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Best gundam models 2018 – [Buyer’s Guide]
Last Updated December 1, 2023
Hi there, I’m Willard Lawson. After putting in 49+ hours of research and testing, I made a list of the best gundam models of 2018 and explained their differences and advantages.
Eventually, I found something that would suit my needs but it occurred to me that I wasn’t the only one who might be having the same problems I did. What I would like you to remember as you browse my website is that I don’t work in the industry so the reviews I have are based on good old fashioned honesty.
Best gundam models of 2018
If you get well acquainted with these basics, you shouldn’t have a problem choosing a gundam models that suits your need. I have taken the initiative to educate you on the top three best gundam models that you can buy this year.
Here we have compiled a detailed list of some of the best gundam models of the 2018. Not all gundam models are created equal though.
Test Results and Ratings
| Rank | №1 | №2 | №3 |
| Product |  |
 |
 |
| Total | 4.8 | 4.5 | 4.3 |
| Design |
5 points
|
5 points
|
4 points
|
| Size |
5 points
|
4 points
|
4 points
|
| Construction |
4 points
|
4 points
|
4 points
|
| Quality |
5 points
|
5 points
|
5 points
|
| Awards |  |
||
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
How to save up to 86%? Here is little trick.
You must visit the page of sales. Here is the link. If you don’t care about which brand is better, then you can choose the gundam models by the price and buy from the one who will offer the greatest discount.
№1 – Gundam Modeler Basic Tools – Gundam Model Kits / Model Building Craft Starter Set for Car Bendai Hobby Model Assemble Building With Plastic Container by Baleauty
| Total: |
4.8
|
Why did this gundam models win the first place?
The product is very strong. Its material is stable and doesn’t crack. I am very happy with the purchase. It is definitely worth its money. The product is top-notch! I also liked the delivery service that was fast and quick to react. It was delivered on the third day. I really enjoy the design. It is compact, comfortable and reliable. And it looks amazing!
5
|
5
|
4
|
5
|
№2 – Gundam Modeler Basic Tools Craft Set For Car Model Assemble Building Kit by Alemon
| Total: |
4.5
|
Why did this gundam models come in second place?
Seems that the material is good. It has a very beautiful color but I don’t really like the texture. I like this product. For such a low price, I didn’t even hope it to be any better. It’s decently made. Managers explained me all the details about the product range, price, and delivery. This is a pretty decent product that perfectly fitted the interior of our office.
5
|
4
|
4
|
5
|
№3 – Bandai Hobby #59 HG Gundam Gold Frame Astray Amatu Mina Model Kit
| Total: |
4.3
|
Why did this gundam models take third place?
I liked the design. We’ve been using it for 2 months and it still looks like brand new. A very convenient model. It is affordable and made of high-quality materials. It doesn’t squeaks nor bents. Looks great in my apartment. It is inconvenient to use due to the size. I am going to get something different next time.
4
|
4
|
4
|
5
|
gundam models Buyer’s Guide
After the recent success of
Gundam Build Fighters, a meta show about fans building Gunpla, the plastic model building hobby is enjoying a renaissance. It’s never been easier to get your hands on Gunpla anywhere in the world. What makes Gunpla so appealing is how it scales to a challenge for any experience level. At its most involved, craftspeople apply their own paint and custom touches to enter global tournaments, where the real life Meijin Kawaguchi first made a name for himself. At its most basic, Gunpla is something you can learn to do in an afternoon.
This is a beginner tutorial for anyone who’s interested in constructing their first Gunpla. Follow along to learn how easy and accessible this hands-on hobby can be.
Choosing Your First Gunpla
Scale, or size, indicates how large the model will be once it is built. Take a 1/14model, which is said to be exactly 144th the size of the “real” mobile suit, if it existed. For example, the “life size” Gundam model in Odaiba, Japan would be said to be 1/scale. Scale has been standardized since the ‘90s, and you can typically choose from 1/144, 1/100, and 1/60.
Super Deformed, with varying difficulty. The grade is shortened to two letters in the corner of the Gunpla box—HG, MG, PG, etc.
Building Your First Gunpla
Notice that the instructions consist of images, with hardly any text at all. To build a Gunpla, all you need to be able to do is duplicate the image in front of you with the parts you have.
Let’s start with step one, which tells us to take out piece IThe letter refers to the sprue, or plastic runner into which the piece is embedded, while the number refers to the part itself. On the sprue, you will easily find the number next to the piece it identifies. Using this convention, you can quickly find any piece you need.
Notice also that this sprue is bright yellow, the same as the picture on the front of the kit. Since Gunpla come pre-colored, you do not need to paint anything.
Let’s take out piece IGunpla kits are designed so you could do this with your fingers if you want. It really is that easy! However, as you get deeper into the hobby, you’ll notice that most people use side-cutters, which look like extremely small gardening shears. You can buy wire side-cutters in the jewelry aisle at the craft store. If you have the opportunity, you can also buy side-cutters designed for hobbyists. I have been using Tamiya hobby side-cutters that I bought on for years, but recently switched to Gundam Planet side-cutters designed specifically for Gunpla. Your side-cutter choice—or using side-cutters at all—is entirely up to you.
Looks like we need to connect Iwith I8, which is the back of the head. Believe it or not, you won’t need any glue to do this. Gunpla are snap-together kits, with little pegs and notches through which the pieces will connect to one another and stay connected forever. Even more advanced modelers do not use glue on their Gunpla, because it makes them less poseable.
Next I take out more pieces for assembly, I do not recommend taking out more than the amount you need for one step, or you might get confused or lose pieces. The extra pieces I’m adding to Iand Imake up Beargguy’s ears and muzzle.
I took out I8, but it has a little nub sticking out that I don’t like. So I’m going to remove this imperfection with my X-Acto knife. All I’m doing here is slicing off the nub that sticks out so my finished Gunpla is smoother. You can get an X-Acto knife at the craft store.
Having cleaned the pieces up with my knife, I will assemble them by snapping them together.
Almost there! Petit Beargguy has no features. So I’m going to use the stickers that came with the kit to fill in the eyes and nose. I could use my fingers, but I’m using tweezers here for increased precision and to avoid getting my fingers’ oil on the sticker and making it lose its stickiness.
All right! That’s the completed Beargguy head. We put this together without paint, glue, or reading any Japanese. We used some tools for sure, but that was my decision, not a necessity. By following the instructions, anyone can build Gunpla.
The light in Thailand is, in a word, strong. It sounds obvious but it really needs to be accounted for, you can easily get sunburnt on an overcast day walking around in Thailand, distracted by its offerings. For film users, this means that lower speed films of 100 or 200 ISO are more than adequate, 400 would be the limit that I would shoot with in the daytime and that would mandate stopping down significantly and ND filters come in handy for those preferring to be wider open for subject isolation purposes. All digital brethren need not worry about such issues of course. The quality of the light itself is absolutely amazing, especially during those golden hour times just after sunrise and immediately running up to sunset. At such times on a good day, the tropical South East Asian light has an ethereal quality and colour palette which is something often previously unknown to those coming from cooler climes, especially Europeans and the average septentrional North American. During the months in which monsoons and heavy rains pervade, namely June through to December in a typical year, it has been my observation that these golden hours have the potential to be at their most impressive. This is when the lighting in which one can find oneself is akin to dreamlike flashback scenes in films or long lost memories of experiencing mind-altering substances in your youth, to those of such proclivity. In general, the intensity of the light in the daytime is such that when shooting out in the open, I highly advocate the use of lens hoods and a filter of your choice. That said, even in such strong, unflattering overhead light at midday, the labyrinthine layout of this sprawling asphalt jungle still offers up significant shaded area and much opportunity for shadow play. Surprisingly, Bangkok can be as much a black and white shooter’s paradise as a prized locale for the colour adherent. A film shooter coming here for a holiday would do well to have at least some of both.
When to shoot
It’s pretty hot and humid in most of Thailand nearly all year round, some years the cool season never actually happens. It can be colder in the North depending on altitude and time of year but for the rest of us, it’s just plain hot and sticky. You can shoot anytime but getting up early and shooting before 10-11am is a great idea. Start with the first half of the golden hour and go from there. This is sometime between 6-6:30am most of the year. Thailand is great in that it is pretty consistent in terms of daylight hours. Although it gets dark quicker at the end of the year and following few months, it still only changes by maybe half an hour or more, moving slowly between these changes so you don’t notice it that much when you live here year round. There is also no daylight saving time to account for, which I personally love. In simple terms then, you’re talking about pretty much twelve hours on and twelve hours off, all year long. It’s good to have this constant as a photographer. By the same token, shooting from to 6-6:30pm onwards for the last hour and a half of light is not only more comfortable for you but it yields the best evening light to work in also. Beyond that, shooting at night is possible for film shooters as Bangkok has a lot of bright lights and neon but obviously it’s better in more mainstream areas. Going with ISO 1600 or 3200 film is perfectly manageable with faster lenses in such places. Digital shooters can shoot round the clock with good modern kit regardless of course in many cases; this is one area where it is an eminently practical medium. A totally random suggestion that works well for this is the Khao San Road area. It is a good example of a place in Bangkok where you can shoot at night around lots of people with bars here and there and probably not cause too much trouble with a camera, yet you should trust your senses and gut feeling on a case by case basis. It’s also cool hippie ‘turn on, tune in and drop out’ central with the current wave of gap year students rolling through every year trying to look like the counter-culture yet somehow all managing to look exactly like one another in their own mandatory style. This can be good and bad depending on your age, political leanings and levels of patience for strangers and the diatribes they can unleash upon you when well lubed with alcohol. Good for night shooting though.
ATTENTION ALL READERS
Need a Modder in Your Area? or you can try the Trading Post.
And do not ask about Converters, Converts can be found here.
Budget accordingly
It’s possible to get by if you order something now that you currently can’t pay for, but it’s not a good idea and not sustainable.
If you’re just starting out, the rule of thumb that you should follow is “only buy things for which you have the money!” See below for details.
Bank account
Get one at your local bank if you don’t already and deposit your money into it. A checking account is preferred over savings if you’re going to be buying frequently, since most banks impose a transaction fee for free savings accounts after the first few times.
Instant transactions
You do not need to have money in your Paypal balance to pay. Once you link your bank account and a card (can be either debit or credit) to Paypal, and you have a zero Paypal balance, then transactions via Paypal are charged to your card instead and should clear instantly.
You can set it up so that your credit or debit card is charged in the original currency instead (¥) without using Paypal’s exchange rate. Be aware that this means the exchange will be done by the card’s company (e.x. MasterCard, Visa) only when the credit card is charged (when you have to pay) and your bank may charge for foreign transactions. Instructions below.
To do this, go to Profile > My preapproved payments > Set Available Funding Sources > Conversion Options and choose “Bill me in the currency listed on the seller’s invoice”.
When doing a manual payment, enter the payment first using the correct currency, and on the second screen, under “Payment Methods” it will probably list instant transfer from your bank account, and under the conversion rate, click “Change” to charge your card instead.
Living from paycheck to paycheck is dangerous. We recommend always having at least a couple hundred dollars backup just in case your grail or something you hadn’t planned for suddenly becomes available. Or real life gets in the way (e.g. car accident, sudden illness, douchebag roommate).
Keep track of your money
Things add up very, very quickly. Keep a list of all purchases and their details somewhere. Here are some examples in Excel since it can do calculations for you: Here and here.
READ THE FAQ OF YOUR MERCHANT
What it says on the tin. Especially the sections regarding payment methods, shipping types, grouping/holding, cancellations and returns. Or else you’re going to bitch on /a/ about SAL, and everybody will make fun of you, faggot.
Shit is expensive “Public” services
These are handled by the national postal service of the country a package is in (Canada Post, United States Postal Service, Royal Mail, etc.). These services are generally weight based and subject to some size restrictions. SAL and EMS cannot ship to APO or AP addresses (PO Box addresses are OK).
Big in Japan ★
PS general rule of Gunpla is BUY WHATEVER LOOKS COOL TO YOU! However I do have a few kits of warning to not buy into as your first (or early) kit.
Here is a scale chart for different kinds of Gundam kits and what skill level you want to get into.
I myself build only 1/14High Grades which is cheap and effective, they are simple in a sense yet also technical in their own way a low skill level a great entry kit as they will teach you how to read the manual and how to build without hurting your wallet if you do ruin the kit, they are hollow plastic with parts to make up joints while other Gunpla kits have full skeletons underneath. While if you delve into the modern Iron Blooded Orphans line then you will be treated to basic skeletons in the HG line, however do not expect such in older HG’s. Here is a link that shows the building of an average HG to see if you want into this level. There are no kits to truly worry about being too difficult in this line.
Real Grade is same size as a HG yet with far more details and features packed into the small package many of which was only seen in the 1/100 Master Grades (more on that later) Real Grades have a small skeleton underneath which was a main feature MG’s had and they are certainly more advanced in skill than HG and maybe slightly more than your average Master Grade due to the same amount of detail just with smaller parts now, a newbie can still come in and build RG kits no problem just a lot more parts than a HG and more concentration to building the kit. If you’re confident in your skill shoot for it, if not then maybe HG is wiser. Here is a link that shows an RG being built and see if this is the level you want.
Master Grades are 1/100 scale much large than the two sizes already talked about and due to the size allows for features and details to be packed in but also for a higher price point, the main feature is the skeleton underneath which has its own many details that makes the kit feel like you’re building the actual robot, some people only build some of the kit and leave the under skeleton exposed as if the mech is being repaired or such. While MG’s are on the advanced scale of building this does not mean they cannot be your first kit, many many many people build MG’s as their first and ONLY line. Never going smaller, Here is a little showcase of the kit of a MG being built and see if your into this level.
Now the kit showcased is one of the kits I do not advise going for as your first kit maybe as your second MG kit but not as your first MG kit unless you are really confident. The Nu Gundam Ver Ka is a bit more of a MG in complexity while the Sazabi Ver Ka is a daunting kit for even experienced builders. While you should come at the Nu Gundam Ver Ka a bit cautious, the Sazabi Ver Ka is a certain no no as a first MG also its one of the most expensive MG kits.
Aside from really those kits and to be wary of Ver Ka as a newbie, all other kits should really be free game for you to build happily.
The next stage up is the the 1/60 Perfect grades which is labeled in the scale image above as HG which it is however that image is more for scale than showcasing a PG, I won’t be going into too much detail on Perfect Grades as for they are a kit that requires dedication as you can see this is the entire Perfect Grade Strike unboxed. This is not something you will be tackling as a newbie in general and mostly because the prices of these kits are just as big as the kit.
Ami Ami
Banzai Hobby This site is the absolute best I have used and I have had a great time with them more so as UK buyer.
A link for more Advanced buyers yet still good for Newbies.
Manadarake are a great place to buy kits and more so rarer or hard to get kits as they price them absolutely fairly and do not price gouge you, aswell as since they deal with “second hand” kits that are unbuilt they have a very unique stock that changes all the time.
My Original post before this thread become what it is.
So spoilers for anyone not watched Day Recap, Austin has his own builders club in the recap and in it he built a the Gunpla HG Gouf Custom and it only made me want to see more. A while ago Tested got a Gunpla kit in a mail bag and they said they would build it as a feature some time….it still hasn’t happened. I realy wanted to see them do it but hey ho.
So obviously I am into Gunpla as I have built HG kits so far with two waiting to be built.
Here is my collection so far. (From left to right) Reborns Gundam, Hyper Mega Launcher, Astrea Type F and Gaplant Hrairoo. (Left to right) Gm Sniper K9, Lighting Gundam, Wing Gundam Fenice Rinascita, Kampfer Amazing, Zaku Sniper Type and cut off is my 200reprinted 199Aestivalis from Martian Successor Nadesico.
How to save up to 86%? Here is little trick.
You must visit the page of sales. Here is the link. If you don’t care about which brand is better, then you can choose the gundam models by the price and buy from the one who will offer the greatest discount.
Final Word
First of all thanks for reading my article to the end! I hope you find my reviews listed here useful and that it allows you to make a proper comparison of what is best to fit your needs and budget. Don’t be afraid to try more than one product if your first pick doesn’t do the trick.
Most important, have fun and choose your gundam models wisely! Good luck!
So, TOP3 of gundam models
- №1 — Gundam Modeler Basic Tools – Gundam Model Kits / Model Building Craft Starter Set for Car Bendai Hobby Model Assemble Building With Plastic Container by Baleauty
- №2 — Gundam Modeler Basic Tools Craft Set For Car Model Assemble Building Kit by Alemon
- №3 — Bandai Hobby #59 HG Gundam Gold Frame Astray Amatu Mina Model Kit
Questions? Leave a comment below!
Chatting about gundam models is my passion! Leave me a question in the comments, I answer each and every one and would love to get to know you better!
