The Cutecube Refined Barzam takes some of the best design aspects from the original Barzam and makes it a beefier, sleeker kit that the OG wishes it was. It result is a kit that literally looks like the MkII and Barzam had a kid! While I normally don’t meme gundams, this kit was all too perfect to fit the jealous girlfriend meme:
On the surface, this conversion kit looks amazing. However, it’s when you focus on the articulation and build of the kit that the problems truly arise. The cutecube conversion kit uses the phenomenal RG Rx-178 MkII as its base and layers on conversion armor plates on top of the inner frame. In their own right, the RG MkII and HG Barzam have incredible articulation and are very sturdy kits, but the conversion parts have a lot of fitting issues that in the end make it difficult to pose without parts falling off. The front and back skirts, cockpit and leg armor are the main culprits that will fall off constantly when trying to pose the kit unless you glue the parts down. Hence, I only managed to capture a handful of pictures before giving up on the photoshoot entirely. While I do really like the look of the kit, it seems that it’ll be permanently in a standing pose in my display case. It’s tough to recommend this kit without some major caveats. Hopefully, my delve into resin kits won’t give me as many fitting issues as this one!
Titans Lineup
Build Details
PROS:
- Bulks up the Barzam design’s look
- Uses a great inner frame as the base kit: the RG RX178 MkII
- New Rifle attachment is awesome
CONS:
- Parts fitting and loose pieces everywhere
- articulation is greatly hindered by loose parts
- kit isn’t easily available stateside
Paints Used:
- Blue: 80%bright blue+ 20% Titans blue II (i think?). Added white for highlights
- Yellow: Orange base coat followed by 60% orange yellow+ 40% yellow. Post shade with white
- White: intermediate blue preshade followed by white
- Red: Black preshade the 70% Red Madder+30% Rlm23red. Added yellow for post shade
- Black: Rubber black. Added white for highlights
- Tamiya TS 100, Bright gun metal
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