By Loran
This time around, in lieu of a kit review, I’m going to do something different-a build log! More specifically, a kitbash one. For… well, as many weeks as this takes me, I’m going to be working on an HGUC+MSV kitbash of a GM Cannon. I’m hoping to get this guy done to enter in the BAKUC preliminaries at Otakon this year, but that might not be completely likely. Today was my first day of building, and I can already tell that this isn’t going to be nearly as easy as the GM Sniper Custom was.
The HGUC GM is a pretty common kit-FP has a few in stock, last time I checked, and they run pretty cheap. The GM Cannon is much less common, but I wouldn’t say it’s rare. Like most MSVs it gets a production run about every year, and because this kit was later reissued in the Zeta Gundam line, it tends to be one of the more common models. Of all the HGUC+MSV kitbashes I’ve seen on Japanese websites, this one tends to be one of the more common ‘bashes. For mine, I’m trying to go by what this guy did with his. It’s one of the better ones I’ve seen done, and doesn’t suffer from the problem of the head being so close to the cannon that it won’t stay on straight…
The GM is a very simple kit, coming on only two frames plus polycaps, and shares some parts with the HGUC Gundam that came right after. I’ll go into greater detail about this kit later when I give it a full review. I took these two pictures to do a little comparison between the two kits:
Aaaas you can see these old kits are a much different animal-out-of-proportion limbs, laughably bad joint systems, and no polycaps. But hey, they all had to start somewhere, and these MSV kits are a goldmine for cool parts. The only parts from this that are going to be used are the lower leg armor, the back of the head, a good chunk of the torso/waist, and the cannon. The rest is just junk!
I’m going to start off with the head, as I tend to with kitbashes. Usually it looks the easiest, but sometimes, looks can be deceiving. What needs to be done here is to take the mounts for the antennae and put them on the regular GM head.
Whiiich would be a lot easier if the back part of the GM Cannon’s head wasn’t so much bigger than the regular GM head. Looks like a lot more putty work will need to be done…
First, I had to cut the mount for the antennae off the Cannon’s head. Since it was still too wide, it had to be cut in half.
After a lot of glue and a VERY FRUSTRATING process of getting these two pieces to be remotely level, they’re on the back of the head. Of course, there are gaps galore, so I had to do a lot of cutting and puttying…
Next, I’m going for the first part of the body-the waist. This won’t be too hard but it’s gonna require a lot of cutting to get it off the old part. The biggest issue is chewing down the part where the joints for the waist go, but other than that, it’s much easier than the antennae mounts.
After much puttying and sanding later, I have the two pieces nearing completion. They need a bit more work to be done, but they’re shaping up.
Anyway-that’s all I have for now. Next time I’m going to review the base kit for this, the HGUC GM, and then I’ll be back with more build updates on this ‘bash. Now I’m off to watch more Legend of the Galactic Heroes…
