Kit Building - 1/100 NG F90II - L Type (Part 2)

You can check out what's in the box here and Part 1 here.

Step 7 - Fist accessories are the beam rifle and shield. Shield design isn't great. Has to hold it funny. And the manipulators are equally as bad, but expected on a kit this old.

Step 8 - Next are the front and rear skirts and the beam saber handles. The connection for the handles is just a hole and they just sort of rest in there. I guess it works, but seems like a poor design.

Step 9 - Now it looks like it's time to start the L Type weapons. Parts look good and should be interesting on the final kit.

Step 10 - Now the part I've been waiting for, the main cannon!

Step 11 - Not much going on here. Just adding extra ammo. The gun alone doesn't look terribly impressive. It's a little disappointing.

Step 11 - Time to put on all the new L Type weapons.

But first, a few pieces need to be removed. I liked the blue on the shoulders. Hope this lost of color doesn't detract from the end result.

Here is the final result!

My impressions of the kit...
So this isn't a terribly impressive kit which isn't unexpected. This kit was made over 20 years ago. Very little articulation, not much color separation, and some bad seam lines and nubs. All of this I pretty much expected. What I didn't expect is the really lose joints. I don't think this kit would have balance issues, but the joints are so flimsy I can't actually get it to stand without collapsing. That's why the final shots are on an action base. I think some fairly decent poses can be pulled off an action base. In the end, I cannot recommend this kit for someone new to the hobby or those that don't paint their kit. However, with a little paint and glue I think this can be a fairly nice kit.

Kit Building - 1/100 NG F90II - L Type (Part 1)

You can check out what's in the box here. Now lets start building.

Step 1 - Instructions start with the feet/ankles.

*On this kit I only reduced the nubs on parts where the nub was in the way. This was intentionally done to show where the nubs are on the completed kit.

So the completed foot/ankle looks good but there are 2 things to point out. One, the instructions are a little goofy. The piece you see is F5. Well it's backwards in the instructions. Build enough kits and you may not even notice. If this is your first kit, it might cause some confusion. Secondly, the white ankle armor has a terrible connection. Three of the four I can kind of get to stay, but the other doesn't hold at all. Glad to see Bandai got rid of this type of connection.

Step 2 - Next are the legs.

So this is the first multi-color part I had to de-nub. I should have explored this piece a bit before cutting. On the underside you can see that it's really the yellow plastic laying on top of the white. So if you aren't careful removing the nub, you can take a big chunk out of the kit. Some putty can fix this, but I would recommend sanding in this situation over using a hobby knife.

Step 3 - Next up are the arms. Pretty standard stuff here. Instruction include some red armor parts. I assume these are for the normal F90II. Not sure why this is done. Maybe this kit is like the 1/100 HG Tallgesee III and it makes multiple kits?

Step 4 - In this step the torso/waist is built. You can really see the age of this kit here. The waist is molded with the torso, so there is no articulation here.

Step 5 - Next up, the head. It's interesting that the face is molded with the helmet. I sort of like this. Not for an MG, but for a 1/144 kit I can see this being nice. I also like the blue eyes on the kit. Nice change of pace from the standard green.

Step 6 - Time to put it together now. Well the joints are a little bit flimsy. This doesn't really bother me as I tend to make my kits fixed posed, but this could be a problem for others.

Well that's all for now. Next time, weapons and accessories! And there's a lot of them.

What's in the box? - 1/100 NG F90II - L Type

Just sort of felt like building something to get my gunpla juices flowing after my Christmas vacation. Had a 1/100 No Grade F90II - L Type just lying around which I figured would be a quick and simple build. First saw this kit a long long time ago, but couldn't afford it at the time. When I went back for it, it was gone. So a year or so ago when I saw it again, I had to buy it. Problem is, I have a backlog of kits now so who knows when I'll get around to painting it. But at least I have it! Enough talking. Time to see what's in the box.

First up the manual. Bandai's instruction manuals have come a long way since 1991 when this guy came out.

And then some stickers. These stickers are very different from modern day stickers. Fairly thin and feel more paper like.

Lastly, the important part. The kit itself! The lettering for this kit jumps around. Looks like some these parts are reused in other kits. The first runner is B. This has the blue, yellow, and multi-color parts.

That's right. I said multi-color parts. Interesting to see a single piece with yellow, blue, and red. Not sure why Bandai stopped this, but it's interesting and much nicer than stickers. Seems weird that they only did it for some parts and not others. Seems like the shield could use this.

Next up the C plate. This is all of the white armor pieces.

The next runner is E. This has all of the red parts. Seems to be a second back piece. The manual doesn't indicate unused parts, so I'm curious to see what else is extra.

Next there are all of the grey joints and weapons on the F, L1, and L2 plates.

Lastly there are some polycaps, 2 clear beam sabers, and the eyes. I'm not a fan of the blade and handle in one piece, but I like this blue color. I don't generally use beam sabers on my kits, but I think I'm going to find one to use these.

I'm looking forward to snapping this guy together. Look at all of those accessories!