Review 1/100 Gundam RXF-91 Kai

1/100 Gundam RXF-91 Kai

Maker: Bandai

Scale: 1/100

Cost: $28

Reviewed By: Adam Rehorn

Years ago I built the RXF-91 from Gundam Silhouette Formula 91. It was, at the time, a cool kit, with a lot of neat features such as a clear beam shield, full colour moulding and pretty decent poseability. I remember being very excited about it at the time. Thus, when I had the chance in 2005 to get my hands on the upgraded RXF-91 Kai kit, I took it!

Time, however, has not been kind to this kit. While there is a lot of detail for its age (1992), it is all moulded in. What would now be given as a slew of separate pieces is cast as a single piece, or worse, two halves! The part separation of this kit would be enough to send most inexperienced MS builders, or those used to the ease of newer HGUC kits, running.

The leg vents are a perfect example of the ‘non separation’ on the RXF-91 Kai. The yellow would be a separate piece today, but is moulded right in. Touching up was frequent and laborious, but not as bad as on the back-mounted VSBR (Variable Speed Beam Rifle) units! The main part of the cannon is in halves, and the strip down the middle, with the secondary barrel, verniers and access panel, is all one piece. It’s nicely moulded, but a really, really good exercise in hand-eye co-ordination to get it all painted and washed correctly.

The head and chest armour were just as bad for needing skill to ensure colour separation. There are a lot of different colours on the chest, and having white, blue and Virsago Black next to each other ensures that there will be lots of touching up to do.

There is some interesting build around on the RXF-91 Kai, too. While most subassemblies can be completed then attached, there are exceptions, all of which need a workaround. The knees suffer from being built around both top and bottom. However, by cutting the bottom out of the knee joints, they can be glued onto their support posts afterwards. This doesn’t affect poseability, since there is an anti-rotation keyway cut into the knee blocks anyway.

The VSBR’s end packs, the part on the angle in the picture, also have to be built around. To defeat this was a lot trickier. The attachment posts were cut off, and a new post was made from some filed down sprue. This was tapered at each end to fit into the original mounting holes. This forms a bar onto which the end packs can be put when done. A trough of the right size was then cut into the end packs so they’ll fit over the sprue ‘bar’. It turns out that when I did this, I was able to preserve the ability of the end packs to move; they rotate on the sprue bar without falling off!

The beam shield and saber are another interesting part of this kit. The shield is clear, but the saber is solid. On my old RXF, this was no big deal, and I painted the saber. However, I wanted them to match better. Thus, I cut the saber blade off the hilt, and using a pin vise, drilled a hole to accept a standard Master Grade beam saber blade. I roughed up the blade at the base with sandpaper, to make it appear ‘denser’.

The shield had to be modified so I could insert the ‘beam’ part after I was done the projector in the middle. In cutting the holes I needed, I accidentally cracked the lower portion of the shield. This was a disaster! Thankfully, my trusty old RXF was willing to give up its bottom half of the shield, and I got away with one I shouldn’t have. To make the shield more ‘beamy’, I sanded it until it was opaque with 120 grit. I then used progressively finer grades as I went towards the edge, ending with 12,000 grit. This makes the center foggier than the edges, and gives the impression of ‘concentrated’ energy near the projector. It also allowed me to sand out the injection marks in the shield, which were very noticeable. Because the shield was so brittle, great care had to be taken in performing this sanding task. However, patience paid off!

The RXF-91 Kai is a cool looking kit of a virtually unknown MS from the early 1990s. This was a time of great transition in Bandai’s model design philosophy. This kit is somewhere between earlier, more ‘modeller-oriented’ kits that required a lot of work, and later, more ‘layman-oriented’ kits that focused on easier assembly. One thing is for sure; it’s not a Master Grade and it takes a ton of work. The facts that it’s white and needs to be handled a lot don’t make things any easier.