Bandai 1/100 Scale Freedom Gundam

When the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise started in 1979, it's doubtful that anyone had any idea it would still be around more than two and a half decades later. However, to achieve this longevity, it has been necessary for Gundam to reinvent itself several times. Thus, there are a number of different continuities within the Gundam Universe. Traditionally, the U.C. (Universal Century) stories, based on the original Gundam series, are quite popular. However, the success of alternate universe Gundam stories has not generally been as good.

That was until Gundam Seed hit the airwaves. Seed has proven to be a huge success, and has spawned a spin off comic series as well as a first for ANY Gundam story: a direct sequel (Gundam Seed Destiny)! With this level of success, it's no surprise that Bandai would want to capitalize on the popularity of Seed and get the model factories churning out kits by the tons. This is exactly what has happened.

For Seed, there are a number of different levels of kit quality. The basic 1/144 models are little more than statues, with mediocre moulding and nearly no poseability. There are HG models in both 1/144 and 1/100, and there are some bigger 1/60 kits as well. There are even a few Master Grade and Perfect Grade Seed Kits, should you hanker for something really heavy on the part count.

This review takes a look at the Freedom Gundam, which is the mech piloted by the nominal 'hero,' Kira Yamato, in the second half of the series. The kit in particular is the 1/100 HG Freedom, which is a good blend of complexity, detail and size. The smaller kits are a bit fiddly, the bigger kits are too big, and the Master Grades are just too expensive for what you get. That makes the 1/100 HG like baby bear's porridge: just right!

The Kit:

The Freedom comes in a box that is at least as big as the Aegis, making it tied for having the biggest non-Master Grade box I've seen on a mech kit. Inside there are 8 sprues of polystyrene, one rack of polycaps (those rubber washers) and one of beige plastic that contains the parts for the figure of Lacus Clyne that comes with the Freedom.

The Freedom's parts are moulded in colour, and there are parts in blue, black, white, red, yellow, clear, clear pink, dark grey and light blue-grey. Part separation is extremely good, and if you are one of those people who doesn't like to paint you can get a good replica right out of the box. There is a sheet of foil stickers too, to help the paint-challenged.

Oddly, the figure of Lacus comes in three pieces. Because her skirt is so large, it was impossible (or likely too expensive) for Bandai to mould her as one piece. Thus, she is the first (and maybe only) of the 1/20 figures to be hollow. The third piece is her 'pet' Haro, who can be painted and inserted into her cradled arms afterwards. For those not familiar with Gundam, Haro is a mechanical ball that can talk and sort of fly by flapping its 'ears.' Trust me.

There is no flash, and it is apparent that this is a very new tool on the kit. Everything is supremely clean and crisp, and most sprues come in their own bags. Instructions with full colour painting guides and pictures of both the finished kit and the mech in the anime are included. Of course, these are all Japanese, but Bandai realizes that there's an export market for this kit, and anyone can follow the gist of what's being done.

Building the Freedom:

There isn't anything too complicated in the 1/100 Freedom. That having been said, it still took me almost two months to build it, since there are a lot of pieces that go into a 1/100 HG Gundam kit. The part separation is not as frustrating as on the Aegis, but there are still a few spots that need to be handled carefully. As usual, the shoulder flares have to be altered so that they can be put on afterwards. This is done by cutting out part of the fitting hole, allowing them to slide over the posts on the upper arms.

In addition, there is some build around to consider in the ankle armour, or golf shoes, as I call them. These caused me some consternation, and eventually ended up damaging the otherwise beautiful paint on the lower leg. Most of the parts, however, can be painted before they are put onto the mech. With a little bit of forethought, most of the pieces that the instructions say to build around can actually be put in when they're done, so the task of masking (t which I hate) can be avoided altogether.

To assemble the kit, I used Ambroid Proweld. The plastic in most Gundams is much harder than that used on other kits, and the Freedom is no exception. Only Proweld seems to be able to really get the stuff to fuse together. Very little filler was needed on the seams, but when it was, I used Tamiya grey putty. This was the first time I'd used it, and it's great. It dries fast, doesn't seem to shrink, and sands easily.

The most filling was done on the hip-mounted rail guns. These are designed to fold into thirds and act as the Freedom's side armour. However, I never intend to have them retracted, so I decided to build them such that they wouldn't fold. This meant I had to fill in the visible hinges. I used Tamiya polyester putty for this, and it worked great. The end result was a set of cannons that look like they are out of the anime, rather than on a model.

The head, as on all large scale Gundams, was a bit of a pain because the face has to be completed before it can be put in the head and the head can be glued together. There was no workaround for this, however, so careful painting and sanding was required.

Painting and Finishing:

The bulk of the Freedom, like most other Gundams, is white. I painted this using Rustoleum White Primer (from Wal-Mart) as the basecoat. This is the whitest primer I can find, and the only one that seems to have no yellow to it at all. The upside is that it's cheap at Wal-Mart. The downside is that it comes in really shoddy cans - they almost always leak and make a mess. Still, it's a good base for Tamiya XF-2 Flat White, which is the basis for the Gundam White I use. I added a tiny hint of blue and a drop of blue Windex to help prevent yellowing.

The blue is Testors Model Master acrylic GM Engine block Blue (new formula), the red is Testors MM acrylic Guards Red and the black is Virsago Black. The insides of the mech are done in Tamiya XF-50 Field Blue, and the light grey is Testors MM acrylic Light Ghost Grey.

Once the paint was on, the outlining was done using the finest tip black Gundammarker. To achieve the anime-like shine I love so much, many coats of thinned Future were used. However, the first batch of Future I used wasn't thin enough. On rounded surfaces, like the legs, this wasn't a problem. However, on large flat plates, like the shoulder and hip guns, and the wings, having thick Future IS a problem: BIG TIME!

The first flat pieces I tried to get done were the wings of the Freedom's HIMAT (HIgh Maneuverability Aerial Tactics - I don't make this stuff up, I just report it.) system. There are four main wings, each with a big and a small petal, and one 'sub wing' to which the others attach. The wings are big and flat. Not a good combination. After several coats of Future, it was apparent that I didn't have things right. I was getting runs, puddling and carpeting. I gave the Future a sand with 2000 grit paper and thinned the Future even more. This time, I didn't get puddling, but I didn't get a shine, either! After 8 coats, I found I was getting a pebbly surface from air bubbles that weren't popping, and things just kept going downhill.

To try and salvage something, I resanded the wings' Future, and tried airbrushing Tamiya clear on them. However, the finish provided by the airbrush is FAR rougher and less mirror smooth that what I had on the rest of the mech. This is when I made the worst mistakes; mistakes so bad I'm almost tempted to not write about them so I don't have to be reminded of them. I decided to lay the coat on as thick as I could, and just hosed it on there with the airbrush. After a few hours, it was obvious that even this tactic didn't work. Thus, I compounded the mistake by BLOBBING ON more Future. Don't ask what I was thinking. I wouldn't have done something that stupid even 12 years ago, so I'm assuming my brain was in some sort of reversion.

I let the assemblies dry for a while, and found out that even this trick didn't work. (Gee, what a surprise.) There was only ONE thing to do. The one thing I didn't want to do. I had to go and get the Detail Master DM 9040 sanding cloths that went all the way down to 12000 grit. The problem was, I felt $35-odd bucks (taxes in) at McCormick's was too high. "There's no way I'm spending that on SANDPAPER!", I told myself, even as I pulled into the parking lot. However, it was my last hope, and the store would be closed for renovations the day after. I was in a bind.

I bought the paper after assurances from several people (Tim and a couple of guys from the club) that the cloths would last a long time. Besides, I was desperate. The Freedom is one of my favourite mecha in a long time, and I wanted to do it right. Thus, I went home to try it again. However, I quickly found that neither the Future nor the underlying airbrushed Tamiya were dry!

This was a day or so after I had glossed it! Even though it felt dry, I managed to burn a few heavy duty fingerprints into the paint. I had no choice but to wait another day before tackling the problem. However, once the gunk I'd heaped on the wings was dry, the sanding films did their job flawlessly. I was able to get the roughness sanded down almost completely. Since it was clear that Future wasn't going to do the job, I used Mother's Carnauba Wax (great for cars, too!) on the wings. The result was a little less 'deep' in its glossiness, but far better than anything else I'd managed to achieve.

I'm glad I bought the sanding cloths, because I needed them again for the shoulder cannons, which are also possessed of big, flat plates. This time, I only had to use the 6, 8 and 12K grits, and Futured two coats thereafter. I also ended up using the 8K and 12K grits on the shoulder flares, whose flat fronts proved troublesome as well.

The rest of the painting was quite enjoyable, and was all done by hand, as is my custom for mecha.

As I mentioned earlier, the figure of Lacus is the biggest 1/20 figure I've seen in terms of volume. She's so big she's cast in 2 pieces, with Haro as a third. Assembly is as simple as using Proweld to glue the halves together. The hard part is sanding the seams (both from assembly and production), since Lacus is, like all other Gundam figures, made of a rubbery, almost Kraft Single-like material.

Once she was together, I painted the white using an old combination of Testors MM white primer and light grey that used to serve as my Gundam White. The covering power of this paint is far superior to Tamiya, as is its resistance to scraping, so fewer coats were needed than I first guessed. It was about 6 coats total that I used. I then painted the skirt the same purple I used on my old Torunfam kit. This was a mix of Tamiya X-16 and some greys, blues and white. The upper frill and her sleeves were done in the same colour as my Tomliat, which is a greyer version of the Torunfam colour.

The next thing to do was the flesh. This was done using Testors 1116 "Cream" (nee 'flesh') in the 7ml bottle. This required several coats to cover, with Future insulating the coats. This was done to prevent the highly thinned oil paint from dissolving itself, and worked well. The yellow piping on her dress was done next, and then came the hair. Originally, I had intended to use the same pinkish colour as I used on the Aegis. However, this really didn't match what was shown in the anime, so I had to mix up a new colour. The new colour started with some Testors MM piping Pink, to which some Aegis pink and some orange was added. The end result was worth it, and Lacus' hair now looks almost exactly as it does in the show.

As with any anime figure, the most challenging part of making Lacus look authentic is the eyes. Anime eyes are usually quite large and expressive, especially on female characters. Lacus is no exception, and her eyes are bigger than most. This actually makes them much easier to paint than Athrun's, as I had a lot more working room. First, I put down the white, and then applied the purple for her eyes, which is, incidentally, the same colour as on the upper part of her dress. I then put in the pupil, and added extra white 'shine' to the eyes.

A major difference between the way I've done Lacus and the way I've done all my other figures to date is that I put the shine OVER the pupil, instead of the other way around. This is more in keeping with how the anime usually looks. However, while it turned out well, I really don't think it makes the figure look quite as good, and if I do another figure like this, I'll probably change back. Still, all things considered, Lacus turned out pretty well.

Her eyebrows were done with a Gundammarker, and touching that up proved to be typically challenging. I use a filed down toothpick for such endeavours, and I was glad that I had a very thin, very sharp one at my disposal for this. Her eyebrows seem a little too big, but the length is right. They might be a tad 'bushy', but that's due to the width of the marker. There's no way around that, and pencil was too fine for the job. To finish Lacus, I did a few coats of Future, but I wanted her to look a little less shiny. Thus, I flat coated her with Microscale Microflat, the same way I did Athrun. The result is a figure that looks much more lifelike. The final touch for Lacus is the inclusion of her robot pet, Haro. He was done in the same colour as the Aegis, which was just right for him. "Mr. Pink", as he is called, was Futured, but left shiny. This is not only more accurate (he is plastic or metal, after all), but also makes him stand out better.

Conclusions:

The 1/100 HG Freedom is one of the coolest looking mecha to come along in a while. Of course, I'm partial to anything with shoulder- or hip-mounted guns, so this kit really fills the bill. It is well-engineered overall, and fits together quite well. As is so often the case with newer Bandai kits, it seems that a lot of effort has gone into letting novices or those with little/no skill/experience build a nice kit. However, this does tend to make things a little more difficult for those of us who have experience, ironically.

Still the Freedom is a most impressive kit when all built up. There are several display options, since you can put the HIMAT wings out or the cannons out instead, as well as choosing the deployed or retracted form of the hip guns. The kit is quite poseable, but is a bit back-heavy in the configuration I have it in due to the wings sticking so far out the back.

Despite these nitpicks, the Freedom is a great kit, and I enjoyed building it. (Except for the wings, which were totally my fault!) It is a kit I could recommend to nearly anyone. Sure, there's a Master Grade and a 1/60 kit as well, but this one is the perfect blend of detail, size, complexity and fun. What more can a modeler ask?