This past week marks the third for my HG GQuuuuuuX build, and is also the one I was looking forward the least. While the parts remaining to be built are for the weapons and accessories, they are also the most needing painting and masking. Ironically, I didn’t show any of them in the pic below but you get the idea.
The two oddly-shaped beam saber handles were the easiest, with each just needing gray circular details and an orange strip. Then there’s the beam rifle which needed more involved masking for the thin white stripe on the top of the barrel. It didn’t help that the sculpt has all those “scaffolding” details that should be masked off.
And then there’s the shield that came in two colors but has all sorts of white and orange bits in their own oddly-shaped patters. I had to research videos of Japanese modelers masking this part for the best possible approach. Last is the Core Fighter and all those colors would be needed on the tiny nosecone section. It comes in dark gray and off white but there’s a lot of color missing that required me at least two rounds of masking. In the end, it wasn’t perfect but I did get all the color applications covered.
Overall, the kit is quite ambitious in translating such an unorthodox and busy design to something supposedly aimed at newcomers to Gunpla. It is true though since the kit looks quite good out of the box. But for those needing a color accurate model, then prepare for a lot of masking small details. And once done, you get that satisfying feeling of being able to build this crazy design as a High Grade.
We just have one month before Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX drops, but in the meantime, I believe I have the perfect kit to follow this guy. And it comes from the same team behind the GQuuuuuuX.
