So with my home country coming out of economic lockdown, I decided to instantly dash over to my local Forbidden Planet (as you could tell from the couch gag) and get whatever they had in stock. No Real or Master Grades, sadly, and the most flashy looking kit they had was the HG Mazinkaiser, which I've already built. However, the kits I ended up walking away with should be interesting enough for me, given how one gives me the opportunity to show some High Grade building, while the other is a grade I've never built before now.
Today I'll be building the former - the resident upgraded protagonist Gundam of the franchise's post-apocalyptic instalment, with a pair of cannons powerful enough to vaporise a whole island in one single trigger pull. I refer of course to the Gundam Double X. The only thing that's stopped me thus far is the fact that my Razer Phone died a few days ago as of me writing this, so let's not waste time and lift the lid!
Ah nuts, the fins are large stickers. Not that I was expecting otherwise from a High Grade, but I'm not looking forward to making sure those things are secure.
Actually, on the topic of stickers, it's quite refreshing to go back to these simple chunky easily-peeled ones after ages of the finicky clear stickers. And I've alluded to this in the Epyon build diary that I like it when a tinted coloured part is designed to have a shiny sticker underneath, and it looks like we're going for that here. Which is fair enough, since that's the part that absorbs the microwave beam sent from the moon to fire that sweet, sweet double satellite cannon. God, I want to watch Gundam X so much.
Tiiiime for the eye sticker. Siiiiiigh.
Well, that was easy. Again, maybe it's the months and months of Real Grades that's made me dread eye stickers so much.
No, it's the camera sticker at the top of the head that's a pain.
Not a fan of the central red sticker that goes on the horn. There's gaps between the folds and it looks ugly as sin. I've seen High Grades that have the central red part as a different piece rather than a sticker (the Blue Destiny Unit 03, for one), so why they didn't do this here I can only imagine was for the purpose of it being shiny. Eh, it won't be noticeable at a distance, I don't think.
Not sure why the shiny green sticker is there when the next part of the shoulder...
...covers it up, but we'll probably see more of it when the satellite cannons are attached.
These yellow fins are a little fiddly, but the bigger one (E2) has a specific direction it fits on, so don't make the mistake I did and pay attention to the orientation shown in the manual.
Looks pretty good so far. I actually like how this one varies up the traditional red, white and blue of a protagonist Gundam by changing the usual blue to a navy blue.
Quite a lot of panel lining and polycaps to go into the legs, though I do like that any unevenness from the triangular red stickers is mostly covered up by the white parts that go over them. It's why I can forgive details being substituted with stickers on a High Grade as long as they're used inventively.
I was briefly tempted to put the torso on right now, but there's some inconspicuous joints on the side of the skirt that obviously need filling in with something. So let's do the sides.
And thankfully, the connector between the waist and torso is simple enough.
I like how the red part on the bottom of the torso slots into the white A9 part to make the abs. In fact, it's a pretty nice-looking Gundam now that the fundamentals are all together. Time to test the balance and build the satellite cannons!
Now for the fins with those aforementioned large stickers. Interestingly, the sides where the stickers go on are textured, so presumably it at least feels like it looks once they're attached.
It was on attaching the wings and the cannons to the back of the gundam that I found that the connection between the torso and waist is actually quite loose. And I've worked with that kind of polycap connection before, so that ain't good. Might see if I can thicken it slightly with a thin coat of PVA later, but for now, let's do the rifle.
Not so keen on how the blue parts on the rifle are done with stickers, particularly since it's not entirely clear at first glance how they fit over the rifle body itself.
As another first for the blog, we have our first missing part! The grey rifle nozzle part is missing from the C runner, despite me having no recollection of ever clipping anything resembling it out! And it's entirely plausible that it was loose and went missing during manufacturing, seeing how one of the beam saber effect parts was loose off the runner when I was unboxing the kit.
It's not a dealbreaker, since I'm not planning on posing this kit with the rifle (thank god for the satellite cannons), but it was gonna happen at some point!
Might as well move over to the shield.
And I suppose there's some beam sabers as well, but I care more about getting this thing ready to vaporise the nearest island!
Getting these open is a little fiddly, even with tweezers. Taking the shield off does help a little.
The legs are a little easier thanks to their size.
Now we open up the wings...
And then rotate the cannons around, pull out the front part and move those grey parts inside the shoulders onto the notch on the top of each cannon...
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| Make your own reference to Eggman's Super Laser Piss here. |
And that's the HG Gundam Double X. There's only been a few interesting things for me to talk about in comparison to my other build diaries, but perhaps that's a product of having spent so much time away from High Grades. And I'm quite impressed by how well-balanced this kit is even with the satellite cannons attached, particularly after being driven up the wall by kits like the RG Astray Gold Frame Amatsu Mina and RG Crossbone. Yeah, there's a few rather loose parts, but if you're intending to get something simple and fancy-looking, this isn't a bad place to start. A soft B-tier kit, and a kit that's got me rather interested in tracking down the Master Grade.
The only question is, what is this "grade I've never tried before" that I mentioned at the start of this entry? Watch this space to find out.
*awkward silence*
No, it isn't a Perfect Grade kit. Let's not get our hopes up THAT much.
Stay safe and keep clipping, folks!
The Good
+ Interesting colour variety
+ That double satellite cannon
+ Simple, fun build
+ Better balanced than you'd think it would be
The Bad
- Polycap ball joint between the torso and legs is not good
- Side skirts doen't hold on well
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