Kit Review

Straight build + panel lining + partial painting

The universal standard — size comparison with a cigarette box.

The lineup looks pretty substantial.

HG Strike Rouge + I.W.S.P. - Just like the original Strike, the head antenna and the dark gray areas scattered around the bod

Just like the original Strike, the head antenna and the dark gray areas scattered around the body need partial painting.
I botched the pink color matching, so it looks a bit off. T_T

Maybe because of the small scale, the color separation on the weapons is pretty lacking.

HG Strike Rouge + I.W.S.P. - The weapons after partial painting. The pink color matching on the standard shield still looks t

The weapons after partial painting. The pink color matching on the standard shield still looks totally out of place;;

The massive I.W.S.P. — the wingspan is quite impressive.

HG Strike Rouge + I.W.S.P. - The I.W.S.P. has great color separation, and the wing sections are all handled with white seals.

The I.W.S.P. has great color separation, and the wing sections are all handled with white seals.
Luckily the seals have a nice matte-ish finish, so I passed on partial painting.

Rear view of the I.W.S.P. The verniers are faithfully represented too.

Side view.

Bottom view. The overall detail is really quite good.

Strike Rouge in normal state.

The articulation is of course identical to the existing HG Strike.

Action po~se!

HG Strike Rouge + I.W.S.P. - One of the biggest highlights of the Rouge + I.W.S.P. pack is the Combined Shield with its Gatli

One of the biggest highlights of the Rouge + I.W.S.P. pack is the Combined Shield with its Gatling gun.

All 6 front attack units pointing in one direction! Looks incredibly powerful.

HG Strike Rouge + I.W.S.P. - Remove the top section of the Combined Shield and you can use the beam boomerang. A translucent

Remove the top section of the Combined Shield and you can use the beam boomerang.
A translucent soft pink beam part for the beam boomerang is also included.

Action pose with the massive dual blades, said to be 9.1 meters long.

The abundance of weapons gives it a really powerful presence.

Alongside the existing HG Aile Strike.

Quite a difference in wing size!

There's quite a difference in volume between the Strike pack and the I.W.S.P. pack.

Ta-da~ Here they are with their weapon packs swapped!

Aile Strike Rouge

I.W.S.P. Strike Gundam

Even with the weapon packs swapped, they both look great.

HG Strike Rouge + I.W.S.P. - The leftover head parts from the color separation. These are the kind of parts you usually end u

The leftover head parts from the color separation.
These are the kind of parts you usually end up losing, so maybe they'll find a use somewhere...

Straight build — front view.

Straight build — rear view.

The Gundam SEED MSV series has kicked off in HG 1/144 scale. Leading the charge is the Strike Rouge + I.W.S.P. — the Strike Rouge that appears in the latter half of the anime, now packaged with the I.W.S.P. (Integrated Weapons Strike Pack).

The Strike Rouge itself is just the existing HG Strike Gundam body re-released in different molded colors, so the articulation, structure, color separation — everything is identical. The head antenna and the dark gray areas scattered around the body still lack color separation, so partial painting was needed. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get the pink to match properly, so I just slapped some paint on and the result looks a bit off — just bear with it (^^;). The pink molded color is decent enough on its own, though the MG Rouge is definitely a step up in quality. (Well, given the price difference~)

The I.W.S.P. is much bulkier than the old Aile pack and packs a much wider variety of weapons — it comes with two large 115mm cannons and two machine guns built in, plus two massive 9.1-meter blades stored inside. The Combined Shield mounted on the left arm features a Gatling gun and a beam boomerang, and a separate soft translucent pink beam part is included to represent the beam boomerang effect.

The color separation on the I.W.S.P. body itself is nearly perfect — the white and gray areas are divided up really well. The white on the wing sections is handled with white seals as usual, but rather than those cheap shiny stickers, these have a paper-like semi-matte feel that looks great once applied. So after debating whether to paint them, I just passed~ Even straight out of the straight build, the colors match the design specs nicely. The two 115mm cannons on top can move up, down, and side to side across a fairly wide range, and the lower wings can also articulate about 70 degrees. The I.W.S.P. is of course compatible with the HG Aile pack as well, and as shown in the photos above, you can swap them between kits.

With such an abundance of weapons, this kit really shines in fully-armed action poses. Aside from the slight pressure of needing some partial painting, the overall kit quality is very clean, and for anyone tired of the Aile pack, the I.W.S.P. itself should be a pretty exciting item. It's one of those kits where the weapon pack is actually more appealing than the main body. ^^

HG Strike Rouge + I.W.S.P. | 2004. 10 | ¥1,500

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.