MG Aile Strike Gundam – Completed | Saint-ism

My MG Strike Gundam is completed! This build was the fastest I’ve ever completed a kit in, taking about 12-14 hours over 2 weeks.

Some might wonder why I’ve built the old 2003 version of the Strike, basically I’ve got a bad habit of ‘saving’ my favourite suits for until I feel like I’m good enough to tackle them. I bought this kit in 2006 (I think?) and it’s been sitting in my closet ever since, that is until the remastered Strike was released recently. I figured this would give me a good chance to practice for when I’d eventually get the Remaster version.

Review

Construction

The Aile Strike Gundam was the kit which started a new era of engineering in Gunpla kits. A full inner frame, double jointed feet and shoulders are just some of the features which the Strike contributed to the modern kits of today. There are only two major seamlines that need fixing on this kit, being the head (which you can do the usual Gundam Head mod for) and the beam rifle.

Proportion wise, the kit is pretty good, being a fairly accurate depiction of Strike. Being an older kit though, it does lack quite a bit of surface details and panel lines, especially compared to the remastered version.

Painting

One of this kit’s failings in my opinion is there are quite a few details which aren’t molded in the correct colours. These are:

Head vulcans
Vents on back of head
Two vents on the crotch piece
Vents on the front skirts
Vents on the rear skirts
Vents on the back thrusters
Thrusters on the Aile Striker pack

One problem area I encountered while putting the Aile pack together was how the fins connected to the back thrusters – part of the fin must be slotted through the black and red vent parts, and this caused quite a few scratches on the fins as they went through (after being painted).

As for colours, here’s what I used (This is over gray primer):

White – Preshaded with a combination of Neutral Gray (70%) + Intermediate Blue (5%) + White (25%). Then applied pure White on top for highlights
Blue – Base coated with Blue. Then preshade with Bright Blue + Cobalt Blue + Fluorescent Pink. Added white to the mixture for highlights
Red – Applied a base coat of Red Madder, applied Starter White technique and topcoated with Red Madder
Yellow – Applied a base coat of Orange Yellow (70%) + Yellow (30%), then applied start white technique. Finished with a coat of Orange Yellow (50%) + Yellow (50%)
Black (Aile Striker) – 100% Black base coat, added white for highlights.
Internal gray – Black (60%) + Neutral Gray (40%) base coat, followed by a Neutral Gray (70%) + Black (30%) coat for highlights

Some notes from my painting:

Beam rifle lens was painted clear blue. I then masked off the lens and painted the bar across the same gray as the beam rifle. I also added a piece of aluminium foil behind the lens so it would give off a reflective sheen.
I used the foil stickers for the eyes, front and back head sensors. I used to paint clear blue for the head sensor in previous kits, however since very little light reaches that area, you won’t notice the effect, so I used the sticker instead.

I also used the official Gundam Decals for the kit. Be sure to follow the markings in the Sword/Launcher Strike Gundam manual (you can find it on Dalong) as it has a more updated decal marking guide. The original decals which come with the kit don’t include some of the more minor red ‘warning’ sign ones.

Posability

With a full inner frame, the Strike can do a wide range of dynamic poses. The arms and legs can contract fully, even with it’s armour on. The thighs also have a sliding mechanism which opens up when the knee is bent. Being a very old kit though, the legs are still connected via ball joints, which does prevent the kit from doing ‘fly-kick’ poses, also the knee armour is not connected to the rest of the leg by any mechanism and must be posed separately.

Despite being top heavy, With a bit of lean forward, the Strike is capable of standing upright even with the Aile Striker pack equipped, although it’s very prone to tipping over. Thankfully a very large action base is provided with the kit, doubling as a linear catapult so you can emulate the take off sequence in the anime.