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WD-M01 Turn-A Gundam |
| Series | Turn-A |
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| Title | WD-M01 Turn-A Gundam | |
| Release Date | July 1999 | |
| Suggested Price (JPY) | 2,000 | |
| No. of Parts | 120 + polycaps + stickers | |
| Plastic Color | Cream-white, red, blue, yellow, grey | |
| Grade | HG 1/100 | |
| Scale | 1/100 | |
| My Rating | Above Average | |
| Model Status | Completed (2002-08-29) | |
| Production Roll-Out# | #12 |
Comment
My very first impression on "Turn-A" Gundam is that the design sucked. It looks
like a white guy with big moustache and an erected penis. (Take a look at the picture and uses some imagination)
The funny thing is that the more I look at it, the less I reject it. Don't get me wrong. I still dislike the design but after watching the Turn-A TV series, I started to change my way of looking at it. Turn-A Gundam is not the conventional "Big Bad Super-Duper War Machine" but it represents some sort of peace machine, I guess. It is hilarious to see how the main pilot, Loran Cehack, abuse the use of Turn-A Gundam by doing odd jobs such as mining, doing laundry and a temporary land bridge.
The reason I am buying this kit is that I am looking for a victim for my spray can experiment. I could not bear myself to victimize any of my 08MST kit and the Universal Century line of mech. I need a new kit that I do not like so Turn-A fit into this category. Moreover, my 1/100 SUMO is lonely without a companion.
This is the tallest kit I have so far (as at year 2002). I thought my 1/100 SUMO is tall but this guy is even taller, standing at approximately 22cm, dwarfing my MG Master Gundam by a head and a half. Since I have done the 1/144 scale Turn-A, I can make a little comparison here.
The proportion for this kit is way much better than the 1/144 scale. Most of the parts are in proportion. The only complain is the head is too round-ish. In overall this kit looks a lot less ugly and thus gaining a tad of respect from me.
The seams line is like any typical HG, where sanding and puttying is necessary to produce a realistic model. Plastic is of good quality and molded in the correct color thus painting is an optional step.
Articulation is good enough for a HG. I am expecting a better degree of movement in this kit however it is not much different from my other 1/144 Turn-A. This kit failed to crouch properly. Unlike my 1/100 SUMO, the joints are a bit tight so holding weapons is not a problem.
Packaging
- 8 plastic trees. 1 sticker, 1 polycaps.
- Plastic molded in a 5 colors. Painting is optional.
- Plastic quality is comparable to HG.
- Some pictures on the box and a large 12 pages manual.
Weapons, Gimmicks and Accessories
- 1 beam rifle
- 1 shield
- 2 transparent red beam saber (activated mode)
- 2 beam saber handle (deactivated mode. To be slot into the handle on the shoulder).
- 1 core fighter
- Chest missile bay opens.
- Extendable leg thruster fins.
The shield and beam rifle can be attached to the back with 2 special handle pieces. Beam rifle could be extended at the butt-stock for the 2 hand sniping pose. The core fighter is an additional piece that could not be attached to the pelvis.
Construction Note
Basic construction is done over here with lots of sanding and some puttying. Turn-A has quite a number of
exposed inner details, so construction and painting process is done in phases. Painting is easy as multi-color
section is separated in different parts.
This is my first and last attempt in using spray cans. Experimenting with spray cans on my largest kit I have is my biggest mistake. I find out the hard way that Tamiya spray cans are a very a expensive painting method. A typical can is just enough to spray one layer of paint for a 1/24 scale Tamiya car.
Firstly, all parts to be painted are prime with Tamiya Gray Primer. Tamiya primer comes in a small or large can. Three large cans are used up for this model. Chest is sprayed with blue. The yellow skirt piece and the neckpiece are sprayed with yellow. The shield, soles and beam rifle tip are sprayed with bright red. The loose piece on the chest is sprayed while it is still on its tree.
The following is the summary list of spray cans wasted on this kit.
- 3 cans of large Tamiya primer.
- 1 matte white, 2 pure white
- 1 blue
- 1 red
- 1/2 can of yellow
The listed number of cans wasted is only applied to the torso, shoulder armor and the skirt armor. Six and a half cans are wasted but the head and the four limbs are still left unpainted. I gave up on using spray cans and bought an airbrush system. The head and the four limbs were then airbrushed.
I notice that airbrushing is much simpler and much more economical than spray cans. I just lay a layer of neutral gray and then followed by 2 layers of gloss white. The total paint airbrushed on this kit is less than a bottle of Tamiya paint.
The inner parts at the leg joint, inner chest and the thruster fins are hand-brushed with dark gray. A layer of clear is then hand brushed on to it to protect it from scratches. This is the first attempt in using Tamiya clear paint (X-22) for clear coating. I am quite happy with the result, as a thick layer of clear coat on those parts will make it somewhat bulletproof.
The biggest painting challenge is on the eyes. I had to hand brush 4 colors (white, black, red, orange) on the small eyepiece.
Panel lines are painted on using gray artist oil.
Lesson Learned
- For your wallet's health reasons, never use Tamiya spray cans for Gundam models.
- Thou shall get an airbrush, the ultimate painting tool.
In brief
This kit is a good buy at 2000 yen for the good number of gimmicks and size but I will suggest you to slap
in a few more bucks and get a lower end MG unless you absolutely "love" the Turn-A Gundam design.
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Document Date : 2002-09-10 |
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