How to Install LEDs with KOSMOS and MGEX Strike Freedom

Installing LED lighting on your Gunpla kit is one of the most dramatic customizations you can make, but the process of getting all those wires in place can be daunting—and until now, there was only a Chinese language tutorial for the process for the MGEX Strike Freedom and Kosmos LED combo. Let Gunpla 101 contributor chennerbot show you the ropes so you can display a dazzling LED Gunpla kit of your own.

The 1/100 MGEX Strike Freedom is one of the most impressive Gundam model kits in Bandai’s production history. Featuring expansive articulation, complex internal mechanisms, and an “Extreme Metallic Combination”—which translates to a lot of gold in the inner frame—it’s a build experience like none other, and commands plenty of shelf presence.

Let me tell you guys: after completing the Strike Freedom’s LED upgrade, this thing straight up aura farms sitting on my shelf.

As I’ve been working through my backlog, I found an unassuming box from KOSMOS in my “pile of treasure” (aka home office closet) and realized I bought the LED set, but never installed it. While this is not an official Bandai product, the kit itself was not engineered with LED installation in mind, so it does not seem like Bandai would release a similar product.

There are some build guides on YouTube, but I did not find any articles covering it. My intention with this article is to:

Create a simplified resource to help other builders refer back to. It’s time-consuming to rewind and find the exact spot your eyes left the screen.
Provide an English language resource. The build video provided by KOSMOS is entirely in Mandarin. I know enough of it to get by, and will use what I know to help you!
Share some pictures of the completed build, as well as my final thoughts.

You will be working with the head and wings. If you had to glue any of these parts down, you may want to review the entire guide before buying this LED kit.

You will need:

KOSMOS LED kit for Strike Freedom Gundam
Parts separator (recommended)
Bandai MGEX Strike Freedom
Hobby nipper
Powered USB-C connection
USB-C cable
Scissors or hobby knife
Batteries (3x AA) (optional, if not using USB-C power)
Nitrile or latex gloves
Optional: Smartphone (for the KOSMOS app)

Part One: Unboxing and “What does this do?”

First, let’s find out what’s inside the KOSMOS LED kit box:

2 electroshielded baggies, containing:
1. Bag 1:
  1. Set of LEDs for the wings
2. Bag 2:
  1. 4x 40mm wires
  2. 4x 110mm wires
  3. 1 integrated LED + wire (head)
  4. 2×2 set of T connectors
Sheet of gold stickers
4x black wing plating
4x clear inner wing runner (these will go with the gold stickers)
Double-sided sticky tape
LED control unit
(3) AA battery sled
Remote control
Metal mobile suit name/designation stand
Double-sided foam tape

At the beginning of each section, I will name each piece and describe them. We’ll be combining for Part 2 below; [1.a.i] will correspond to the Wing LEDs. Later in the guide as we add wires and other parts, they will be renamed at the top of the section.

Part Two: Testing!

Parts you’ll be working with:

[1.a.i] (Wing LEDS)
[1.b.i] (4x 40mm wires)
[1.b.ii] (4x 110mm wires)
[1.b.iii] (integrated LED + wire)
[1.b.iv] (2×2 set of T connectors)
[6] LED control unit

This is my 4th KOSMOS kit. I’ve wired up 3 PG Unicorn variants (Unicorn, Banshee, and the Perfectibility) as well as the third party Sky Defender. Build quality on these LED kits is really solid, but you still want to double check, so the first thing we want to do is test the LEDs. There’s nothing worse than wiring everything up, getting the finished product neat and shelf-ready, only to turn it on and realize a portion is not lighting up. For me, this happened on my first LED install with the Unicorn: I pinched the wire running up from the leg into the front skirt.

Start by carefully breaking apart the LEDs for the wings ([part 1.a.i]). There are tiny perforations where you can split them. To save time, I split them into sticks of 2.

Same thing for the T connectors (part [2.a.iv]).

Next, take the LED control unit (part [6]) and attach the 110mm wires [1.b.ii] to the 4 side-facing slots. You can also plug in [1.b.iii] to the one at the top.

At the end of each 110mm wire [1.b.ii] you are going to install the T connectors [1.b.iv] to the single slot. From each of the lateral slots, you will attach the 40mm wires [1.b.i].

When done, you should have something like this. Wire the control unit [6] to a powered USB connection. Hopefully everything lights up!

If it doesn’t, go through some troubleshooting. Pull out the non-working components and switch them with ones that did. Once you’ve isolated the problem, reach out to your vendor (or if you went Amazon direct, through Kosmos directly) and request replacement. It’s critical to test at the beginning so you’re not pulling the kit together after everything has been assembled!

If everything looks good, unplug and gently break apart the LEDs into single unit strips. Again, pay attention to the perforations: that is where you’ll want to apply light pressure to separate them.

Part Three: Outer Wing Armor + LED

Parts you’ll be working with (renaming them for ease of following along)

[W1] – the LED bracket + 40mm wire

[5] – double sided tape

[P1] – Black plastic outer wing armor

Now we are going to start building the outer armor for the wings and integrate the LEDs.

Start by grabbing the black plastic armor pieces and cut them out. Take a moment and check out the backs of these armor pieces: one side has pegs, the other has holes. Insert the claw pieces into the peg. On the part with a hole, you’ll find a small rail inside the outer edge. That’s where we’ll be dropping the LED.

First, cut out a small portion of the double-sided tape with scissors or a hobby knife. With the white layer intact, peel it off the green backing sheet and apply it to the back of the LED like above. Drop it into the rail on the hole side.

You should get something like this. As you combine the peg side with the hole side, loop the wire toward the short side (nearest edge; see below). I decided to panel line these with Gundam Marker EX in gold.

Repeat this process 3 more times, then we’ll move on.

Part Four: Clear and Gold

Parts you’ll be working with:

[2] Sheet of gold stickers
[4] 4x clear inner wing runner
[5] Double-sided foam sticky tape

This part is mildly annoying. Put on your nitrile or latex gloves and start cutting out the inner wing pieces (part [4)), and affix the gold stickers (part [2]) onto them carefully. I skipped the gloves and handled these barehanded—the oil from my hands transferred onto the plastic parts and caused the gold sticker to not adhere as well as they should. These will replace the solid gold Bandai part B-25.

Here’s where I did things in the wrong order. I connected these pieces to the black armor pieces from Part Three above. Instead, keep the clear-stickered pieces (gold-stickered part [4]) separate.

Next, carefully start taking apart the backpack. A parts separator works wonders here. Replace the Bandai part B-25 with our new Kosmos part [4]. Again, do NOT attach part [P1] from Part Three yet.

Next, we’ll be taking apart the dragoons and replacing them with the clear parts from the clear runner. Pretty self explanatory:

Next, we’ll put the backpack back together. We can attach Part [P1] from Part Three above now, and be careful to run the wire so it doesn’t show on the front side of the completed model. Affix the double-sided tape (part [5]) where the white rectangles are below NOTE: I did not install the clear pieces on the dragoons in the pictures below—I got too excited:

Repeat for the other side of the wings and we can go on to the head!

Part Five: “And I’ll form the head”

What you’ll need:

1.b.iii 1 integrated LED + wire

Carefully disassemble the head into individual parts. When we strip down to Bandai’s gold part B2 we will have to do some minor surgery and create some additional space above the little rectangle where the head connects to the neck:

What I did here was take my nippers to cut several vertical lines to weaken the plastic, then I scraped the rest with my steel tweezers. You can also use a scribing tool.

Next, you’ll square up the single integrated wire and LED (part [1.b.iii]) into the space you created and pin it down with the neck joint. Make sure the yellow piece is facing front:

Rebuild the head, test the connection, and put it all together. Wire everything up. Congratulations, you’re done!

Final Impressions

This was definitely a fun value-add to an already impressive kit. If you’ve completed the MGEX Strike Freedom, it’s a worthy re-entry to the experience as you’re breaking down and reworking the backpack dragoons and the head piece. And if you don’t own it yet, it’s a fantastic side-quest to the whole experience of building (IMO) one of the best mobile suits Bandai has to offer in the Master Grade size. The price of entry is a bit high (as of this writing, the MGEX Strike Freedom is retailing $183, and the LED for $75 on Newtype.us), but for the combination of form factor, kit gimmicks, and the overall shelf presence the LEDs add make the price of admission well worth it.

About the contributor: Creeping towards a midlife crisis, chennerbot is supplanting the urge to buy a convertible Corvette by building plastic robots.