MG Heavy Arms Custom, I thought you were blue?

I has been a while since I updated this blog on anything Gunpla related, but I have been busy, and building Gundam models takes up a lot of time. But anyways, I have recently finished building a Master Grade model, something I've always been excited about. The model I am talking about is Gundam Heavy Arms Custom, which you also know by the title.

Now, I had my fair share of surprises while building this model, which I will share with you further in this post. One of the very first surprise was that no stickers were prescribed for this model (just felt like using that word, not sure whether it works here). That's right, the 4 small lines on the chest of this model are separately molded in blue for the chest area. For me, this was something I appreciated a lot, since I don't really like (okay, I HATE) using stickers. And the fact that these parts were separately molded makes the model look absolutely more cleanly built than it would ever be if the parts were coloured using stickers, or painted on. While some maybe argue that a paint job using an airbrush and well placed masking tapes, even those guys would be thankful for these separately molded parts.

Another slightly unpleasant surprise was that I thought no painting or stickers were required to completely straight build this model (aside from the eyes and head sensors that is), but there were parts which required painting, and for this model, it so happened to be the missile packs and the missile pods themselves. Yup, count them, count them all, and those, need painting.

As you can see in the pictures above, the missile pods, all of them, which are the lighter tone of grey, and the middle section of the missile packs on the legs, which is grey are all painted. This surprised me a lot actually, as they could mold the blue lines on the chest separately, why they didn't do the same for all these missiles. However, I enjoyed painting them, and if I do say so myself, the contrast of the light toned missile pods make the model look quite nice, and stand out more. In the sample model on the box and the manual, the missiles are painted a lighter tone of grey, much lighter than my model, but I think it looks fine.

Another surprise I was faced with, this one a good one, was how solid most parts feel after they are assembled. As you can see in some of the picture above, the model has many parts that open up to reveal the missile pods inside, and these parts are just as solid. Props to Bandai for this.

One of the problems I have faced though is the knife that is supposed to be a last resort weapon, I mean, this is not the weapon to use as a main, and on the left pic, you can clearly see the knife not being able to fold completely if the arm is straight, though not really to noticeable (*eye twitches*), I wish they made it easier for the model to hold. 

In the picture above are the only removable weapons and items that come with the model, to remove the other weapons or armaments, you'd have to basically remove the gundam models armour. The main highlight, THAT, HUGE, GATLING GUN!!

The gatling gun and the ammunition pack both have 2 teeth that are used to house them on the back of the gundam.

Those lines are where the teeth hook on to.

(Above) Like so~

(Above) This is the model fully equipped with all armaments and weapons.

 

When trying to pose the model while holding the gatling gun, the fixed hands really help with how stable and firm of a grip the model can provide. However, it is quite hard to equip it to the model.

Thankfully, the gatling gun in the hand is very stable. But after a few times having the model hold the gun, I did realize the hand become a bit loose.

Armaments all ready to fire!!! I try to imagine how scary this would look as some enemy mobile suits try to rush and attack Heavyarms and he goes out guns blazing and missile pods firing. 

I was extremely happy with this model, everything felt solid, a slight weight to them. The articulations for the arms and legs are just good enough, however, much much better than that of the MG Unicorn Gundam if any of you readers have purchased and put together the model. An almost full 180 degrees for both the arms and legs.

And last of all, you can see Trowa Barton in the cockpit. What puzzles me is how noisy it must be in the cockpit, unless some kind of noise dampening system is used to silence the chest machine guns. And that is all, finish!




Farid