Good thing I had an extended weekend ^^;
There really isn’t much I can say about this kit or the Exia that you didn’t already know. But what I can say about my feelings on the Exia is that I initially wasn’t fond of the Exia, nor of many designs from Gundam 00, but as I continued watching 00, my opinion of the Exia has changed for the better. And nobody can deny the design of that GN Sword. Also, like many Gunota, I’m in love with swords, and Exia has seven of em. I’ve also been calling for the MG Exia for most of the year, so imagine my excitement when it was finally announced. Though now that its been released, opinions of it haven’t been as celebratory of it as expected. That didn’t stop me from getting the Ignition Mode, but I have a feeling this will be the only MG in my collection with a LED gimmick, as it seems the novelty will die fast. Then, of course, there were the chrome finish GN swords. This could lead to visible nubs, but I’ll find a way around that. Finally, there is the other “big draw” of the MG Exia Ignition Mode; the option to build the GN-001RE Gundam Exia Repair from the first episode of 00 Second Season. But before this looks more like a review than a pre-construction WIP, how about we go through the basics ^^;
This kit has 8 runners for the body: 4 for the inner frame, and 4 for the armor (I had a picture, but I accidentally deleted it >.> but you can find a picture of the runners on Dalong’s website) I like how balanced the construction process seems to be, as the Exia definitely isn’t difficult to build in any form. Here now are the pictures I do have.
These would be the runners featuring the parts for Exia Repair. These runners (along with the chrome finish GN Swords and LED for the GN Drive) are excluded in the standard release. I’m honestly not going to be using these for this project. I certainly don’t wanna discard them, so I’ll think about what I wanna do with these as I work on the Exia.
The accessories for the kit, consisting of foil stickers (which includes stickers for both the Exia and Exia Repair, the latter I won’t be using of course). You also have clear stickers which actually look kinda cool, dry transfers that I know I won’t be using (I may buy the Gundam Decal for MG Exia, if I can find it), the metallic blue Gundam Marker which I’ll use for panel lining (yea, that isn’t the Gundam Marker you use for panel lining, but does this Exia have panels worth lining? We’ll find out), GN cords (what do they do?!) which are molded in holographic blue, are supplied in its entirety (the NG 1/100 didn’t have those for the head), and, of course, the LEDs and screws for securing the batteries. Speaking of those batteries, I don’t have them yet. I’ll be buying some Energizer button batteries from Walgreens (they aren’t the required LR41, but they are said to function as such. Can anybody certify this?) Finally, I have this…
uh… yeah… surprise?
This would be the 1/100 NG GN-001 Gundam Exia. It’s the second first Gunpla I bought, and the one that inspired me to dedicate myself to Gunpla. It was actually worse for wear. But since the announcement of the MG, I decided to use this as a testbed, comparison. If I’m feeling crazy creative enough, I may very well paint this one as well. Maybe in the Rollout Color scheme. Time will tell. Now for what I’ll be doing with the MG Exia…
As you can probably expect, I’ll be giving the Exia a custom paint scheme. Use the Exia above as an example for this scheme (as my photoshop skills are non-existent)…
The Exia will mostly be white. This includes the head, arms, legs, and most of the blue armor.
The red parts will be Tamiya Park Green. It’s the closest I could get to GN Green.
The yellow parts, as well as the white parts of the GN Sword and GN Shield, will be painted in Gold Leaf.
Lastly, the beam sabers will be painted in Clear Green, so as to make the beams resemble pure GN energy. I understand that there’s a conversion process from GN Particles to beam energy, but pure GN energy can be equally potent, as 00 Raiser proved.
Now that all that is out of the way, this guy needs a name. Suggestions?
