1/1700 EX-19 Archangel (LCAM-01XA)

This is it, the long legs, the almighty "LCAM-01XA Archangel" which is handled by the special operation team lead by the beautiful Captain Murrue Ramius.

By the way, this article includes some of those photos from the previous Preview article and there are plenty of photos, so I hope your computer and internet connection can handle it..

So without further delay let's have a look at this review of 1/1700 EX-19 Archangel (LCAM-01XA) from the anime of Mobile Suit Gundam Seed and Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny.

The box...




All the runners... 7 of them... all in white... no foil sticker or water decals what so ever, what you see is what you get...




What amazed me the most are the tiny Aile Strike Gundam, Buster Gundam, Mobius Zero and the Sky Grasper all in 1/1700 scale I guess.... these tiny bastards is damn too small and for a beginners like me - I think it is extremely difficult to paint them and get the exact result like what you see on the box below...




There, have a look at it... damn tiny...




Comparison with my mobile phone - Sony Ericsson C702....




The exact size is 1cm tall.... well, it's not totally impossible, but quite challenging...




This runners was first produced in 2004 so you Bandai didn't really think about helping us hiding the cutting marks back then...




These few areas I marked with black circles need extra care and precision during cutting... I can foresee that one will need to use the hobby knife a lot...




A close up look...




And also on the area here....




From the manual.... the straight assembly seems easy... but unfortunately there is no painting guide what so ever... so you do need to see the picture on the box as your main reference...






In fact you don't really need lots of color... just the standard Ail Strike Gundam color is good enough - White, Red, Blue, Black and a little bit of Yellow... though it has to be said that the full complete panel lining work needed for this model can be daunting...




The box is not that big... almost the same as 1/144 HGUC MSN-04 Sazabi...





In fact it is slightly less thicker than Sazabi...





So this is it... after 20 days of waiting, our Archangel finally is 95% completed and basically they're ready for review.

Credits to my friend Billy Wong for helping me with all the assembly works as well as the painting coz I'm too lazy to do it simply becoz I don't want my hand to get dirty.

According to Billy Wong for most of the part he just use hand brush and only those few big parts on the "legs" of this Archangel where he use spray painting.

My first impression when he passed this Archangel to me is... WOW, that's my Angel... in my head I hear that song Angel from Shaggy;

"Girl, you’re my angel, you’re my darling angel
Closer than my peeps you are to me, baby
Shorty, you’re my angel, you’re my darling angel
Girl, you’re my friend when I’m in need, lady..."

And so on...

Nonetheless, I know that Billy Wong is not a professional and he still need a lot to master before he can really become an expert but overall I think I'm quite happy with the end result considering that I only gave him 20 days to complete the job as I want to meet the review deadline by end of June 2010.

So he did the job quite well, a few quirks and a little bit of painting inconsistency here and there and some panel lining mistakes but despite all that I think I'm still happy with the overall result - again considering the pressure of must finish it within 20 days.... I think my friend did a good job.

Maybe I will request for extra touch up again after this review - depending on his available free time and I also plan to put more water slide decals on this model next time...

But for now... this is all that we have, it's not perfect but we still proud of it... at least not many people really have this model anyway.

More importantly I hope this review can be helpful to others who wanted to buy and build this model next time...

Every time I look at the Archangel, I always remember about the busy and sometimes intense but inspiring situation in the bridge during battle.





I kind of remember all those dialogues, commands, instructions and communications that we always heard around the bridge... they're all awesome... it's amazing that Bandai/Sunrise can think off such thing to make the situation "real"...

We remember Captain Murrue Ramius giving orders, guiding attacks, evasive maneuver, counter attack and defensive tactics while some other crew giving their reports and feed back to her for immediate consideration in such an intense time.... all is cool stuff...

On top of that, the strict Natarle Badgiruel will assist the rest of them in the attacking and defensive department.... certainly Archangel could be a powerful adversary if Captain Murrue Ramius and Natarle Badgiruel can be in the same team for a long time.... though it doesn't really goes that way in the anime....

Remember the following dialogues;

Start launching sequence.

Main power online, output rising.

Life support systems starting up.

CIC online.

Weapons system online.

FCS contact.

Magnet field chamber and pellet dispenser idle.

Internal inertial dampers, hold at maximum level.

Main power contact.

Engine running normal.

Archangel all systems online.

Ready to launch.

Archangel launch.

Prepare to fire stern missiles, number 7 through 10.

Target: enemy's mobile suit

Laser guidance on.

Lower Igelstellung, begin firing.

Use the Gottfried, left rolling angle 30, port 20, Fire!!!

Valiant, Fire!!!

Get the Anti Beam Charges and Anti-Air Cluster Bombs ready. Fire Anti-Beam Charges, load stern missiles with Anti-Air Cluster Bombs.

Calculate the Blitz's position fromt the angle of that beam, fire the Cluster Bombs. Igelstellung, swith to manual and fire at random

Random evasive maneuver.

Calibrate the Gottfried, Fire!!!

Helldart, Fire!!!


Well... I can go on and on.... must be cool to be on the bridge helping operating the Archangel.



Captain Murrue Ramius in her OMNI uniform...






So this is now the Archangel of Shewsbury Land....














Since the Archangel-class assault ship is based upon Orb's Izumo-class battleship, the weaponry of both classes is nearly the same, although all in all the Archangel-class carries more weaponry than the Izumo-class.

The armament features positron blaster cannons, beam guns, CIWS, linear cannons and several missile launchers, making the class more powerfully armed than either the Nelson-class battleship or Agamemnon-class carrier.

Its only equals are the Girty Lue and LHM-BB01 Minerva.

The true power of the Archangel-class is however hidden in the ship's cavernous hangar bay: Room for up to eight mobile suits or Mobile Armors.

Combined with the G Project prototypes, the Archangel was intended to be very nearly invincible.

In operations, she was intended to hold the GAT-X102 Duel and GAT-X103 Buster, Lieutenant Mu La Flaga's TS-MA2mod.00 Moebius Zero mobile armor, and two TS-MA2 Moebius mobile armors back for defense while the GAT-X105 Strike, GAT-X303 Aegis, and GAT-X207 Blitz took the battle to the enemy.


Now let's focus on the "bridge" part... Just like in the anime, "the bridge" is basically the most important part of the ship because the captain and all the main navigation crew are basically sitting here and do all the job.

As for this model kit, the bridge part is the most fragile part of them all especially those tiny communication tower on top of it.....




In fact when I first got this item from Billy, that is the first part that I accidentally broke and I don't know where the hell is it now coz I can't find it on the floor and at the end I just give up and forget about it...




It suppose to be 3 on each side... 1 is very tall, the middle is the shortest and the other 1 is medium tall.... as you can see from this photo below, the other side of it... something is missing...





And another thing that is quite fragile is this tip on the wing. if you see the photo below, the tip with the red color is supposed to be slightly longer than the white one... then again... I accidentally broke it and at the end I had enough and just cut it and leave it as that... now the red and the white is basically have the same length...





So when you have your Archangel next time.... be sure to give extra attention and be careful on those parts I mentioned above. Actually for those of you who are very good in modification and have decent resource, maybe you can change that communication tower with a better and more solid materials.... I'm thinking to do so.... in the future...


Apart from those 2 major concern... I think I don't have any other complain...

I managed to put on some sticker and decals but I intend to put more in the future...





Yeah... how can I forget our good friend Bandai.... hahahaha...





Now let's have a look at "features" or rather the armaments and weapon parts.

Just like the previous 1/550 HGM Dendrobium that we reviewed here in April 2010, this Archangel also in fact using the same method of "part removing" and "part swapping" for all those "features"/armaments/weapon parts.

Before we have a look at those weapons, maybe you can read some information about all the weapons and armaments of Archangel.

Positron Blaster Cannon
The most powerful weapon of the Archangel-class are two "Lohengrin" positron blaster guns (named after Richard Wagner's opera of the same name), which are retractable and mounted inside the two front "legs" of the ship.

High-energy beam cannon
The only other beam weapons carried by Archangel-class ships are two "Gottfried Mk.71" 225cm high-energy beam cannons, which, like the ones of the Izumo-class ships, can move into several positions. As with the positron gun the beam guns are retractable and mounted on top of the two "legs", thus providing defense capabilities while mobile suits are launched.

CIWS
The only shell firing weapons on the ship are 16 "Igelstellung" 75mm automatic multi-barrel CIWS guns, used to shoot down incoming missiles or Mobile Weapons. Like the "Gottfried" beam cannons, the CIWS guns are movable to shoot down targets from several directions.

Linear Cannon
Each side of the ship mounts a single "Valiant Mk.8" 110cm linear cannon, which, like the positron and beam cannons are retractable.

Missile launchers
Besides energy guns and shell-firing weapons, Archangel-class ships are also equipped with a large number of missile launchers, divided into 24 x surface-to-ship missile launchers and 16 x surface-to-air missile launchers. These launchers allow the Archangel-class to fire a large number of different missile types. Missile types used by the Archangel-class include "Helldart" anti-aircraft missiles, which are fired from the back of the bridge tower, while Sledgehammer anti-ship missiles and Corintoss and Wombat heavy anti-aircraft missiles.


First I want to highlight the catapult launcher section... basically this is where all the Mobile Suits (MS) and Mobile Armors (MA) go in or out, to or from the Archangel...




Fist open up that cover...





Next take out the small white part on the side and insert that black part.... those yellow represent the guidance light for the MS and MA pilot when they are going out from the ship...






I hope the manual can explain better than me...




You can do it for both sides and all the additional parts are provided of coz but in this review I just show 1 of them....







Unfortunately, those tiny 1/1700 scale Aile Strike Gundam, Sky Grassper, Buster Gundam and Mobius Zero are still with Billy. He said he is determined to give it a try to paint all of them.

Which is why I did mentioned earlier that this project is basically 95% completed but even so it is ready for review.

Those tiny MA and MS is very small... I hope Billy will be successful to paint it (as I can consider that as a bonus for me) but even if he failed, nothing much I can say - at least he tried... most important for me is the Archangel is OK....

Next we will have a look at Positron Blaster Cannon.




Unlike in the anime where the cannons are retractable, in this 1/1700 model kit version however, you need to remove certain parts, put in these and that parts and then it's done.








Again you can look for further explanation from the manual below;




So this is now the Archangel with it's Positron Blaster Cannon.







Next is the Gottfried Mk. 71 225cm High Energy Beam Cannons which can move into several positions.

Again, in this model kit... it's part removing and swapping...











From those photos, I'm sure you can imagine how easy it is...

Last but not least, the Valiant Mk. 8 110cm Linear Cannon which in the anime, are also retractable just like the Positron Beam Cannons and the Gottfried.

Again, it's the normal part removing and part swapping....












The display base is a simple as it is... You basically just put the Archangel on top of it, make some adjustment and that's about it....






The Archangel with the figure of the beautiful Captain Murrue Ramius (in her ORB Union uniform though)...






And some extra photos to show the underneath of the Archangel....







Overall, for 4,500 yen (about SGD 70.00) before shipment charges, fully unpainted - I personally think this kit is a little bit expensive... my personal feel is that this kit should be just about 3,000 yen considering the fact that you must paint it...

On the other hand, the assembly works for this kit is very easy, in fact maybe even more easier that the normal HG 1/144 GunPla kits.... but the hard part is that YOU MUST PAINT IT....

Well, it's not that it is really difficult, for most of the skillful modeler who love to paint their kits (and those who make it a compulsory practice to paint their kits) this Archangel is not a problem at all... you just need the time and effort to do it.

But for those beginners and lazy bum like me who only always do the straight assemble stuff... the tasks to work on Archangel can be daunting....

More importantly though.... the "EX" model kit series from Bandai is actually intended for the more experienced or hard core modeler or gunpla kit fans.

It is never intended for beginners but there is nothing wrong also if the beginners feel adventurous to try the "EX" model straight away. After all, it's your money and you pay for it. As long as you buy it, Bandai don't care what you will do with it.

Apart from my complaints on those fragile parts around the "bridge" - I think I have no further complain any more. Maybe I would wish that those cannons to be retractable like they are in the anime so that it is more fun and easier when you can just open the cover and pull them out but I guess that wish list is too much to ask.... Maybe it is destined that we have to live with part removing and part swapping.

As at June 2010, this item is still available in HLJ, below is the link;

1/1700 EX-19 Arcangel

Though you might be able to also get it from the local hobby shop near you at a reasonable price and this is the end of the 1/1700 EX-19 Archangel review. Thank you for reading, please leave your comments and feedback below :-)





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