Gunpla Review: 1/144 HG Seravee and Seraphim HW/B

Let me be clear: this is two kits, not one. The only way to get these two together is with the Trans-Am kit, which is either overly-expensive or sold-out. To do these two justice, I believe they must be reviewed together, since that is when they are truly complete. Annoyingly enough, I'm not even being symbolic here.

I assembled the Seraphim first, assuming it to be a fast and easy build because it only has 3 runners and a sheet of polycaps to it. Unfortunately, there are some tricky parts to it, like the large V-fins and the frontskirt that keep falling out.

But far more important than that, is the fact that the face mask broke while I was cutting it off the runner. It broke into two pieces, one about one-third the size of the whole thing together, and the other piece two-thirds the size of an already tiny piece.

Fortunately I have some plastic cement, so I glued the pieces back together, and the glued the face mask to its mounting to ensure it stays. In the process, the cement smudged some red and some blue, but it's only really noticeable if you look for it.

Other than that, the Seraphim is exceedingly light, and it has tiny feet in direct contrast to the Seravee especially. The shoulder and hip joints are also very non-standard, so it is a fresh building experience. The hand covers are also in the same clear plastic as the condenser domes, and the GN drive is red, which is interesting.

Unfortunately I cannot figure out the Face Burst Mode, and the big V-fins popping off meant I decided to glue them to the body. I tried the same thing with the frontskirt, but there seems to be nothing for it to connect to, somehow.

The Seraphim comes with two beam saber hilts and three blade effects, two long and one short. It does not have a place on it to store them.

I should mention here that the SMG for the Seraphim, as well as the blasting ends for its GN canons, are in the Seravee kit. Also, if you want to build the Seraphim ready for a heavy-weapons load-out of extra particle emitters and the hip railguns, you will have to get the pieces with the connecting pegs from the Seravee kit. I ended up having to open up the shoulders because the fake Seraphim that comes with the Seravee is built differently. I did, however, end up with a pair of spare sideskirts.

Building the Seravee was also interesting, owing mostly to the bulkier armour and the set-up with its multiple canons. I like that its V-fins go in different directions from the standard, so it has an interesting presence. It was also fairly easy to learn how to do the various modes from the instructions.

I did end up with one less polycap than I should have, but I managed to substitute it for a slightly larger one on the PC-123 sheet, and that worked. But the vendor decided to send me a spare polycap sheet anyway.

The only thing I can think of to improve this kit is to be able to switch the canons for hands with beam sabers, like it did in the show. Otherwise it was an interesting build, and one that I enjoyed fairly well after the longer RG builds I did.

I can recommend these kits to gunpla enthusiasts who like a different design. For the full experience I would suggest getting both the Seravee and the Seraphim in whatever form you can afford best, as using the fake just makes it seem... incomplete in my opinion.

Tools used here include my baby nippers, small file, red and green sharpies, and metallic gundam marker set. Build time was approximately 7 hours for the pair.