Gundam Wing Mechanics Questions

[Zball]

The Heavyarms Kai in EW uses traditional projectile weaponry. The discharged casings clearly say "Full Metal Jacket". This is all based upon my viewings from a decade ago, however.

[AmuroNT1]

Alright, lemme see...

EW Gundam's official names: Right now they seem to be going with Wing Zero (EW Ver.), Deathscythe Hell (EW Ver.), etc. "Custom" was, as mentioned, was simply just a placeholder to distinguish the Katoki and Okawara versions. As for Altron (EW), "Gundam Nataku" seems to be a viable alternate nickname, since I only ever saw "Altron Gundam Custom" once, that being in Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden. The Serpent is simply the Serpent; not quite sure why they named it "Custom", unless they were nodding to the idea that Barton took Treize's original design and mucked about with it.

Dobergun: Officially it's a shell-firing weapon, but I've always operated on the assumption that they animated it as a beam in order to let them re-use beam animations. Yes, I know it's cynical, but there you go.

Heavyarms Kai: The scene domino mentions quite distinctly shows "G-Metal Jacket" embossed on the shell casings that drop down next to Heavyarms. Besides, making e-caps in the form of standard shell casings would be insanely inefficient.

Sandrock Kai: The Shotel handles are on a track that allows them to flip around 180 degrees; this is clearly illustrated in all the merchandise and video games. For example, here's the 1/100 model manual:
http://www.1999.co.jp/itbig03/10031584z5.jpg

Deathscythe Hell: The cloak is still a shield, and is still beam-reinforced using technology from Mercurius. Duo just didn't use it as such for whatever reason, possibly because the EW version's cloak is much more restrictive. As for turning invisible, it's not certain, but I would say "yes", considering that for all intents and purposes, the TV and EW Gundams are the same thing, and unless a feature is specifically shown to be removed, it's best to assume it's intact.

Flight: This one's actually kind of interesting. Back in episode 3 of the TV show, Zechs says of Shenlong that flying isn't its strong suit. That distinct wording lead me to believe that it CAN fly, it's just not very good at it. All five original Gundams are configured for ground combat, but Wing is the only one explicitly shown to be designed to fly. It's entirely possible that the other four can fly (under the "put enough thrust behind it" principle), but doing so is an incredible waste of fuel and energy, so in the long run it makes more sense to save fuel for boosted jumps and use stolen transports for long-distance travel.

[domino]

While the ammo for the chest gatling guns may be stored in the back of the Heavyarms kai (EW)'s torso/back.....it doesn't explain where the ammo for the two dual arm gatlings is it unless those huge things around the handles are the ammo drums.

Eitherway, with the ammo stored as it is, the Heavyarms Kai CANNOT have much ammo at all if it's using only shell-firing ammunition.

[JEFFPIATT]

While the ammo for the chest gatling guns may be stored in the back of the Heavyarms kai (EW)'s torso/back.....it doesn't explain where the ammo for the two dual arm gatlings is it unless those huge things around the handles are the ammo drums.

Eitherway, with the ammo stored as it is, the Heavyarms Kai CANNOT have much ammo at all if it's using only shell-firing ammunition.

This is Gundam wing the inventor of modern plot armor Heavyarms only runs out of ammo when the plot requires it to in EW.
I always considered the "Custom" was placed on the serpent box was a mistake in translation where some one in the bandai us toy arm thought all the EW MS were meant to end in custom. remember this was the same division of bandai who did a toy ad where the RX-78GP01 received backup from the GP02 and a print ad where UC MS were fighting in events from gundam wing.

[SNT1]

This is Gundam wing the inventor of modern plot armor Heavyarms only runs out of ammo when the plot requires it to in EW.

If Trowa pilots anything, it always runs out of ammo, end of. He ran a beam rifle out of ammo, which is hard to do with most weapons in Gundam.

I always considered the "Custom" was placed on the serpent box was a mistake in translation where some one in the bandai us toy arm thought all the EW MS were meant to end in custom. remember this was the same division of bandai who did a toy ad where the RX-78GP01 received backup from the GP02 and a print ad where UC MS were fighting in events from gundam wing.

I don't know who started this "Bandai US" baloney regardng Serpent Custom, but I guess Japan sells USA-spec Serpent gunpla...

[HalfDemonInuyasha]

This is Gundam wing the inventor of modern plot armor Heavyarms only runs out of ammo when the plot requires it to in EW.

If Trowa pilots anything, it always runs out of ammo, end of. He ran a beam rifle out of ammo, which is hard to do with most weapons in Gundam.

Only other person being Kira, who really managed to really "effectively" do it early on in SEED vs. the Duel, lol.

[Arsarcana]

There's enough space in the drums around the barrels to hold a fair bit of ammo, more than the spare space you could find in the torso to hold rounds for those guns since you've also got to fit the cockpit, the reactor, thrusters, fuel... Sure, it'll run out of ammo fairly quickly regardless but this is Trowa we're talking about here. It'll happen eventually. Not like the shell vs beam thing really makes a difference since he managed to find himself out of beam 'ammo' for his gatling regularly in the TV series. Come to think, despite it being the only weapon he had Duo managed to run his scythe out of power in EW.

[Black Knight]

This weapon holds less than 1200 rounds (30mm in size), and can empty the magazine in less than 20 seconds of continuous fire (3900 rounds/minute). What size do the rounds on the Heavyarms Ver Ka look like, and how large compared to the barrels do you think the devices people assume are the magazines appear?

If Heavyarms ver Ka is supposed to be firing physical rounds, then I don't see how Trowa fought for even as much as one hour before running out of ammo. The way the EW battle scenes were animated, I wouldn't expect him to be able to fight for ten minutes before having to bludgeon Serpents with the twin gatlings. This is why I always preferred the beam gatlings, because they make long fights much more believable.

[domino]

I agree with you Black Knight.

There's no way Heavyarms Kai could've been able to be fighting for long enough for Deathscythe to run out of beam energy. Unless the EW Gundams were designed to reach the self-detonation point as quickly as possible.

[reeoyuy]

Thanks to what movies used to portrayed, most people believe that a single clip can last much longer (or lasting eternally if you're Stallone) than it actually is. I'm not saying that Endless Waltz animators aren't knowledgeable about how guns actually work, most likely they just following movie rules of gun (well, it is a movie...). It's not a pretty sight to see Heavyarms spent all of its ammo just under a minute.

Same thing can be said for Macross' Valkyries gunpod. Especially the early, non-reloadable version. Unlike Heavyarms, it doesn't even have ammo drum or container; the shells are just wrapped around the rotating barrels. Yet it able to sustain continuous fire as long as plot demanded.

[teslashark]

Dobergun: Officially it's a shell-firing weapon, but I've always operated on the assumption that they animated it as a beam in order to let them re-use beam animations. Yes, I know it's cynical, but there you go.

This reminds meof a rumour that when some animations are imported in to the US, gunfire and cannonfire are rendered as laser.
I'm just being random.

[Wingnut]

There's also one other possibility with the EW Heavyarms. The gatling guns the Serpents carry are quite similar to the ones Heavyarms uses. It's possible that Trowa did run out of ammo off-screen, several times even, and simply picked up weapons from downed Serpents to use instead.

[Dark Duel]

It's not a rumor. Remember the Disco Guns in the TV airing of Gundam Seed?
Fortunately, this is becoming less and less common AFAIK.

[Amadi Akintunde]

There's also one other possibility with the EW Heavyarms. The gatling guns the Serpents carry are quite similar to the ones Heavyarms uses. It's possible that Trowa did run out of ammo off-screen, several times even, and simply picked up weapons from downed Serpents to use instead.

...that's a possibility. A cool one at that. Though can we say that Heavyarms moved from the position it landed in when the Gundams arrived?

And furthermore, why the hell didn't the Serpents try to attack Heavyarms from behind? Hadn't anyone figured out by then that situating yourself in front of the line of enemy fire is a bad idea?

[ydawg314]

I dont remember the movie too well but it is possible that the units that were supposed to were intercepted by deathscythe tallgeass and sandrock

[Amadi Akintunde]

That would have been pretty nice teamwork, but since I've been rewatching the movie every now and then, I'm pretty certain that the Gundams, Tallgeese III and the Aries were all situated in different parts of the city; supposedly separated from each other.

Could be wrong though.

[HalfDemonInuyasha]

Well, when you do see them in the end when they're pushed into a corner, they're ending up back to back, so perhaps they had some sort of circular formation, thus it wouldn't be too easy for an enemy MS to get behind someone without someone else seeing it at the very least, if at all.

[AmuroNT1]

Regarding Heavyarms' ammo capacity, the only thing I can really point out is the Gundam G05's giant Gatling (picture: http://dalong.net/review/mg/m64/p/m64_m0016.JPG); the ammunition drum on the left hip holds 3000 rounds, and the gun itself fires 90mm ammunition. Unfortunately, I don't own the MG G05 in order to do a size comparison with Heavyarms' Gatlings. However, I would assume some space could be saved in little ways (for example, they could presumably be run off of energy from Heavyarms' reactor, which would cut down on the amount of internal works needed).

[Xiphas]

Dobergun: Officially it's a shell-firing weapon, but I've always operated on the assumption that they animated it as a beam in order to let them re-use beam animations. Yes, I know it's cynical, but there you go.

I just came across something today that sorta confuses things a bit more. I was playing SD Gundam G Generation World, and decided to get some Wing pilots and units for my party. So I have Zechs and the Tallgeese, and on its list of attacks, theres a beam attack for the dobergun (the attack itself is animated similarily to the buster rifle)... Unfortunately, I cant find a video for it atm, but take it with a grain of salt at the moment, it is a video game afterall.

[Arsarcana]

GvGN did that as well. I wouldn't read anything into it other than 'we wanted to give the thing more moves'. The Gundam Battle games in particular loved throwing in completely random extra weapons and accessories in order to keep a machine from having only one or two attacks.