Kit Review

Straight build + partial paint + panel lining

The universal standard for size comparison — next to a cigarette pack. It's quite a big one.

Upper body close-up

HGUC S-Gundam - You can remove the beam smart gun accessories on both sides and attach beam cannons instead. The MG S-Gundam

You can remove the beam smart gun accessories on both sides and attach beam cannons instead.
The MG S-Gundam left a lot of people unhappy for not including these beam cannons, but the HGUC has both. ^^

HGUC S-Gundam - Articulation is roughly... this level — not great at all. There are so many angle restrictions that it's real

Articulation is roughly... this level — not great at all. There are so many angle restrictions that it's really hard to get good poses.

Beam saber action pose

Beam smart gun action pose

--- Partial paint close-ups ---

HGUC S-Gundam - 1. Red on the center of the head antenna 2. Camera green (no sticker included..) 3. Yellow on the sides of th

1. Red on the center of the head antenna 2. Camera green (no sticker included..) 3. Yellow on the sides of the head

4. Red on the wing mounted on the shoulder 5. Black inside the shoulder verniers 6. Black on the inner arms

HGUC S-Gundam - 7. Black on the knee parts 8. Black on the legs and top of feet 9. Yellow on the ankle verniers 10. Blacks on

7. Black on the knee parts 8. Black on the legs and top of feet 9. Yellow on the ankle verniers
10. Blacks on the smart gun support 11. Black on the side beam cannons, green on the center verniers

HGUC S-Gundam - 12. Black in the center of the large beam cannon on the backpack 13. Red on the rear skirt wings 14. Four gre

12. Black in the center of the large beam cannon on the backpack 13. Red on the rear skirt wings
14. Four green spots on the stabilizers

Before and after partial paint (front)

Before and after partial paint (rear)

A shot alongside the HGUC RX-78, which serves as the standard size reference. The S-Gundam is seriously big!

HGUC S-Gundam - Together with the MG S-Gundam. Both look great. ^^ Taking this photo reminds me again — the MG S-Gundam reall

Together with the MG S-Gundam. Both look great. ^^
Taking this photo reminds me again — the MG S-Gundam really is an outstanding kit in every way, from its imposing presence to its overall quality.

It's almost the same size as the Wing Early Ver.Ka, which is the smallest kit in the MG lineup.

Straight build photos before panel lining

HGUC S-Gundam - The included Core Fighter. The molded color separation is barely there. Bleh... (I accidentally assembled it

The included Core Fighter. The molded color separation is barely there. Bleh...
(I accidentally assembled it upside down — my apologies ^^:)

Sentinel mobile suits have started getting added to the HGUC lineup. Kicking things off is the Superior Gundam (S-Gundam) base form — and it came out with a somewhat... iffy level of quality.

First off, this is not a kit you should expect much from in terms of molded colors. The Sentinel series mobile suits designed by Mr. Katoki have notoriously complex color schemes to begin with. In other words, the scale limitations make it really hard to nail the official colors through parts separation alone, and as a result this 1/144 HGUC S-Gundam has a ton of spots where the official colors just aren't there. (If you compare the straight build photos above with the partially painted version, you'll notice quite a difference — the head antenna, the side ducts, the inner arms, the tops of the feet, the knees, and so on... the official colors just aren't represented in all sorts of nooks and crannies. Even I, someone who usually just does panel lining after a straight build, ended up doing partial painting on this one. All told, I painted around 30-odd spots with enamel paints — blacks, reds, greens, you name it. My painting pace is pretty slow, so it took me about 3–4 days of roughly 2 hours each after work just for the painting. I'm not sure about the other colors, but I mixed my own yellow for the ankle verniers and it came out a bit too dark, so the balance is off. Please don't look too closely ^^; (Saying that probably just makes you want to find it even more~)

As you can see in the photos, the included Core Fighter looks like absolutely zero effort was put into it. -.-; Well... if you just ignore the whole concept of official colors, it might not be a kit with terrible color combinations per se... but Sentinel straight-build fans are probably going to be disappointed. So this is a kit I'd really recommend only to people who are planning to paint it — at least partially.

Articulation... is pretty low. You can pretty much assume there are barely any action poses that actually look convincing. The transformation feature was also dropped, so it's a bit of a shame that the articulation ended up this poor anyway. The arms are passable, but the legs and feet have very obvious articulation limits. If they were already giving up on transformation due to the small scale, it would've been nice if the articulation at least came out better — that's a real shame. The articulation feels almost like an old-school kit... though the proportions are way better than the old one. ^^

On top of that, the arm joints are stiff, but the leg joints — which really need to be sturdy — are a bit flimsy, so if you don't pose it carefully it'll just topple backwards. T_T The various connected parts throughout the body tend to be a bit loose when you're trying to hold a pose, so you never get that crisp, locked-in feeling. That's one of the most disappointing aspects of this kit.

Looking back at the review now, it seems like I've just listed nothing but flaws... The strengths, though, are the proportions and detail that are far superior to the old kit. Even with the lacking official color representation, if you do some partial painting — or just carefully pose it without letting it fall apart — it's actually a really nice-looking kit. (The Sentinel series in general tends to be like that, honestly.) And since the S-Gundam itself is such a big, imposing machine to begin with, even at 1/144 scale it has the bulk to go toe-to-toe with 1/100 kits, which is a big plus.
But the biggest selling point is simply the fact that it's just a good-looking machine. ^^:

There are quite a few downsides (especially those knee joints — I really hate them!), but since I personally love the Sentinel series so much, once I dressed it up and got it into a nice pose I'm reasonably happy with it — that said, if you're not a Sentinel fan, this isn't really a kit I'd recommend. ^^;

HGUC S-Gundam | 2001. 9 | ¥1,800

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.