Gunpla - #11 - HGUC GM Striker Review

This was my first repainted kit, and it took the longest time to be finished among my other kits. I saw this model from Dalong.net (one of the best gunpla review websites, in Korean though) for the first time, and I immediately "fell in love" with the design. First, the armor all over its body simply indicated that it IS a special type mobile suit. Based on Gundam wikia, RGM-79FP GM Striker is a ground close quarters mobile suit, and because of that, the mobile suit is mostly equipped with close range weapons and extraordinary armor. Really extra ordinary, where the thick armor covered almost its entire body. And the second, guess what ? Do you see what the guy holds in his right hand ? Yes, the weapon is not a common one in the history of GM. It's a twin beam spear, and it's badass ! Since GM Striker is a close range fighter, I decided to repaint it in a "proper way". Well,  in my opinion, a close range mobile suit should have scratches and damages from previous battles. Hence, I repainted it and give weathering effects to give the battle impressions to the kit.

It was not an easy task though, because this was my first time to repaint a model kit. I was really confused about what kind of paint to be used for painting, how to apply the paint and thinner, what painting technique I would use etc. I finally decided to use Enamel paint for the hand brush (because airbrush costed really really expensive -_-"). And again, I still don't have clear idea what I should do after I had all tools. I felt a little scared that I would ruin with the paint, but I've finally started to paint the model. I decide to build the model completely, then painted it.

GM Striker is actually an old kit (released in 2006 or 2007), thus it missed some of the features of the recent HGUC kits. There are only 7 runners inside the box, but there are 4 beam sabers given by Bandai (yay!), you could only used 3 of them though. You got 4 hands : 2 closed hands, 1 open hand (left only), and 1 trigger hand (right only). I decided not to use all the stickers because I hate too many sticker, especially for the head. For the weapons, you got a machine gun, a spiked shield and the sexy twin beam spear. The machine gun and shield reminded me with the ones used in 08 MS Team anime. The spikes of the shield could retracted, and the beam spear ... oh boy, it could transform into a scythe. I really love this weapon ! 

Twin saber action !

As I mentioned above, this kit lacks some of the features of recent HGUC kits. The shoulder for example, could not move upside much, because it did not use ball joint as newer kits. However, much to my surprise, this kit applies special articulation for one of its wrist, and I've never found something like this before. Despite the limitations, this GM still could do some several nice poses as you could see on this page ;-) 

Fire !!!

GM Kick !!!

Triple beam saber action !

I decided to apply weathering effects of scratching metal all over the body by applying the silver paint with dry brushing technique. Because this was the first time, I messed up with the paints so many times. There were some parts which had much paints, where the others didn't. Anyway, I could finished the painting, and despite the mess up paints, well ... I was quite satisfied with my works :-)

Overall, GM Striker is a wonderful (old) kit, and if you are a fan of GM types, I recommend you to have this kit :-)

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RGM-79FP GM Striker

Pros :

• Wonderful body armor with many panel lines
• The twin beam spear and spike shield were badass !
• Special wrist articulation for a GM type

Cons :

• Limited articulation, especially for the shoulder and waist
• Typical GM feet and awkward orange color scheme