HMM-004 Geno Saurer (Build Review)
Since this one was a mega-build, usually taking a whole evening for each section, I thought I’d do an “in progress” review and point out cool features and potential trouble spots.
- Eyes:
The piece that goes here was too dark for my tastes, so I did it in silver, leaving the raised parts for contrast. I also painted silver behind the actual eye, to help it catch light better. - Head/Neck:
You will want to paint the areas around the teeth, or else suffer an unsightly all-white mouth. - WEAKNESS:
On the chest/shoulder unit, the only thing holding the sides together is that tiny spine and the earnest prayers of children. When you put the core block in, it helps a bit, but really superglue is necessary. You should also glue the ball joint pegs, because they aren’t held in very tight. - Beware:
This piece is as thin as a promise! I nearly broke the last rib while panel lining. Thankfully it’s held securely in place by later pieces. - Pelvis:
Much of this detail will be hidden when the model’s done. Also: glue required if you like stability! - Details:
Those hoses were really hard to thread all the way through, but so worth it. Tweezers helped on the top ones. - So far:
The next step is the tail, which is two pages of instructions and around 80 pieces. - Tail:
Those vents got really really small the further back you went. You will definitely want to glue the top vent pieces, because otherwise they like to pop off. - Tip of tail:
The purple bits on this segment were too small to be cut out, so I painted the background black to make it look right. The “tail lights” on the back were reddened with a sharpie because it’s way too cold to bust out the airbrush and clear red paint. - A gun:
About an inch longer than the Tomy Geno’s gun, and a lot meaner. Only bummer is that it was largely one color. I was all happy when I finished this, until I realized I had to do the exact same thing again. - Something else to glue:
Otherwise the weight of the guns will cause the whole mount to pop right off. - Arms:
The arms took all me all evening, but more than half of that time was spent detailing: trying to color in the claws (which I still don’t have quite right) and painting the hydraulics (my gold marker was failing me). A word about the claws: they are SHARP! A word about that hydraulic piece behind the hands: it severely limits wrist movement and WILL break if you’re not careful. - Naked legs:
Before putting on armor, the left and right legs are identical (same with the arms). - Leg armor:
This step took longer than I expected. You will definitely want to glue the mounts for the calf armor, because not much is holding them in place. - Details:
(left) hidden detail behind the knee, (right) more sharpie-modded clear bits. - Feet:
Lots of glue required here–mainly for the armor bits.
I don’t know it got so many fragile parts. I don’t think it can be played around except for display
April 15th, 2009 at 11:22 pm | #Is it motorized? Because the tomy one is.And if it is motorized which one should i get
April 27th, 2009 at 1:15 am | #my mum just came in with it and it is in japanese, except for the name but i’m still not sure if its motorized
April 27th, 2009 at 1:18 am | #@Guy: The HMMs are not motorized. Their big thing is tons of detail and poseability. The motorized Geno didn’t walk all that well anyway ;)
April 27th, 2009 at 9:59 am | #Hey just wondering. How long in total did it take for you to put this together?
May 19th, 2010 at 12:21 pm | #@T: It took about 15 hours, over several evenings. Some of that was painting, and repainting when I messed up, and some was doing pics for the review, but it’s a pretty long build.
May 22nd, 2010 at 1:54 am | #That’s good to know. I have got a HMM geno-breaker to put together but running short on time hence my earlier question. Since this is my first time with HMM kits I’m expecting the needed modifications to take up quite some time as well.
Thanks for the answer!
May 24th, 2010 at 12:11 am | #