The finishing product is what it looks like in the following pictures. I must say that the proportion of this kit is well done and it's way far better than it's 1/100 Seed Destiny counterpart.
This is how it looks like from the back. As you can see the wings on displayed without the Dragoons units. The wings come with a very nice mechanical gimick that by moving the back wings upward, the wings' branches would move together, so you could get a very nice proportion layout like how it looks like in the picture after the following picture.
And here's an upclose shot from on the head. I was thrilled by this kit because it looks nice!!!
And here's another picture that displaying it in the full burst mode.
This is a full burst mode version, so it comes with the action base and effect parts to display the Dragoon units. It is such a killer and I couldn't describe how much joy that I have when I finally finished making this kit. The airbrush is really handy and it gives me the freedom to mix and match the color that I desired. The color that I used are listed below.
- White: Mr Color White + Mr Color Metallic Blue (extremely little)
- Blue: Mr Color Cobalt Blue + Mr Color Fluorescent Pink (little)
- Black: Mr Color Navy Blue
- Red: Mr Color Metallic Red
- Gray: Mr Color Intermediate Blue + Mr Color White (little)
- Gold: Tamiya Titanium Gold + Tamiya Clear Yellow
Also, this is the first time that I applied decal for my Gunpla. I got the decal from HLJ after waiting for about 2 years? It was previously discontinued by Bandai. So it is advisable to grab the decal together with the Gunpla when it was launched because you might have to wait for about a year or 2 or it will never be produced again if there are no demand for it. A kit without a decal might be great enough, but a kit with a decal is even better and it's such a killer!!!
The weakness in this kit? I just don't know why Bandai don't want to make the head of this kit like the F-91, that divided from the center line, making it less hassle to hide the parting line. It's such a pain to deal with the parting line on the head, and I don't dare to do modification because I don't know what the outcome is like, so I have to do it the way that I used to do - color the face, assemble the head, mask the face, deal with the parting line, and color the head. It's a long and tedious procedures.
Anyway, like most of the Gunpla expert has said, it's not easy to do modification on the latest MG Gunpla series like this one because of the complex design, so it has to be done carefully. So should I do modification on my next kit? I did actually, and it's a 99% success rate on my MG 1/100 Hi-Nu Gundam (job done) but it's a 70% on my MG 1/100 Strike Noir because it's harder to modify the head with my lack of experience.
Lastly, I must give the credit to how stable it is when it's holding the beam rifle because unlike the previous MG 1/100 F-91 and the MG 1/100 Crossbone X-1, this kit surprisingly could hold the beam rifle steadily. Although the F-91 and the Crossbone X-1 do have connector on their palm that could connect with the beam rifle, but this Strike Freedom seems to be able to connect and hold the beam rifle with no sign of dropping.
