PKA M Melusine

PKA Melusine
This time I managed to get my hands on the 2 different versions of Ma.K PKA M Melusine in order to review them. The first is Series 00.02 Melusine (bottom) and second is Series 00.22 (top). The Gustav box stacked between them is because I bought 00.02 together with it (the Gustav kit is required to complete the Melusine as 00.02 is a conversion). Both are expensive kits at YAJ and this review costs me alot, if I don't sell them away... I myself am not a big fan of this design, but that's another story.

This review hopefully will anser some questions posted by fellow members regarding the differences in price and contents of the 2 versions.

On with the review!

2 versions of Melusine, 00.02 below and 00.22 on top, with a Gustav stacked between

First, the cheaper kit, Series 00.22. This is a complete kit, meaning that everything required to build a Melusine is inside the box. As usual you get sprues, a packet of multimedia wires and springs, camo card, instructions and decals. This kit contains a separate packet of resin (in white)
and a separate sheet of instructions (black piece of paper on the right), to build a 1cm cube of plastic to lengthen the groin joint.

Contents

The sprues are Gustav sprues A and B, Kauz sprue E, and the figure from the konrad kit. Once completed, this kit will have the standard laser arm as well as a panzer faust rocket from the Gustav kit. But the interesting part is the white resin...

Melusine white resin parts

The white resin comprises of 2 halves of the main body, side armour as well as cameras that poke of of the body, and some bits and pieces for different parts of the body.

Now onto the more expensive kit, the Series 00.02. As can be seen, the box is just as large as the full kit, even though the contents are much less...

00.02 box

Contents

What you get, besides lots of bubble wrap inside to protect the resin, is a solid body of yellowish resin fot the body, resin of the parts, instructions, decals and camo card. You will need the Gustav kit to complete this, and usually in YAJ they sell both together as an auction.

Close up of the resin

After looking at the resin body, I am fully convinced that this is a much nicer looking kit, pardon the pictures, but the hatch is detailed ON THE INSIDE as well, (whereas the normal one uses the Kauz hatch that is just a hollow piece) and resin cast so nice that there is only flash on the bottom! The interior is also beautifully casted. This kit allows for nice open hatch modelling...

To complete this review, here are the differences between the decals and camo cards...

Decals (00.22 left, 00.02 right)

Camo cards (00.22 left, 00.02 right)

Now for the price, the 00.22 costs about 8000 yen onwards (about 110usd), and the more expensive 00.02 one together with a Gustav costs 12000 yen onwards (about 160usd).
If I have the money and I want an open hatch Melusine, I'd definitely go with the 00.02. Hope this helps!
Will




Took additional photos of the 00.02 resin...

front

back

And the amazing resin pilot with arm parts (which I totally missed out, sorry!)
Man this resin pilot is very detailed and I personally think its worth the difference in price!