Sometimes, I can be a big silly hypocrite.
Every so often, a kit or toy gets announced that I get pointlessly vocal about. “Man, why are they clogging up the main line with that thing? Recolors like that should just be un-numbered special editions!” is something I remember saying when this kit was first announced. I could understand the need to include the Gundam and the G-Fighter in one kit, but Real Type colors seemed like a silly way to do it. Well, one day I got hit with the inspiration to do a whole series of MG Kits in Real Type colors so well, here we are.
This is probably the Gunpla biggest box I’ve ever gotten.
Bandai has done the Master Grade Gundam in Real Type colors before, but it never really worked out. The last kit to try this was the One Year War Gundam, which was never designed for anything more advanced than the original Gundam’s color scheme. As a result, an ENORMOUS amount of spare parts had to be included in order for that color scheme to be achieved. You’d more or less end up with enough parts to outfit a second OYW Gundam’s frame, just in a wide variety of colors.
Thanks to its mold gates, the 2.0 mold for the Gundam achieves this without the need for spare parts. Indeed, the bizarre color layout of the Real Type Gundam doesn’t exactly lend itself to model kits, what with the bizarre inclusion of dark green AND black areas that seems almost repetitive. This kit managed to pull it off with complete success.
Seeing as this kit is two kits in one, there are a lot of parts here! With all these interior gray bits needed for just one project, I’m probably going to invest in a big can of gunship gray spraypaint for this…
Having done the 2.0 Gundam in the past, I know exactly what to expect there, so I’m excited to finally be painting one. The G-Fighter is another story, however. I’ve only done really old support mecha kits in 1/144 scale, so doing (pretty much the only) one in 1/100 scale Master Grade is going to be a hell of a thing. As a result, I’m probably going to build the G-Fighter first since it’s something I’ve never covered or done before. It’ll be quite the learning experience!
For this, I’ve purchased two sets of decals: the standard set for this kit, and a special one for the Real Type Gundam by itself. Since the decals for the Gundam included in the G-Armor set aren’t very exciting, I’ll probably use the Real Type decals primarily with a few extras from the G-Armor for detail. When I’m done with this, you’d swear Katoki drew it, not Okawara!
Now, when I actually start this project is up in the air, because it was kind of an impulse buy. I still have the Duel and Buster to make, and I want to be completely free when I get the Nu Gundam Ver Ka next month. You’ll probably see a review of the 2.0 Gundam by itself soon, then a build log covering everything in greater detail later on. But hey, you know you’re just here to get sold on kits, so why not head down to FPNYC and look for one of the 2.0 Gundam’s many incarnations?