HG Murasame Kai

I didn’t really think much of this kit nor its design when this was first announced, but when I got a better look at its transformation, I knew I wanted it to display it in its Wave Rider mode, as for as many transforming kits we have, we keep a majority of them as a standing mobile suit. 

This is my 6th HG SEED FREEDOM kit, so nothing really surprises me about this kit—it’s pretty simple to build but comes with solidly tight joints and has that more militaristic look that the rest don’t really try to capture at all. It’s very blocky, it would be very gray if not for the significant red division, and it basically transforms into a fighter jet. For whatever reason, there’s quite a disparity between the line art and model kit’s proportions, but I greatly prefer what the kit decided to go with. In its mobile suit form, I actually really like how it looks like, basically being a super angular Zeta Plus with that modern SEED flair to it, but I was here for the Wave Rider, and the kit pulls off the form really well. It is a partsformer that comes with a separate block and you will have to leave out parts of the mobile suit behind, but it also comes with duplicate parts of the skirt so you don’t have to detach anything from the mobile suit to the block. The transformation is super simple but leaves with a super compelling silhouette, with those wings on the legs and the missiles under the main wings doing a lot of convincing. It’s pretty sick.

The rest of the modeling was nothing out of the ordinary. I hand painted the kit to color accuracy and made a few little additions here and there, did some panel lining, added generic caution decals from DelpiDecal, and gave it a flat coat to seal the deal. I was impressed by how the mobile suit form looked even more, but I was still here for plane and it was stunning as ever. 

And that’s pretty much it. It’s a rare SEED grunt suit that’s really easy to put together, doesn’t require much painting like others with gold cough cough MSF, Shi-ve.A, Cal-re.A, and comes with a sick ass transformation. It does come at a heftier price at $28, but it’s a cool plane, and we don’t get much of that. Anyway, thanks for reading if you made it to the end!