HG V2 Assault Buster Gundam

I’m back! For the past few months I’ve been busy with work (also a hellacious commission), but I never actually stopped building during this time. In fact I have a small growing backlog of built kits I need to go back and do photo sessions on. My first post back though, is actually of my latest completed kit, the HG Victory Two Assault Buster Gundam. I actually bought this on a whim as it came out just as I was about to order a mega shipment from HLJ. The overall build took about 1 1/2 months, with the main reason being due to the amount of masking needed.

Painting

As with most HG kits, there is some degree of masking involved if you’re planning to paint. The most obvious culprits are the shield and it’s shield bits, which are completely molded in blue and white respectively and have a total of three colours each. Other than that, there are a number of detail areas over the kit like vents which could use a splash of grey.

White – Base coat of Navy Blue (100%). White is then layered on to create shading effect.

Blue – Base coat of Bright Blue (70%) + Purple (20%) + White (10%). White is added for highlights

Red – Base coat of Black (100%), follow by starter white technique, then a coat of Shine Red (40%) + Red Madder (60%). Finally some white and orange is added into the mixture for highlights.

Yellow – Base coat of Orange (100%), followed by starter white technique, then a coat of Orange Yellow (60%) + Yellow (40%). Finally some white is added into the mixture for highlights

Black – Base coat of Black (100%). White is added for highlights

Frame Grey – Tamiya TS-4 German Grey Spray

Assault Armour Gold – Tamiya TS Gold Spray

Paints used are Mr Hobby acrylics unless stated

Construction

With the main core MS being the same as the original HG V2 release which came out last year, the Assault Buster mode is the main draw of this particular kit. This part also happens to be where all of the major flaws lie in, with some of the most extreme parts swapping I have ever seen needed in order to change between the various modes.

The main problem is that the two Minovsky Drive units (the fins at the back) which are normally installed onto the backpack of the V2 itself move to the two pods in Buster/Assault Buster mode. In this process they go from a female polycap to a male peg, requiring you to disassemble the two drive units, remove and replace the polycap with the male peg, then transfer the female polycap into the Buster backpack in order to accommodate installation of the fins.

This presents a massive problem to those planning to fix seam lines, because essentially you’re either locked into building the V2 Assault or the Buster/Assault Buster variations. Bandai could have just provided a second set of fin units and polycaps to avoid this problem but nope, instead we get a stupid core fighter block which most people will not care about. Stupid!

Massive rant aside, the kit has the typical HG-esque seamlines which need fixing, especially on the forearms, legs and head. The red elbow section on the arm can be C-section modded so it can be painted and inserted separately.

Gimmicks

I can’t really speak much for the Assault and Buster modes, but the V2 Assault Buster isn’t exactly the most posable kit once it’s assembled as you’d imagine. With all the massive weapons, gigantic VSBR side skirts, there isn’t much room for stuff to move before it starts colliding with each other. I do have to give the kit credit for at least being able to hold up the long rifle without any problems though.

I also had quite a frustrating time dealing with the Assault Buster backpack. Those damn weapon units just refuse to stay on! Therefore I don’t really have that many posed shots of the Gundam. The kit comes with a rather unimpressive “T-Bone” shaped connector which is used to connect the Mega Beam Cannon and Spray Pod units together, but the ball joints for these feel ever slightly too large for the polycaps they are supposed to go into. The end result is that any small movements may cause them to fall straight off. The T-Bone itself is also pretty fragile, and may snap if you’re too ham handed on it whilst it’s connected to the backpack. I suggest removing it from the main MS, installing the two weapons, the reinserting it into the back just to be safe.

To top off the disappointments, there are no Wings of Light effect parts, as these have been relegated to Bandai Premium. In fact the kit doesn’t come with any beam effect parts at all, so you don’t even get a beam fan to go with that beam saber hilt.

Summary

Despite all the negatives I’ve pointed out, I think the HG V2 Assault Buster is one pretty slick looking kit when finished. If you’re willing to put in some work and can accept the engineering pitfalls of the kit, the final product is a glorious hunk which manages to look tanky and sleek at the same time without looking overly ridiculous like the Perfect Strike.

Gallery

Action Pose