Yeah, I'm a total Zeke.
Cracked this open today and got started. As usual for a build like this, I ignore the instructions and jump to the interesting parts first: The weapons. Got out the noted trees and got to work. Unlike many *cough* of my other projects *cough*, I plan to do this one right from the start. Just for future reference, I'm planning on priming/basecoating black and doing a white gradient preshading underneath my colors, which is one of the well-regarded Max Watanabe techniques.
The rifle: This is a pretty sharp piece. of course a lot of mold lines to carefully scrape off, and with all the curved parts (barrel, optics) this was a lot of "fun". In total the rifle (with grenade launcher) has about 17 parts. The plastic though is a good consistency and this was reasonably easy to do. It consisted of two halves, wrapped around a barrel and internal action, with muzzle and buttcap as additional parts, and an ingenious swivel-latch to hold the grenade launcher (which pivots out for reloading!) Parts cleanup was easy and they went together well except for the rear portion of the optics, which pivoted too freely. A tiny drop of plastic cement in the hole tightened things up nicely. Some sanding was necessary on the bottom of the forestock to even it up, but afterwards it looks like a single piece. This rifle is long and mean-looking. about 1 hour. optics (2 clear pieces) will of course be added after I paint.
The shield: big and substantial looking, it's actually quite thick, unlike some Gundam shields out there. There's a base piece in grey to which everything attaches. There's 4 main armor panels, 3 red and 1 black, and they easily attach to the front of the shield. There's an ABS retainer piece for the beam axes, and another 2 piece assembly for the arm attachment. The beam axes can be stored here, or can be flipped and swung forward to make an impressive weapon. the axes themselves are 4 pieces each, entirely ABS, though the handles and blade holder appear to be a harder formulation. The handle attaches to a slider which rides along the back of the blade holder, and at the bottom is a socket for attachment to the shield. The're rather skeletal and plain in appearance, but I suspect paint and decals will really spice them up.
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