Kit Information :
Scale : 1/144
Grade : HGUC
Made by : Bandai
Completed : 7th March '08
Box Art :
HGUC Zeta Gundam
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I've never really done a build up to now that could be considered as one that involved major surgery and light scratchbuilding to enhance the overall kit. Sure, I've done a little of each on other kits (you know, add a bit of bling etc), but never enough to seriously change the way a kit looks.
I thought that it would be a great chance to try making major modifications to this kit as it was planned to be an entry for this years Plamo WOOB competition (it's what I purchased the kit for after all). The whole point of this years competition was to enhance ones skills by heavily modifying the HGUC Zeta Gundam kit, rather than that of previous years where the builds were OOB affairs.
After ordering the kit from Hobbylink Japan just before Christmas, I came up with a few ideas of what I wanted to do. Basically, the plan was to make the Zeta into a slightly beefier version with added details, such as mesh, chains and styrene.
Mesh was added in several places over the kit. Legs, arms, shoulders and chest were all given mesh additions where vents were placed and where new ones made. Power conduits were replaced with snake and mesh chain (snake on the forearms and mesh on the legs). I also added aluminium thrusters on the legs and added new thrusters into the bottoms of the feet and the rear skirt armor. Additional details were added by using pin heads for large rivet style details and styene for some more armor plating (especially on the rear wings).
Extra width and thickness was added to just about every part of the upper torso. I was trying to attempt to get a feel that the Zeta was still sleek and fast but also big and strong. Styrene was added on the torso to make it longer and the shoulder width wider. Styrene was also added under the chest armor to push the chest up more to make it look beefier. The shoulder armor was also thickened with additional styrene.
Painting involved a base layer of orange that was blended in with a custom mix orange to go from darker to lighter color. Once that was done, I painfully cut out many hexagon shapes and made a looping pattern along the legs. It starts from the rear, loops around the outside and up the front of the legs and over the chest onto the rear wings. Once the masking was down, each part was painted in the appropriate color. Once the paint was dry, the masking tape came off and then mistakes were fixed up.
Paints used include Tamiya Orange, Sky Grey, Dark Grey, Field Blue, and Testors Aluminium Non-Buff metallic paint.
Decals used were from Samuel Decal and official Bandai ones. Mesh and chain came courtesy of Mechaskunk and the thrusters from Ako Creations.
I could go on more about the building process but all the information regarding the build can be found in the progress pages, found by clicking the link on the right hand side bar.
All up, I'm glad to finally finish this kit. It was great to learn so many new techniques relating to scratchbuilding and I'm looking forward to taking these skills and using them on another build.