Re: Gundam SEED kit question

On 21 Nov 2003, Kris Petersen wrote:

> >Could I buy the little 1/144 Sword Strike kit and use the parts to make the
> >HG Strike Gundam into the Sword Strike?  Are the parts interchangeable?
> >Could I do the same with the Launcher Strike?
> 
> Yup. The Sword and Launcher kits even come with instructions to make them fit
> on the HG.
> 
   For the launcher the instructions are trivial, and take the form "put them
on the HG Strike".  The Sword parts have a couple issues: mainly the shoulder
armor, since it doesn't fit over the regular Strike shoulder, but rather
replaces it, that complicates assembly a bit, particularly if you want to be
able to convert your model after assembly or paint the Sword armor separately.
But for the sword parts, the flexibility of the HG really is an absolute
necessity - so if you're not willing or able to modify the no-grade Strike for
that kind of functionality, the HG really is the way to go.  The instructions
for the sword set on the HG involve snipping a few little tabs - nothing too
complicated if you have sprue nippers.

   The launcher parts work somewhat more naturally with the HG, and are easy
to swap out.  The no-grade Strike can't hold the rifle properly (hence, the
launcher rifle has a second plug-in hole so you can mount it on the support
arm closer to its back end, thus allowing the no-grade to grip the trigger
handle, at least.) so again, the HG is a nice improvement.  The main
shortcoming is that there are some minor parts fit issues - the shoulder armor
doesn't quite go flush with the strike shoulder armor, the backpacks of both
sets sit a bit too high, and the grenade launcher things on the launcher set's
shoulder armor actually sit low enough that the black mounting rack on top of
the strike shoulder armor would occupy the same space as the launcher barrels.
All that's pretty easy to fix.

---GEC
Projects page: http://1-4-4.home.comcast.net/
"I am but the humble student, who seeks one day to snatch the scratchbuilt
 pebble from the master's fully articulated hand."