RG 1/144 Neo-Japan Mobile Fighter Domon Kasshu Use GF13-017NJ "Shining Gundam" ✨🇯🇵
This hand of mine glows with an awesome power!
The Shining Gundam is finally done! One of the newest RGs, this one builds off the frame of the God Gundam and incorporates a lot of Bandai's newest techniques to add a lot of visual interest and detail to an otherwise rather simple design.
Like the other rather new RG I've built, the RG Crossbone, the RG Shining lacks a pre-built inner frame, and incorporates some clever but tricky building techniques to create lots of colour separation and allow for lots of articulation and moving parts. The only Advanced MS Joint parts are incorporated into the forearms and shoulder, maximizing flexibility at these joints.
Like all the other RGs I've built, this one is almost completely colour separated, apart from the eyes. Even these are achieved with a clear green piece, which when set in front of the grey faceplate can have surprising depth. However, to help my Shining Gundam match the rest of the HGFC kits I own, I opted for the basic metallic eye sticker.
The gold incorporated in this kit for the Super Mode effects in particular is a pleasing improvement as compared to a lot of older attempts by Bandai at injection gold. It's super glossy even out of the box, and there's no longer a noticeably dark nub mark when cutting it.
The only additional painting I added to this kit was a basic metallic weathering on all the grey frame parts, as well as some slight silver drybrushing on some of the light grey armour panels. I also added a lot of gold detailing to the frame parts, which unfortunately is completely invisible in the final kit. The frame of the RG Shining is so beautifully detailed that it almost makes you want to buy another one to display with the frame alone.
A neat gimmick of this kit is the opening cockpit hatch, which displays the rings of the Mobile Trace System used to pilot the suit. It's a nice detail, but in person visibly lacks depth.
Being a mostly hand-to-hand suit, the Shining Gundam doesn't really include a lot of optional extras, and opts to focus parts count mostly on the hand options. There are 11 hand options in this kit: 2 flat open palm hands, 2 slightly flexed open hands, 2 "claw" open hands, with the right one especially resembling Domon's pose when activating Shining Finger, 2 fists for holding the beam sabers, and 2 closed fists, as well as the right handed Shining Finger effect hand option. This part is molded in a really impressive UV reactive metallic green, which I also panel lined with a brighter UV reactive green marker for an even brighter effect.
Also included is the removable Core Lander. This forms the backpack of the Shining Gundam when in use, but can be removed and transformed simply into the groundcar mode by folding the driving cabin down. The hatch can open up to reveal a small chair, although unfortunately this kit doesn't include a pilot figure.
Funnily enough, the rear of the Core Lander resembles a rather normal car.
Finally, the kit includes two beam saber effect parts, a short and long one, for Domon's two beam sabers. The long beam effect part can be equipped with a metallic sticker with the G Gundam logo on it, allowing you to recreate the title shot from the first OP, as well as the Super Mode transformation sequence.
The sticker doesn't conform very well to the round effect part, and I wish Bandai had just moulded the detail onto the part so that it could be painted instead.
The kit is incredibly well balanced and has a large range of articulation. The hips in particular have been designed with ratcheting joints and can hold the full weight of the kit without sagging. The arms have great range of movement, and a little extra part on the neck lets you pose the head without any restrictions, which is well more than can be said of kits like the RG Exia or Qan[T].
You can even cross the arms!
The super mode is achieved with, as stated above, some really difficult building techniques. You have to work with very small, tight, c-clips, and fold a lot of small parts over each other, then force them into tight spaces. That being said, it's super satisfying to be able to transform the Shining Gundam as seamlessly as it does in the show. For Battle Mode, the yellow fins on the head flip forward Super Saiyan style, and the faceplate folds outwards. Mine still has a bit of a gap in it when closed, as I snapped the yellow part that forms the head vulcans during assembly, and I think the glue is preventing it from being perfectly seated. I'm not too fussed, as the faceplate has a noticeable line dividing it in the anime.
The binders on the arms also transform. You wiggle them forward and over the wrists, and the blue part slides upwards to reveal gold underneath. For full Super Mode, you also slide part of the feet forward and flip down the "wings" on the ankles, slide the shoulders up to reveal the gold frame underneath, and flip open the calf hatches to reveal extra boosters. The engineering here causes the boosters to extend in the same movement as opening the hatches, but the downside is that you can't open the hatches to 90 degrees like they do in the first Super Mode sequence.
Nevertheless, the gold looks super impressive under the light. It's overall one of Bandai's best RG treatments of a mobile suit so far.
I think the only annoying aspect of this kit were the stickers. I don't know if I've just become unused to the RG sticker experience, but these felt especially annoying to work with. A lot of them are a series of small squares with red markings, and these were tricky to align straight.
Interestingly this kit includes a lot of extra option stickers for applying at your own discretion. There are 4 different versions of the King of Hearts logo with 2 colour versions (a detailed one and one that resembles the sticker from the old No Grade kits), as well as the full test of the School of the Undefeated of the East (although it's mostly in white, so I have no idea where on the kit you'd fit it. I just used the grey "The east is burning red!" one). All of the stickers are surprisingly legible - you can read where they warn of blast areas or air-intakes, and a few of the stickers really do say "KOH 4711" in incredibly tiny text.
Overall this is easily one of my best builds of all time, and I love what it adds to my G Gundam collection. All that remains is maybe a HG God Gundam, the Master Gundam, and of course, whenever they get around to it (*cough cough*, Bandai), the Bolt Gundam.
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