I finished up my PG Strike Gundam set over the weekend with the final touches to the PG Skygrasper and Aile Striker.

Full picture gallery on Flickr.

This kit has always seemed a bit of a cash-in (well, all gunpla is, but this even more so!). As soon as the PG Strike came out sans any of the Striker weapon packs, you just knew there would be a booster kit coming. And although it looks pretty sleek, I can’t imagine many fans were that bothered about the Skygrasper fighter jet to be honest (it’s a bit of a useless vehicle that acts mainly as a transport system for the Striker packs or a way to get Tolle Koenig killed :p).

Nevertheless, it does add value to the kit. As well as the Aile Striker pack most people would be buying it for, you get the Skygrasper and a pretty solid display base on which to mount the Skygrasper or PG Strike Gundam.

And the kit looks beautiful. It’s also fairly quick to put together. Though Perfect Grade, there aren’t actually that many bits to snap the Skygrasper together. The Aile Striker has a few more fiddly parts but no more than any MG model would be.

There are some decent decals to add, including custom markings for Mwu, Cagalli or Tolle, depending on which SEED pilot you fancy. And you can largely get away with not painting, but if you can be bothered some careful licks of paint to the piping on the back boosters and the cockpit consoles  – not to mention the-almost-impossible-to-paint scale figures of the pilots — would give you complete detail too (I for one, couldn’t be arsed :p).

The real joy came in combining it with my 1/60 PG Strike Gundam, which I completed a few months ago. As to be expected from an accessory kit, everything fits together perfectly and the finished Aile Strike Gundam looks really impressive and quite sturdy with some good poseability based on the frame’s incredible articulation.

If there’s one criticism of this kit, it’s that the landing wheels for the Skygrasper have to be removed rather than folding into the fighter itself. Maybe that would have been too much to ask, but this is meant to be Perfect Grade, right?

Next up: A nice and simple one…. BB Senshi Destiny Gundam.