white feathers dance in my room

@orbis3 on vmo

MG 1/100 E.F.S.F Prototype Long Range Support Mobile Suit RTX-75 "Guntank"

Last month I rounded out my collection with the HGGTO version of the Guntank, and now it's time for the MG version of the kit. This is a fairly old MG kit, from 2009, and it definitely shows its age in some aspects, but despite its age it definitely holds up with my other Master Grade kits.

The Guntank in the original series was the oldest prototype from Project V, consisting of little more than a scaled-up tank body with the top half of a mobile suit on top. It acts as a form of mobile weapons platform, with two long-range 120mm cannons and two sets of quad-missile launchers, and was mostly piloted by Jose Ryu (in the Core Block) and Hayato Kobayashi (as the main pilot).

This kit is very well colour separated for its age, with pretty much nothing aside from the pilot figures and cockpits requiring painting. Unfortunately a lot of the kit has some fairly weak connections, especially the Core Fighter wing connections (which unfortunately snapped and had to be glued into Core Block mode) and the track link connections. I gave this kit a fairly simple weathering once-over with some metallic weathering for the grey sections, and plenty of soot and oil staining around the track sections.

I gave my best shot at the pilot figures as well. Alongside two seated figures for the two cockpits, there's a standing figure of Ryu Jose, Hayato Kobayashi, Mirai Yashima, and Bright Noa, in their UC0079 millitary outfits. Unfortunately the details are a little too tricky for 1/100 scale so the outcome is a little sloppy.

A really cool included feature of this kit is a small green LED unit, which with the aid of some light piping lights up the auxillary targeting cameras as well as the control panel in the "head" canopy cockpit. Combined with the painted cockpit and trans-clear windshield, I think this is probably my favourite part of this build.

The other detail I painted for this kit were the 120mm shells, hidden underneath an armour panel on the "backpack", as well as some hidden copper detailing on the track suspension.

Just like the other older MG kits I've built, like the MG Ball, there's a mix of sticker decals and rub-on dry decals. I'm not a fan of the dry decals from this kit, as I felt they were very delicate and implemented in some very awkward positions that led to them getting smudged or distorted too easily. The sticker decals are nice, but there's a very limited supply and I ended up supplementing everything with my HGGTO spares. I do feel that the successful dry decal placement are a lot better looking than the stickers though. I also included some caution tape around some of the moving parts for extra detail.

Unlike most MG kits, the Guntank lacks any accesories, and has very limited posability. It makes up for this mostly in gimmicks. The in-built weapons can somewhat move, with the quad-missile launchers in the hands moving back and forth when the forearm is rotated.

The large 120mm cannons on the shoulders can pose fairly freely, and have a hidden spring to replicate the effect of recoil. There's also a set of struts that can deploy from the shoulders to provide extra stability when firing.

The chest vents can open up, and a set of panels can fold down from the tank section to provide a more stable firing platform.

The tracks are super impressive in and of themselves. There's a very intricate system of functional suspension, including real actuating springs, and there's a set of hidden pistons that let the track pods move out from the body for better mobility. The tracks are made up of a set of 76 individual track links, and they're fully articulated, allowing the kit to roll along (although this feels more like a play feature as it doesn't add much to the posing at all). There's a hidden switch in each track-pod that raises or lowers the suspension as well, changing the overall profile of the tracks.

Overall, despite its age, this is an incredible build. In terms of posing it can feel just as limited as the old HGUC version, however in terms of detail and hidden gimmicks it's definitely worth the much higher price.

It's definitely a very time-consuming build, however, so I'm looking forward to some much simpler quick builds in the meantime before building up to another MG.

sniles sneetly

The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country.

Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.

There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.

- John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath