WIP: 1/100 MG Gundam Age-1 Normal - Assembly

While waiting for the RG Zaku II pictorial, I decided to unload and snap-fit this beautiful monster - the MG Gundam Age-1 Normal.

Box Art.

The action pose looks familiar...

Here's the construction manual.

I noticed that this pack has newly designed sets of polycaps. Nice!

To start, I constructed to body beginning with the frame.

...followed by some joints...

.,body armor pieces...

This is one of the parts that I liked. On other Master Grade kits, they designed to place the pilot seat inside the frame making it quite harder to paint and sit the pilot.. But on Gundam AGE, they have constructed the pilot seat separately and can easily be removed if you wished to paint the pilot.

More armor parts.

Neck...

Waist...

Body Complete.

Back pack...

Here's (I think) one of the reasons why most Gundam fanatics hated the AGE design - the Car spoiler at the back pack.

Head assembly.

This will be my third encounter in assembling a head design with internal frame. First was the very first Real Grade - RX-78-2, followed by the MG Sinanju.
Impressive!

Head complete.

Here's something new. The Neck assembly - provided to give the Gundam some more realistic head-neck movement. Nice!

Moving on the the Shoulder and Arms assembly...

Excellent part separation!

This is another NEW in Gundam AGE. You are looking at the Manipulator or simply the hand assembly. The center pieces actually comprises the thumb, the wrist on top, and the palm on the right side.

Here's one type of hand assembly - a closed fist. They actually provided more designs which will be shown later.

A completed arm.

Upper body complete!

Skirt armor pieces. This is also another unique feature of Gundam AGE. They designed the skirt armor to support a little movement that is especially useful when doing action poses. Usually, this skirt armor easily falls off on most MG gundams... Nice!

So far so good.

Moving on to the legs and feet assembly. The ankle joint is also new.

Leg assembly. The only thing that's new here is the part separation of the leg internal frame. Most MGs have the entire leg frame constructed as one but in AGE's design, you can easily separate the Thigh armor from the lower leg armor and the joint as well.

Upper leg/thigh assembly.

Lower leg assembly.

One full leg.

See the movement here? Let's try it out!

Gundam AGE-1 standing...I mean balancing on one leg. That is the power of excellent engineering. The entire body assembly can be supported properly thanks to the "cool" frame and joint designs.

Side skirts. This is where the AGE's got its beam sabers.

Shield assembly. And picture taking!

Extra manipulator designs.

Size comparison with the 1/144 RG RX-78-2. The color scheme looked exactly the same. Maybe that's the reason why the AGE was sometimes called the RX-78 rip off.

Balance!

I liked the overall design of the MG Gundam AGE. The construction was unique. Articulation was top-notch and the parts separation was indeed designed for lazy painters like me.

Perhaps I will be getting the other variations such as the Titus and the Spallow. In the meantime...it's bed time!

Thanks for dropping by!