Kusakusa Gunpla

HGUC ReZel (Commander Type)

Introduction

Bought together with the Geara Zulu, this is the continuation of my Unicorn frenzy. As I mentioned before, I planned to build this with no modifications but with GFF-style decals. I found some decals at Yodobashi camera (of all places) which are not exactly GFF style decals, but close enough. I also bought a can of metallic blue spray and some detail parts for the shoulders. This also marks my first time using High Detail Manipulator (HDM) parts from B-club. They’re not that cheap, costing about the same price as a HGUC kit. It comes with six different types of hands, ranging from open palm, closed fist and holding shapes, as shown below:

Materials & Methods

Pretty much a straight-forward build; the only seam lines to fix are at the shoulders and the massive beam cannon. The challenge comes in the painting. Although the majority of the kit is blue, there’s plenty of small areas that I wanted to be in grey or other colors. Speaking of painting, as I sprayed metallic blue on this kit, I found that it was more sparkly than metallic. It’s like the model is now covered in fine disco dust. But I went ahead with it, hoping that layers of flat topcoat will minimize the sparkly effect.

Then comes the decals. Using pictures of the GFF ReZel as reference, I applied decals which resemble the GFF version. Not perfect, but close enough. I think I nailed it pretty closely, except for the leg part. I ran out of decals for the alphabets ‘NA’ and numbers ’008′. Did I mention that I had to apply the numbers/alphabets one by one? For example for the design ‘NA008′ I first applied the decal for alphabet N, then A and so on. It was tedious and I spent about one whole day just for the decals. Also the uneven surfaces proved to be a challenge, but Mr Mark Setter helps alot. And finally I finished it off with panel lining and a generous layer of flat topcoat.

Results

Discussion

I should also mention something about the HDM hands. Some parts need to be glued together and I found that modeling cement won’t do the job. I had to use superglue to properly bind the parts. Also I found that the HDM ball joints are smaller than the original hands. When I stuck the hands to the arms, they were very loose, resulting in a limp-wristed ReZel. I guess I could apply some putty to make the ball joints thicker, but I decided to just live with it.

As for the kit itself, articulation is rather poor. Arms only bend 90 degrees, and the torso can only be turned only a few degrees left or right. Transformation to waverider mode is not true transformation because it involves swapping parts. Other than that the design is aesthetically pleasing and  I’m quite satisfied with how I managed to replicate the GFF look on this HGUC kit. Now I can’t wait for the HGUC Sinanju and volume 2 of Unicorn.