#amaim

I think I've mentioned before that my Wife doesn't really know anything about Gundam or gunpla... So when she's buying presents for me she just basically buys whatever cool-looking thing catches her eye. And this means I wind up with some amazing and unexpected discoveries.

This week I'm building the Full Mechanics MAILeS Kenbu Zan from Amaim Warrior at the Borderline - a kit I didn't even know existed before my Wife gave it to me as a birthday gift.

1/72 AMAIM Ghost

Picked up a couple of Kyoukai Senki kits on special earlier this month, and it's finally time to build them up! I haven't watched Kyoukai Senki/AMAIM Warrior at the Border at all, as despite the really interesting and unique mechanical designs, especially with the cool hinged elbows and digitigrade legs, the actual plot seems to be rather uninteresting (and apparently weirdly nationalist?).

What drew me to this kit was the unique assymetric design. The left arm unit is much larger and bulkier, ending in a "heat claw" weapon. The fingers of the claw are articulated, and there are some nice metallic foil stickers detailing the glowing effect on the claw. These were a pain to apply but I'm happy with how they look on the completed model. The head unit is also nicely detailed, with some exposed cameras and piping on one side and a large antenna on the other. There's a well designed neck piece that maintains a good degree of head articulation despite the large head armour pieces, unlike a lot of gunpla where the head design limits articulation.

The legs are pretty nicely designed as well. They're absolutely massive, almost as big as a few other kits in their entirety, and there's some clever engineering that lets the talons on the feet rotate and flex, as well as great design to cover up and hide all of the hinged sections. The kit even manages to maintain full colour separation, using a few dark red and bright red pieces layered between the blue-grey armour panels where you'd usually expect awkward stickers or painting. This was especially appreciable on the torso.

I added a little extra detailling by doing my usual metallic weathering on all of the grey mechanical sections, but otherwise I was able to build this kit as is. I did experiment with using an enamel panel line wash for the first time here. I was a little concerned I might cause the plastic to crack, but by using minimal amounts of enamel thinner to clean up the kit as well as adding a clear gloss basecoat, I was able to avoid any disasters. I found that I stil had to touch up the kit a little with my felt-tip panel line marker, but otherwise using a liquid panel liner saved me a lot of time.

This kit didn't really come with any optional extras, apart from maybe an extra right hand as an open fist option. This mech evidently doesn't require any handheld weapons. There's a set of wing-like binders on the back, which apparently function as EMR jammers. They give the kit a somewhat beetle-like or draconic look, which I appreciate a lot.

Overall this was a really fun build. I loved how large the kit turned out, almost the size of my Xi or Kshatriya but definitely far cheaper. It's a very simple build with minimal stickers, and I definitely reccomend it for starter builders, especially given the generally larger parts sizes that the kit works with.

Anime: AMAIM

Customized kit with 3D printed additions. Modeling, printing, and painting (mostly) by me. Files available here.

Continuing my journey of realistic fight scene improvement. More punches but mixed with some ducking & weaving.

1/72 MAILeS KM-01 Byakuchi

My second Kyoukai Senki kit! I build the 1/72 Ghost a few months ago and really enjoyed the style and size of the kit, as a bit of a break from the usual gunpla I build. I picked up the Byakuchi at the same time, as I found the back mounted weapons and the arm design super interesting.

Building this kit reminded me a lot of the gunpla from the mid-2010s, which is appropriate, as this kit was part of the first few Kyoukai Senki kits ever released. There's an ok amount of colour separation, but there are large areas that weren't separated at all, and required either large colour correction stickers or painting. There were also quite a few areas that weren't colour corrected at all, including some of the hard points.

I opted to paint all of the colour-inaccurate areas in order to practice with yellow paint, which can be tricky to apply evenly without getting it too thick. This included a few of the vents and hardpoints, as well as the bars on the forearms and the details on the knees. I also did my usual drybrushing and pigment powder weathering on the grey areas, which gave the frame a really nice metallic look, and added some purple onto the shoulder-mounted missile launcher to replace the sticker. In addition, I added some chrome marker to the parts behind the clear eye-piece to help it pop a little more, as by default it's in front of a yellow piece and doesn't look all that great.

The most annoying part that needed to be painted were the hands. There's these cool white details on the fingers, but all of these need to be painted on. Worst of all is that one of the hand options is moulded completely int white, whereas the others are grey, so you need to mix and match paints to get everything colour accurate.

One detail I opted to keep stickered was the two exposed arm pistons on the chest, as these were recreated with a nice metallic golden piece that really helps them pop. There's thankfully a good amount of clearance which means the stickers won't get damaged on articulation. I opted to add some extra detail stickers from all of my spares, as well as from the included number decals.

On articulation, there's a decent amount, with an angled ball joint on the waist allowing for a degree of ab crunch, and really good range of motion on the hips and legs, as well as the spaced double joints on the arms. The longer neck of the Kyoukai Senki kits also gives a good range of head articulation which helps with the more dynamic poses. The rear weapon mounts also have good articulation, with the coolest part being the gun mount being able to swing over the shoulder to deposit the gun directly into the mech's open hand.

In terms of option parts, there's a decent amount. The kit includes a right handed pistol grip, as well as two closed fist parts and two open hand parts.

There's also the large 120mm rifle with a removeable drum magazine (which I think might be compatible with other magazines from the other kits from this line?), and a simple one-part shield that clips onto a 3mm hardpoint on the forearm or shoulder. There's also the back mounted missile launcher, which incorporates a simple 3mm connection. These back mounts can also be interchanged with any other parts that use 3mm connections, presumably the ones included in other Kyoukai Senki kits.

Unfortunately, unlike later kits, the missile pod doesn't have the option to open up to display the missiles.

Overall, this was a really nice kit to build, if a little dated in terms of colour separation. I really like how the digitigrade legs pose, and it's a lot of fun posing the rear weapons, which feel super Armoured Core.