Built and detailed by me.
This is easily the best HG SEED Freedom kit I’ve done so far, and it’s kinda crazy that out of the ones I’ve liked in the line so far are just makeovers of designs that date back to 2004. The HG Justice was my very first Gunpla kit I made back in 2016, so it’s nice to end the year with Athrun’s final suit that ended up being a very fun and very good looking project.
The kit builds as you expect from the Freedom lineup with a little twist in the leg constructionand a pretty substantial backpack build that does make the kit backheavy if it’s propped on the ground. I feel like the Justice’s proportions just look slightly off, the upper body kinda looks too big in comparison with its lower half, but once you get it into action, you don’t really notice it. The backpack undoubtedly has a striking resemblance to an X-Wing Starfighter, and with it just being very gray without much color, I knew I wanted to paint it with X-Wing colors. Keep in mind however that separating the backpack is difficult as when you fit the pieces together, you’re basically locking the joints in, and I didn’t wanna deal with disassembling the backpack, so when it came to detailing the thing, I did all in one piece, and it was surprisingly not bad at all.
So hand paint galore! For painting I used Vallejo Red, US Dark Gray, Steel and Blue, and Tamiya Metallic Gray and Park Green. There wasn’t that much to do on the Justice itself, but the X-Wing definitely needed something, so I really went all in doing as much as I could trying to make it more, well, X-Wing like. Painting the wings with the backpack in one piece was a struggle, but it was well worth it, especially if you compare it from OOB.
Next was panel lining, which there’s not much to say, and as usual, I used generic caution decals from Delpi Decal, though you may notice that I’m actually using two different scaled decals. I wanted to use my 1/100 white decal sheet, but I still had plenty of 1/144 red decals and didn’t have them in 1/100, so I said, eh, fuck it, it’s probably not that noticeable. I tried replicating the placement I used for the Mighty Strike Freedom, and oh boy it does wonders; it makes more of a difference than how it turned out with the Gelgoog. Obviously I put some on the X-Wing as well, which it kept getting prettier and prettier. All that was left was the flat topcoat, and it went as expected.
Now, could it pose? It’s a Gundam that focuses on melee, of course it poses well. It comes with so many beam parts, all of which can be attached at once and gives it a dazzling look, the sharpness of this kit makes it very photogenic, and with its superb stability, it is no hassle to move this thing. A decal surprisingly fell off during the photoshoot, but you probably didn’t notice it. The kit really shines with an Action Base 7 that has the connection piece being able to rotate in the x-axis so you can pull those dynamic kick shots.
Overall, this was a splendid kit. It does have a hefty price tag, but all SEED Freedom kits do, and this one is certainly worth the cost. It was another fun year of Gunpla, and I hope that continues the following year. Thanks for reading, and Happy New Year!
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