Gunpla Build - High Grade Gundam Double X (Build)

Let’s cut to the chase here - this model requires quite a lot of elbow grease, mainly in the form of color correction:

If there’s a silver lining to this, it would be that, by my rough guess, about 75% of it can be done with a single tone of dark grey paint. But the other 25% involves using colors that are either tricky (like yellow and gold), or somewhat nonstandard (like the dark blue seen on the Beam Rifle).

And that’s to say nothing of the stickers:

Actually, if you ignore the really big ones at the top, I suppose the sticker sheet isn’t too large. And most of them are quite useful (though there is one that is supremely annoying - read on if you want to know which!)

Shield

This is such a bizarre design. From a purely Watsonian perspective, I can’t tell if the in-universe designers intentionally wanted it to look cool and edgy, or if they were desperate and just painted a jagged piece of metal they had lying around. I think I kind of like it due to the sheer novelty of its shape, but I must admit that another part of me thinks it’s kind of silly.

It’s also one of the simplest constructions I’ve ever seen, not only due to the low part count (just two flat plates and a polycap), but also due to the fact that there’s barely any surface detail. Be sure to paint those side vents to give it a little bit of extra character.

Beam Rifle

Another strange design. It’s very curvy overall, except the top of the barrel is completely flat - and also, for some reason, very blue:

Let’s talk about color correction. Out of the box, the rifle is made of two white parts for the body, and a grey part for the tip of the barrel. The kit comes with blue stickers for the top of the barrel (and for around the camera lens). All the other color - such as the blue around the grip, and the grey circles in the back - have to be painted.

When it comes to these kinds of stickers, my general rule is to give them a go and see how they look, only switching to paint if I absolutely have to. In this case I ultimately left them on, though in retrospect I probably shouldn’t have. They are very prone to scratching, so they have some bits of touch up paint here and there. Maybe not enough that definitely should have removed them, but it’s close.

Beam Sabers

These have the same basic shape as the original Gundam X Beam Saber, but the handles are much smaller, which I don’t like. That big, grippy handle on the GX was - and still is - so unique.

Feet

These are made of one blue part and one white one, so all the other color - such as the yellow and the grey - has to be painted:

As always, I hate working with yellow, but I got another one of those cheap paint markers from Walmart, and it helped out quite a bit:

It’s not so much that these markers offer good control (the tip is actually quite big and fat), but rather that the paint is very well mixed and are much more opaque than the other yellows (and whites) I tend to use.

Legs

I forgot to take good WIP photos for this one, but the basics of the construction are pretty standard. It only starts getting interesting once you have to attach the heat fins:

The heat fins themselves are made of yellow plastic, but they’re supposed to be gold. I tried using two different gold Gundam Markers, but I wasn’t happy with the result. One of the two markers never seems to mix well no matter how hard I shake it, which causes the finish to look more orange than gold. And then there’s the fact that the paint often didn’t dry very evenly.

I think (or at least hope) that it will look okay from a distance, but I still wish it would have looked nicer.

Anyway, once they’re painted, you mount the fins onto the side of the leg, alongside their blue cover:

The ankle armor is quite interesting. Rather than simply connecting to the leg, it acts as a bridge between the leg and the foot, complete with the literal ankle joint:

It looks really weird when you see it like this, but once it’s on the final model you won’t even notice.

Now, there’s a lot of work to be done here in terms of cleanup and color correction. Start with this red sticker here:

And this yellow and black sticker here:

(Do note that I used a panel lining marker to add an extra bit of black outline around the decal, to give it more of a 3D effect)

And then there are a few of these vents/openings throughout the leg and the ankle that you can shade in:

For seamlines, we have one here to remove in the back:

But don’t remove the one directly above it, as that’s an actual panel line (you can even see it in the official lineart if you look).

Moving around to the front, we have the same situation:

And now it’s complete:

These legs are deceptively simple. Considering how much work I put into them, you could argue that there’s not a ton of color separation or detail. But once you put them on the finished model, you start to see just how much is actually going on.

Skirt Armor

We get one sticker in the back:

And a few vents to paint on both the front (and the back):

But otherwise not too bad.

I also want to point out that the side skirts are color separated, so that’s nice. They’re also where the Beam Sabers are holstered:

Chest

Usually the neck joint is the last thing you attach to the chest, but in this case the instructions have you do it right away:

It kind of looks like it locks the neck joint in place, though I haven’t tried pulling it out to test that theory. No reason to risk breaking it.

In terms of color correction, you’ll have to fill in the chest vents of course, and also paint the vulcan cannons, but that’s about it.

I find the color scheme here beguiling. It used to make me think of the Mk II, but now it reminds me more of the Nu. But it also reminds me of a mix of the M-Tron and Blacktron Lego lines, which can’t help but tug at my nostalgic heartstrings.

Backpack

In an earlier draft, I described this as the most complicated part of the build. But then I realized that that’s not entirely true. I suppose there’s a certain amount of complexity in the sense that it’s a whole bunch of individual components that you wire up, but each of those components themselves is pretty basic.

Start with the blue backpack itself. As is typical for a High Grade. It’s made out of just a couple of parts (though I will admit that it’s got quite a lot of surface detail).

Then there are the Satellite Cannons:

They’re only made out of two sections, with one sliding onto the other. And as you can see, they don’t require much in the way of color correction:

Lastly we have the energy collectors:

Surprisingly, these are made out of just three parts each. On one side you’ve got some panel lines, and on the other side we’ve got those big shiny stickers:

Be very careful to apply these as precisely as possible. They’re actually a little small relative to the plastic, so if they aren’t positioned just right, then some of the little white bumps underneath will be exposed.

In order to complete assembly, we have to fold these up. To do this, you first fold the middle section up and in, and then move the bottom section over it to fold the whole thing in half:

Now we can throw the whole thing together and onto the body:

I’ve always known that, when angled properly, the combination of the cannons and the energy collectors look to be in the shape of an X, but I didn’t really appreciate until now just how much the energy collectors look like a pair of wings.

It’s another example of how, for better or worse, the mobile suit designs in Gundam X feel like a hangover (or is it a carryover?) from Gundam Wing

Arms

Before we begin, I want to clarify something: I am fully aware of the fact that, in these photos, the arms are backwards, such that you are seeing the backs of the elbows. I went back afterwards and fixed them.

These are similar to the legs, in that we have more gold heat fins covered by a piece of blue armor:

This time, however, order matters. One of the two blue covers has a hole in it for fitting the shield, so make sure that goes on the left arm.

The shoulder armor looks very simple, but their winglike shape pairs well with the energy collectors behind it. It makes the Double X look so put together, like it remembered to match its socks with the color of its shirt.

Before we move on, it’s also worth mentioning that sandwiched in between the blue plates of the shoulder armor is this little thing with an green camera lens for the Satellite Cannon:

When it goes into firing mode, these swing all the way up and lock the guns into place:

I can’t explain it, but there’s something about this little gimmick that makes the twin cannon setup look that much cooler.

Head

Speaking purely in terms of detailing and assembly, there’s a lot about this I don’t like.

Let me start with the number one issue, which is that the red crest at the center of the V-Fin is not color separated plastic; instead, the kit comes with a red color correcting sticker.

The last (and so far only other) time I encountered a High Grade with color correcting stickers on the V-Fin, it was the atrocious High Grade 00 Gundam I bought to practice weathering techniques on:

Need I remind you that that is one of the absolute last Gunpla you want to be compared to

I am flabbergasted folks. I’ve built more Gundam-type HG’s than I can count, and they always include a little red part for the crest. Why in the world did they eschew it here? I just don’t understand.

All I can say is that I hope you have just the right tone of red paint to match the rest of the body, otherwise it’s going to look weird (I guess you could try and just use the sticker, but it’s not going to be easy to make it look good).

You also have to be careful when positioning the eye sticker. You’ll probably have to set it down lower than you think you’ll need to, otherwise the eyes will be partially obscured by the helmet.

Lastly, there’s lots of little vents you can fill in with grey paint if you so wish, though it’s a bit tricky given how small they are.

(oh, and there’s a seamline running down the middle of the head, but it’s really only visible along the very top. You can easily ignore it)

When it’s all finished, it does look pretty great, but getting it to look this way felt akin to defusing a bomb. I can’t remember the last time a High Grade’s head caused me to sweat bullets like this.

Conclusion

I can’t remember if I’ve ever said this before, but if you don’t plan on doing any color correction on the Double X - and to a lesser extent the Airmaster - then sadly I think you should skip both models.

In the grand scheme of things, thery’re arguably not missing all that much in the way of color, especially compared to certain other High Grades. But between the (not) yellow bits on the feet, the (not) red crest on the V-Fin, and the (not) gold heat fins, the particular colors that the HG Double X is missing are absolutely vital to helping convey its overall look. Without them, I just don’t think the model would look right.

(As for the Airmaster, it’s main problem is the lack of color in its legs. It’s not quite as bad of a situation, since you could add all that missing color with a panel lining marker if you absolutely had to, but it’s still the principle that matters)

Let me be clear - if you are going to detail it, then this kit absolutely has all the bones needed to make a great looking Gunpla. It’s just that it’s rare to run into a situation where detailing seems so very necessary to do.

It really feels as if both the HG Double X and the Airmaster both cut more corners than the High Grade GX, despite that kit being even older. I don’t have a good explanation for why that might be.

I’m still looking forward to putting this Gunpla in the booth and taking some photos, but it really pains me that I can only recommend it conditionally.