As I have alluded to in the past, one of the things about the Gundam franchise is that it likes to return to the well. Bandai is very inclined to revisit the original Universal Century and especially the One Year War timeline, bolting on new narratives for a new line of kits. On some level, there's space for this, as your typical Gundam anime features a world war and its aftershocks, but it becomes a failure of realism after a while. People desperately seem to want the Federation and Zeon to go another round, but that can't really happen without skipping forwards a few generations. So what the U.C storyline looks like instead is a series of increasingly spiteful terrorist actions committed by Nazi remnants whom lack the resources for a proper war, with the Federation being required to hold the idiot ball to enable that, until that entire generation finally dies off, and lets their grandkids make new mistakes. It is equal parts bleak and pathetic, and I can't help but see the business practices that created this, rather than any narrative justification. Don't worry, I am edging towards my point. Today's subject, the GM Cannon II is from the OVA Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, set in the gap between the first two Gundam TV shows. 0083 is likely the purest example of the trends I described above, it featuring a Zeon fleet for whom the war hadn't ended, whom steal a nuclear-armed Gundam in an attempt to get bullets firing in anger again. It's been a good while since I last tried to watch it, but 0083 is probably my least favourite of its ilk. It tries very hard to forge new links between the various Gundam instalments, but it's not great as a stand-alone story, with much behind the scenes aggro.
The GM Cannon IIs place in all this is to be a kind of multi-layered nostalgia hit. Its there to take the place of the old Guncannon, whose concept never really made it into the franchise template, as artillery is less cinematic than the series norm. It did inspire the GM Cannon however, which was part of the "gunpla first" Mobile Suit Variations thing, which sought to do things like mine layers and trainers, stuff for the serious scale modeller Gundam had attracted. The GM Cannon II was both a nod to that, and another OVA spin off, War in the Pocket. Specifically, it inherited the armour concept from the Gundam NT1 "Alex", although a little changed, a shield based on the one used by the GM Command sub-family, and some details reminiscent of the Guncannon Mass Production Type I've built previously. It also shares parts with the GM Custom, as does the kit, a walking misnomer that 0083 also features, but that's another story. That also explains the mismatched colours of our subject. As an in-universe concept though, it's probably fair to say that mobile suits like this were ageing into obsolescence. The preponderance and proliferation of energy weapons with the apparent death of Combined Arms Warfare meant there was simply less call for something like this. Mobile suits are basically jet fighters not tanks. The GM Cannon II is however a design I'm inclined to like, fiction be damned. I'm fond of big, chonky bastards that look like they can trade injuries with the best of them.
As far as older kits go, this high grade is pretty good. Its based on polycaps, but the joint design is fairly comprehensive, and almost luxurious in the ankles. There’s actually six(!) hands, with a little stand on one of the runner dto store the spares. You also get two blades for the beam sabre that stores on the left arm, which TBH is exactly the sorta corner you’d expect to be cut. Its main weakness is in the are of colour accuracy, this being one of those designs that has red thrusters and a sticker sheet, which I misplaced at some point. I’d started this kit, forgot about it, and only came back to it when I needed to dogsit for someone. Dunno what I was thinking at the time, its a nice build. When I was snowed-in later that week, I went in to paint some details, use a gundam marker, and apply some weathering techniques.
Its not my most complex work, but job’s a good ‘un.
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