#amaim ghost

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.