1/48 M9 Gernsback Melissa Mao Ver

Aoshima did very well in making FMP kits.



This is the first time i work on kits from Aoshima and i find it pretty satisfying. I decided to pick up this kit when 1/48 ARX-7 Arbalest is announced to be released and this kit was on sale as well in HLJ.

M9 Gernsback is one of the most advanced Arm Slave in its generation and proven to be superior compared to the present AS such as Savage though it is weaker compared to newer AS like Codarl since it is equipped with Lambda Driver. The kit i am reviewing now is M9 Gernsback commander type which is piloted by  Liutenant Melissa Mao. Melissa Mao is chinese born in America who is a member of Mithril, elite groups of Mercernary and she is assigned to Tuatha de Danaan. Mao serve as field commander during operation with her team members; Kurz Weber and Sousuke Sagara. In terms piloting skill she might not be as good as Kurz or Sousuke but her leadership skill proven to be effective to lead the team.

At first my impression on Kits manufactured other than Bandai will have poor articulation probably due to my experience with Kotobukiya kits, but it was soon changed after i start on building this kit, the articulation is pretty good thogu it comes with some flaws as well.

The back parts has some hole so it can be equipped with the flight pack which is from M9 Gernsback Kurz Version.

These are the armaments that you get for M9 Gernsback, initially i thought the kit only come with a machine gun and the sword but Aoshima is pretty generous and provide standard equipments for M9 Gernsback. the pair of the smallest daggers can be stored inside the mecha.

The Kit is able to bend on the Knee completely and the arm also articulate pretty good, the flaw is the Thigh which is quite loose and the hand which cannot hold guns really well. The kit comes with 4 pairs of different type hands.

The difference between M9 Gernsback Commander type with the normal version is slightly different head and a Long Sword which is exclusive for the Commander type. The long sword is pretty nice but you need to paint it by yourself.

The first standard fire weapon for M9 Gernsback is the Machine gun though i don't know if the gun provided for the kit is really machinegun since it rather look like a Shotgun to me rather than a machine gun due to the shape of the gun and the stabilizer since i don't think Machine gun had excessive recoil.

The other fireweapon that comes with this kit is 57mm anti AS rifle which is the strongest arsenal of M9 gernsback(at least in SRW) the gun comes with tripod stand though it can't be used.

Compared to my 1/100 Arios gundam, 1/48 M9 Gernsback is only slightly smaller compared to 1/100 scale gundams.

This kit pretty easy to build and almost as good as Gundam Master Grade, the only complaint that i have is that poor weapon gimmicks and i think Aoshima could have done much better. I would recommend any modeller to pick this kit especially FMP fans.