I purchased this kit new in 1984. I started it at that time and have just now finished it 24 years later. As far as vintage kits go, this one is a mixed bag. The kit comes with lots of options such as various heads, hands, and accessories. Unfortunately, this kit is not well engineered. It is molded in light blue, almost white. There are sink holes, and some parts do not fit together very well. There are actual milling mistakes made on the mold. The figure is poorly proportioned. There were even strange things, like the collar the head mounts on has no obvious means of alignment or attachment to the upper torso, I just glued it in place with plastic zap. It comes with optional metal feet. My younger self's most terrible mistake was that I tossed out the properly proportioned plastic feet. The metal feet are bigger and bulkier than the plastic ones, so it is difficult fitting them in place, resulting in a loss of articulation. Not to mention their size in proportion to the body make them look like clown feet. On the bright side, the finished kit never falls down.

When I bought this kit (as a kid) I wanted very much to paint it in the blue paint scheme depicted in the anime. But looking at it with my adult eyes I just could not bring myself to use those colors. Instead, I turned to real-world military colors, and tried to give the kit a more realistic desert color pallet. Aside from that, I followed the painting instructions to the letter.

I used all of ARIL's water slide decals. There were dozens of little decals on the sheet with no reference to them in the instructions. The box art turned out to be the best decal placement guide. After years in storage the decals were very brittle and delicate. I turned to Microscale Inc. liquid decal film to restore the decals and get the job done. Overall, I feel that it came out as good as can be expected. The kit has a real toy-like look about it though. It was a nostalgia piece for me, and it is nice to finish it after all this time.

Image: Right side

Image: Shield arm