Crossbone Gundam X1 Ver Ka Kit Review

Well, I finished my X1 today, so I thought I’d do a kit review.

The Master Grade Crossbone Gundam X1, Ver. Ka represents the pinnacle of Bandai’s Gunpla kits, with the exception of the newer 0079 kits being released.

The X1 uses very simple, yet tremendously sturdy designs for all of its inner frame, allowing you to a multitude of poses.

Here’s a shot of the inner leg frame under construction

Compared to the older kits, Bandai chose less inter connected parts, but modified the joints, allowing for more posability as well as tremendous support for the kit’s balance.

The new ball joints work very well to allow balance in the legs.

Here’s the completed lower half of the X1. (sorry for the inverted pic, Blogger isn't cooperating tonight)

The armor panels attach to the outer frame perfectly, allowing move

ment in the thigh, ankle and foot.

The X1 also comes with the core block system, one of my favorite concepts in the Gundam Universe. I actually build the core fighter first, which was nice as I could display it in my collection as it can completely stand along as its own model, much like all the other kits that have core fighters.

I botched a few things though. I didn’t start air-brushing until I got to the X thrusters, so the body of the jet looks a little less smooth. You’ll notice too that I switched out the yellow for gold. I do this for all of my kits. I don’t really care for the whole “school bus yellow” idea on a war machine, and gold seems to add a bit more realism to the kit. I’m regretting not painting those red “v” decals on the thrusters. I used the stickers and they didn’t line up well, so the look a little off.

Here’s the upper body before assembly. Again, the arms (while not pictured here well) use the same, simple, yet study inner frame design, which works great. I mixed the blue coloring myself, and I think it turned out pretty dang well. The cockpit is open here, but without the core fighter, there’s nothing inside.

The X1 uses the Zambuster Beam Rifle. The Zambuster separates into the Beam Zamber Sword and Buster Gun. I had a hard time painting the grey trim, and the heat dagger handles actually tuck into the back of the calf unit, so I had to make sure the paint wasn’t too thick which is tough for white!

So here is the final product. I have the X1 tearing off the beam cloak. The cloak that comes with the kit is pretty terrible, but I did manage to burn some “beam holes” into it. I just didn’t like how it looked attached so I thought this works well.

The whole thing is painted. I use black spray primer, then sand and air brush section individually. The kit is amazing, but I do have one gripe (besides the beam cloak), some of the parts are attached to the trays in awkward areas. For example, the thumb pieces, are attached at the base and tip, its pretty tough to sand the flash point down on a tiny little thumb. Other than that, this has been a blast!

But now I’m running into some trouble. Here’s the X1 among my collection…

As you can see…I’m at full capacity! (I even moved some Robust Silhouette figures and my DX V2 Assault Buster Gundam to the top of my TV~!)

My next project is the S Gundam, but before that, I have a bunch of repairs to do, including my resin 1/144 Full Armor Mk.II – but before that….I gotta find some space!

Until next time guys,

Jaa matta~