MG Gundam Astray Turn Red

Introduction:

I really like the design of the Astray series; it’s sleek and athletic. And, among all of the different versions of this mobile suit, the Master Grade Astray has the best proportions and details. The Turn Red Astray’s color scheme is an inverse variation of the Red Frame. The heavy use of red in the armor and the large V fin and curved back armor gives the Turn Red the look of a stereotypical devil mixed with a horned beetle. Judging by the comments I have received, I think a lot of people find the Turn Red’s color scheme to be ‘weird’. This color scheme isn’t my favorite, but I don’t hate it either.

The Turn Red’s gimmick is it’s two large Swords and re-designed head. Personally, I really like the massively oversized V-fin, but I can see how it’s contentious. As you would expect the two massive ‘tactical arm’ swords and accompanying backpack cause this model to be very back heavy. The two swords can be used to hold the suit upright in a standing pose and the included stand can hold one sword up for a ‘mid-swing’ pose. The two swords also maintain all the transformation gimmicks as the original Blue Frame’s tactical arms, but this model doesn’t use most of them. Also included is an ammo rack for the 4 magazines that attaches to the rear skirt.

Kit Talk:

Not too much to say here. This Astray is well designed with limited seam lines. The most prominent seam is present on the Astray’s beam rifle. There’s a lot of panel lining to take advantage of, even if a good portion isn’t visible under the armor.

Water slide decals are included with this model, but they’re fairly bland, and there are fewer of them than you may expect. The decals tend to sit on a lot of elevation changes, this required a fair bit of mark sol and a hobby knife to finesse into place.

The Turn Red also has a very straight forward color scheme with 3 prominent main colors and two less common colors. Masking was limited as well, only present as a few white areas on the head. This is the first model I have used Gaia Note’s Evo white surfacer on. Compared to Mr. Hobby’s white surfacer this product seems to be less robust. However, It’s also possible that I haven’t worked all the quirks out yet. There probably will be a few more instances of chipping on this model as a result.

Red: Nazca fire red
White: White & pale pink
Black: Black, red & pale pink
Grey: Neutral gray IV Green
(sensors): Clear green over silver

I’m an Amazon affiliate, which means that if you pick it up from Amazon right now using my affiliate links; then Amazon will pay me a small bounty on everything that you buy. The Astray Turn Red is one of those weird ‘US normal release, P-Bandai release in Japan’ kits. So it may or may not be available right now. You can pick it up from Amazon right now using my affiliate link. Using this link helps me out a lot, and it doesn’t cost you a dime!

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