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Wing Gundam EW Colonies Liberation Organisation Mobile Suit XXXG-01W 1:144


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Wing Gundam EW Build Review
Colonies Liberation Organisation Mobile Suit XXXG-01W
1:144 Real Grade (RG) Bandai
boxtop.jpg



Shane sent this new release over for review, which you can find here if you're interested - there's a load of multi-coloured sprue pics before I set to cutting the bits off. It's number 20 from the Real Grade grade range, and is the latest in a growing range of highly detailed Mecha kits that must number in their hundreds if you cover all grades and scales :wacko: I've built a trio of Bandai's Star Wars kits, which are equivalent to the High Grade (HG) kits, so although I've not built a Gundam before, I'm familiar with the style of assembly, and in awe of their engineering ingenuity. This is my first Gundam, so I'm going to take it easy on the build, doing little or no pre-painting of parts before assembly. I'm easily confused these days anyway, so I don't want to try to run before I can walk in the genre, so I'll limit my "painting" to a little light weathering and maybe some detail painting after construction. Let the battle commence! :fight:

First up are the leggies, which have the RG skeleton at their core. In case you didn't read the review, they're co-moulded on the sprue so that the ABS and Styrene parts don't adhere to each other, leaving you with a part that is mobile. The pic below shows the left leg in the relaxed straight position, while the right leg is in (almost) fully extended kneeling/leaping position, which shows the huge range of movement they have built-in. Sure, you might not want to play with them even though you can, but it gives you a massive range of dynamic poses that you can show off the finished article. I've not yet put any of the armour parts on yet so you can see the skeleton, but that's the next step. I'm also not sure how much of the skellington will be visible after (I suspect very little), so I've only cleaned up the sprue gate marks, and left the moulding seams. On the subject of sprue gates, there are quite a few, as there were two injection processes, one for each plastic type, but the factory have made a neat job of removing the first injection sprues, leaving only a little pip to clean up. I might be wasting my time cleaning them anyway, but this is all new territory, so I won't lose any sleep over it. I shall hopefully learn from any mistakes I make on the way :)

legs1.jpg


Having just had to mark all the points of movement, it's quite incredible that this is all fitted into a part that is barely 7cm tall when stood up. Hats off the designers at Bandai :worthy: Sorry about the dust all over the parts... didn't notice until later :blush:
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One leg is now clad in armour parts - lovely fit and finish once you clean up those sprue gates with a sanding stick and buffing pad. :)

legs2.jpg

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It would have helped if I'd put the right picture in! :doh: I'd never heard of Gundam until fairly recently, although I was familiar with Macross from my youth, when I had a few kits from the local Arts & Crafts, RIP :(

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Pulling up a screen for this one, building Gundam kick started my model making again about 1 year ago after a 20+ years lay off, im now hooked on the bloody things. I have just about finished mt first RG and was a astonished at the detail and engineering in this little kit.

Looking forward to seeing this one go together.

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Real Grades are rather impressive, some of the smaller bits are very fiddly but the fact they go together with no glue (Well, my attempt did at least :P ) and have such flexibility is amazing. Not quite enough to make me give up 1/100 MG kits, but almost :D

Just need Bandai to bring those after market decals back to replace the stickers.

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Agreed, although I've added a little glue here & there to help keep some of the parts in place that see the most action. :)

I'd prefer they went the decals & stickers route to keep it friendly to both markets, but having used two of the stickers already, they're quite thin & could conceivably disappear under a few coats of Klear.

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I will be building it with interest too :)

Oh... was that my fault? :D

'fraid not :tease: I knew of the Gundam universe before hand, but had never seen much other than some kits in passing, as well as a few posts on Reddit, so there :P

Got a bit more done today, cladding the other leg in armour, and building up the waist, as well as the upper torso with its solitary winky eye. That's quite good, as they have you install one of the little metallic green stickers in the back, then clip the lens over it, giving a passable rendition of a shining lens (for what, I'm not sure). I had a little disaster during building of the little yellow & grey gatling gun covers, which are meant to be poseable with the yellow lids open or closed. I spilled a bit of glue, and now one of them doesn't open :doh: I managed to save the piece however, as it would have been a bit of a problem otherwise. It wasn't present during the photo-shoot, as I was waiting for the glue to dry so I could re-finish the surface with sanding sticks & buffers. It turned out ok, but it's not quite perfect.

torso1.jpg

Since then I've knocked up one arm, and will do the other shortly :) I'm really enjoying the build, and might have to do another in between my more serious projects, just to keep my sanity :wacko:
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Our boy has now got a pair of arms, some slightly loose-fitting shoulder pads in a 1980s style, and the all-important head, which was surprisingly detailed, given its finished size. Now it's just the wings, big gun (compensating for something?), and his shield/ammo bin... coming along! :)

body1.jpg

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Cheers Dave well-engineered is the understatement of the week! :) With the exception of the shoulder pads that come off quite easily, which might be my fault when I was sanding away any seams, the kit goes together like a dream, and gives you hours of construction time even if you don't paint it as you're going along. Construction is now completed on this one, and I've applied the stickers, which were remarkably good, despite my concerns. You just pick the correct one off the sheet, lay it down, then burnish it into position with a cotton-bud, and it conforms to the shapes just like a decal, with the carrier film about the same thickness as a decal. A few had to have a little carrier film trimmed away or slit to conform better, but they were excellent otherwise. I made a few mistakes and had to remove a few, which is best done with the edge of a blade until you have enough to grab with your tweezers, which leaves the sticker with enough tack to re-apply in the correct place. I'd still rather decals or rub-down transfers, but the stickers ain't bad :thumbsup:

Here he/she is on a stand I picked up for a couple of shekels online. At his feet is the huge gun, two ammunition cases for said big gun, and a collection of additional hands for other poses, some of which have articulated fingers for the ultimate in manipulation. There's also a spare laser sword beam, just in case this one gets too badly bent.

complete1.jpg

complete2.jpg

The next step is going to be an isolating coat of clear gloss, a little detail painting, followed by a little light weathering maybe... not sure yet :hmmm:

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How does it transform, Mike?

Totally pointless factlet of the week:

The laser sword used in the Gundam universe is called a "beam sabre (saber)". In the game Silent Hill 3, one of the unlockable weapons was a human sized beam saber that went "whummmm, whummmm" as you swung it around - NOT that other similarly named weapon, because that term is copyrighted by Lucasfilm. :D :D

Edited by ShaneS
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What an amazing kit, the co-moulding to make a movable joint is extremely clever and something that I would have only thought possible with 3D printing. I have never built a Gundam kit myself but seeing this has kind of made me realise why the kits are so popular.

It really is a wondrous feat of engineering

Pete

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How does it transform, Mike?

I've got big hands, so I find it a bit fiddly to do, and the shoulder pads do tend to come off when I handle it. Moving the poseable fingers is best done with tweezers too, again because of their small size. I've not yet transformed it to Bird-Mode, as I think it looks a bit silly :lol: I really enjoyed building it, and am having second thoughts about weathering it. I might give it a panel line wash and leave it at that, as unless they've been blown up, they don't tend to show the dirt in the animation :hmmm:

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