And now, we reach the last of the three kits I bought while in Japan, and the last of the two One Piece kits. Hopefully by the end of this, I'll feel as SUPER as Franky himself. Assuming this is Adam Plastic or whatever...
I was initially concerned about the huge Strawhat Jolly Roger decal on the main sail - if it was a sticker, it'd be an absolute bastard to attach. But fortunately, for one, it's actually several separate decals, and for two, they give you two decal sheets, one of which is a sheet of waterslide decals. So it'll only be a partial bastard to attach.
Had to panel line the portholes and doors, there aren't even any colour-correcting stickers for them. Even the Moby Dick managed that at a smaller scale. And annoyingly, I've lost the rubber I normally use for tidying up panel lines, so that's convenient.
Apologies if the creases on the black stickers around the Soldier Dock ports show up on camera - these stickers are very difficult to get lined up, especially in comparison to the other colour-correcting stickers around the sides.
There are two variations of the figurehead, one of which has the Gaon Cannon out.
For simplicity though, I'm going to be finishing the kit with the cannon closed.
The kit gives you a choice of water decals and foil stickers for the small flags. For colour purposes, I'm going with the foil stickers, even if they aren't quite as precise.
The rigging is made of a much softer plastic, and even if you make sure to get it the right way round (1 on port, 4 on starboard), it's a little finnicky to get secured on the bottom. A few squeezes with my tweezers just about managed it, and it looks like the main sail fits over the front of the bottom of the crow's nest to possibly secure them in place better, but we'll see.
The mainsail was a bit annoying as far as the main skull portion goes - I've never worked with one as large as this before. I still enjoyed putting it all together though, and I'm looking forward to what it looks like when the decals dry.
It's not 100% perfect, and I wish I had the paints and the space to properly colour in the small figures and the three included soldier dock figurines, but this is otherwise the impressive model piece I was hoping it would be. A recognisable, colourful design in an eye-catchingly huge form factor that I would say lies somewhere between the simplicity of a High Grade and the size and finer details of a Master Grade. I'm very glad I picked this one up, if only for having something to place atop my manga shelf.
Stay safe and keep clipping, folks!
The Good
+ Colour-correcting stickers are surprisingly fun to work with
+ A much larger centrepiece compared to the Grand Ship Collection
+ Fun set of option parts included
+ I just really like the design of this ship, alright?
The Bad
- Especially when putting the larger pieces of the hull together, you have to line things up very precisely to avoid breaking things
- The lack of colour on the doors or portholes is an odd detail to miss, so have some panel markers ready
- The black stickers around the Soldier Dock ports are very difficult to get lined up
- I don't think I've seen a waterslide decal as big as the Jolly Roger on the main sail
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