MG Barbatos Hip Joints: Fixing a Loose Inner Frame
The MG Barbatos from Gundam Wing is one of those kits that makes you smile right out of the box. The inner frame is chunky, the surface detail is sharp, and the silhouette is aggressive without being fiddly. Trouble shows up a few hours later, though. Once you start moving the legs through their range, the hip joints begin to feel hollow, the waist rocks from side to side, and the whole lower body slumps into a splayed stance you never asked for. Nothing is broken. The parts are simply doing what the frame was moulded to do.
That slack feeling is the single most common complaint about this particular inner frame, and it turns up again and again in the advice threads on Gundam Eclipse. Builders of every skill level describe the same pattern: an initial test fit that feels tight and springy, a bit of enthusiastic sanding or trimming around the thigh clearance, and then a joint that no longer holds an angle. The good news is that this is a fixable engineering problem rather than a ruined kit.
Down here the timing makes it easier. Most of us build through the arvo when the air conditioning is doing the work, then spend the evening with the frame under a desk lamp. Sydney's summer humidity and a Brisbane January can slow down cure times, but they also give you long, comfortable evenings to do the fiddly, careful work this repair actually demands. Plenty of Australian builders pick up their kits from a city hobby shop, order extra runners from an online retailer, and post the finished article to the Display Case gallery for comparison.
Why the Hip Joints Go Slack in the First Place
The inner frame on this kit uses a single-piece torso polycap with ball-shaped hip joints seated in the waist, plus a front rocker section. At the factory, the joints are pressed in with a degree of pre-load so the legs hold a spread stance without sagging. That preload is doing most of the work, not friction from the joint surfaces themselves.
Now think about what we do to a new kit. We trim the inside of the thigh armour, relieve the crotch section, shave a burr here and there, and sometimes sand the hip pocket where the leg tucks in. Every bit of that material removal reduces the preload. The joint is now free, and a free ball joint in a heavy MG frame reads as a loose one because the skirt armour and the thigh shells hang off it. A builder who never touches the clearance will usually keep the tight feeling for years.
There is a second factor. Wear plastic from the frame rub against the joint seats as you pose, and the polished surfaces that come from handling actually make the joint looser over time. This is why a kit can feel tight on day one and floppy in month three.
Taking the Legs Apart Without Losing Your Nerves
The Barbatos separates into logical chunks if you work in the right order: lower legs first, then the thighs, then the knee armour, then the waist section from the torso. Do it on a cutting mat with a good pair of sprue nippers, and keep every screw in a labelled zip-lock bag. It sounds fussy, but the moment a dozen tiny frame screws are loose on the mat, you will thank yourself.
The trick most builders learn is to split the plastic rather than force the joint. A shallow slice along the seam where the thigh meets the frame lets you lever the parts apart with a flat screwdriver instead of levering against the ball joint itself. That is the difference between a clean disassembly and a joint you have to replace later. If a piece of frame does crack, Tamiya extra thin cement and a bit of patience will usually rescue it, provided you catch it early.
Keep parts sorted in trays or a paint rack as you go, and note which side each piece came from. MG frames are often near-symmetrical, and a mirrored foot or skirt plate that ends up on the wrong side can stop you from closing the thigh armour later on.
Tools and Materials That Work in Australian Conditions
For the repair itself you need very little: extra thin cement for stress-bearing joins, a slow-cure epoxy putty for rebuilding a worn seat, cyanoacrylate gel for holding a washer in place, a set of feeler gauges, and a strip of 0.1 mm paper for making shims. A small bottle of hobby-grade metal polish is handy for restoring a polished joint seat before you glue anything.
Climate matters more than most guides admit. Cyanoacrylate cures fast in dry air and far too slowly in humid conditions, so a Queensland wet season afternoon can leave you waiting for a set that would have grabbed in seconds in Canberra. Epoxy putty behaves better but still wants a stable temperature and a couple of hours of undisturbed curing. Many builders here work with an air conditioner running against a closed door, a desk lamp, and a cup of tea, because that combination buys controlled curing without the whole house cooking.
While the putty sets, put something on in the background. If you enjoy long-form interviews, a radio amateur interview is a fascinating listen about a hobbyist who built friendships with listeners across the world, which is a decent parallel to a hobbyist forum full of strangers comparing runners.
Materials are easy to source locally. Any hobby shop in the Sydney CBD or in Melbourne's inner suburbs will stock cement, putty and sanding tools, and the online retailers that ship Bandai kits across Australia usually carry the thinner runners you might need. For an odd missing part, a ride-share pickup from a fellow builder who has a spare sprue is cheaper and kinder than ordering a whole second kit.
Rebuilding the Hip Joint So It Stays Put
There are three methods worth knowing, and they suit different budgets and different levels of confidence.
The cheapest method is friction. You restore the joint seat with metal polish, apply a thin ring of super glue around the ball, and refit it so the joint retains a light but definite preload. It works well on a joint that has only lost its factory tension.
The paper washer method is the classic Japanese fix for a loose ball joint. You cut a washer from 0.1 mm paper, glue it into the seat, and refit the joint. The paper compresses under load, creating friction that holds a pose indefinitely without turning the joint into a grinding hinge. Many builders report this approach giving the best long-term result on the Barbatos frame.
The most involved option is rebuilding the seat with epoxy putty. You pack a small amount into the hip recess, shape it with a ball-ended metal tool, let it cure, sand it to shape, and then refit the joint. This is the method that saves a frame whose seat has been chewed up by a previous repair or by a kit that has been assembled and disassembled many times.
Whichever route you take, test the joint before you rebuild anything around it. A frame that holds a deep stance on its own, without skirt armour adding weight, is a frame you can trust.
Posing, Finishing and the Display Case
Once the hips hold, you can finally judge the kit's range of motion honestly. The Barbatos has a nice wide stance and a heavy step, so a fixed hip joint lets you pose it without the legs doing the splits every time you set it down. Before you reach for the panel lining, do a full pose test with the armour fitted, because you may find the thigh clearance needs another small pass.
Paint preparation is where a lot of builders spend their remaining patience, and a subtle pre-shading for depth can make the panel lines on this kit read much better than flat black lining alone. If you are building the full arsenal, you can also magnetize your Gundam's weapons so the rifle and beam axe swap out cleanly between poses.
Post your results, especially if you tried a method that others have shied away from. Forum news, the questions board and the Display Case gallery all benefit from someone documenting a repair that actually held for a year.
Share Your Fix With the Crew
If your Barbatos has been standing with its legs splayed since the day you opened the box, you are in good company, and the repair takes an evening rather than a rebuild. Post your build-in-progress shots, ask about the method you are unsure of, and drop the finished article into the Display Case gallery so the next builder searching for a solution can find a real result with real photos.
Members can also contact the site team with build questions, kit requests for review, or ideas for a future technique write-up, and the moderation crew will point you to the right thread.