Thank you to Gundam Mad for selling me both copies of this kit.
I swear, this build was jinxed. Not through any fault of the kit itself, but because of everything around it that happened with me personally. The reason why this is an after-action report rather than a straight Build Diary is because I accidentally erased the draft in trying to correct an existing correction, and Blogger autosaved over the blank post before I could do anything about it. And apparently this is something people have been having complaints about as far back as 2019, so that's FUN.
Add to that the fact that the completion of this kit was delayed by what feels like an entire month because I somehow lost a pretty large part, and you have a recipe for stress. No kidding - I dropped one of the pieces of side-skirt armour while I was at my desk and it completely vanished right in front of me after I looked a few degrees to the left. I had three other people look all around my desk and it still has not turned up to this day. It's gotten to the point where I had to get hold of a second copy of the kit so I could see some sense of closure on this thing, something I really wanted given the other sour note I had to end a kit on. I'll be giving the remainder of the kit to a friend of mine who really wants to give Gunpla a go. They were really insistent about it to the extent of offering to pay for half the kit.
But before I get too miserable, I'd like to sound off on a few ending notes about the F91. Honestly, apart from my own personal stumbling blocks, this is quite a nice kit. There's some nice mechanical details such as the shiny gold inside the torso and leg vents. I quite like the transformable face to the point of actually tolerating the visible seam down the middle where it opens up. And this is a kit that really works nicely with the dry transfers on the shoulders and the VSBRs, adding to the unique identity that the kit has alongside its usual protagonist Gundam traits.
I do have general criticisms, though. The mechanisms on which the accessories fit are either flimsy, don't work, or don't exist. I can't for the life of me find anywhere in the manual that tells me where the beam rifle can go when not in use, and the back skirt mechanism for holding in the bazooka doesn't seem to work at all no matter how I interpret the manual. The beam shield also seems to fall apart too easily to the point where it nearly caused another delay with the kit.
The articulation leaves a bit to be desired as well - I went into this already aware that the toes couldn't move further downwards, and that's a bit of a missed opportunity considering the stand that comes with this kit, as well as the lore context of this being a space-based mobile suit. I had to make do with moving the feet downwards in their entirety once I got the Gundam on the stand.
And lastly, the clear green plastic that the sabers and the shield effect are moulded in is very prone to warping and bending, so if you're intending to use those, have some hot water or something on hand and put some extra time in to straighten those out (or make them more prominent in the case of the beam sabers, if you want a motion effect).
All in all though, I'm glad I finally got round to finishing this kit, regardless of what got in the way. It sticks to tradition enough to be recognizable as a Gundam, but does enough of its own thing in the markings and little details to be an entity in and of itself. Even if you don't have the white LED unit to make the chest light up, this is a kit you'll have fun with if you like mechanical gimmicks. Just be more careful with handling the pieces than I was, you don't want that stress. Though that said, even bringing this kit over to my shelves was surprisingly easy, if only because the stand works by fitting between the inner torso and the back engines. Well...that and the fact that the base is a simple plastic holder with a hollow space to fit the LED unit.
Deepest apologies that this didn't end up being the photographed step-by-step build diary I originally wanted this post to be. It probably isn't as bad as it could have been given that this isn't exactly a rare kit, and reviews and speed builds of it are all over the internet, so I wouldn't really be saying anything new. All I'm hoping is that I don't run into the same stumbling blocks when I get round to the next kit, because...let's just say it doesn't have as much of a luxury as that.
Stay safe and keep clipping, folks!
Comments
Post a Comment