Gunpla Build - High Grade Dom Tropen

If the Hazel Custom was the oldest kit on the backlog, then the Dom Tropen would probably the second oldest (or vice versa):

Not gonna lie, knocking them both out in quick succession feels pretty great. It’s nice to know that, yes, you bought these things for a reason, and you’ve finally gotten your money’s worth.

This is another very old High Grade, from all the way back in the year 2000. And like many HG’s of that vintage, it’s better than you think, but it still shows its age in some ways.

About the Mobile Suit

The Dom Tropen is a late-war update to the Dom to optimize it for use in tropical climate zones. Now if you’re dumb like me, you hear “tropical” and think jungle or something like that, but in truth the Tropical Climate Zone includes lots of places, like most of South America, most of Africa, and parts of Australia (which, remember, is a wasteland in the UC). That means it’s not so much optimized for the jungle as it is for use in very hot, very dusty regions.

As such, it has specialized air intakes to help deal with all that dirt and dust, as well as rejiggered armor that’s easier to remove for cleaning purposes. It’s also somehow significantly lighter than the original Dom, which is apparently the in-universe reason for why it’s strapped with extra bazooka magazines all over its body. Apparently it can afford to lug around all that extra weight.

About the Visual Design

I liken the Dom Tropen to some of the mobile suit designs from War in the Pocket: while technically it’s a separate in-universe unit, for all intents and purposes it wa an attempt to take an older design from 1979 (in this case the Dom) and update its appearance for modern times.

One of the biggest flaws on the original Dom is that it’s not super obvious just by looking at it that it can hover along the ground. For the Dom Tropen they updated the feet so that each one looks like a literal hovercraft:

Now it’s far more obvious that it can hover and glide.

I also like that it’s depicted with so much spare ammo. If a bazooka is going to be your main long range weapon, you’ll need to be able to fire it more than a few times in order to be effective in combat.

The one thing I’m on the fence about regarding the design is the introduction of so much red. That seems to be a thing with late war Zeon designs (the same was true of the Zaku II FZ). It’s not so bad on the Tropen, since the red doesn’t clash with its purple and black color palette nearly as badly as it does with a Zaku’s green, but it’s not ideal.

Appearance in Stardust Memory

The Dom Tropen makes its onscreen debut in the initial flashback scene in Stardust Memory, showing up in a hangar during the Battle of Solomon:

Why a land-based mobile suit is hanging out in a hangar in outer space is beyond me, unless it’s like a … Rick Dom Tropen or something.

But in all seriousness, it’s main appearance is shortly after, when Zeon Remnants attack Torrington Base, and a lone Dom Tropen seriously fucks some shit up. And it does so by moving and zipping around as if it’s on a pair of rocket powered roller skates. Just look at how this thing moves around:

After a while it starts to feel like it is using a cheat code or something:

And then it’s defeated in the most ridiculous of ways: It charges at Chuck Keith in his training Zaku, and Keith barely manages to dodge. This leaves the Dom’s head rod stuck in a rock, and Keith takes the opportunity to cleave it in two with his Heat Hawk. I mean, good on him for recognizing an opportunity, but it’s a bit of a silly way to go.

The Build

This kit might surprise you. It does a decent job of trying to hide a lot of its seamlines, and there’s at least some degree of surface detail.

Still, I felt like the final result looked a bit too plain, so I went and added some waterslides (including some originally intended for the standard Dom), as well as some light weathering in places.

I also tried out some wet-on-wet painting to try and make its heat rod look hot:

Is it perfect? No, but it’s close to what I had in mind, and was good practice regardless.

Put it all together and the end result is this:

I’d say it cleans up real nice with a bit of extra love.

Now as for its stability, that’s where it starts to fall apart, both literally and figuratively:

• The front skirt armor is not very strongly secured. The purple front skirts in particular are just barely held in place. They didn’t actually fall off on me, but it constantly felt like they would.
• The a.mmo magazines don’t plug all that securely into the skirt armor, so they tend to fall off. If you’re going to take pictures, I’d suggest removing as many of them as you can.
• The leg joints are floppy as hell. And since they’re built around polycaps, I wasn’t entirely comfortable trying to tighten them. It can stand just fine on its own two feet - for now at least - but it still made it a bit tricky to pose at times.

My other complaint is that because of its limited articulation, it’s really hard to get it to bend around the knees:

That’s no good for something like the Tropen, where you might want it to bend forward to suggest movement, or to make it look like it’s crouching low to minimize its profile or build up some speed.

At least it has good, free rotation for its torso:

It’s one of those models where I felt it best to get a couple of solid shots and just leave it at that.

And for funsies, here it is taking out a Zaku, just like in the OVA:

And Keith getting his revenge:

Outdoor Shots

I want to try and get out more to take outdoor shots, but unfortunately it’s easier said than done most days. But I got at least a few for the Tropen:

My goal was to bring it somewhere that vaguely looked like the wastelands of Australia that we see in the OVA, and to hopefully kick up some dirt and dust to make it look like an action scene. I think I did okay nailing the location, but it was too wet and chilly for any sort of dust. Maybe next time.

Conclusion

A very good looking, if also rather floppy Dom. It’s also the first Dom on my shelf, and while I feel bad taking this long to finally get around to one, it’s also so good looking that I’m not sure I’ll be needing another any time soon.