Gundam Model Kits

As expected, the head design is somewhat similar to that of the Strike’s. Modeled in correct colors, and unlike the 1/100 Justice Gundam, the little gray sections on the sides of the face come as a single separate gray piece, freeing us die-hard color-righteous fans from the pains of having to delicately paint such small sections. Naturally, you get stickers for the eyes and sensors, but they can easily be replaced by a two-second paint job, given the correct tools and the common sense of painting the pieces before you put the model together. The head vulcans are easily painted with a silver Gundam paint marker.

Torso

The torso itself is void of gimmicks like the head, and it only needs touch-up paint if you like to paint the insides of the chest vents black for extra detail (like I did). The machine cannons are also pretty easy to paint with a silver Gundam paint marker. The only uncolored part of the chest is the upside-down triangle symbol on the back, which is also easy to paint with a yellow marker. Unfortunately, the flexible sideways-turning shoulder joint design seen in the early GAT series kits was not designed into this kit, giving it less shoulder posing ability. The thrusters, for painting fans like me, offer a slight challenge in painting the inner sides of the thrusters red while painting the actual thruster nozzle black (this idea may sound a little confusing in words, but other painters out there should get the idea). The wings sadly come in only one color: blue. The kit comes with black stickers for the wings, but they just don’t look right compared to a painter’s touch. The wings also come complete with the HiMAT mode function, allowing the wings to split into ten different wings, making for some great poses. Unfortunately, the plasma cannons, which are stored in the wings, can’t be deployed in the HiMAT mode. The cannons, when deployed, come up and over the Freedom’s shoulders. The cannons come in only two colors, black and white. The little lines of red between the white and black pieces don’t have stickers, so paint is required.

Arms

Unfortunately, there isn’t anything unique about the arms. Single-joint posing in the elbows, giving the elbows a mere 90 degrees of movement. The hand design requires that you take apart the hand to hold the beam rifle, but if you’re careful, it isn’t that bad. The shoulder armor doesn’t get in the way of poses, and it looks cool too.

Legs

Because the knees have two bending joints, the Freedom’s legs can be bent at a near-135 degree angle. The skirt slightly hinders the leg posing. The foot design is made so the heel of the foot can come out of the foot itself, making it so that the Freedom’s legs can bend forward at the feet at a 45-degree angle for some nice leaning poses. The thrusters on the back of the legs don’t have any movement themselves, but the covers can be left up or down, just to show whether they’re being used or not.

Weapons and Accessories

Beam rifle- The beam rifle sensor comes in a clear plastic part, and the blue lines can be complete with blue stickers, but a blue paint marker job definitely looks better. The fore grip can also swivel for a two-handed rifle pose if you can get the arms to the right position.
Shield- The Freedom’s shield itself possesses a nice design, but the handle can only be removed, not laid down like the 1/100 High Grade Duel’s shield handle, although the handle can be moved up and down the back of the shield. The shield comes with the hole in the right side for the beam rifle of course, but it’s difficult to get the pose just right to get the rifle barrel in the hole.
Beam sabers- The beam sabers can be sheathed on top of the side armor just like in the anime. There are a pair of small hooks in the armor that hold the beam sabers in place, although they can rattle a little at times. The beam sabers come in only white and there aren’t any stickers for them, so painting is required for that black stripe that goes around the saber near the base. Of course, the beam sabers come complete with the clear red beams. The sabers can also be connected end-to-end for the double-ended beam saber from the anime, but a special piece is needed to connect the two ends. A special third hand comes with the kit, which is better suited to holding the beam sabers than the beam rifle hand.
Plasma cannons- The plasma cannons in the wings can fold out over the shoulders just like in the anime, but they don’t o anything besides sitting there for poses, naturally. The plasma cannons only come in two colors, white and black, without stickers, so the little blue and red colored areas need a paint job.
Rail cannons- The rail cannons fold out of the side armor just like in the anime as well. Little grips in the outer sides of the armor can fold out to be held by the Freedom’s hands. The rail cannons come in three colors, gray, red, and black, so there isn’t any need to paint unless you want to paint the indents and vents black. There is just one area that needs to be painted red, and that’s the vent at the back of the rail cannon, but a sticker comes for that (of course I painted it instead).
Head vulcans- Naturally, there’s nothing really special about these except for them being another little tidbit for devoted painters and a silver paint marker.
Machine cannons- Although they weren’t used in the anime, the Freedom comes with a pair of chest mounted machine cannons. There’s nothing really special about these either, except for painting.

Conclusion

All in all, the 1/100 High Grade Freedom Gundam lived up to my expectations. There aren’t any loose hinges or connectors which I have come to expect from 1/100 High Grade Gundam Wing kits. All the cannons can be deployed for the full-open attack made famous by the anime. This is the kind of model that’ll quench any fan’s thirst for the Freedom Gundam, at least until the Master Grade comes out. I only have one piece of advice, and this advice holds for all models, including Perfect Grades: get a set of Gundam paint markers. Gundam models look best when they’re fully detailed with paint, and paint markers are the best thing in paint ever made. They come at about 2 dollars per marker plus about 5 dollars or so for shipping, and they last for a long time. They also come in sets as well. (Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars)

Contributor: Shinji Asagi

General and Technical Data
Series: High Grade (HG) 1/100 Release Date: 07/2003 Price: ¥ 2200