Today, we’ve got a double P-Bandai mashup! This kit is a combination of the Exia R3 and the Astraea parts set. I started out painting the base RG Exia R3 kit back in November of 2021, after building it in February of 2021. This kit has been in the works for a hell of a long time! The basic RG Exia is an older RG release but the aesthetics and design of the kit hold up extremely well today.
In November, P-Bandai’s US store brought back the RG Astraea parts set for a delivery in February. The Astraea is bar none my favorite Gundam 00 design (and is a contender for my all-time favorite design) so I opted to wait until the Astraea parts were delivered to finish this kit.
The R3 version of the Exia is largely the same as the standard version, so there aren’t any differences to report here- but we do have more aesthetically pleasing knee, thigh, rear skirt and upper arm armor.
I combined all of my favorite elements from the R3 and Astraea together for this build, and gave it all a paintjob inspired by the then-newly revealed Astraea Type-X Metal build figure.
The overall aesthetics of the kit are fantastic- a solid 10/10 in my book. This is the 3rd RG Exia that I’ve built and while I faced the most challenges with this build, I maintain that it’s a wonderful model kit. The proportions are great, the part separation is great, and the whole thing comes together splendidly. I used a little masking tape to bring out extra detail on the shoulders, chest and head and couldn’t be happier with the way it all turned out. I opted for a ‘more is less’ mentality with the colorscheme. mostly sticking to the main color (GaiaNotes V-ON 09, Marz Dark Blue) and using stings of iron + other blue shade (GaiaNotes V-ON 08, Marz Deep Blue) to make certain details stand out more.
I once again used Tamiya’s panel liner products to detail this build and I still somewhat struggle to get it all cleaned up adequately, especially on a kit that’s painted with a darker color like this one is. The decals used were the Astraea Type-F and Exia R3 sets from DelphiDecal and they were substantially easier to use than the SIMP decals I used on my MG Unicorn. Sadly, I didn’t notice the one on the back of the kit was upside down until I assembled everything. Lesson learned: always check the manual before you seal a decal in!
I went with most of the R3’s weaponry for this kit, though I mixed in the standard Exia waist so we wound up losing the beam sabers. I do like the standard Astraea shield a lot more than the Exia’s, so that was an easy choice. The weapons themselves presented a few challenges because of the way they fold up and attach to the kit. The blade of the GN sword and some sections of the rifle had to be redone a few times when I was taking pictures of this kit due to paint transfer or scratches that felt pretty unavoidable.
The R3 loadout looks fantastic. In the end, I wasn’t willing to take any pictures with the kit posed in any dramatic fashion because I spent an entire extra week fixing chips and scratches that the kit suffered from playing around with it. Builders with more fortitude than I can probably get some nice posed pictures out of their painted builds but by the time I was taking these pictures, I was fully ready to move on to my next project.
To date, this is my favorite RG Exia kit that I’ve built-and I’ve still got another RG Astraea parts set + RG Astraea Type F model kit to put together. Even with all the struggles I had with fixing errors on this kit (Paint scratching/chipping on the weapons, thighs, chest and arms, the left chest vent being a nightmare to put on, the hinge on teh GN Sword Kai breaking) I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of building kits from the Exia lineage because next to the PG, the RG Exia has the best aesthetics. I hope you look forward to seeing me post a few more builds of this mobile suit because I don’t think I’ll ever get tired building one of my favorite mobile suits. Thanks for reading!
