The models I selected were 1/144 scale V Gundam Mobile Sumo kits. I chose them because I liked both their price and their looks, and found them to be sufficiently intimidating (not to mention feasibly holding a cockpit in the chest cavity). I wasn't sure about the kits because the only review I found complained that parts couldn't be separated after they were put together for a test fitting... and that was it. Nothing else. So at $5.50 a kit, I ordered three of them and hoped for the best.
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Opening up the kits, things look pretty simple: 5 sprues unique to the kit (one of which just holds the "face") and one sprue of polycaps for articulation, plus instructions and a sticker sheet. The kits are recent vintage and well designed, so I had almost no problems with parts not going together like they were supposed to. All but one of those problems were due to the polycap pins not lining up completely.
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The instructions are a one page foldout, backed with some colorful photos on how one might choose to paint up these mechs.
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So the reason that one reviewer had such a hard time pulling pieces apart? It's a snap-together kit, which is hinted by the sticker sheet rather than a waterslide decal sheet. I chose to glue these kits together anyway.
Each arm took about 20 minutes to build, including clipping, filing, gluing, and cleaning. Part of the added time was because I really wanted to clean the shoulder pieces before gluing the shoulder pads onto them. I saved a little time in subsequent builds by clipping off all of the arm pieces at one go. On the plus side, the polycaps allow the arms to be disassembled easily for painting.
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The legs took about the same time as the arms, mostly because I spent a lot of time trying to clean up the seams on the feet. They were just high enough to be visible (to me, anyway), but not high enough to be worth puttying. Like the arms, the polycaps allow for disassembly for painting.
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The torso and head took about 10 minutes to assemble and clean.
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Once all that's done, you can pop him together and survey your work. He stands many heads and shoulders over the figures that will serve as my main infantry, and I think it's safe to say that these models will be able to serve as giant power armor for figures ranging from 25mm to 40mm.
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The good:
They're inexpensive! At somewhere around $7 apiece including shipping, you can quickly bulk up your forces, or just pick some up if you want to to something like have models to practice new painting techniques on. They're also a good size; big enough to intimidate your opponent, but not so big to bring complaints of cheese. Personally, I think that if their added altitude allows them to shoot things, they can also be shot just as easily. I don't claim that they have any cover from anything shorter than waist-high. With their feet close together, these models will just fit on a 65mm round base. At the moment, I'm not sure if I'll end up putting them on 75mm or 100mm bases.
The not so good:
As mentioned above, I thought the seam on the feet could be a little closer, though maybe my expectations are unreasonable. The articulation: the arms move well, but the legs could be better.
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The hip connections are on a diagonal, which means that they pivot more than having the range of motion one would expect from a hip joint. Also, the knees are designed to move only through one arc. If there was a pivot just above the knee, the hips would be less of an issue. As it is, these guys are ready to ride giant robot horses, but that's about it. They can't even be posed in a reasonable run or walk. Both forearms have polycaps in them to hold the shield, but since there's only one shield included with each model, you'll probably want to do some puttying on at least one arm. There is also a significant gap between the bottom of the head dome and the the torso. It's fine if you want your model to be able to look around, but it will need a bit of putty work for best appearances.
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The otherwise noteworthy:
A number of seam lines correspond to detail lines on the original design, which either means less cleaning or more line work later on. The weapons included are a pistol with a wrist halo, a curved forearm shield, and a hooked melee blade.
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The pistols will end up forming the base of whatever ranged weapons I arm these guys with. I'm planning on turning the melee blades into the heads of polearms, but I'm not sure yet whether I'm going to keep the forearm shields.
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All in all, fun little builds and well worth it. I'm keeping additional kits in mind in the event that I'm mad enough to try assembling an Apocalypse-level Sentinel squadron. I'm also considering a 1/100 scale "big brother" to proxy for some kind of tank.
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More photos as I try out my brand spankin' new airbrush on 'em.
