From the Backlog: You got Katoki'd

This kit has been looming in the background of my WiP's for almost a year. Katoki's redesign of The Okawara classic Wing Gundam. Not sure what sense that makes but hey it's Bandai so it doesn't really need to.

I've wanted to do a Wing series kit for a while now mostly because it was my gateway into the world of Gundam. Every afternoon at 4:30 my eyes were glued to the tv screen in want of glorious mecha combat. Despite having a poor narrative and a ridiculous amount of recycled stock animation 8 year old me was in love.

So, what's the verdict on this kit?
Not great unfortunately. The frame is decent enough if a bit skinny but the redesigned rifle does nothing for me. The proportions are strange too making it look more like a giant power ranger than a combat mech.

The backpack in particular irks me. The way the wings are connected make moving them a major pain as well as giving them a very limited range of motion. It also begs the question, how does this Gundam fly?
There are no thrusters visible anywhere on this thing.

 

Complaints aside I really do like how it came out. Replacing yellow with gold made it look lees like a toy.

 

It has no trouble standing unassisted which surprises me due to it's huge wings.

 

 Under harsh light.

 

 I had to use the decals that came with the kit rather than waterslides but they didn't silver too badly.

 

Decent amount of metal.

 

I DID paint the rifle but man that thing is ugly. I have a proto zero laying around so maybe you'll see more of this kit in the future.

Thanks for reading!