Gunpla Build - Master Grade Gundam F91 (Part 2)

It’s time to start work on the body of the F91. But before we begin, I want to clarify that this build is going to be a little different than usual.

Normally I snip out all the pieces for a given section and photograph them, so that you have an idea of just how complicated the assembly is (and to give you an idea of what kind of pieces are used).

There are times where I haven’t done this - including a stretch of time where I flat out gave up on the idea - but in recent years I’ve tried really hard to make the effort. For whatever reason, it matters to me.

For the purposes of this build, however, I’m going to be a bit lazy. Being a Master Grade and all, there are simply too many pieces for any given section. If I snip them all out at once, I’m either going to lose some, or I’ll potentially get some of them mixed up.

Instead, I’m going to at least photograph most - but not necessarily all - of the parts. And rather than stage the parts spread under decent lighting, I’m just going to photograph them as-is on my workbench (that way I don’t have to move them from one room to another and risk losing any).

To make up for this change, I’ll try to take more “mid assembly” photos, so you can see how each body part comes together.

With that out of the way, let’s begin …

Feet

There are so many things to say here.

First, let’s address the elephant in the room. One of the most annoying things about the High Grade F91 was painting in the orange/yellow triangles on the sides of each foot. Suffice to say that I did a pretty horrid job of it:

In my defense, I was still pretty new to hand painting, and it’s quite a small area to work in. I’m not saying I did well, but at least I gave it a go.

Thankfully, on the Master Grade version, these same triangles are made out of color separated plastic:

In the grand scheme of things, this may be a relatively small detail, but the triangles are big enough - and bright enough - that they’re impossible to ignore. I’m glad Bandai went the extra mile to make sure they look perfect.

Let’s move on to the rest of the exterior details, and after that we’ll double back to the frame and articulation. We get just two additional pieces of white armor:

I like the little openings running along the toe. On a High Grade, you’d have to paint that in yourself.

As for the red heel section, it’s the only part of the foot that features a decal:

Looking at the underside, there are three different triangle shaped sections:

I couldn’t help myself - I needed to paint them in (to be fair, I’ve seen at least one build of this very kit on Reddit where someone else did the same thing, so I feel vindicated).

It’s not a perfect paint job, but it’s better than I usually manage.

Now let’s go back to talk about the inner frame. The foot is (expectedly) made out of two independent sections for the heel and toe:

Overall, it has a decent amount of articulation, but it’s not quite what I was expecting. The toe is attached to the heel using a ring shaped piece which is very reminiscent of the High Grade Iron Blooded Orphans models. This allows the toe to pivot from side to side:

This toe bend upward, but not downward (which is how the toe usually bends on most gunpla - if it can bend at all).

There is also a section of frame molded in the shape of two pistons (a detail which is extremely common on Gundam-type mobile suits). It plugs into the heel section using a combination of a ball joint and a … um … hook … but I don’t think it’s supposed to enable any sort of articulation. You can pop the ball joint out of its socket, but then the heel assembly just starts flopping around. My guess is that they used a ball and socket joint not to enable movement, but because it was simply the best way to secure it to the rest of the frame.

Comparison to Another Master Grade

Upon seeing the (fully assembled) feet, I had two immediate takeaways:

• Even though this model is small(er) for a Master Grade, the feet still look bigger than I imagined
• They also both look far nicer than I imagined

That got me thinking - why did my expectations fail to meet reality? There are two obvious answers. One is that I’ve only built two Master Grades in my life (meaning my sample size is small). The other is that those two particular Master Grades were both mobile suits from Gundam Wing (meaning they have a similar visual style). Basically, I don’t have enough - or a variety of - data points for comparison.

Currently I only have one of those Gundam Wing models lying around, but that’s good enough to do a comparison. How does the MG Epyon’s foot stack up in regards to both size and quality? Let’s find out:

The first thing to note is that the Epyon’s foot is bigger. Gundam Wing’s mobile suits are notorious for being among the smallest in the entire Gundam metaseries¹, but at least when it comes to gunpla, it still has a bit of a size edge over the F91.

The second thing to note is the difference in detail. The intricacies of the Epyon feet largely come through via panel lines (especially on the bottom), whereas on the F91, the details largely manifest through parts separation. This is a trend we will continue to see throughout the rest of the model (but I digress).

My third and final observation is the difference in construction. The Epyon’s foot looks much simpler, so much so that one might mistakenly assume that it is completely rigid. In reality, it has a standard downward toe bend, in addition to its secret gimmick, where the bottom of the toe opens up to reveal a mouth (for it’s transformation mode).

On the other hand, the F91’s foot has a complex (and highly visible) inner frame, but it doesn’t really have any more articulation.

In the end, I think the Epyon (or at least the Epyon’s feet) was a pretty good proxy for what to expect from the Master Grade F91. I guess I haven’t paid attention to it in a long while, so I forgot how big (and how detailed) it actually is.

Comparison to the HG F91

Well, they certainly differ in size!

As small as this Master Grade may be, photos like this serve as a reminder that the High Grade is that much smaller.

But enough about size - how do they compare in regards to level of detail?

Like with the accessories, it gets the general shape correct, but it is striking to me just how many structrual differences there are. For example:

• The ankle guard is attached to the foot on the HG, whereas on the MG it is attached to the leg.
  • On a related note, the yellow triangles are attached to the ankle guard on the HG, but on the MG they’re separated.
• The MG has a small white piece sitting above the two pistons, but on the HG it is completely missing. Not like you can really tell on the finished model; the HG is so small that there isn’t any empty space where the piece might otherwise be.
• The back of the foot is entirely different. It’s all white on the HG, while on the MG we’re exposed directly to the inner frame.

In regards to surface details, there are a lot of small markings and whatnot on the MG that are simply ommitted from the HG due to size. None of the are deal breakers, though you (or at least I) do notice their absence when looking at them side by side.

By far the biggest difference in detailing is found on the bottoms of the feet:

Again, it nails the general shape, but there are notable differences. Even with a small paint brush and a steady hand, you couldn’t really change one to look like the other.

My overall take is that the High Grade feet do a “good enough” job from a distance (provided you can properly paint them). However, once you get up close, the flaws and limitaitons become increasingly obvious. Meanwhile, with little to no extra effor, the Master Grade version looks fantastic.

Fools Gold

Before we continue, a little detour. This model kit comes with some really nice metallic gold pieces. I thought I could make them even nicer by spraying them with some Mr. Hobby gloss coat.

That was a bad idea. Turns out that something in the paint reacts poorly with the gold finish on the plastic, creating a whole bunch of dark orange stains:

It was easy enough to cover the stains up with some gold paint, but I’m frustrated. I thought Mr. Hobby paint would play nice with all the different types of plastic that Bandai uses, but I guess that’s not the case.

Legs

This might look like a huge pile of parts, but it isn’t as bad as it seems.

Most of the really small pieces are dedicated to a single gimmick, namely the vents that run along the back of the leg:

Each vent is placed in a specific order, and each one uses a specific grey connector. This is to enable the actual “gimmick” part of gimmick - if you do it correctly, the three vents will each move in sync with each other. Open or close the top one, and the other two will follow suit. The best thing about this feature is that ensures that the vents will largely stay in place when you open them. There’s nothing worse than swinging open some compartment for a pose, only for it to unintentionally close back up.

While we’re still looking at this photo, I want to point out that the ankle joint is made in the shape of a polycap, but is actually made of the same hard plastic as the rest of the model. I’ve never been 100% sure why most builders hate polycaps, beyond some quibbles about them being prone to breaking. This seems to confirm that this is, in fact, the entirety of the pproblem. If not, then they’d presumaby be upset with a whole bunch of Master Grades!

In the past, I’d have detailed the hell out of this frame, but I know for a fact that all of that detail is going to get covered up by the armor. So instead I gave a nice application of gunmetal weathering compound and left it at that.

Speaking of which, the armor fits on nice and easy:

All of the yellow triangles on both the front and back of the leg are made out of parts, with just two small color-correcting black decals for the ones in the back (though I ended up using paint instead).

Unfortunately, I ended up messing up the one on the back of the right leg:

I’m not going to go into the gory details of how it happened. Suffice to say that it was preventable, and I feel like a fool.

Let’s wrap up this part of the build by assembling some of the lower torso, enough to get the legs hooked up:

Assembly of this section reminded me a lot of the Real Grade Nu Gundam. Something that would be made out of one, maybe two pieces on a High Grade is instead made out of almost a dozen parts. I can’t see any functional reason for doing so, though it sure does look pretty:

Now let’s see the final results:

Other than the messed up triangle, I think the legs came out wonderfully. They perfectly capture both the detail and elegance of the design.

A few more observations:

• I’ve watched some video reviews of this model, where the host complained about the lack of panel lines. At the risk of sounding like a jerk, such a complaint misses the point. The F91 is a mobile suit design that trades heavy panel lining for smooth curves and lots of color separated surface details. You don’t have to _like_ that design, but you should at least understand what it was going for.
• It’s interesting how it tries to hide the seam lines by creating a very intentional gap between the armor plates: The only real seam lines are in the back, but if you paint them in, they look like theyre meant to be there:

Comparison to the High Grade F91

Credit where credit is due: the legs of the High Grade model do a bang up job:

Aside from the decals, and some really tiny details, it’s not missing anything. It even remembers to make the inner frame around the knee joint look ribbed/striated:

There a few bits and pieces are slightly different in shape, but of all the sections we’ve compared so far, this one comes the closest to perfection.

Conclusion

We’ve only gotten through two sections of the body, but I’ve had a lot to say about them. I feel like this is a good stopping point.

In fact, this may work out perfectly. Part 3 can be about the skirt armor and upper torso, Part 4 can be about the head and the arms, and maybe I’ll reserve a Part 5 just to cover the VSBRs. We’ll see how it goes.