Looking at the runners, this is quite the spread for a GM:
For comparison’s sake, here are the runners for the last GM I built, the Powered GM:
To be clear though, this isn’t a fair comparison. The Powered GM is a very old High Grade, whereas one look at the runners tells us that the Night Seeker is based on a more modern GM model from the High Grade Gundam The Origin product line:
Specifically, according to the Gunpla Wiki it is based on the HG GM Guard Custom:
That means this is my first GM build from the Origin line, and I’m curious to see how it will go.
Let’s zoom in on sticker sheet:
This is almost like a miniature version of a Real Grade model’s sticker sheet, and I’ll admit that I’m a little worried about how they’re all going to look when all is said and done. Still, I’m going to try; all of these markings and logos are part of the charm of this model, so it’d be crazy not to use them.
And speaking of stickers, here’s something I’ve never seen before; the front of the instruction manual is also the sticker guide:
Weapons
I’ve seen the Beam Spray Gun and the machine gun before, but the special Beam Rifle (all the way on the right) is new to me. I like it a lot; it reminds me of something an ODST might wield. I tried adding a bit of extra color to it so that it would better resemble this image, and I also added some weathering around some (but not all) of the body.
I think it looks a lot better in person than it does in this photo, but you’ll just have to trust me on that.
One more note - I’ve never seen a Beam Saber handle with a textured grip like this one, but I wish more of them did. It looks great.
Head
The model comes with swappable heads; one with the special mask that fits over the face visor, and another without. But it also comes with a third, unused head, which I’m assuming is supposed to a standard GM head:
The only difference that I can tell is that the unused head has vulcan cannons; if I really wanted your GM Night Seeker to have extra firepower, I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t use it in place of one of the others.
Looking at the two actual heads, they appear to use two different visors:
The one on the left has a little notch/opening at the top, which is to allow the mask to plug in and stay secure.
Also interesting is that each head has its own unique sensor package, but they plug in on opposite sides:
I know that the one on the left is special and unique to the Night Seeker line, but I don’t know if I love it as much in person as I did seeing it in photos. It looks a bit too much like a scuba mask or something.
(Side note - I found a bit of promotional material for this kit, and if the translation is at all accurate, the head on the right is actually the Commander-Type head. I would have thought it would be the other way around)
Upper Torso
Here’s something interesting; the lower half of the chest is parts separated so as to allow for a ridiculous ab crunch:
This is the kind of articulation you never really saw in older kits - and still don’t necessarily see in newer ones - but which was par for the course for the Origin line.
As you can see, it’s fairly standard looking GM torso, save for the additional thrusters in the front:
Lower Torso
There are three things I love about this:
- It captures the same basic shape of the original GM’s front skirts, and doesn’t try to make it extra fancy or fussy
- The side skirts are color separated
- It has that wonderful grey EFSF emblem, which you don’t typically see in that color
Backpack
The backpack is made out of two sections. First you have the “regular” backpack, which is clean and minimalistic and looks like it’s out of a 1970’s sci-fi production. Then you have the “extra” backpack with its moveable nozzles:
The stickers on the second backpack aren’t laying very flat, but I’d hate to take them off. I’ll wait and see how they look in the lightbox.
Feet
I feel like it’s been a while since I had a High Grade with such nice surface detail. And I’m really glad that the grey section on the upper part of the foot is color separated. I hate when I have to paint that:
Since this is an Origin kit, I was hoping for (and expecting) a toe bend, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be.
Legs
The legs aren’t complicated, but they look fancier than they are. Part of that is to do with the fact it uses two colors of plastic, rather than being monochrome. And part of it of course is the inclusion of all those stickers.
But it’s also the case that it has some really nice surface detail. Indeed, it almost has the exact kinds of panel lines as the Master Grade Grandaddy:
That makes sense from an in-universe perspective, but I’m still impressed that they managed to capture all that in a High Grade.
One more note - the left leg is supposed to have a sticker that wraps around all the way to the back:
However, I didn’t think it looked very good - it was like I wrapped the leg with a piece of cheap electrical tape. So instead I trimmed it down so it was only visible from the front.
Arms
Nothing terribly exciting here, other than to say that, once again, there are a ton of stickers:
Seamlines and Detailing
This build didn’t require much in the way of extra work. There are a few optional seamlines to take care of on the shoulders and arms (and a few tiny ones on the head), but that’s about it. And since it has such good general color separation, there isn’t much of a need for color correction. There are still little things you can do here or there, but that’s it.
This of course meant for another nice build that went by very smoothly.