Gunpla Build - Nu Gundam Ver Ka (Part 3)

You know, I was starting to wonder whether this build would be complete before the end of the month, and it looks like I’ll have it done by the skin of my teeth. Let’s wrap it up right here and now.

Fin Funnels

Anytime someone builds a Nu Gundam model, they end up complaining about the Fin Funnels.

And hey, I get it. There’s six of them, and they’re all exactly the same. It can quickly get boring doing the same thing again and again. In this case, though, it wasn’t actually too bad.

The reason is that, compared to the Funnels on the Real Grade, these were much simpler in construction. Since they took less time to build, they never had a chance to become boring.

And now here they are:

Can’t really say this Ver. Ka does anything to radically change the look of the Fin Funnels. Not a complaint, just an observation.

Now, we have to discuss what many consider this model’s biggest flaw: How exactly do the funnels attach together, and are they as flimsy as the Collective Internet claims them to be?

Let’s first rewind a bit and look at how the Real Grade handles this. Each funnel is equipped with a pair of clippy thingies on each side:

These then plug into connection ports on the other funnel:

These connections are admittedly pretty shallow, however they manage to work decently well. I think it may be due to the fact that not only are there two of them, but they’re differently shaped. They probably complement and otherwise reinforce each other.

The Ver. Ka uses a similar approach, albeit one that’s simpler. On each side of the funnel, we get this set of teeth:

These can rotate up or down; when rotated all the way up, the two outer teeth stick out (as seen on the left side of the photo below). Whereas if you rotate it down, it tucks away into the funnel unseen (as seen on the right side of the photo below):

Also, when tucked down, the teeth on the opposite side of the funnel are exposed:

So to fasten the funnels, you simply position the teeth however which way they need to go, and then plug them all together.

Here is my verdict so far: at first they disconnected quite a bit, but after applying a little extra pressure, I got them to stay in place surprisingly well. So well, in fact, that I was able to take the fully assembled model, with Funnels attached, up two flights of stairs and back down, and at no point did they fall off.

So I guess it depends. It might help to topcoat the teeth, as that might introduce some extra friction that could be helpful. But in general I think a gentle hand might go a long way as well.

Arms and Shoulders

These little yellow ports on the sides of the shoulder armor are the kind of thing you usually have to paint on a ¹⁄₁₄₄ scale model, but here you can get away with little more than a little bit of panel lining.

Then we get some more Psychoframe for good measure (apologies for the blurriness of this photo):

And then we add some armor and decals, and we’re done:

(Okay, so I added a little bit of extra grey paint as well. I couldn’t help myself)

Now for the arms. Interestingly, despite being asymmetrical, most of their assembly process is identical. It starts with this … I dunno what to call it … weird hingey thing for the elbow joint:

Followed by some more inner framing for the forearm:

And when it’s all finished we get a near perfect elbow flex:

Then we get to some armor and some Psychoframe:

And more armor still:

This is where the two arms go their separate ways. On the right arm, we just add a little extra armor plate on the outside of the wrist, while on the left arm we have to add the Beam Saber holster:

This works largely the same as on the Real Grade. There’s a little peg on a hinge that the Beam Saber plugs into, and the whole holster apparatus can contract to lock it into place (or, conversely, it can expand open to gain access to the weapon)

Side note - I discovered that there’s a decal for this Beam Saber. You’ll see it below.

And now here they are:

A note on the hands - this kit uses those stupid Master Grade hands with the individually articulated fingers, the ones that just love to fall out of their sockets. I’ve already had to glue at least one of them in place permanently, and I’m hoping there won’t be more down the line.

How to Reveal the Psychoframe

It’s pretty simple this time around. On the shoulder, there’s a bit of armor that slides out diagonally:

On the arms, we first have to pull down the armor on the upper arm:

And then pull diagonally again on some armor in the forearm:

This one was my favorite, as it’s the only time where the model does the thing where moving one piece of armor causes another piece of armor to move and slide along with it.

Comparison to the Real Grade

Looking at the shoulders, the Real Grade has a bit more parts separation, but does that mean it looks better? Hard to say:

More interesting is the fact that the yellow vents on the sides are completely different:

It’s possible they look this way on the Real Grade due to lack of space, but it’s also possible they look different on the Master Grade thanks to artistic license.

As for the arms, I feel like this is the one part of the model that really benefits from being in ¹⁄₁₀₀ scale. The extra size gave the engineers more room to add details, and they really took advantage of it:

Of all the body parts on a Gundam, the arm is the one that people are probably least likely to focus on. But it turns out that they still adds a lot to the overall look when they’re done well:

Finished

And with that, the Nu Gundam Ver. Ka is complete. Here’s a sneak peek:

I didn’t actually need this build to be finished by the end of the month, but it’s kind of nice that it did. Maybe it’s OCD on my part, but it always feels nice and neat and tidy when a long build doesn’t span across months (unless I start it at the end, in which case it’s inevitable).

Let’s wrap up this post with a few closing thoughts.

First, I don’t know for sure whether this was the biggest or the most complex build I’ve ever done, but it’s certainly up there.

Second, the waterslides weren’t as bad as I feared. They weren’t easy, but they weren’t any worse than a Real Grade.

And finally, it was interesting to compare this build to my previous two Ver. Ka’s. Wing Gundam, by virtue of being the oldest of the three, didn’t really feel much different to build than any old Master Grade, and in some cases if very clearly showed its age.

Then there’s the Zeta, which is the most recent of the three, and was also by far one of the most intricate and pleasant builds I’ve ever experienced. The whole thing was like a dream.

This Nu Gundam falls somewhere in the middle. It’s mostly fantastic, but there are also some places where it shows its age, or where it feels like the engineering isn’t quite there for what it was trying to achieve.

But we’ll talk about that a bit more during the photoshoot. See you then.