Gunpla Build - High Grade Gundam Age II Magnum (Build)

Time to finally see what these High Grade Gundam AGE kits are all about:

It’s a fairly impressive spread of runners. Lots orf colors and lots of parts in different shapes and sizes.

Beam Rifle

This is almost - not quite, but almost - what the standard DODs Rifle looks like:

If that was all it was, I’d still say it’s a pretty big, cool looking weapon. But this is the AGE II Magnum, which means it needs a bit of extra flair. Or maybe a lot of extra flair:

That’s quite a big, powerful, dramatic looking rifle, exactly the kind of weapon I’d expect The Champ to use.

On a side note, this makes me wonder why many Beam Rifles are much more plain looking in comparison, especially considering they’re often the primary weapon of a given mobile suit.

My only concern here is that it looks like there isn’t a lot of space around the grip, so it’s possible that this may be touch to attach to the holding hand. I guess we’ll see soon enough.

Shield

Does it look cool? Yes.

But does it look like a shield? Not really.

Not only is it shaped like a blade rather than a shield, but it’s also really small. I’m not sure how much protection it would provide. But hey, it’s all we got. At least it’s nice and colorful.

Side note - while it looks nice from the front, there’s not a whole lot going on from the back:

Funnels

These are made out of more parts than I expected them to, and as a result they look wonderful:

There’s such a nice sense of layering, and I love the contrast in texture between the purple plastic, and the clear green blades.

Head

For comparison, here is the V-Fin for the AGE II Magnum (on the left) next to the one for the AGE-2 Normal:

When you put them side by side like this, you notice just how different they are. Not only is everything longer and more exaggerated on the AGE II Magnum, but even the angle of the fins is different.

Here now is the finished head:

There are two things I’m impressed with here. First is the shear amount of color. You’ve got purple, orange, and even a layer of grey in the back:

Second, the seamline on here isn’t too bad. Even if you don’t try and clean it up, it’s largely obscured by the V-Fin. so it doesn’t have a chance to stand out.

It’s just a good all-around design.

Upper Torso

We’ve got a little bit of hinge action on the inside, which I’m certain is to help aid with the transformation gimmick:

A couple more notes:

• The AGE logo in the center of the chest is a small grey part with a sticker on it. I put a layer of gloss coat on it, then top coated the rest of the chest parts before sticking it in. I’m not sure if doing that was worth the effort, but so be it.
• The kit comes with yellow stickers to put inside the yellow chest vents, but I just painted it instead.
• As you can see below, there are a lot of different colored parts here. It’s quite impressive for an HG.

Side note - as far as I can tell, the chest doesn’t look any different than it does on the AGE-2 Normal.

Lower Torso

You can tell this is going to be a core part of the Flight Mode, because every bit of the lower torso looks like a wing or a tailfin:

Once again we have a lot of color and a lot of parts layering.

Feet

They’re not bad, but they’re also just kind of there:

There’s no articulation, and no surface detail or thrusters on the underside.

Legs

Again, not a lot of panel lines, but the shape of some of the armor, as well as the sheer amount of parts separation, means that they still look pretty good:

Arms

The arms themselves are nothing to write home about, but the shoulders are worth mentioning:

Specifically, the purple parts of the shoulders are on a hinge, and can move forward and backward. At first I didn’t understand why, but once I assembled the finished model it became immediately obvious. The funnels take up a lot of space, and they can easily get in the way of the arms, and even the rifle and shield.

But all you have to do is push back the shoulders a little, and they (mostly) get out of the way. It’s a clever solution, without which this model would have been a posing disaster.

Finished

This was such a simple, straightforward build that I managed to knock almost all of it out in a single night. It required very little panel lining, the bare minimum in color correction, and there were only a handful of visible seamlines. If I had done it as a straight build it would have been close to perfect, which is something I rarely get to say about High Grades.

But it wasn’t just a pleasant build. When we get to the photo shoot, I think you’ll agree with me that this ended up being a fantastic looking Gunpla too.