The subject line is an early 1980s SNL reference. :)

Since last time I’ve been spending a fair bit of time trying to improve the modified legs and get them to better match up with one another. Additionally, I’ve recast the shoulder armor and permanently mounted it to the Zaku, and I’ve done a bit of work improving the look of the elbow joints.

Read the rest »

Last time I talked a bit about what’s wrong with the HGUC Zaku, what inspired me to try to fix it, and showed a little bit of the process and the results of the modifications applied to the left leg. Since then, I’ve applied the same modifications to the right side. There’s still some rough spots that need more work, but at this point you can get a good idea of how the finished model will look.

Read the rest »

When the HGUC Zaku was first released, I was thrilled at the prospect of a new kit which would return the Zaku to its roots… abandoning the rigid definition and boxy shapes of the MG Zaku and adopting a look more in line with the original Zaku. However, over time, I became frustrated with the kit. I started to see it as a very dull rendition of the Zaku. Of the three I initially bought, one was built, one was used for experimentation and ultimately scrapped, and the third was sold off. I swore I’d never buy the kit again.

However, things change. In this case, I developed an interest in old MSV kits. MSV was a great line of kits, very classic stuff and closely tied to the original series, but just new enough to be significantly better than the original series of kits. Basically, though, they’re “fixer-uppers”. When contemplating how to deal with several different MSV Zaku kits with wildly divergent sculpts for common parts like the head or arms, that’s when the first revelation came to me: the HGUC Zaku actually does have some parts that are quite nice, particularly the arms – and there’s not another kit that provides that.

The other revelation came from looking at builds of various old kits, and planning out such builds myself.  If tearing up a 1:144 Zaku kit from 1980 to change proportions, angles, and rejoint the thing is a viable path to a good-looking model, why shouldn’t the same be true of the structurally simple HGUC? So despite my earlier decision to never get another HGUC Zaku…  I got another HGUC Zaku, with the aim of trying to make it look nicer.

Read the rest »

At this point, it’s as done as it’s gonna be. :) It’s time to party like it’s 1995!

Read the rest »

I’ve had this project in the works for a while now, though I never posted any WIP on it until just now:

Read the rest »

So for my “Zaku Project” that I’m working on I’m building various Zaku kits- with the exception of the Super Deformed Zaku I’m building, they’re 1:144 scale. I’m going for a sort of sampling of the different (OYW) Zakus out there… The variety of different designs and kits, but all of them very much “Zakus” at heart.

Anyway, it was inevitable that there would be a Zaku Kai in this lineup. In 1:144 scale that left me two options: the first is the old kit from 1989, which is somewhat close to the mark but with enough errors to make it look generally bloated and with much of the impact of the original design lost. The second is the HGUC kit released a couple years ago. The HGUC seems to have the opposite problem. Instead of being too chunky, it’s too thin. Instead of everything being flattened out by bloat, it’s just plain flattened out. Typical of Bandai’s cowardly approach to kit design these days. On the other hand, though – what the legs lack in bulk they make up for in style. I decided to see what I could do with the HGUC: whether I could make a few simple tweaks and make the HGUC capture a little more of the spirit of the original design.

Read the rest »

Lately I’ve been spending some time working on a First Grade Char’s Zaku. It’s going to be a full polycap conversion, basically I want it to look and work pretty much the same as a High Grade…

The reason I chose this particular kit is because I wanted to build a Char’s Zaku, and I like the way the Perfect Grade/First Grade design for Char’s Zaku incorporates most of what I like about the Master Grade Zaku v1.0, while representing the “elite” status of Char’s Zaku in a unique and cool-looking way. (Various Char’s Zaku kits include extra thrusters or whatnot to account for the unit’s superior speed – the PG/FG version has rounded thruster housings on the lower legs and backpack… I think it’s a cool design.)
Read the rest »

I haven’t been real happy with my first attempt at the Zaku’s lower legs, so recently I’ve been trying to do better. The first version I did, the plan was to build the common parts of the leg (the area above and in front of the pods – as these areas are the same on both sides of both legs… so I could sculpt this stuff once and copy it for the two legs.) – however, the plan quickly (and rather haphazardly) changed to include not just the common parts but also a full sculpt of the two inner halves of the lower legs, stuck together. From there the plan was to recast the thing and then alter one half of each of two castings to form the asymmetrical lower legs.
Read the rest »

Lately I’ve been working on various projects for the Tekkoshocon model contest. I have a couple projects that are nearly ready for paint and a couple others that are in various earlier stages of work… But these two will probably be the be the most substantial new projects I’ll have ready for the con: a Bandai Scopedog and a Hasegawa VF-0 Battroid.

Read the rest »