Gunpla Build - SD Command Gundam (Part 2)

Now that the “core” of Command Gundam is complete, it’s time to finish the job. You might think that strapping on a bunch of extra gear would be easy, but Command Gundam has an insane amount of kit. This half of the build actually ended up being more challenging than the first part.

But first, I got a new marker to help with the job:

I saw some comparison photos online that suggested that this gold Gundam Marker was pretty good at its job, so I figured it would be useful for painting over the kit’s gold pieces (which, as usual, have that cheap looking, “not quite gold” finish to them).

Take a look for yourself at the results:

It’s not quite as metallic and glossy looking as the chrome Gundam Marker I got a while back, but it’s still very good. And it was much easier than hand painting with gold acrylic.

Now with that out of the way, we can get the Command Gundam loaded up and ready to go. This time I am going to go over all the gory details, as I found this part of the build to be pretty interesting.

First, we strap those two gold pieces onto the feet:

I don’t know why, but I think these really improve the look of the feet. Maybe the gold better complements the rest of the color palette, or maybe it’s because they add some much needed vertical bulk to go along with their incredible width. Whatever the case, it’s an improvement.

Next up are the legs. Here is a comparison shot:

That extra armor just slides on top of the leg. That red piece is color separated plastic, which is the kind of thing you don’t normally get on High Grades. Seeing it here on an SD kit is very impressive.

Of course, we also can’t ignore the fact that even the legs now have guns on them. It’s the kind of detail that slingshots past ridiculousness to come right back to awesome.

The lower torso has a new Crotch-V on top of some new armor:

The Crotch-V itself is made of another gold piece, with three color correcting red decals. I’ll admit that they don’t look great from certain angles - and I may go back one day to paint them in - but for now I’ll leave it be.

It’s a similar story for the upper torso. New armor, and new metallic pieces, including some real chest vents:

In my experience, you have to be careful when using just silver or gold, and extra careful using both. They have the power to overwhelm and distract if used too much (or if they’re simply used in the wrong place). Here, though, I think they look okay. I think it’s because the mostly-green color scheme is so particularly muted that the metallics serve as a nice contrast.

Each shoulder gets a single piece of extra armor, though there’s a lot one can do here for detailing if you want to:

Now we get to the head, which has quite a lot going on. We start off by wrapping these three extra pieces around the top and the back:

Now it has a shape that’s more akin to a traditional Gundam head.

Back around the front, we add a new face mask and a new V-Fin:

For some reason it looks a lot meaner now.

So that does it for the extra armor. Here it is all bulked up:

Now it really feels complete. With just this and its handheld guns, I’d say this beats out most SD’s in terms of quality. But we’re still not done. We have all its weapons and gear to add next!

We’ll start off with the two grenades that attach to its left shoulder:

I had to paint the pins at the top, though it was hardly a difficulty to do so.

Next we get this cool eye scope:

This plugs into the back of the head and wraps around. I think it’s a pretty cool piece.

On the other side of the head, we attach this thing:

I think it’s supposed to be a missile launcher? I’m not entirely sure.

On the back, we get this big apparatus:

Of course we can see the big boxy missle launcher that goes over its shoulder. But the thing that plugs into - the thing that plugs directly into Command Gundam’s back - is itself another gun. It’s some sort of portable cannon, complete with tank treads. Command Gundam literally crams weapons into every feasible spot on its body.

And let’s not forget the holster down below for the knife:

And with that, the Command Gundam is finished for real:

It’s not even holding any weapons and it already looks beyond strapped. In our next and final build post, we’ll toss in the rest of the weapons and see just what Command Gundam can do.

Additional Thoughts

In the end, I decided to detail some of the weapons, but not all of them. For example, I left the head missiles and the portable cannon alone, partly because they’re both in the back (where they’re not easily seen), and partly because I decided that too much color separation back there would make all of the gear look a little too busy. I like having that consistent gunmetal look to its on-body equipment.

I also didn’t paint the blade of the knife, partly because I didn’t want it looking too realistic, and partly because I knew the paint would scratch if I put it in the holster. I’m okay with its weapons looking a little toylike.