HGBF Tryon 3

My 5th Build Fighters kit! I’m starting off 2016 just trying to clear out of my photography backlog, so in no particular order, here is the HGBF Tryon 3. I was quite excited when it was originally announced as a HG kit, but upon finally finishing the build in late October 2015, I was pretty disappointed at how ‘normal’ the suit looks. It just doesn’t scream Hot Blood like a Super Robot should 🙁

Painting

The Tryon 3 comes with a pretty forgiving sticker sheet. The main parts that really need masking or handpainting are:

• The teeth on the Riku Tryon
• The ‘eyes’ on the Sora Tryon
• The vents on the Sora Tryon
• The eyes on the Riku, Sora and Umi Tryon
• Inside the various yellow vents
• The yellow stripes on the shields

Out of these I’d dare say the only ones that really needs painting are the eyes and teeth of Riku Tryon. The ones on the head of Sora Tryon are a particular pain in the ass to pain due to the geometry of the parts (I just ignored them).

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

Frame Blue – Tamiya Mica Blue Spray

Paints used are Mr Hobby acrylics unless stated

Review

Herein lies one of the big problems of the kit. In the anime the Tryon 3 embodies the whole “Gunpla is Freedom” mantra by taking our beloved not-Super-Robot ZZ Gundam to the next level. It’s only when you see the HGBF Tryon 3 kit in person, that you can really see that the anime took many liberties with its design and proportions.

Since the actual kit itself is based mainly off the existing HGUC ZZ Gundam mold, the Tryon 3 loses many of the Super Robot qualities from the anime which made it so awesome in the first place. Ideally the kit should have much larger shoulders, bulkier arms, longer legs and feet, but the end result mostly looks like a ZZ Gundam with a lion’s face for a chestpiece. Somehow, the kit weirdly feels less interesting when you actually put the three units together and combine into the titular MS. Even then, the Riku Tryon is probably the most interesting out of the lot as the designs for the Sora and Umi Tryon aren’t particularly interesting to look at or play with.

The final gimmick of the kit, the “Hyper Minovsky Chouhouken”, is a double-edged sword (no pun intented). The hilariously huge beam effect part makes for an impressive display, however the sheer size and weight of the weapon makes it nigh impossible for the kit to hold the weapon in any cool manner. The limited posability of the legs due to them being on ball joints, and the fact that the side skirts inhibit side-to-side movement also really hurts the kit’s ability to do signature Obari poses.

Summary

Gallery

Action Pose