This is a short review of a kit I have recently finished painting. It is the LM-HG Bardiel 13th Angel from Neon Genesis Evangelion.
This is a very old kit, first released in 1997. Its a bit difficult to find them these days and they usually go from $30.00 and up. In 2010, new versions of the kits were release, improving the already great design of the original kits.
A short back ground on Bardiel. As you can see Bardiel looks like an Eva Unit. That's because he is. Bardiel infected the Eva-03 Production Unit and used it as his body. He is exactly the same unit except for the longer arms, stretched neck and thigh.
Here are full body photos of the completed kit.
One thing I love about the Eva model kits is the amount of flexibility they have. With several ball-joints all over the body, natural looking human poses can easily be achieved.
Using three joints on the shoulder, the arms can tilt up and down, move forward and back and turn 360 degrees.
The body uses three ball joints to simulate vertebrates and can flex forward, back, left and right. They can also slightly twist to the left and to the right.
The legs are most flexible part of this kit. One leg has a ball joint in the ankle, Two pivot joints in the knee, a ball joint in the thigh and a ball joint in the hip. That totals ten joints for both legs. Thanks to these, the foot can move around freely, the knee can bend back almost 180 degrees, the thigh can twist in and out and the whole leg can move 360 degrees at the hip. The flexibility of the joints, except for the one in the hip, is only limited by the armor on the legs. To demonstrate the flexibility of the legs in one pose, here is Bardiel in an Indian sitting position.
This allows for some pretty complex poses. Here's one from the box/manual and was used in the anime/manga.
Bardiel stands at about 9" at the top of the shoulder pylon and about 8" on the head.
He is a decent size kit, about the height or taller than some MG Gundams
All Eva Units, except for the Eva-01, use the same body and armor configuration. The only thing that separates them is the head. Here's a close up of Bardiel's head. He has a joint in his jaw so he can fully open and show his bloody red mouth.
Since Bardiel is not a normal Eva Unit, physical changes happened to the original Eva-03 consisting mostly of stretched parts. A very distinct feature of Bardiel are his very elongated arms which he used like weapons in the anime.
Next to the Eva-04, which is a replica of the Eva-03 with a different color, the difference in arm length is very visible.
The neck is also stretched as well as the inner section of the thigh, making Bardiel a lot more flexible than other Eva kits.
Another nice detail added to this kit is the infected entry plug where Bardiel is located.
Related Posts:
Application of a bloodbath effect can be found here and
more photos of the completed painted kit are found here.
How do I get the arms to bend? Mine are so stiff I am afraid of even trying to apply force to it
ReplyDeleteIts normal for Bardiel's arms to be very stiff. To bend them you need to heat them up first. I used a hair dryer to heat the elbow then bent them gently when they get soft. Once you get the position you want, hold it in place then dip it in cold water to make it stiff again.
Delete