Gunpla Build - High Grade Shenlong Gundam Part 1

Okie dokie, let’s crack the box open and see what we get:

In person, it doesn’t look like much, but in photos it does. Still, it’s fewer pieces than I expected, especially considering that a decent’ish chunk of the white and grey parts are probably going to be used on the Dragon Fang alone.

I can confirm that the white pieces do have a semi-matte finish right out of the box. If you’re going to do a straight build, it will definitely help make the model look better, though if you were already planning on topcoating it you should continue to do so.

As for the red pieces, they’re not really any glossier than usual.

If you look close you can spot the dreaded green stickers for the shoulders. I’m still considering whether or not I’m going to bother trying to use them.

Now, let’s get the build started:

Beam Glaive

Unlike the Deathscythe’s scythe or Sandrock’s Shotels, there’s no gimmick here. It’s just a long pole and a blade.

Shield

This is also very simple, though considering it’s just a basic round shield, you’d kind of expect that.

Still, I appreciate that it’s made out of two yellow pieces. You really notice that extra bit of separation once it’s assembled:

As you can see, I had to paint in the hole in the middle, which was a bit of a pain (though it definitely helps to complete the look).

Feet

Pretty typical construction here. I’m happy to see that the toe and heel are separated.

On the other hand, I’m disappointed that you have to paint the tops of the toes grey. They could have at least included a few color correcting decals instead.

I mean, the feet

Oh, and I almost forgot the ankle gaurds:

These were yet another reminder that my current choice of cheap topcoat paint causes Gundam Markers to bleed. I thought it might work better if I simply let the marker dry, but that turns out to do nothing.

Legs

There’s a surprisingly small number of parts here. I’m particularly surprsied at how simple the knee joint is.

Then you just sandwich it between the leg armor, and you’re done:

(Note the tiny black triangle in the front of the front of the knee. Had to paint that in)

Lower Torso

That’s quite a lot of parts just for a torso, and that’s not even including the side skirts!

We’ll start with the interior bits. This assembly is very common among modern High Grades:

Then we get the bit in the middle, which kind of looks a bit like a dragon’s fang:

And then the front skirts, which also look a bit like dragon’s fangs:

And lastly we have the side skirts, which - you guessed it - has two fangs embedded in them:

Put it all together, and voila!

On its own, the red/white/blue looks a bit off, but the layering of parts and colors is on point.

Upper Torso

This assembly was a bit odd. We start by assembling the “lower” half of the upper torso:

And then embedding it in the “upper” half along with the shoulder joints:

Then add the weird yellow collar thing along with the head joint:

This bit here is interesting. The red cockpit hatch actually slides into the yellow chest piece, along a small set of rails. Then you attach the red chest piece to finish it up:

Backpack

This is about as simple as it gets, though I like that it comes with a clip for holstering the Beam Glaive.

I find it funny how many of the Gundam Wing mobile suits have extremely small thruster systems, yet they’re still able to generate an insane amount of power. I mean, according to the show, this backpack is able to do this:

Which gives me an excuse to pull out my favorite animated GIF:

Anyway, here’s the whole upper torso all put together:

I’m not sure if the thrusters are supposed to angle out to the sides like they are, but I’m not going to futz with them, just in case.

Other than that, it’s looking good! The color layering is impressive, though it still looks a bit off to me. I think we need the rest of the body to balance everything out.

But that will have to wait, because this is all I have done for now. At this rate, we’ll need just one more build post, so I’ll see you then.