Union Flag (SVMS-01) – Introduction

Thanks to Raidensama, I was able to get this kit from the Gundam 00 Series before New Year.

Gundam 00 and the new mecha

The Union Flag is a “working horse” of AEU (Advanced European Union) military. While it may look like an ugly duckling to some (wait until you change it into fly mode ), I would argue that it is rather elegant comparing to the other mecha in the Series — an interesting break-out from the traditionally followed ways of creating mobile suits for the “bad guys”. Nothing fancy in terms of weaponry, although, its defense rod (a compact rotating shield) is an interesting idea if only it did not touch the shoulder wing…

I guess AEU’s engineers wanted to create a highly maneuverable mobile suit sacrificing to some extent its protection by reducing its weight, hence Union Flag’s slim silhouette — it represents much smaller target in any mode, be it flying or normal (“walking”) one.

What’s in the box?

The box it comes in is surprisingly small for a High Grade kit and more surprises await once you open it, so read on!

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Blu Duel Gundam (GAT-X1022) – Assembled

Read my previous post about this kit here

The second part on the Blu Duel Gundam is going to be about the completed model and what it looks like BEFORE it is painted – who knows, may be this is the one kit you were waiting for — the one that does not need paint? Also I am going to share my thoughts on the overall quality of the model — it certainly has lots of “pros” and some “cons”, so read on!

Story

I realised that one thing needs a little bit more attention — it is the story behind this Gundam (here I am going to recap the information you can find at MAHQ).
A tragic tale of a stolen in C.E. 71 Gundam (Gosh! I’ve lost count of “stolen” Gundams already, don’t those story writers have anything more interesting to do than go through the same ideas every time?) that ended up destroyed during a battle with several Kerberos BuCUE Hounds (happened in C.E. 74):

Between these two events it was upgraded with the phase-shift armor. Interestingly enough, unlike the other mecha of the same line, the armor was integrated into its main body (although it is technically possible to remove it from the model).
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Blu Duel Gundam (GAT-X1022) – Introduction

Hi Everyone!

Finally I’ve got my hands on this 2006 release of BANDAI’s 1/144 High Grade kit of Blu Duel Gundam – one of the few new mecha introduced in Gundam SEED C.E.73 Stargazer mini-series.

My special thanks go to Morishita Naochika for the very nice illustration featured on the box. Guys, whoever knows this artist personally, please give him my “thumbs up”

BANDAI did a good job (as they continually do with HG kits) in terms of quality of details, although I found that the dark blue molding is made of somewhat brittle plastic – please be careful while cutting it.

The completed model will consist of

• 148 details on 7 runners, including polycaps (you won’t need all of them, because some parts are interchangeable – like palms and beam-sabers in on/off state)
• 20 foil stickers (should you choose to use them).

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