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0 I’ve been a pretty casual fan of the Gundam franchise since childhood. Upon discovering Mobile Suit Gundam Wing one night on Toonami, it’s been something I’ve enjoyed on and off for more than two decades. Recently, I’ve started watching Gundam 00 and decided it was finally time to get my first Gunpla! As someone who’s been building and collecting various LEGO kits over the years (much to my wife’s dismay), and finding constructing them gives my mental health a big old boost, it was time to give Gunpla a go. Short for Gundam Plastic models, these require a bit more care and attention than LEGO sets. Unfortunately, I’m pretty clumsy with fiddly things. Which likely meant I would probably end up getting frustrated and scrapping the kit halfway through.
So, join me in my very first Gunpla kit build! As you’ve already seen by the title, I opted for the High Grade variant of Dynames. Whilst all the mechs in 00 are incredibly well-designed, it was Dynames that caught my attention. You can’t get much cooler than a colossal sniping robot, can you?
Dynames, Lockon Stratos, Targeted and Firing!
There seems to be a model kit for every Gundam and their variants in existence. As well as different grades for each one! If you know a thing or two about Gunpla, I’d love to get your thoughts on some of your favourite builds! Or maybe even a recommendation for my potential second kit?
In addition to hearing your opinions, I’d really appreciate some tips when it comes to removing nubs and panel lining. Let me know in the comments below!
The Right Space & Tools
A quick clearing of my desk and some inexpensive tool purchases later, and I was ready to start! Since this is my first Gunpla, I wasn’t going to splash out on costly tools. As it turns out, some nippers, a craft knife, tweezers, and a file were more than enough! I also decided to pick up some marker pens so I could try panel lining. Oh, and a big thank you to the owner of Kidultverse for talking me through the basics of panel lining. They also recommended which pens would be best suited for the HG Dynames. I’d definitely recommend checking out their website!
Getting Started
Okay, I’ve rambled on long enough; time to start building! At first, the instruction book that comes with the kit looked a little overwhelming. Not only do I not know any Japanese, but there were several symbols that I didn’t understand. Thankfully, many of them are pretty self-explanatory once I got going, and the others I just looked up online.
So, starting with the torso, I cautiously took my first snips using the nippers! I cut way too close to the torso piece, which was my first mistake. Fortunately, the white hid most of the stress marks, and I cleaned it up as best I could by whittling away with the craft knife. After a few more pieces, the torso was starting to take shape! I was surprised at how well the parts fit together and felt much more solid than I was anticipating.
Then came time for the first set of stickers, and oh boy did I struggle with these tiny things! I ended up scratching the black, circular centre sticker, and had to peel off the edge stickers a few times before they were finally aligned correctly. Well, as correctly as my fat hands were going to make them! I did try using tweezers, but found they didn’t help in keeping them neat.
Before I knew it, the torso was complete! As you can see in the images below, it’s already looking a little worse for wear. With stress marks, wonky stickers, and a piece I placed upside down (which I wouldn’t realise until the model was almost done). Still, that was part one finished; hurray for me!
Finishing the Upper Body
Next came the head, which was pretty awkward to build thanks to my poor fine motor skills. And don’t even get me started on those minuscule stickers! Having to curve the eye sticker around the front and top of the head was a bit of a disaster, to say the least. Lucky for me, once all the armour was in place, you couldn’t actually see the dodgy placement of the eye decals. Then the inevitable happened when getting rid of some nubs around the green armour parts. I cut my index finger after being too careless, which is never fun!
Once the bleeding had stopped, it was time to finish off the upper body by assembling the arms. These were less fiddly than the head, and I had a lot less trouble assembling them. Once the upper body had all been connected, I stopped to really get a good look at the model thus far. Needless to say, I was impressed by the level of detail on a relatively small figure!
Before moving on, I decided to do my first bit of panel lining. Starting with the sniper rifle, I was actually kind of pleased with how it turned out. The black pen on the weapon’s grey plastic added a lot of detail, and the lines were straight enough that it didn’t look a mess. This all went out the window when I added detail to the body! I didn’t want to spend too much time on the detailing, as it’s rare that I’m happy with anything I’ve done, and I’d end up redoing it forever!
Is This Legs?
I was in the swing of things by this point, so the legs would be simple enough, surely? It’s just the same thing twice; what could go wrong? Well, nothing major, thankfully! I did manage to cut my thumb and made a pretty poor showing of the panel lining, but we’ll just ignore that.
These were possibly the most complex parts of the model so far, as the amount of articulation required a lot of internal pieces. Having said that, the actual building was fairly straightforward, and reading the instructions had quickly become second nature. This time around, the stickers were much simpler due to them being rectangular, although I was still haunted by the eye stickers! It was onto the rear engines next, which would form the base that the legs and body connected to.
With the panel lining on the legs finished (again, a bit of a mess), Dynames was ready to assemble, and the finish line was in sight! Once the main body was built, it was really cool to see what was once loads of pieces stuck to runners finally formed into an actual figure. Oh, and the rear engines I’d just finished made Dynames look like it’s got some junk in the trunk.
Dynames is Complete!
So, Dynames’ body was complete; it was just the shield pieces to build, and I was finished! One final cut finger and a quick assembly later, and I’d done it: I’d built my very first Gunpla! These shield parts had a great amount of articulation. Being able to hide the main body behind them made Dynames look like a green, robotic Batman.
After trying out different poses, it became pretty apparent that the stands you can buy separately are almost essential for getting your new Gunpla to stay upright. I managed to get Dynames to stay still long enough to take the images below, but it constantly fell over when placed on my shelf. Although it was quite difficult to pose, I was surprised at how sturdy the finished thing was! I had expected it to be brittle and snap in places if I messed around with it too much, but I was wrong! It did eventually stay standing on my shelf, and is now a permanent addition next to all my other statues, figures, and whatnot.
Final Thoughts
In closing, I had a lot of fun building my first Gunpla. As I mentioned at the start, creating things does something to my weird brain, and this was no different. It was satisfying seeing the model slowly go from parts on a few runners, to a fully-fledged replica of the Dynames from the anime. I absolutely need more practice, especially with panel lining, but the approximately four hours spent with this kit were a blast.
Would I be ordering more model kits in the near future? Absolutely!
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