HGGTO 1/144 E.F.S.F Mass-Produced Mobile Suit RGM-79LV "GM Night Seeker II"

We continue working through the backlog with our next Mobile Suit Variations R design, the GM Night Seeker II. The original Night Seeker was a conversion of 12 original production RGM-79s for nocturnal Earth-based operations, however the Night Seeker II is a dedicated design based on the RGM-79L GM Light Armour that recieved its own production run, with 88 units between conversions and dedicated builds. The Night Seeker II features a special thruster configuration with variable arm-like binders that allow it to be used in high altitude descent operations, as well as special optic upgrades and auxillary sensors for target designation in heavy Minovsky Particle density situations.

The GM Night Seeker II is one of several variations on the GM Light Armour developed towards the end of the One Year War, alongside the GM Sniper Custom and GM Intercept Custom.

Most of the HGGTO GM variants are based on the same base set of runners (regardless of their in-universe provenance), and as such this kit shares a lot of its parts with the GM Cannon [Space Assault Type]. It's just as well colour separated, with the only real colour correction requried being the fire-retardant red coating and hold highlight for the various thrusters. Technically, the Gundam: The Origin designs don't feature this detail (nor do most of the modern interpretations of the classic UC designs), but I like to include it anyway for a pop of extra colour. I did end up painting the communication fin on the alternate head option rather than using the foil colour-correction sticker as well.

For the weathering, I tried to take advantage of the various shades of grey included in the kit. There's a sort of warm brown-ish grey for the body, backpack, and head accessories, which I weathered with a copper drybrush and pigment powder, a normal classic grey for the inner frame that got my usual metallic weathering, and a more blue-ish colour and an almost black used for the feet and custom beam gun, which just got a dark gunmetal drybrush and titanium pigment powder. I added some heat discolouration to the barrels of all the weapons, and plenty of soot discolouration around the 6 thrusters.

There's a pretty hefty sticker decal sheet, which was a little annoying to go through but really helps tie this kit in with the HGGTO line. Some of the larger thin striping stickers were pretty finnicky, and I found that the large one for the right leg didn't really want to go on neatly and was pretty poorly designed. However I do like the final effect overall. Just like with the GM Cannon Space Assault, the decal designs call back to the original Kunio Okawara illustration.

There are a lot of nice accessories for this kit. There are two head options - one with the nocturnal operations "goggle" attachment, and one more classic GM head (with the forehead vulcans excluded to allow for the optics upgrade). There's a communications pod with a large antennae and comms fin for the "normal" head, and a "marking pod" auxillary sensor for the "night-ops" head, although you can realistically add either of the accessories to either of the heads as they have a universal attachment.

There are 3 weapons - the 100mm machine gun (technically the same as the one used by the Ground Type GM, but with a GTO redesign); the custom beam gun with an improved range compared to the beam spray gun to support the Night Seeker's reconnaisance role, and the classic beam spray gun that is part of the C-runner for all of the GTO GM kits. The custom beam gun has a great design, almost resembling a silenced pistol that a spy would carry. The kit has a few extra hand options, including two open hand options, two open fist options, and two pistol grip options that let the kit dual-wield.

There's also a single beam saber, stored in the traditional beam saber mount on the backpack. There are two beam saber effects as well as a few spare beam saber hilts found in the kit (due to a few redundant pieces created by the re-used runners), but the beam saber hilt for this kit has been redesigned with a unique grip design and comes on its own dedicated runner.

Just like the other HGGTO GM kits there's some excellent poseability, although I found that the polycaps in this kit were a little loose-feeling, and I found that the wrist ball joint was particularly succeptible to falling apart. You can still get some super dynamic poses from this kit however. The extra "binder thrusters" are nicely poseable, and you can also pose the chest thrusters on individual ball joints. The front-skirt is a single unit, resembling the original GM design, rather than the updated separated design used in the GM Missile Pod and GM Cannon Space Assault, but it can swing up and forward so that it doesn't limit hip articulation.

Overall, this was a super unique looking build. I love the look of the nocturnal operations optics, and the design has some great colouration and shelf-presence. There are now only two HGGTO GMs remaining, and only 5 HG GM-line kits remaining in total, so backlog progress seems to be good! I'm hoping to have the rest of the HGGTO kits done by the end of the month.

Trail Patrol - MS-06JK Zaku Half-Cannon [High Grade Origin MSD]

HGGTO 1/144 E.F.S.F Mass-Produced Mobile Suit RGM-79KC "GM Intercept Custom" [Fellow Booster Equipped]

We're getting to the end of the MSV-R series of P-Bandai GM variants now, with the GM Intercept Custom. The GM Intercept Custom is the most direct variant of the GM Sniper Custom, and is from the same line of variations as the GM Cannon Space Assault. The GM Intercept Custom adapts the Sniper Custom's layout, but changes the Sniper's auxilllary visor for a narrow piece of armour to protect the camera during combat. The backpack is also simplified to allow the suit to be compatible with the Fellow Booster, a large thruster pack that helps the suit fulfil its battlefield role of intercepting enemy ships and mobile suits before they reach lines of engagement.

As a build, the majority of this kit is essentially identical to the GM Cannon, featuring the exact same parts (although with a different head and slightly different colour blocking) and pretty much the exact same sticker decals. The standout feature is the Fellow Booster, a reliatively complex build for its size with some really nice detailling.

For the mobile suit itself, the colour blocking is as standard for the HGGTO line, with the only real colour correction required being the grey for the forehead vulcans and the red fire-retardant coating for the thrusters. I touched up all of the inner frame parts with my usual weathering technique, as well as adding a little titanium pigment powder to the dark-grey armour panel sections.

The Fellow Booster is less colour-correct - the thrusters have the same colour correction requirements, but you also have to fill in the red detailing on the "wings" of the booster. I ended up using the marking decals, which have gone on fairly smoothly and look almost as good as the actual colour-correct red plastic, but these are probably something most people would prefer to paint.

I added some extra detailing with the gold on the various thrusters, as well as adding some copper to the piping on the engines of the Fellow Booster which add a nice pop of colour to the build. I also added some chrome behind the visor, which helps it to remain visible even behind the slit-armour visor.

There's an incredible amount of stickers for this kit, which just like the other HGGTO GMs help to replicate the original lineart from Kunio Okawara. I'm pretty proud of how the sticker application on this kit worked out, I think they're sitting especially well and look almost printed on, as compared to the cloudy look this type of sticker decal can sometimes have.

Without some of the extra accessories the MSV-R line of GMs have, the GM Intercept Custom is super poseable, and you can get some great flexibility out of it.

The main accessories for this kit are fairly toned down. There's the standard set of two open fists, and a right-handed pistol grip. For weapons, there's just a beam spray gun and a single beam saber, which is mounted to the rear skirt instead of the backpack due to the Fellow Booster. I think the heat discolouration on this beam spray gun is one of the best attempts at it so far.

The beam saber comes with two trans-dark pink beam saber effects, although there's only one beam saber hilt. This is a fairly parts-efficient kit, so the spare effect is the only spare part from the build.

With the Fellow Booster, apart from several auxillary thrusters, the GM Intercept also gains a dual set of shoulder-mounted missiles, which are much bigger than the set included with the GM Missile Pod, so there's no real need for any further accessories. This lets the entire suit feel light and nimble, able to drop in behind enemy lines and quickly extract once advancing ships and mobile suits have been disabled.

I think that so far this is one of my favourite HGGTO builds. I really love the colourway and the understated simplicity of the design, although the booster does make it a little difficult to display without a display base. I think out of all the P-Bandai GM variants, this one is probably the most worth it.

There's just one HGGTO GM variant left in my backlog now, so it might be a good time to try and build some of the other kits in my backlog before finally finishing off this series.