Mecha Talk

Hi i just saw a model at our shop and its really cool and i would like to ask what do you guys recommend? I also saw the kampher noir version and its also really cool, hows the articulation on that? is it better than the shiny sinanju?

I think that was a custom job from a regular hobbyist:

http://www.gundammodelkits.com/master-grade-kampfer-noir-ver-gallery-by-dasti.html

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Personally I think the "Uranus" and "Selena" kits are the best-looking kits in the line - though there's also stuff like the recent "Crest C98 Assault Version" (the one from the CG intro to "Silent Line")

With the Armored Core 3 stuff (anything "Crest" or "Mirage") there's a bit of a distinction between stuff that was based on a pre-rendered cutscene from the game and stuff that wasn't. When they made those rendered cutscenes, they realized the designs in high detail and that detail made it to the kit versions. Designs that weren't in cutscenes (such as Fox Eye, Fascinator, etc.) - some of it is based on the in-game models which are of lower quality, and the resulting kits are a little less detail-rich as a result.

Another thing to be aware of is that parts fit on some of the older releases (including Selena, Cascade Range, etc.) is difficult. Like the snap-fit between two parts can be so tight that you'll break the part before you get it snapped together. It's best to be aware of this issue and tweak parts as you're assembling to get better fit.

As an example, the legs on the "Crest Close Combat Type" (same legs as on Nine Ball, Cascade Range, etc.) have a silver plate on the front of the leg: this plate is fairly thin and covers the whole length of the lower leg. The rectangular pegs that you use to plug this in to the lower leg are very tight, and so there's a big chance of breaking the part if you try to force it. The thing to do is trim the pegs, trim the holes they plug into, until you get a more comfortable fit.

I think this issue mostly affects older kits in the line (and newer kits that use parts from the older kits) - though I haven't built any of the newer kits yet so I can't say personally.

Also, all these kits have a ton of parts. Lots of little detail bits. For someone like me who loves detailed models, it's heaven. But it's also a lot to keep track of, particularly if you're painting. I've only completed one AC so far and dealing with the high parts count was a big challenge when painting.

I can't really speak to the Armored Core 4 kits (White Glint, Sunshine, Rayleonard, LAHIRE, Tellus, etc.) 'cause I never really got into 'em. I'm more a fan of the AC3 stuff personally.

Also, I'd say probably steer clear of the "Nineball Seraph" (big transforming kit, not the smaller "Nineball" kit) - I've heard it's not so great.

The earlier ACFA kits are not that good since you need to do some significant paint job in order to match the actual model and some parts that are annoying to mask.

For this lineup i probably would recommend Helios Victoria since it is one of the better looking AC with couple of extra weapons.

Wait, you say "earlier ACFA kits" and then mention Helios - by "ACFA" do you really mean "Armored Core: For Answer" (i.e. Sunshine, Aaliyah, Tellus, White Glint, etc.) or was that some kind of typo?

AC kits are a challenge IMO, but that doesn't make them bad kits. AC kits already have extensive parts break-down for color and to get the molded detail right - but for them to be entirely color-accurate out of the box would be very complicated, because there's a lot of small areas with their own colors (like little bits on the head, etc...) The detail and parts count on a typical AC kit already makes a Real Grade look like a capsule toy - if they actually did separate color-molded pieces for every color boundary, you'd wind up with parts that would break if you looked at 'em funny.

And, of course, if you're not up for that kind of challenge you don't need to make them fully accurate to anything. It's Armored Core after all, you're supposed to customize 'em.