the upper leg, we get two more halves (and another nasty seamline), but we also finally discover all the joints:
But that leads to another one of my complaints - I’m not sold on these C-Clip joints.
They’re not exactly new, but up until now they’ve mainly been relegated to certain products, including the Entry Grade line, the 30 Minute Missions kits, and on certain lower end High Grades (such as the Leo). Basically, they’ve been used on kits that are cheap and/or are considered “army builders” that you might want to (quickly) build multiple of.
But I’ve built four GWitch kits now, and every single one of them has used C-Clip joints. I don’t know if this means they’ll eventually become standard issue among High Grades, or if there’s just something about this line that made them appealing for use. What I do know that I don’t like them.
For one, they can get loose. Really loose. And really quickly too. I have an Entry Grade kit where the knee is so loose that you can make it dance just by picking it up. You don’t even have to shake it!
And then there’s the fact that something about them feels illogical. Maybe “illogical” isn’t the right word to use, but they way I see it is like this - C-Clip joints are simpler than the partial inner frames they’ve been using for the last decade plus, but they started using them after. But if the simpler solution was also better one, how did they not come up with it first?
I’m convinced that these aren’t actually better, that it’s just a cost cutting maneuver. I can understand that for cheap kits like Entry Grades, 30 Minute Missions, and stuff like the HG Leo. But a lot of the kits in the GWitch line are in the $25+ range. I expect them to have decent joints.
And more parts separation. And better color separation. What I don’t expect is something that looks and feels as bad (or worse) as an early 2000’s High Grade.
Shoulder Shields
The thing on the right is what I’ll call the “clip”. It’s the part that plugs into the shoulder, and all of the shields - be it this single shield for the Dilanza, or the two circular shields or Lauda’s unit, or even the twin shields on the Dilanza Sol - clip onto it. It’s a smart idea to re-use this bit of engineering; I guess it also means you can swap the shields if you really wanted to.
Waterslides
This is one of, if not the biggest set of waterslides I’ve ever put onto a kit. It gave me a reason to finally bust out a certain Christmas gift:
Despite the fancy name, this is really just a plastic container with a big sponge in it. In theory, the idea is that instead of moistening your waterslides by soaking them in a bowl of water, you get the sponge wet and place the decals on top until they’re sufficiently saturated.
In practice, I discovered that it only works if you get the sponge stupidly wet. Like, “water’s on the verge of pooling on the surface” wet. Anything less and the decals won’t soak up enough of it.
But if manage to do that, this little thing becomes a revelation:
- It eliminates the problem of the decals slipping off and falling into the bottom of the water bowl
- You can cut multiple decals out at once, place them all on the sponge, and they’ll sit there wet and ready to go when you need them
- The sponge stays wet for a very long time, so you don’t have to keep tending to it while you work
- The little compartment on the left is a dumping ground for all the little backing papers you’ll inevitably collect. This makes cleanup much easier
I cannot overstate how much this changed the whole waterslide process. It still took me a few nights to get it all done, but I was able to make significant progress each time. I have a bunch of kits that I’ve been holding off on for fear of having to deal with waterslides, but now I feel like I have the tool I need to get the job done.
Finished
This build post was a bit longer than I expected, but this is the case where the content is going to be front loaded. Since the next two Dilanzas are so similar, I’ll have much less to say about them.
But we’ll worry about that in due time. In the next post, we’ll see how this one came out.