It’s been six years since I built the original Force Impulse, and that build was pretty special to me because it was the one that was the genesis of the photography and painting style you see today. Anyway flash forward to 2020 and I picked up this kit on a whim whilst I was holidaying in Malaysia earlier this year. I was kinda on the fence about getting it, since the Blast Impulse was on the way and I wasn’t sure if I had it in me to build this same kit 2 or 3 times to finish the set.
I built this in February/March as a bit of a break whilst I was doing the Stormbringer Gundam for a client as I just wanted something relatively easy to paint.
Sadly this time I encountered some issues that I failed to mention or document in my original build. The thigh and bicep armours go onto the frame really tight! The first time I installed them they scratched up the knee frame pretty bad and I had to repaint them.
The Destiny wings also have some big seamlines, the larger wing could be fused together and assembled afterwards, while I opted to glue and assemble the inner wings first.
I didn’t really like the red on the original, so I swapped it out for purple and went for the G3 colours that were used on the previous Veetwo Gundam build.
Painting
White – Base coat of Gaianotes Neutral Grey II, followed by Gaianotes EX-White for shading.
Purple – Gaianotes Purple (90%) + Mr Color Neutral Grey (10%). White is added for shading.
Light Grey – Gaianotes Neutral Grey II (95%) + Gaianotes Purple (5%), white is added for shading.
Dark Grey – Gaianotes Neutral Grey IV base coat, followed by Neutral Grey III and Neutral Grey II for highlights
Internals – Gaianotes EX-Black base coat, followed by SMS Stainless Steel.
Weapons Grey – Mr Color GX Black (90%) + Neutral Grey (10%) base coat, followed by Mr Color GX Black (80%) + Neutral Grey (20%) for shading
Various small details were done using an enamel wash with Tamiya Neutral Grey on white parts, and German Grey on the darker parts.
Bandai somehow also neglected to give any decal marking guide for this kit, so I had to improvise the scheme. You only get about 3-4 unique decals/logos, and the rest are really super generic markings that aren’t interesting at all. I had to borrow some decals from the RG MkII and the MG Gundam 3.0, and since the other shoulder was pretty bare I slapped the “VII” from one of the Iron Orphans generic sheet.
Impulse Gundam
These days this kit (and the SEED Destiny kits of the time) is really starting to show it’s age. The ankle armour connected straight onto the leg which blocks almost all ankle movement, so spreading the legs too wide causes the feet to “lift off”. The waist doesn’t have too much rotation and the head also has some trouble turning all the way to the sides, which makes posing the Gundam a bit challenging. However having wings and two guns, ripping of the Wing Zero Custom pose was pretty easy and I feel this design and colour scheme almost does it better. Sadly I did break some parts before I could get more poses but I will repair it some time and may update this post in the future.
Destiny Sillouhette
Action Pose
