1/100 Gundam Virtue Part 1

A Gundam inside a Gundam
Back to a bit of Gunpla-ing after the review on Hot Toys 1/6 Jill Valentine BSAA Ver. ^^ Continuing the theme of going big in this last month of the year, this guy is the most suitable candidate for the call. ^^


1/100 Gundam Virtue from "Gundam Double O" Season One.

Apart from being big as you can see from its box size, it's the last of the four protagonist Gundams from the anime, so it's quite an obvious selection for me before moving on to MSV kits like Gundam Astraea or Gundam Avalanche Exia. ^^



Closeups on Gundam Virtue and Gundam Nadleeh's face from the box art.
Obviously, Gundam Virtue's secret is no more after all this while, but the idea of having a Gundam inside another one is still pretty amazing to me. ^^


Gundam Nadleeh's debut in the anime.
Video clip is from Youtube. Follow this link to the website if you can't see anything.
It's not a noble attempt though, since Kowloon Gundam and Master Gundam from "Mobile Fighter G Gundam" have somewhat of a similar design. However, merchandising wise, Gundam Virtue can be considered as the success story, as it's able to realize the transformation gimmick between two Gundam forms. This 1/100 scale Gunpla version is not the only one that can do so actually. The much smaller 1/200 HCM-Pro version has that gimmick installed too. ^^

Talking about Gundam Virtue, it's hard to avoid comparing him with its successor units, Seravee Gundam and Seraphim Gundam. ^^; For me, I like Gundam Virtue better, as its armored form is bulkier, which looks much fiercer to me. Hey, if having armors is a big part of the appearance, then the bigger the better eh? XD Comparing Gundam Virtue and Seravee Gundam, the former is indeed bulkier. ^^ As for the "secret resident" (XD), Gundam Virtue does a better job in hiding it than Seravee Gundam with Seraphim Gundam. ^^

And I like Gundam Virtue's beam bazooka better as well. ^^ It's so big and heavy almost all reviews I read about this 1/100 scale kit mentioned the difficulty in posing the Gundam holding up the weapon. ^^; Still, big armored robot needs a big heavy gun to complete the picture, and this Gundam fit that image perfectly. ^^




Introduction of the kit on the box sides.


Content.



An awesomely illustrated Gundam Virtue "bursting its armors" (爆甲) to reveal Gundam Nadleeh as the instruction manual's front cover. ^^





Very nice mechanical details done by Kanetake Ebikawa to make sense of Gundam Virtue's unique design.
A look at the different runners:


Runner A - Multi-color runner that contains parts for various components ranging from Gundam Nadleeh's "hair pieces", Gundam Virtue's feet, yellow parts for GN Beam Bazooka, vents and others.


(Left) All the clear parts are painted using normal green highlighter before the entire segment is cut off.
(Right) Two V-fins. ^^


Pinkish red "hair pieces" for Gundam Nadleeh. ^^


Runner B - Contains eight black parts for the GN Field generators on the backpack and legs.


(Left) Very large parts and thick parts on this runner.
(Right) Unfortunately, interior portion of the field generator which should be in yellow needs some serious paint work to realize its intended color. ^^;


Runner C - Contains parts mainly for Gundam Virtue's backpack, beam bazooka and shoulder.


Runner D - Contains all white parts mainly for the shoulder armors, arms (both forms) and beam bazooka.


Runner E - Contains all white parts mainly for the head, body and Gundam Virtue's rear skirt armors.


(Left) A humongous one-piece part for Gundam Virtue's rear skirt armor. ^^
(Right) Like the V-fins on Runner A, the two different face parts are placed very closely to one another on this runner, which I think is a very nice touch to the part arrangement. ^^


Runner F - Contains all white parts mainly for Gundam Nadleeh's legs.


Runner G - Contains four parts for Gundam Virtue's leg armors.


Huge, wide, long and thick leg armor parts.
Couldn't help myself but to start panel lining on all those long and straight lines before removing them from the tree. ^^


Runner H - Contains all gray parts mainly for the backpack and shoulder cannons.


Large parts for the shoulder cannons.
Double the barrel, double the fun eh? XD


Runner I - Contains all gray parts mainly for the bazooka, legs and hand units.


Runner J - The only ABS runner in this kits that contains parts for various joints.


Runner K - Contains all the soft rubber parts for the GN Stripes


Polycap set PC-122.
While the overall size of this polycap runner is larger than PC-116 used by Gundam Exia, Gundam Dynames and Gundam Kyrios (as with most other 1/100 scale non-MG Gunplas), most of the parts are not going to be used (marked 'X' on the manual).


Foil sticker sheet.


Beam saber parts.


All removed parts are organized and stored in individual paper containers.


Even after removing all the parts, the number of empty runners to be discarded kind of reminds you that this is not your average 1/100 scale Gunplas. ^^
Will be starting some paint work on this kit next. ^^ The beam field generators' interior aside, it seems to be a lot of work here and there on many parts. ^^;