by Justin Gibb

The last hope of mankind - Born from advanced science and the very flesh of our enemies, Eva 01 is piloted by Shinji Ikari against the Angels in battle after battle in the city of Tokyo III.

Bandai released kits based on all the Eva units, as well as some of the Angels, in 1/100th scale. Eva 01 was also released in a "Perfect Grade", 1/60th scale, which I had originally bought for the Legs Contest, but never finished. The kit, composed of nearly five hundred pieces of colored plastic, vinyl rubber, lights and wiring, is packed neatly in a 60 cm X 32 cm X 12 cm box. Bandai's excellent color injecting is used to full effect here, creating a kit that almost needs no paint.

Similar the Gundam Perfect Grade kits, the construction starts with constructing and wiring an inner skeleton, which is then covered by a vinyl "skin". The electronics are for lights inside the shoulder panels, which illuminate the Eva 1 symbols. Connected to a battery pack via the Eva's umbilical, it is one of the kit's most unique features.

After skinning, the outer armor was added, as well as the weapons, including a pallet rifle, and the two swords which were never seen in the series. The shoulder armor opens, allowing storage of the Progressive knife in the right side, and exposing the pin launcher (used by Unit 2 in the full length movie) in the left.

Both water-slide decals and self-adhesive stickers are used to detail the kit, but here I substituted paint and detailing pens for some of the stickers, mostly on the teeth, and accenting the panel lines. I did the most painting on the accessories, getting a realistic metal shine on the progressive knife with Testors aluminum and Glosscote.

All told, I spent nearly five weeks building this beast, but it was a real blast.

Image: Left side

Image: Right side

Image: Front

Image: Back