Gunpla Build - Nu Gundam Ver Ka (LED Guide)

Like many Master Grades, the Nu Gundam Ver. Ka supports the use of an LED light. I figured it was finally time to actually try using one, so let’s give it a go and see how it works.

Figuring it Out

I’m really embarrassed to admit this, but one reason why it’s taken me so long to try using an LED is because I found myself unable to figure out which one(s) I needed. Every time I started shopping, I quickly felt overwhelmed and confused by the mix of first and third party products, and so I gave up.

Which is really weird in retrospect, because this time I found the correct LED in less than five minutes. So then I started doing more searches and research, and thirty minutes later I felt like I had a pretty good grasp on the whole situation.

How to know if your MG is LED Compatible

There a lot of Master Grades that support an LED light. You’ll know it because it will probably say so somewhere on the box, and also in the instructions.

But you’ll definitely know if you notice the following three things:

1. The chest has a big empty space in it
2. The back armor is easy to remove in order to reveal that space
3. The neck joint is made out of clear plastic

If you see all of these things, then you’re good to go.

Which Light do I Need?

For most Master Grades, you’re looking for a small, cylindrical LED with no wires. If you’re buying an official Bandai light, it should say something like “Gunpla LED Unit”, or “compatible with Gunpla LED units”.

You should also keep in mind that Bandai makes them in several different colors, so you’ll want to find the one that’s appropriate for your given mobile suit. Known colors include green:

Yellow:

Red:

Blue:

And Pink:

There may be more colors, but these were the ones that showed up most often in my search results.

What About Batteries?

I can’t speak for third party stuff yet, but Bandai’s LED lights use two LR41 watch batteries. These are easy enough to find online, but in my experience they’re not at all common in brick and mortar stores (as an example, I looked at walmart.com and target.com for LR41’s for in-store pickup, and nothing turned up).

Because the batteries are so tiny, they tend to be sold in multipacks, but even then they’re not too costly, so I’d suggest grabbing a decent sized pack, and you’ll be good for battries for a long time.

What Not to Buy

This is where things do get a bit confusing. Bandai makes other kinds of LEDs for other products, and you don’t want to accidentally buy the wrong thing (or intentionally buy it thinking you’ll somehow make it work. Spoiler alert: you probably won’t).

For example, don’t buy this dual light, and it’s simply not going to fit in the chest cavity of a Master Grade:

And don’t buy this one with twelve small wired lights. Even if you stuck them all over your model, it’s going to have a trail of wires coming off of it, and that would just look weird:

However, if you’re building the 2.0 version of the Master Grade F91, you do want to get this double LED unit.

The F91 is a rare example of a Master Grade that doesn’t use the standard button lights I showed you above. I doubt it’s the only one that’s like this, but it’s the only one that I could find.

Lastly, don’t buy a light that’s meant for a Perfect Grade:

Though I guess that goes without saying.

What about Third Party LEDs?

There’s lots of third party LED’s out there, and if you’re like me, you’ve encountered other builders who have told you that they’re both cheaper and brighter than Bandai’s offerings, so you should just use them instead.

I’ll just say this: I’m willing to believe that that’s true, but I also think it’s okay to start off with some official products when you’re just starting out, and then branch out to third party alternatives once you have some experience. So if you find yourself looking to try out some LEDs for yourself, my advice is to go with what feels safe and comfortable at first, even if every Reply Guy on Reddit or Discord tells you otherwise.

What’s in the Box?

I thought I took some unboxing photos, but it looks like I didn’t. Woops!

Suffice to say that the lights are half-packaged like a Gunpla. You’ve got the lights themselves in a plastic bag, and then the two battery covers come on a tiny plastic runner.

And then there are two tiny screws with which to fasten the battery cover. I discovered that, for whatever reason, it is vitally important that you use the right size of screwdriver. If it’s too big (or too small), the screw won’t go in. Heck, even if you use the correct size, it’s still a bit finicky, though you do want want to screw it in as tight as you possibly can. If the battery cover isn’t properly secured, then the light might not turn on at all.

Even then, you might have problems. The on/off switch is a small slider on the bottom of the light, and I found that if the switch is slid too far (or not far enough), the light won’t go to its maximum brightness. Once you find the sweet spot, you have to hope it will stay there as you insert it into the model.

How to Install

I’m not sure if the installation process is the same for all Master Grades, but this is how it works for the Nu Gundam Ver. Ka.

If you’ve already assembled the model, then you’ll need to open up the chest to get the light in there. The backplate is designed to be (relatively) easily to remove in order to facilitate this, though if you’ve topcoated it like I did, you may find that it’s a bit harder than it’s supposed to be. I found that I had the best luck if I (carefully) used a tool to help pry it off:

Once the backplate is off, you can slide out the bit of the model where the neck joint is mounted. Underneath is a dedicated slot for the LED light. Make sure you position it correctly, to ensure it locks into place:

Then you just have to slide it back in and close it all up. Don’t forget to turn it on first!

Caveat 1 - No Eye Decals

There are a number of caveats that come with using an LED. The first and most obvious one is that if you want to use it, you cannot apply the shiny metallic stickers on the eyes of the model. If you do, the light won’t be able to shine through.

The good news is that even without the stickers, the eyes still look green, and are still well enough visible under good lighting, as you can see here in my build photo:

Turning it On

Okay, let’s fire up the light and see how it looks.

Well this is awkward. It turns out that it doesn’t look all that impressive under the bright lights of the lightbox. But, if I turn the lights off, then I don’t know the proper camera settings to make it look good. This blurry mess is the best I could do:

And here’s one more taken with my camera phone:

These images reveals two engineering issues. The big one is that there’s a ton of light leaking out from the bottom of the head, which diminishes the effect somewhat. The second issue is that, because we didn’t use the eye stickers, there’s no black divider between the two eyes, so when the light is on it kind of looks like one big monovisor.

The solution in both cases is black paint. But some paint around the bottom half of the neck joint, so that only the actual ball joint itself is left clear and transparent. That will still allow the light to shine into the head, but won’t allow it to bleed out through the bottom. Then put a tiny bit of black paint between the eyes.

On one hand, I’m glad the fix is so simple, but on the other hand I’m disappointed that it’s necessary in the first place. I still don’t know the history of Gunpla LED’s to know when they first began to be put into use, so I have no idea if this is an early example of LED lighting in a Master Grade (which might explain why the engineering is a bit off).

Caveat 2 - The Lighting is Limited

What I mean by this is that, on this particular model, the light only illuminates the eyes and the front camera. It doesn’t light up the rear camera, nor does it light up the clear psychoframe cockpit if you open up the front hatch. This may not be the case for newer models, but it is the case here.

Caveat 3 - Turning it On (and off)

I guess this goes without saying, but yeah, the fact that you have to open up the chest to get to the light means that turning the lights on and off are a huge pain in the butt. And there’s a strong argument to be made that it’s enough of a pain to not really make it worthwhile (which is an argument I am extremely sympathetic to)

Out of curiosity, I did a search on “Wireless Master Grade LED”, and lo and behold they exist. Delphi Decal in particular sells a light that you can turn on and off by waving a magnet near it, which is a really cool idea. Unfortunately at the time of writing they’re out of stock, so I don’t yet know how easy it is to get something like this. But it might be worth it to just skip the Bandai offerings and search for something like this.

But wait a minute - I got bunch of tiny wireless LED’s for Christmas. Might those work? Let’s find out.

Wireless LEDs as an Alternative?

The big problem with using these LED’s is that they work by putting them next to a wireless power transmitter. The one I have is shaped like a hangar, and it’s sized for ¹⁄₁₄₄ scale models. I also know from some initial experimentation that the lights have to be fairly close to the transmitter or they won’t fire up.

That might make it tricky to use them with a Master Grade, unless I put the base station on a platform or something to lift it up higher. But let’s try it anyway and see if it works. First, I removed the regular LED light and tossed two of the tiny wireless lights into the empty space:

Next, I put the head back into place, turned on the base station, and voila:

The good news, if you want to call it that, is that it worked without having to lift the base station higher. The bad news is that this might be as bright as it’s going to get. At first I tried lifting the base station anyway, just to see if it would help.

It did not.

Next, tried using just one light for comparison. That ended up looking exactly the same. It’s possible three lights might be brighter, but at this point I didn’t really need to find out.

And on top of the lack of intensity, there of course is the fact that in order to get it working in the first place, I had to snake a USB-C A/C adapter through the hole in the lightbox:

So yes, technically speaking these wireless lights work, but it’s not exactly what I would call a more convenient alternative.

(Still a fun experiment though)

Conclusion

So now we get to the big question - is it worth the time and effort to use an LED? My TL:DR answer is “no”.

My longer answer is no, unless you find yourself in one of the scenarios:

1. You have a lot of LED compatible Master Grades, and you like taking pictures of them. In that case, you might want to buy a few basic colors to use and reuse over the years.
2. You skip the Bandai lights and go for something like those magnet-triggered wireless lights.
3. You do what I did and ask for them as a birthday gift, in which case you can enjoy the benefits without laying out your own money.

But if you’re buying it yourself, and you’re planning on using it with just one model, I don’t think the juice is worth the squeeze, even if it’s one of your favorite mobile suits. It’s not that it isn’t cool, or that it doesn’t add anything to the presentation. It’s just not worth it when it’s so hard to turn it on or off as you like.