ASW-G-08 GUNDAM BARBATOS 6TH FORM
One of the things I loved about the first season of IBO was the incremental improvements made to the Barbatos as the season progressed. Rather than just receiving one upgrade mid-season (although it did that too in the form of the Lupus), the Barbatos received several smaller upgrades and improvements to its performance. These changes also made sense with the story; Tekkadan was a ragtag group of orphaned children that wasn’t well funded, so they scrapped and used parts from defeated mobile suits to compensate. The 6th form of the Barbatos is equipped with shoulder armor taken from the Graze Ritter giving it a bulkier look and one of the more absurd weapons in Gundam history, the “Wrench” mace which is equipped with a chainsaw. And I love it.
Though many of the 1/100 scale IBO kits re-used the same inner frame for each kit, the frames are well-detailed giving each kit a master grade “feel”. A lot of these details get covered up by the armor plating, but I hand-painted most of the joints and wiring to show through after the kit is assembled. For this build, I decided to give the 6th form a color scheme more reminiscent to the Hi-resolution version of this kit, adding more color variation in areas, and coloring the wrench mace light blue rather than gray. Coloring the chest plate blue instead of white, broke up the monotony of white in the upper half of the Barbatos’ body given in the default colors. Other weaponry in this kit was colored with Mr. Metal color iron, like the mace and autocannons. I found a technique somewhere online where if you rub the iron paint with a q-tip, it will give the dried paint a bit of “shine”! Detailing the kit, used a lot of the unique IBO decals which had some faction logos written in Japanese and a lot of Tekkadan insignias. In contrast with my first build, I think the pre-shading done in this build is far more subtle given that it was easier to do shading on larger pieces rather than several smaller pieces I did previously on the RG build. Progress!
While I think the 1/100 Full mechanics IBO line is great, I hope Bandai revisits these kits in the future, giving them the master grade or ver. ka treatment. I’d love for Bandai to do something aesthetically interesting with the cockpits of these Gundams by giving them a miniature Alayna-Vijnana system and making better proportioned frames for bigger suits like the Lupus Rex and Gushion Rebake. Hopefully those kits will be able to support the weight of some of the larger weaponry they wield!
Now that it’s Christmas season, I’ll be busy working on the gift I received from the gunpla subreddit secret santa. A big thanks to u/premegarment for the MG Fenice Rinacita!
Kit review and build details to follow the gallery!
Close up 
Front 
Inner Frame detail 
Back 
Frame back
WRENCH MACE
Build Details
PROS:
- Articulate and detailed inner frame included for a no-grade 1/100 kit
- includes a variety of weapons for use
- Highly customizable with extra parts included and other IBO 1/100 kits!
- It has a chainsaw mace
CONS:
- Arms have trouble supporting the weight of its larger weaponry (even with 2 hands)
- big sticker sheet (gonna have to handpaint!)
- upper body colors are just plain white and monotonous without adding color variation
- changing between forms can easily scratch paintwork
Paints Used:
- White: Grey primer followed by flat black preshade then flat white with a drop of neutral gray
- Greyish White: Grey primer followed by flat black preshade then 70% white with 30% neutral gray
- Blue: Grey primer followed by Mr. Gundam Color UG14, Light blue
- Light Blue (Wrench Mace): Grey primer followed by flat black preshade then tamiya XF 23, light blue
- Red: Grey primer followed by flat black preshade then flat red with a few drops of white
- Yellow: Orange base coat followed with white. Then used 90% flat yellow+ 10% orange
- Tamiya TS 100, Bright gun metal
- Tamiya XF 7, Red
- Mr. Metal Color, Copper
- Mr. Metal Color, Iron
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