After a 6 month break I’m back with my first kit of 2015 – the Gundam Exia. I used the Ignition Mode version of the kit which comes with the chrome plated parts and the Repair version parts, but I opted to build the normal version. Total build time was about 20 hours over 3 weeks, one of my faster builds.
Construction
Most 00 designs are pretty simplistic, but the Exia has just enough surface details and natural panel lines moulded to keep things interesting. What’s unique about this kit are the hologram parts and that it’s the first MG that’s desgined to accomodate LED units for the GN drives. All of the parts are moulded in the correct colours and there are no seamlines, so those who want to do a straight build will get a pretty good looking kit with just some topcoat.
This uniqueness does lead to some weird design issues though. Bandai tried alot of new stuff when designing this kit, and the results are a mixed bag. It’s remarkable that they’ve managed to nail the look, but unfortunately the features of the mobile suit don’t translate very well into plamo form. One of my main gripes are the hologram cables on the arms and how the kit has been designed to accommodate them. The upper arms lack an inner frame and are completely hollow and unlike most kits, rotate at a much lower location which can look a bit weird. I’m guessing it’s also designed this way to allow for easy removal in case you wanted to switch to the Repair version. With these cables in the arms, you can also only bend the arms so far to the sides before the tension in the cables start pushing them down again.
Another issue which many have complained about before is the kit’s weak ankles, and after building it I can see why. Although the Exia uses a variant of the standard double ball join ankle design, it’s a combination of the petite feet, lack of a full proper frame for the lower legs as well which cause the ankles unable to hold a lot of weight before sagging. Bandai recognized this problem and fixed it with their next 00 MG release, the QanT.
On the upside, this is also the first kit ever (if I’m not mistaked) to feature a multi-jointed waist/chest design, allowing for the upper torso to bend side-to-side and back-forward. The fact that they managed to do this with a gigantic hole in the inner frame for the GN Drive is pretty impressive.
Painting
Here’s what I used for the colours, Gunze Mr Hobby acrylics as usual:
Blue – Cobalt Blue (90%) + Sky Blue (10%). White added into the mix for highlights.
Red – Red Madder (95%) + Black (5%) for base coat, followed by starter white, then a coat of Red Madder (100%). Finally, white and orange is added into the mixture for slight hightlight.
Yellow – Orange (100%) base coat, followed by starter white, then a coat of Orange Yellow (90%) + Yellow (10%). Finally, white and yellow is added for highlights.
Internal grey – Neutral Grey (80%) + Black (20%) base coat, follow by Neutral Grey (95%) + Black (5%) for highlights.
For the first time in 1 1/2 years, I used the official Bandai waterslides on a kit. While the officials have much better resolution in printing, I’ve actually come to appreciate Samueldecal’s decals instead as they blend into the kit better.
The chrome plated parts unfortunately aren’t undergated, which means the second you cut them off the runner there is a huge black spot where the gate was.
I experienced the “paint cracking” syndrome again whilst trying to do a gloss coat. I’ve decided to ditch my current batch of Future which is about 7 years old and order some new stock in. Hopefully it will make a difference on my next kit.
Posing and Gimmicks
The main draw of this kit is are the “Seven Swords” – these are the GN Sword, GN Long Sword, GN Short Sword, 2x GN Beam Sabers and 2x GN Beam Daggers. Two pegs hidden in the Exia’s thighs can be exposed to mount the GN Long and Short Swords and the kit does look pretty impressive when all of it’s weapons are equipped. Thanks to the Exia’s “gym shorts” for skirts, the legs have an impressive freedom of movement, but unfortunately, holstering these blades does restrict the movement of the torso and legs a fair bit, so you won’t be doing any fancy poses with these.
If there was ever a kit which needed next-gen manipulator technology, this would be it. The Exia desperately needs wrists which can pivot downwards so it can hold it’s swords in more dramatic poses, but unfortunately Gunpla engineering hasn’t quite reached that stage yet.
Another small issue I had was with the attachment of the GN Sword and Shield to the arms. These kinda plug into slots into the forearms and stay there via friction only with no polycaps to speak of. The fact that GN Sword and Shield are also pretty massive, they do get a bit fiddly when trying to pose with them, and I had to use a bit of Blu Tack to fully secure them in place.
Summary
+ Anime accurate
+ Seven Swords! The GN Blade is quite impressive
+ Legs have excellent freedom of movement
+ Pioneers new upper torso design ideas which would be used in future kits
– Arm hologram ‘ribbons’ hinder arm lateral movement
– Doesn’t have a complete inner frame
– Weak ankle joints limit poses on the ground
– Equipping all Seven Swords limits leg movement
Gundam Exia
Seven Swords
Action Pose
