When I come to build a gunpla, I usually have some pre-existing experience with the design. Not with the Demi Trainer here, as I'd somehow managed to not watch any of Gundam: The Witch From Mercury in the 7 months since it came out. An unusual oversight for me. At the time of writing, I'm catching up with G-Witch, as it is short-handed, although I don't have any especially deep opinions on it. I like what it's doing so far, but I'm nowhere near that tonal shift that people like to meme about. Anyway, the Demi Trainer. What is the Demi Trainer? Well, it's more or less what would happen if the chinless wonders at Eaton or Oxford decided they needed giant robot classes. Most of the initial episodes of G-Witch take place at a school for the children of arms companies and the Demi Trainer, is, well, the official trainer mobile suit. People have their own, of course, when/if their often-terrible parental figure provides one, but this is the uniform standard. Such things have existed in the Gundam mythos before of course, but the Demi Trainer is a lot more prominent, as background set dressing goes. It attracted me due to its non-threatening grunt vibe. It's the head more than anything, it's just an uncomplicated and functional design.
As both a product and project, the Demi Trainer is very similar to 30MM kits, especially the Extended Armaments chap I've done recently. It's joints feature no polycaps, the sticker sheet is extremely inoffensive, colour separation is on point, and, of course, there's a weapon set sold separately. As such, it's quite a fun lit that goes together with minimal fuss in an afternoon. Once complete it's nice to look at, and quite posable. This is however let down by the ankle/ foot area, which is rather hollow to look at, and doesn't have much forwards/backwards movement. Instead, the toes and heel can rotate separately from each other in a pretty comprehensive ankle tilt. This, and the occasional limb popping off, make it feel a bit rough around the edges versus some 30MM kits, although possibly I'm being a bit hard on it. It does a few things that are very characterful to compensate. Both the gun and shield mount to hardpoints on the forearms, with a nice solid connection, but these ports are not fixed. Instead the entire forearm rotates. The waist joint is unexpectedly advanced too, with the butt-plate serving as a locking mechanism. Finally, there's the whole "saber stick" and "duelling antenna" business. The G-Witch school, inevitably, has giant robot duels, but it's not to the death, it's until you stoke off your opponents antenna. These two accessories let you practice without using actual weapons.
I had the bright idea to attempt three kinds of weathering and detailing, and maybe they don’t work that well together. I attempted to panel-line and pick out a few bits with black ink, which was alright, but I probably could have just used a marker for the same effect. I used dry-brushing and an ink wash to make it dirty, focusing on the extremities and the obvious points of wear. I know that this is a public schoolboy, so making it dirty possibly goes against the theme, but then the box art has one falling over, let’s pretend its that one.
Yeah, I’m probably gonna get Chuchu’s custom example now...
No comments:
Post a Comment