Bandai 1/100 RGM-79SP GM Sniper II

This figure is from Mobile Suit Gundam episode 0080 'War in the Pocket'. Now I know zero about the series as robots are not an interest of mine, however, I certainly cannot overlook that Bandai and others sell a LOT of these kits, and in fact, they are what keep Bandai in business. I was reading the box to find a copyright date, which I couldn't find, and couldn't hope but notice that the build ups on the side of the box had been painted.

I realized that these were snap together kits and I've built other Bandai kits, but always thought that the Gundam kits did not need to be painted. Guess that was a wrong assumption on my part.

This purchase was motivated by George Oh's presentation a bit ago. These were also very well represented in the last IPMS Gateway invitational show, so it seems that this is a field that perhaps I should investigate. I had some rewards points built up to cover the cost of the kit so looked through what Amazon had to offer and chose this one. It seems that these sorts of kits come, for the most part, in either 1/144 or 1/100 scale with the smaller scale kits being the less expensive. There were some 1/100 offering that were well over $100, but I thought that was a bit much for a first go at these.

The kit comes in a fairly large box that is simply crammed full of sprues. There is no parts count listed on the box, but I'd have to say that 'several hundred' comes to mind. The majority of the sprues are a dark grey, but there are also those in light blue, red, white, etc. As expected, the finished model will be highly articulated so much of the construction will be building joints. This seems daunting, but actually is not. I built a pair of Ghost in the Shell 'think tanks' a few years back and found the process to be fairly straight-forward. In terms of options, you have two different weapons. One is the large sniper rifle shown on the box art. The other is a 'bullpup' machine gun, which is much smaller.

Instructions are quite well done. No color information is provided, so you are on your own if you want to paint things. A history section is just inside the cover and that includes where this kit fits into the overall Gundam world. Next are two pages of sprue layouts. Several of these sprues are duplicated, so that is where the high parts count comes into play. An overall construction sequence using a completed kit is provided and it is highly recommended that the builder follow the sequence to keep from making an error. There are basically 14 different construction sections with each one having a number separate steps. One interesting feature is that in each section, an image of the sprues you'll be using is provided. The kit also includes several small sheets of what appear to be dry transfers to apply to the completed kit. Finally, something I noticed is that the instructions have a definite perfume smell to them. Whether this is added on purpose or is simply the smell of the ink is unknown, but it is quite noticeable.

Frankly, I was quite surprised at the mass of parts in the kit. I'd seen these in various shops in the past, but never really gave them more than a passing glance. It will be interesting to see how this one goes. I definitely plan on building it, just to see what the whole genre is about as it is very popular.  

October 2024

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