Kit Information :
Scale : 1/144
Grade : High Grade
Made by : Bandai
Completed : 1st Jan 2006
Box Art :
rx-79[g] Gundam versus ms-06F Zaku II Diorama
I have this thing for making dioramas for my models, so I had an idea to create a battle diorama. I managed to pick up the 08th MS Team Gundam vs Zaku IIscene model kit for cheap off of eBay and thought that it would be ideal for what I wanted to do.
My original idea included a second Zaku and was to involve the Gundam fending off an attack from both sides. This didn't turn out how I wanted so I opted with just one Zaku doing battle with the Gundam.
The Zaku II was my first attempt at weathering and battle damaging a model. Each 'scar' was scraped out with my Dremel with an ingraving bit. To give the 'wounds' a melted look (as if a beam sabre had made them), I gently ran my soldering iron along the section I wanted to melt. Once that was done, the inside was painted with silver and highlighted with thinned down black.
The Zaku's shield was given a few bullet holes with the tip of the soldering iron after drilling slightly with the smallest drill bit I could find. The shoulder armour was given a few bullet 'scrapes' also, to simulate that a bullet had hit and skimmed it.
With the Gundam, I decided to give pre-shading a go. I air brushed a dark grey on the edges but in many places I did it too thick and once the white went on, it came through alot darker than I expected.
As I did with the Zaku, I battle damaged most sections of the Gundam. Small chips off here, damage by the Zaku's Heat Hawk on the chest, a few small chips over there.
Panel lining was done with a Gundam Marker on the Zaku and with thinned down grey on the Gundam. The Zaku's lining looks way too dark for my liking where as the Gundams is hard to pick up unless you really look. This was my first attempt at panel lining also.
The Diorama ...
Based on the 08th MS Team OVA, this diorama depicts a battle between one of the Gundams and a Zaku II which, at this point of the battle, shows the Gundam stabbing the Zaku II through the chest with its Beam Sabre.
I finished the entire scene on New Years Day 2006 after it took nearly 3 months to finish (due to work commitments taking up alot of my time).
The beam sabre was cut in half and holes were made in the Zaku's chest and backpack with the soldering iron once again. The two halves of the sabre were glued to either side to give the impression that the Zaku was getting stabbed. Matching the holes up was tricky and in some pictures you can see that it isn't perfect - it looks like the sabre is bent due to the force of the Gundam's stabbing motion.
I was trying to give the diorama the look that the two Mobile Suits were running towards each other ready to strike and the Gundam flipped the Beam Sabre over in it's hand and stabbed the Zaku as it was ready to strike with the Heat Hawk.
Posability with these kits is really limited was I was restricted in how I could pose them on the base. My original poses looked 'static' due to the poor design of the polycaps and joints. After posting pictures around a few different forums, I re-posed the models a little bit and, althought they aren't perfect, they look much better. I could have done some major surgery on the kits to change the joints and posability but at this point, I didn't feel confident enough to attempt this, especially since everything was painted and detailed (and I had fixed the models to the base also).
Overall, I learnt alot from building this diorama, and even though there are some areas that I really need to improve on, I am quite proud of the work I have done (especially due to the fact that I used many techniques for the very first time during building these kits).
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