Gunpla Build - High Grade Gundam Astray Red Frame Inversion (Part 2)

Believe it or not, I’m pretty sure the accessories were the hardest part of building the Red Frame Inversion. How do I know this? After taking nearly ten days to finish them all, it took me only two days to finish half of the body. I have a feeling this model is going to be done in short order.

Feet

There’s not much going on here. The feet are made out of a few simple pieces, and they have no articulation.

Furthermore, the details on the bottom of each foot are shallow and difficult to paint, so I ended up keeping it simple.

But as simple as they may be, I like the way they look once complete:

They feel … “sharp”, and very robotic.

Legs

Is it just me, or is that a lot of parts? It feels like a lot of parts, especially when it was time to top coat them. I came close to running out of space!

Seriously though - it really does feel like there is some parts separation here that you don’t typically see on a High Grade. In fact, I’m not even entirely sure how much of it is strictly necessary. But hey, if it leads to a nice result, who am I to complain?

Here is the upper leg without any armor:

And here is the lower leg:

Does this count as having an inner frame? I’m not entirely sure. There’s still some black armor to add on top of all this, but there isn’t much of it:

See what I mean? There’s just as much red visible as there is black.

Ah, whatever. Inner frame or not, there’s is certainly a lot going on:

I’m on the fence as to whether there is too much going on. I think I’ll have a better idea once more of the body is attached.

Lower Torso

Not only is the lower torso very simple, but it’s also unorthodox. The front and back skirts are long and sharp, and they don’t move whatsoever:

Meanwhile the side skirts are extremely short (note that they do move a bit):

Overall, this is unlike the torso on any model kit I’ve ever built, but I suppose it fits with the Astray’s lean, clean, bladelike aesthetic (at least, I think that’s the aesthetic it’s going for).

Upper Torso

This is not quite as unorthodox as the lower torso, but it’s also not quite “normal”.

First, let’s address the elephant in the room. The chest plate looks like a skull:

This is especially true given it’s particular color here

I was planning on painting this black and giving it a glossy finish, but then I realized that having one more matte grey piece would help the overall balance of the model, so I ended up leaving it alone.

As for the construction, we get this weird interior cluster of polycaps:

Which is then wrapped up in more armor:

And then we add the finishing touches:

A few observations:

  • I've come around on the skull face in the chest. It's almost Halloween as I write this, so it feels appropriate to the season. Indeed, there are certain model kits that I associate strongly with the month and/or season in which I built it, and this is definitely going to be one of them.
  • This model has part-separated shoulder blades. Here they are from the rear: And from above: I've never seen a model kit (not even a Master Grade) that has pieces like this. I have no idea if it will lead to improved articulation (my guess is not, as it doesn't appear to behave any differently than the polycaps that usually go in the torso).

Conclusion

So far, so good. The Astray is definitely a different look than the kinds of models I usually build, but I think it’s weird blend of skeletal/muscular/sharp/robotic aesthetics is growing on me. Only one more post to go, and then I’ll know for sure.