Kusakusa Gunpla

MG Nu Gundam Ver.ka

Introduction:

I purchased the MG Nu Gundam ver.Ka not long after its official release a few years back. After the initial hype had died down, I realized that I didn’t like the proportions that much. Specifically, the torso is too short, and the faceguard too long. I naively thought that I had the time and skill to modify those parts, but apparently I had neither. So my solution to the problem was to throw money at it; in this case I bought a resin modification kit online.

Materials & methods:

The resin kit contained replacements for most parts of the outer armor. The waist, wrists, and lower legs required some modification to the inner frame. Since I don’t consider the wrists and lower legs to be problem areas, I left them alone and used the original plastic parts. The resin parts were of good quality; the details are well defined and the parts fit well. But of course super glue was still necessary.
I painted the inner frame with Mecha Surfacer Super Heavy, with some color variation added using Gunmetal, Copper, and Starbright Duralumin. For the outer armor, I used the following paints:

• White parts: mainly Gaianotes Neutral Gray I; Neutral Gray II and III were used to add variation to some parts
• Dark blue parts: Gaianotes Prism Blue Black
• Orange & red parts: Orange-yellow & Red madder, respectively

After putting on decals & panel lining, I gave the white parts a flat topcoat spray and the dark blue with Semi-gloss topcoat.

Results:

Discussion:

In addition to the body proportions, I wasn’t too happy with the fin funnels. Especially when all 6 were connected and attached to the backpack. They’re just not secure enough and fall apart at the slightest touch. That said, the kit comes with a stand for the Nu Gundam and all 6 funnels, but I must have misplaced them as I was moving from Japan. I had to make do with my old Action Base stand, and it was kinda tricky getting the poses because the the fitting wasn’t too good.

The shield also needs a redesign. It’s attached to the back of the forearms and the only way to make the shield face forwards is to rotate the entire arm. That somewhat limits the poses you can make with the shield attached.

Overall, the resin kit has greatly improved the proportions & details on this MG Nu Gundam kit. But in hindsight, I could’ve saved myself time and money by waiting for the RG Nu Gundam instead. That kit has way better proportions than the stock MG version.