P-Bandai HGGTO 1/144 E.F.S.F Mass-Produced Mobile Suit RGC-80S "GM Cannon" [Space Assault Type]
The GM collection grows with the GM Cannon [Space Assault Type]! The GM Cannon is a unique GM design from the original Mobile Suit Variations series, incorporating aspects of the Guncannon onto the newer and more refined GM design platform. It appears in a single scene from Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo. The Space Assault variation is an even more obscure variant, reducing the lower leg armour significantly to allow for better space mobility. This version really only exists as a part of the MSV-R design series, aside from its Gundam The Origin style model kit revival.
The GM cannon is somewhat contemporary to the Guncannon Mass-Production, and represents the shift to the GM as the main Mobile Suit platform for the Earth Federation during the inter-war period.
This kit is pretty incredible, with a shockingly small set of sprues. The colour separation is essentially perfect, with no colour-correction required aside from the grey section over the cockpit, as well as the fire-retardant red inside the thrusters and the yellow chevron on the waist (which I ended up painting anyway). I painted most of the missing small details, including adding some yellow to the forehead vulcans and some light grey patches on the thighs and wrists for a little extra detail. I also outlined all of the thrusters with a little gold, as I usually do for this type of kit.
I kept the weathering simple, just adding a metallic drybrush and pigment powder over the grey parts, some titanium pigment over the almost-black armour sections, and plenty of soot discolouration around the various vents. I think that the head discolouration I managed to add on the beam spray gun is one of my best attempts at it so far.
Just like a lot of the other HGGTO kits, especially the GM Missile-Pod, the GM Cannon [Space Assault Type] contains a large quantity of dry decal stickers. These ones are a little annoying to apply, as a lot of them are too big for the place they are meant to go, or overlap on some awkward details. The actual choice of stickers is really nice though, properly recreating the designs from the original Kunio Okawara drawing. You even get a few extra warning decals, great for helping to detail up other HG kits.
The accessories for this kit are fairly simple. The only extra parts are a right pistol grip hand option, and the beam spray gun, which is notably larger than the one designed for the older HGUC GM kit. Otherwise, the 360mm rocket cannon is affixed securely to the shoulder.
The kit is fairly poseable, despite its rather old-fashioned reliance on polycap parts. You can get some super dynamic poses out of it, although the cannon does get in the way of head movement.
Overall, it's a really great build, and it's a shame that it's a P-Bandai exclusive. I'm looking forward to tackling the other P-Bandai GM variants I've picked up this year farily soon, so keep an eye on this space!
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