Series: High Grade Universal Century (HGUC) 1/144
Title: RX-77-3 Guncannon Heavy Arms Type (B-Club conversion)
Release Date: 02/2002
Suggested Price: ¥ 6800
No. of Parts: 72 resin, 19 plastic (HGUC Guncannon), 24 polycap (combination)
Plastic colors: tan (resin), white (Guncannon), red (Guncannon), yellow (Guncannon)
Gimmicks: kit upgrade of RX-77-2 to RX-77-3 Heavy Arms Type, new weapons, added joints and flexibility in legs

Introduction

Contributor: Clem-Master-Janitor
Date: September 24, 2009

Good things come to those who wait. Where most times I hate waiting, I find it's an inevitable side effect of wanting a good kit. Often, when I’m looking at B-Club’s conversion kits, I’ll see designs I’m not familiar with sitting, waiting to be built. During one of my more bored moments, I discovered a kit I had once seen, tried to buy, but only to find out it was already sold out. Fast forward four years and the kit appears before me yet again. Of course I’m speaking of the RX-77-3 Guncannon Heavy Arms Type conversion kit. Was it worth my four year wait?

Head

Mostly composed of the original Guncannon parts, the only resin upgrades are located in the antennas. These are much thinner, coming to a nice point versus the rounded and thick edge of the original. The kit still keeps the wide range of up and down motions to the head. This is a good thing since the cannons are designed to aim so high. Wouldn’t want to make a shooting pose without the ability to see, would we?

Torso

The base is the standard Guncannon parts. Added are two cannon rests to bulk up the assembly area of the 240mm cannons. It can be a challenge to find the magical spot to glue the parts, but once discovered, you’ll have an ‘A-ha’ moment seeing how simple it was to put them in place. Cockpit armor is bulked up with the new piece being glued over the old.  It’s a perfect fit.

Backpack assembly is a huge addition of details and weight. To add some unique options, two B-Club polycaps need to be drilled into the main thruster housing. After this, the thrusters are attached resulting in the ability of the pieces to sway and rock as the pilot would demand. Had a bit of trouble obtaining the right fit to the main thruster flaps. Things just didn’t want to go together due to flash stuck over holes. I managed to get them to assemble, but be careful as they are very thin resin.

New weapons are the biggest attraction here. With the old Guncannon’s polycaps being used, I feared the holes would be too loose (similar to the problem experienced with the GM Sniper Custom conversion) but discovered my fears to be unfounded. Very solid and holds all positional adjustments, the 240mm cannons and the optional beam cannon with targeting sensor upgrade from the RX-77-4 Guncannon II are nice in every regard. Compared to the old Guncannon kit, the polycaps are perfectly hidden. Only problem I had was the beam cannon’s barrel didn’t quite assemble correctly, ending with me having a crooked barrel. I blame my own assembly.

Arms

Problems are present here. Upper arms use old polycaps but the assembly limits the flex of the shoulders. Where this isn’t much of an issue with the right arm, the left arm needs a little flex to avoid striking the grenade rack on the left side of the skirt armor. After a bit of thinking, I opted to drill out the holes, expanding the original hole vertically. End result was a little more flex to the kit and the arm missing the grenade rack. Also, the shoulder’s resin armor (identical to the original’s with the addition of a bit of armor glued to the top) tended to overlap the lower half of the shoulder. When assembled, the upper arm armor would sit crooked, exposing the inner shaft of the whole arm. I ground down the piece until the armor rested similar to the original Guncannon, thus concealing the shaft.

I mentioned before a bit of an issue with using the original HGUC polycaps in tandem with B-Club resin parts. This became the major issue that would make or break the kit. As I assembled the elbows around all this new resin with the original elbow polycaps, my fears were realized. The upper arm shaft was too thin and the lower arm elbow holes too wide, resulting in the arm wanting to slide off or aim down all the time. After some thought, I took a bit of aluminum foil and glued it around the shaft. This stopped the lower arm from falling off but did nothing to correct the loose elbow joint. I surrendered to this fate only to find after painting the joint seemed to firm up on its own. I’m all for self correcting problems, but it‘s still not as firm as the original Guncannon‘s elbows.

Three hands are included with this kit, left and right closed fists and a right hand you build around the beam rifle. All are very well detailed and fit great. I noticed the polycap (B-Club’s) that hold the right hand can be a bit temperamental and drops the beam rifle hand during pose adjustments. The beam rifle is a fine piece of work. There are many little details on the rifle and the handle flexes, though the kit doesn’t have any use for the handle having flex.

Legs

Skirt armor has new resin pieces attached to the left side (grenade rack) and to the back side (weapon storage rack). Neither have folding or movable parts, but they do fit nicely with nice little details in the grenade rack. Another part added to the skirt armor assembly is a piece to fit in the original Guncannon’s rear end hip/skirt armor assembly. The original had the option to flex its whole torso upward for grounded poses or just aiming very high in the air through a built in depression. With the added weight of the backpack, B-Club inserted a new part to fill the depression and rid the kit of this flex. It’s a necessary evil that works great, otherwise, the kit would flip backward all the time.

The upper legs are the original with B-Club inserting new polycaps in the knees. The result is a very tight, very strong hold that counters the bulk to this section. All the leg sections are great with good details and tight polycaps throughout. Another bonus here are in the ankles and feet. Instead of molding the feet and ankles together like the original, B-Club split the two, placing ball joints and polycaps to give the kit amazing motion. You’ll need to drill out the polycap inserts before setting the actual polycaps. The polycaps are so tight that you’ll exert some serious pressure on them to get the final assembly done, but fear not. These parts are all very thick and can handle the added muscling.

Weapons and Accessories

All options (240mm cannons, beam rifle, beam cannon and sensors) are solid and great for the kit. I have talked about each already. What I feel is worth mentioning here is the lack of a good waterslide decal set. Some B-Club kits come with them. I feel this kit could really use a nice set of its own. Still, a person can find a great aftermarket set to use regardless; but, for convenience, it would have been nice to have with the kit.

Conclusion

Pros: Highly detailed and easy to assemble even with the large amount of parts. Kit is very stable and has a great deal of flexibility. Added option to load the design with the Guncannon II’s shoulder weapons is a nice addition. Even with the little bit of drilling, all polycaps are assembled easily and quickly.

Cons: Shoulders need greater flex to avoid part conflict and elbows are still too loose for my tastes. 

Yeah, it’s that good of a kit. Go out and find one if you’re a fan of B-Club. This one won’t disappoint. Just remember that this is not the run of the mill HGUC gunpla kit. This requires drilling, cleaning, gluing, and painting to achieve the finished results.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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