HG 1/144 Gundam Astraea Type F Review - Part 1

"Astraea is officially War Machine!" - Z
Price: 1800 Yen

I finally found some free time currently so I thought I better post up the first part of the review since the photos have already been taken for a while already. I have yet to take the required photos for the next part however so that will have to wait. Nonetheless, let's go on with the first part.

GNY-001F - Gundam Astraea Type F
Pilot: Fon Spaak
Faction: Fereshete
Height: 18.3m
Weight: 55.1t
Arms: GN Launcher, GN Beam Saber (2), GN Beam Rifle, Proto GN Sword, GN Shield, GN Hand Missile, GN Beam Pistol (2), *NGN Bazooka, GN Hammer
*NGN stands for Non-GN which means that the bazooka is able to use physical shells without the need of using GN particles. It can, however, use it to enhance its effectiveness IIRC (credit to the Gundam Animesuki forums).

About the Gundam:
Unlike the Gundam Astraea Type F and F2 seen in 00F, the one depicated here is actually the Black Gundam Astraea which is fitted with a fake solar furnace AKA GN Drive Tau. After the final battle in 00F, it seems that Fon steals that Black Gundam Astraea and made it his own since his own Astraea is not usable anymore (due to the need of giving back the original solar furnace to Celestial Being). As for its ridiculous amount of armaments... it looks like Fon has been happily scavenging lots of places lately...

Part 1: Box

Lots of stuff on the box itself thanks to the Astraea being quite heavily armed.

Part 2: Box Open!

A good amount of runners to greet you once you open the box which relates to the price rather well IMHO.

Some shots of the manual. It has a total of 10 pages which is the same amount that the 007SG also had. Both of them are heavily armed but this Astraea is packing lotsa guns instead.

Part 3: Runners

As you can see above, all of Exia's runners are here minus the rubber parts. So, if you want, you can make Exia from this kit (though I don't think its something you would do under normal circumstances). You can, however, enjoy the "extra weapons". XD

I'm digging the red colors as well as the translucent green parts for the GN Hammer. Very nice part separation for these new parts as well.
From the close-up shot of the runners above, you will notice that the F runner totally reads out "HG 1/144 Gundam Astraea" which tells you that the normal Astraea will follow suit (which is does and will soon be released). The G runner also reads "HG 1/144 00 Weapons Set" (may be wrong with the Kanji there).

Too bad Bandai didn't color in those clear parts translucent green even though it is quite possible as those parts are only meant to be green. Can't complain much though since I'll only be using one of them for the chest since I prefer the normal Type F than the Type F2.

Hey, look at that, beam parts for the beam saber! From the initial promotional photos, most of us were worried that Bandai would cheap out and just let us use the toothpick saber from the B runner but luckily they gave us the beam parts in the end. Good, good. =)

A good amount of stickers are also given. I'm actually quite happy that Bandai did this since I do not have a brown-ish paint to paint in the parts that need it. I was thinking of getting a specific color GM for that but was unable to.

Part 4: Building Process Part 4.1: Preparations & Exia's Parts

I accidentally painted them ALL and I only used the chest orb. What a... mistake? Ah well, I'll just let them be. Kinda sad that I'm not using them since I think these are probably the best I've done. ^^;

While I was waiting for the paint to dry, I took some close-up shots of the Exia parts as well. As shown by other reviews, you can indeed build a bloody red Exia though it might look quite awkward since the colors are not contrasted properly for Exia.

Part 4.2: Torso

New parts at the vents, the chest fins and the cockpit hatch. I really like how sharp the chest fins are but I didn't sharpen them in the end (even though I could). I kinda like it at default. Oddly enough, Bandai didn't give any foil stickers for the GN Drive exhausts which they do give for the 1/100. I opt to paint them with the metallic green Gundam Marker in the end as well as for the chest vents to follow the box-art.

Part 4.3: Head

A green face mask. Different from the supposed black face mask but I don't dislike it. However, you can argue that Bandai is being sleezy with the color accuracy here.
As you may have noticed, I'm using the Type F2's V-Fin which I think looks pretty awesome WITHOUT painting the tips yellow. It doesn't have an excess blunt point that most HG V-Fins have which was a pleasant surprise so no sharpening was needed for it. =D

I decided to paint roughly the GN Cables on the helmet. It is a little messy but I am quite satisfied with the outcome (I darkened it with a purple permanent marker in the third pic). Better than a bare red helmet, I guess. XP

Part 4.4: Arms

Did you guys noticed anything from the above shots? No, not the shoulder section, look at the elbow section, the part where the "GN Cap" is. Its gray! It is supposed to be brown! -.-
I am disappoint Bandai, quite disappointed. Then again, you'll probably won't otice the error much when you start to fully arm it.

Part 4.5: Legs

Can't do much for the feet without that brown paint. Nonetheless, it looks alright with minimal panel lining.

The color inaccuracy follow suit for the "GN Cap" near the knees. Lazy Bandai. This won't be a problem when the normal Astraea is released later on but come on...
I'm also not too happy that they didn't use the updated hip connection that the Exia R2 uses. I guess Bandai just cheap it out by using the original connection which is not all that bad but not good enough. =/

Part 4.6: Waist

I decided to paint the thrusters with metallic green as well. However, foil stickers should have been given for this since the 1/100 has them for this section. I do have to note that you should be careful whenever you touch the waist section as those beam saber pegs may break as the connection is pretty small and thin.

Part 4.7: Armaments

Very straightforward build. I like how the connection of the Proto GN Sword is done as it allows you to equip it at either side of the arms, not just the right arm. Neat. If you have two Astraeas, you know what you can do. As you can see, the shield has a longer connector which is most likely due to the "GN Cap" making the arm area a little wider.

The big guns are nicely molded and the launcher is quite articulated. The brown handle doesn't seem right though... but looking back at the box shots, it seems to be right.

I don't think these needs much explanations from the pics above but I will.
The GN Hand Missile connects pretty much like how Kyrios's GN Sub-machinegun does. It can be hand-held or attached to the side of the arms. Good little gimmick to free up the hands allowing the Gundam to hold more weapons at a time (which the Astraea Type F here is shown to do).
The brown round parts there are for the side of the legs which allows you to put the GN Hammer and GN beam Rifle on standby when not in hand use.
I also find the GN Hammer to be a little loose when connected to the handle. It is quite fine with the wire however. So be careful if you decide to put the it on the sides or on the arms on standby as the ball may plop off.

Part 5: Preview
Okay, that's all for now. From what you have just read, you can hear quite a lot of complaints from me. It is actually not that bad even though there are some color inaccuracies but lets see how it fares by then end of this review.

Until the next post~