[Review] 30MM Customize Weapons (Heavy Weapon 2)

30MM Customize Weapons
(Heavy Weapon 2) Review

Kit info

• Name : 30MM Customize Weapons (Heavy Weapon 2)
• Brand : Bandai Spirits
• Original Price : 980 JPY
  
• Release Date : 2024/08
• Link : scalemates

What's in the box (sprues and other parts)

OPW-L : New sprue for this kit. Includes heavy machine gun, main back part and radar dish. [Gray]

OPW-M1, M2 : New sprues for this kit. Contains big round shield, ammo drums, and booster parts. [Gray]

Note the OPW-M1/M2-6 joint part (bottom left) exclusive to this kit. The part connects to the C joint and has a 90 degree rotated 3mm peg.

OPW-H2 : Ammo belt part made of soft material. Previously included in 30MM Customize Weapons (Gatling Unit). [Gray]

J1 : Common 30MM joint parts. J1-5, 10, 11, 14 and 15 are used per instructions and you get rest of the parts as spare. [Gray]

Fold-out style instruction manual. [Color on one side, monochrome on other side]

Instruction Manual

Download .pdf

Detailed Parts Review

Everything assembled together. You get a backpack, two booster units, a radar dish with an antenna, two large ammo drums (all attached to the backpack on the picture), heavy machine gun with flexible ammo belt with a bipod and a secondary grip, and a large round shield.

Backpack consists of main backpack unit and two boosters on top sides, a radar dish (with an antenna on either side) on top and two large ammo drums on bottom.

Booster units are attached to the backpack with a custom joint part (OPW-M1/M2-10) and two common joint parts. (J1-11 and 15) This gives much freedom of movement to the booster part. You can replace the booster part with other parts and get great results. (Instruction suggests storing the machine gun there.)

Radar dish is attached to the "handlebar" part of the backpack unit with J1-10 joint part. So that it can rotate up and down freely.

Ammo drums are attached to the central part with two 3mm pegs so it can rotate freely. Central part is attached to the main backpack unit with a C-clip. It has another C-clip on the bottom so you can attach other accessories there. Each ammo drum has two 3mm holes and one medium rectangular hole (commonly used for weapon accessories, used for ammo belt in this kit).

Large round shield is consist of two parts and has many 3mm holes to attach accessories. Also has two C-clip attachment points on the "handles".

J1-5 part is provided so that you can attach the shield onto mechs arm. Of course you can get creative and do whatever you want with various holes and clip attachment points.

Heavy machine gun is consist of the receiver, barrel, secondary grip, bipod, and a flexible ammo belt. Receiver and barrel use standard rectangular hole for connection so you can swap out barrels and receivers with other 30MM weapons.

Ammo belt can be attached to the top or bottom. Too bad they don't give you special joint part like with Customize Weapons (Gatling Unit) kit which enables you to attach the ammo belt to any 3mm holes.

What I'm talking about is THIS part (OPW-H1-7 part included with Gatling Unit kit).

You can do this with the OPW-H1-7 part which makes prone pose much better IMO. Unfortunately you don't get the option with this kit. Of course you can always get the Gatling Unit kit (which I highly recommend 😂)

Image Gallery (examples on 30MM Alto)

Backpack uses standard 30MM dual 3mm peg connection. It'll fit newer HG Gundam kits nicely also.

The backpack is surprisingly lightweight, allowing Alto to stand upright easily without resorting to an awkward forward-leaning stance.

Boosters can rotate quite freely and ammo drum can also get out of the way so you can aim the boosters pretty much wherever you want. Superman pose is no problem.

Shield can be attached to the 3mm hole on forearm with supplied joint part. Shield is somewhat heavy so using the backpack together balances the whole thing much better I think.

Machine gun held with two hands. It's quite big and has no shoulder stock so it looks somewhat awkward IMO.

Donning the full backpack with ammo belt looks much better!

Alto had some problem lowering itself to the ground but it is possible to use the bipod to make a crouched shooting pose.

Utilizing terrain or an object to support the gun can make a crouching pose appear more natural. While I simply used a sanding stick from my desk, items like sandbags or battlefield debris would be far more suitable.

Alto can assume a prone position without issue, but unfortunately, the ammo belt can only be attached to the top or bottom, which makes the prone stance somewhat cumbersome.

Borrowing joint part OPW-H1-7 from Gatling Unit kit makes the prone pose much better, don't you think?

The round shield is very big and covers the mech's body almost completely.

Indeed, if you position the mech to hunker down, it can almost entirely conceal itself behind the shield.  Let's call this Siege mode or something like that.

Conclusion

Despite a slight price increase to 980 JPY from the Heavy Weapon 1 kit's 880 JPY, it remains an affordable and exciting addition to any 30MM collection. The improved articulation of the upper joint, where the booster connects, is a standout feature compared to HW1 kit. I'm considering combining missile pods from the HW1 kit with this new backpack. 

The dual ammo drum is a great touch, complementing the heavy machine gun would be perfect for other any other belt-fed weaponry. It's unfortunate that Bandai didn't provide an ammo belt to 3mm hole joint part in this kit. My advice? Go for the Gatling Unit kit as well; the ammo drum is a perfect match for the Gatling gun.

It's a shame the round shield has a flat backside, rendering it unusable as a makeshift cooking utensil in the field—just a little humor for the model builders out there.