Got my big box of kits today. Did a quick and dirty build of the HG Barbatos.
Hand painted all the details. First time I've done that in a while. It's a mess in a lot of places, but it was good practice and looks good from anywhere but super up close. That kit is really cool. It's a really fun and interesting build. The fact it basically has a nearly full inner frame at a HG price is crazy. It's also really interesting that they give you two different arm parts so you can make Barbatos in either its initial or complete state. Also, it's super posable. This is mainly due to the base design having so little armor. The lack of ankle armor allows you to pull super crazy wide stances.
On the negative side, there are a ton of details that need to be painted or stickered. The chest part in particular looks awful with the flat sticker they give you. Important details like the yellow trim on the shoulder armor are also left out. I almost wish they would've ditched the extra parts for the initial Barbatos form and used those to do better parts separation on the final design. Once you put a little work in, though, it's a really nice looking little MS. The HG IBO line looks really strong from this build and what I've seen of the others.