Yeah, I know, where the hell have I been. Like I said last month, I have actually been building lots of things, I just really haven’t had time to take pictures. Winter means it’s usually dark when I’m home and since I rely on daylight for my photoshoots, it’s been hard to find time to snap good photos of my build. I may have to get a photo booth or just live with night pictures for the next few months.

Anyway, while I was waiting for the Skygrasper to go with my PG Strike, I decided I’d build this kit to tide me over. I was also in the middle of painting an MG Banshee Norn, but since I was kind of going through a slump with that one, I figured maybe actually finishing a kit would, I dunno, help me regain my Gunpla mojo.

Also, Real Grades are like crack, and I can’t stop buying them.

The RG comes with the Aile Striker unit, obviously, unlike its PG ancestor, but the parts count still isn’t that crazy. It’s only the 3rd kit in the RG line and still relatively simple.

Note also the small sticker sheet. There’s an obnoxious amount of foil stickers, but only 74 regular markings, not counting multiples. Certainly far less than for the RX 78-2 and the Zaku that immediately preceded this kit.

Partially motivated by this, I decided to try something new and panel line this one. I never did this on Real Grades before – many of them look cluttered as it is, especially once you get the stickers on, and I always thought it was weird to have so many “real” panel lines because of all the parts separation on the armor and combine that with panel lines that are painted on. With hindsight, I’m glad I did it, and at least the Freedom probably could’ve used it too.

The way I decided to go about this was, I panel lined everything on the sprues with liquid ink Gundam markers – black for the blue and the dark red parts, grey for everything else. This seemed by far the fastest way to get the job done, and when you’re using these markers on bare plastic, it’s actually best to let them dry for a while anyway. For some reason, when they’re dry, they wipe off the surfaces more easily than when they’re still wet, and they stick to the panel lines like glue. So I just did basically a pin wash on everything first, then cut the parts loose and wiped off the excess during assembly. By the time I got around to each individual part, it had had enough time to dry to make cleanup really easy.

Once I’d cut all the parts off the sprues, I ended up with this.

The trays contain the parts for the Aile Striker and the weapons, the rest is sorted by the steps in the instructions. It took about four hours to get here, and those four hours weren’t particularly enjoyable, but then again, they were followed by 90 minutes of uninterrupted assembly, so that part was really fun, and I’ll probably build all my RGs like this from now on.

Now stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but the build starts with the feet.

As you can see, they look nice (note the color separation on the soles) and consist of quite a few parts. As usual, though, articulation becomes virtually nonexistent once you get the armor on. Y’know, it’s an RG, so… yeah. That’s what happens.

The legs are one of my favorite things about any version of the Strike, so I was really looking forward to the next step, and it didn’t disappoint.

There’s not as much going on here as on the PG – the way the knee armor moves is far more simple, and the side pistons aren’t connected to the ankles. But the legs still look really, really nice with all the parts separation and the inner frame showing through the gaps. Right about here I also realized that panel lining this kit was a good idea as there’s tons of small detail on every armor part that pops nicely once it’s lined and adds to the mechanical feel of the legs.

The skirts are also relatively involved – each of them consists of two parts, and the side skirts have three because of the opening hatch for the Armor *snicker* Schneiders.

And I swear, you guys, this was the first build I documented with my new phone, and it did that thing where only the feet are in focus again. Both phones are Samsung. Do Koreans have a foot fetish? Sigh.

The shoulders are a disappointment, I’m afraid.

It’s ok that they’re this simple because they don’t really have to do anything, but they just look blocky and ugly. In fairness, there’s another part for each of them, but they don’t tell you to do this until you plug the arms into the torso – it’s the contraption on top that folds out where the add-on parts attach that come with the Skygrasper.

The arms aren’t all that hot either. Of course this is kind of inherent to the design of the Strike, but to me they look like a bunch of dice stacked on top of each other. That straight line down the front really is a bit much.

Also, the closed fists on the B sprue are the usual cat’s paw hands that nobody in their right mind would want to use, and since there aren’t any other options, you’re stuck with the articulated hands. And no, I won’t stop saying that those are ugly. Because they’re ugly.

The torso’s next, and I’m happy to report that it’s very detailed and much less frustrating to build than the PG’s torso.

I also still think the Aile Strike looks like a Camaro that thinks it’s a robot that transforms into a plane. Just, y’know, for the record.

Other than the opening cockpit hatch revealing the usual empty pilot seat, the torso doesn’t do anything, but it doesn’t need to – it’s just where you plug in the Aile Striker, after all.

The head is next, and, well, what can I say – it’s a Real Grade head, so you know what to expect.

Everything’s molded in the correct colors, and the detail is great. Like on the Freedom, though, the camera piece is inexplicably molded in clear plastic instead of the blue shown on the box, so you’ll have to paint it if you want accuracy. I skipped that this time because I’m still miffed about how dark it came out looking on the Freedom.

I also have to say that looking at the kit in real life, I don’t really think the head’s too big. That’s a common complaint about this one, and looking at pictures I always kind of agreed, but now that I’m looking at it on my shelf, it’s really fine.

Anyway, since I have the PG sans Skygrasper, of course the Aile Striker was the main attraction for me. It was getting late at this point, but no way was I going to stop without getting to see the suit with the wings on.

Speaking of the wings, for a pair of what’s basically straight airplane wings, they do consist of a lot of parts, which of course means they look really nice.

Up next are the boosters, which are also very detailed. They also come with a bunch of foil stickers that go behind those red grills, if you’re into that sort of thing. I didn’t use them.

And once the boosters are done, you plug it all together and your Aile Striker pack is done.

Now here’s the real shocker. You see that? No, not Gravelord Nito in the background. The kit is standing up straight. Only leaning forward a little. With that giant backpack on. I don’t know how that’s physically possible, but I saw ‘er with my own eyes, mister.

Now, accessories. The instructions actually tell you to build these before the Aile Striker, but I skipped ahead and then built the weapons the next day.

It’s not much – you get two beam saber effect parts, closed fist and articulated hands, the beam rifle, the Armor-Schneiders (no, I didn’t type that without giggling), the shield and the usual action base connector. It all looks very nice, but it’s not perfect.

The camera piece for the gun is also molded in clear plastic, and attaching said gun to the hand is a massive pain because the tab that folds out is so loose that you end up folding it back in instead of getting it into the palm about a dozen times before it works. There’s a trigger finger hand that comes with the Skygrasper set, but that doesn’t work either.

I also don’t like how the beam saber handles that go on the back are dummies and you have to store the real ones that actually go in the hands separately, especially because you only get two of the top pieces that the blade effect part plugs into, so you have to swap them out if you want to pose the kit with the sabers. Just seems like a totally unnecessary omission to me. And finally, while the Armor-Schneiders are actually better than their PG counterparts (they’re two separate pieces instead of the pre-molded stupidity on the PG), the hands can’t hold them for shit, which is why there are no pictures here with them.

Poseability is ok, but those side skirts do get in the way of a lot of leg movement, I’m afraid. Somehow, though, probably because of the backpack, almost every pose you do with this kit looks really cool.

As you can see, I did end up using a good number of those foil stickers for the wings, and for some unfathomable reason I actually quite like them. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.

Anyway, I’ll have another blog coming about the RG Strike someday – I also bought the Skygrasper with all the extra weapons, but there’s so much in there that it really does warrant a separate entry.

Meanwhile, do I recommend this kit? Absolutely. Other than the shitty hands, it’s very solid without sacrificing poseability – one of the least fragile RGs that I’ve built for sure. Of course if you’ve never liked the Strike or generally refuse to buy SEED kits, this one won’t change your mind, but I happen to be a fan of this particular design, and the RG is a very nice representation. In fact, I have a second one that I plan to detail paint and matte coat.