I was expecting to complete the HGUC Xi Gundam around next week, but the long weekend did help me complete this kit. Which means we’ve finally come full Doritos with this build.
Last we checked, I still needed to build the arms, shoulder armors/Minovsky Flight units, the backpack stabilizers and weapons. The arms were straight-forward assembly and I only needed partial painting on the small gray sections on the wrists. For the manipulators, I got myself some 3D printed hands that are not only filled up properly, but came with additional pairs. Given that the kit only comes with a specific number of wrist connectors, I didn’t permanently glue the covers so that I can swap the additional pairs. I do have a plan to address these but that would come in the next “phase” of this build so watch out for that.
For the rear stabilizer fins, each has a section that needed yellow paint but otherwise, they’re ready to go. The same is almost true with the weapons, sans the shield which has a couple of gray areas needing paint, as well as the white section at its back.
Overall, this is a really good kit, mostly color accurate with minor color correction needed. There are seamlines that needed sealing but these shouldn’t be an issue for experienced builders. The same is true for what I think is the most prominent fault of the HGUC Xi Gundam — those hollowed out parts on the manipulators and the front chest armors. I went with the easier solution of using third party parts for the former and pla plate sheets for the latter. With everything said, I’m really happy to finally build the Xi Gundam, which stayed in the backlog the same amount of time as the gap between the first and second Hathaway films.
Ahead of finishing this build, I already have a couple of kits for my next builds. And yes, they are a couple of kits because believe it or not, I haven’t built any of the HGUC Unicorn Gundam kits Bandai Hobby has released. Given that the Life-Sized Unicorn Gundam Statue in Odaiba will be taken down by the end of August, I only thought it would be fitting for finally build these kits.
