Gunpla: The RX-75-4 Guntank (SD)

I'll admit to not quite getting the whole "super-deformed" thing, especially in relation to mecha. That is to say the Japanese merchandising practice where a character or concept is given the proportions of a toddler and generally cuteified for the purposes of low cost toys and ancillary media. Maybe it's the same cultural phenomenon that gives us mascots. Maybe there's a technological aspect, such things being much easier to make than a completely faithful recreation, at least at the time, and it stuck. There is a prolific and venerable series of video games "Super Robot Wars", and many lesser known Gundam games that started around the Super Famicom days, which stick with the style. I don't know, perhaps somebody whom actually has lived in Japan could comment? I do however know something about the Guntank, and how it is simultaneously a good and bad candidate for the SD treatment.

So, first a word on this kits background. The Guntank is a self-explanatory mecha from the original Gundam TV series. It was very much a transitional design, having been made by Federation engineers who'd heard of Mobile Suits, but not actually seen one. The Guntank was effectively a scaling up of a tank into something big with arms, pre-empting Battletech, via the whole Core Fighter business omitted in kits like this one. As you might imagine, it wasn't a concept that caught on, although it has its fans. There is after all a place for self-propelled artillery. The reason why it is both a good and bad candidate for SD is that it's not humanoid. You can make it a little cuter, but you can't make it a baby, so what you end up with is an inexpensive model that isn't too far from the serious ones do. SD kits often end up compromising on stuff like articulation, but a Guntank doesn't really move and is a torso atop a rhombus, so no loss? 

This isn't the first SD kit I've messed with, but the last was a very long time ago, so the experience was novel. Dated 2001, it's a very simple affair, both when building it, and from a model -making technology perspective. The quality of the materials for example is notably worse than HG, so watch those pegs, this did not do well when it hit the floor, but you get what you pay for. Plastic colours are largely on point, although it's got easy source material. The main difficulty proved to be chest vents, which defied markers, resulting in the application of stickers instead. There is also a surprisingly detailed cockpit with transparent canopy, although you'd have to paint the dude, and the box demonstrates a rather impractical example. I managed to knock this out in an afternoon, most of that time being panel-line stuff and fixing the chest. And it was a good time. I think I get that appeal: small, cheap, easy builds. Would have another.