Mecha Talk

I'm starting this thread with Bandai HG ZGMF-1000/A1 Gunner ZAKU Warrior model. I finished it quite some time ago, but only few days back made few pictures. The story goes back a few years ago, when i was watching SEED Destiny. Dearka was, probably, one of very few characters with a slight signs of sanity, so he became my favorite. I decided to make a model of his ZAKU, but then - how is his MS different from any other plain green ZAKU? Then towards the end of the series i saw "Jule team" ZAKUs with yellow shoulders. Yay! I dropped Dearka theme and started building the "Yellow Shoulder", making up a short story along the way. One of the things, that bugged me about SEED/SEED Destiny, was total absence of aftermath for any battle - suits are either destroyed, or totaly unharmed. Save for a few instances they are never damaged and then repaired. What i mean, is - you will not see anything like "GM head" or Ez8 Gundam from 08th MS team. And for bada** battle machine to look nice and shiny like a piano is almost a sin. So i came up with replaced leg and skirt thruster (hence slight differences in color and shades), multiple damages from constant battles, personal insignia and extremely short fanfic story to justify all this...

At the end of first PLANT-EAF war Archibald "Archer" Lipton was young mobile suit pilot, fresh from hasty (and somewhat inadequate) training. Although thrown into bloody battles of Jakin Due, he survived and gained invaluable experience, that will serve him well in the future. It was first battle of Jachin Due when several well placed shots earned him nickname "Archer" (becoming his callsign afterwards) and respective personal insignia. Immediately after the war Archibald Lipton was assigned as a test pilot for GAT-X103X Buster Gundam "Test type". When GAT-X103X program was abandoned, Archibald was about to be retired. But his combat experience was too valuable to lose, so he was transfered to ZAFT military academy as an instructor. He remained in this position during the first stages of second ZAFT-EAF war. It was operation Ragnarok when his skills were needed again. He was transferred to one of the units that would be dropped in reentry pods over Heavens base. Unfortunately ZAFT plans were spoiled by EAF Nibelung cannon which annihilated most of the attacking force in single shot. Contrary to some beliefs, several pilots escaped this gruesome fate, Lipton being one of them. He managed to get away with only right leg of his Zaku badly damaged, and even contributed with his crippled suit in achieving some minor objectives. For his exploits he was transferred to "Yellow shoulders" team of elite Jule squad, his Zaku being repaired and equipped with Gunner pack. Lipton managed to retain personal "Archer" insignia throughout his transfers. He made it through chaotic final battles of the conflict, although his Mobile Suit suffered badly.

And now the pictures:
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... ior_01.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... ior_02.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... ior_03.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... ior_04.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... ior_05.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... ior_06.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... ior_07.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... ior_08.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... ior_09.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... ior_10.jpg

Now i think, that i was a bit carried away with all that damage, even if the MS went through numerous battles... But i still like the overall result. Biggest goof is "repairs" on the energy container - they look just like paint blobs and nothing like it was intended to look. "Archer" insignia was taken from old MiG-29 decals and other markings came from various leftovers.

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The day is gray, the night is black and white.

impressive, personally i think that like a battered telecaster the battle damage enhances the look, lets you know that it's an actual war machine

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Flag Fighter for life!

I must say I like the idea that grunt machines in the Cosmic Era can take that kind of damage and not spontaneously explode. Well done.

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The proof of our might will forever be etched in your minds.

-- Haman Karn

Btw, the orange shoulders belonged to Heine Westenfuss' team before they got transferred to the Jule team after his death.

Well, that's an interesting news. I didn't catch that in TV series, so i suppose, it is mentioned in some manga or MSV? Anyway, it makes sense, since orange is T.M. Heine's favorite color. Only on my model it is yellow, rather than orange...

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The day is gray, the night is black and white.

Well, to be fair, That's not entirely true. You do see the aftermath of Jachin Due, with damaged mobile suits retreating to their ships, as well as the point halfway through the battle when GENESIS fires and we see the damaged EA fleet scrambling to figure out what just happened. Heck, even Destiny, for its (many) flaws, does have the aftermath of the nuclear assault on the PLANTs, with the Alliance forces bringing in their damaged forces at Arzachel, and there's the aftermath of... ...Messiah...but we don't talk about that "battle".



That kind of thing is actually probably fairly rare. As I recall, GM Head and the Ez8 were the result of there being no spare parts for the RX-79[G], seeing as the RX-79[G] is made of spare RX-78 parts in the first place, forcing the mechanics to improvise. It's understandable that such a thing wouldn't happen much with something as common as a GM (or in this case a ZAKU Warrior).



Aw, but jet fighters tend to look nice and shiny!

I know, I know: SHUT UP! Sorry, but I always enjoy discussing the shows and ideas about them. Anyway, as for the model...



I don't think you went overboard at all. From what I can see, it looks like the ZAKU was indeed repaired, but there wasn't enough time to do cosmetic fixes, like buffing out the burn marks on its armor and whatnot.



Interesting. I have to say the model looks fantastic, and I'm amazed at the level of detail you managed to incorporate. My personal favorite thing is that the damage itself suggests story. The nasty burns on the shield (my favorite bit of damage), for example, tend to suggest close contact with some kind of beam blade, like a Windam or Dagger L had a beam saber right up against the shield. Furthermore, this seems to have happened twice, perhaps in a duel with a single tenacious opponent.

How did you make the burn marks, by the way?

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"Attention passengers. We may experience some slight turbulence and then...explode."
-Cpt. Malcolm Reynolds, Serenity

Yeah, that ZAKU is awesome. Honestly, that is the most badass "battle-damaged" customization I've seen.

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// ART/PS STUFF THREAD // NOT ACCEPTING REQUESTS
// GUNPLA THREAD //
// GSD REWRITE PROJECT // UPDATED 02/24/13
"Outer Space has a bad habit of sending menacing objects to Earth"

First of all, thanks for your kind replies.



I see no problem discussing our oppinions. Basically, you are right for the most part. There are scenes of salvaged mobile suits, but they are added for dramatic effect. On the other hand, EVERYTHING is for dramatic effect.



And what about "Zaku head" Zeta? It even added disadvantage of not having 360 degree panoramic view due to this ersatz repair. Very nice, very believable.
Actually, there WAS a possibility for improvisation in GSD. We see Chaos quite badly battered during the battle at Junius 7. Heck, he even lost his limbs! And remember, this is stolen experimental suit, it's not like they stole a bunch of spare parts and repairing facilities with it. Yet it is repaired in no time back to it's original condition. It would have been nice to see aforementioned improvisation here. And remember battle for Mendel colony in Gundam SEED? Kruze totaled Strike, but it was repaired almost as fast as Mwu healed his wounds (which took him, like, 20 seconds). No improvisations here, either. The same goes to various equipment and weapons. E.g. Shinn loses or discards chest flyers, leg flyers, ear flyers, nose flyers and god knows what other flyers, various shields, swords, rifles, coffee mugs, nuts and bolts every time he launches, yet Minerva has no problem replacing all those without resupplying itself. He is never forced to launch with e.g. ZAKU rifle or something.



Acrually, i devised it as if the shield was hit several times in a short time. Since Jule squad was deployed against Dulindal loyalists, it could have been several shots in a rapid succession from GOUFs "Draupnir", Blaze ZAKU beam rifle (as we have seen them being capable of quite high rate of fire) or even Slash ZAKU Gatling beam cannon. I also thought, that some damage may not be from the direct attacks, but rather made by debris from something (MS or ship), exploded nearby. Also, after painting i realised, that side skirt has been hit right where the grenade is - bad news. Then i thought - the grenade may have been tossed before the hit, or maybe it has safety against self detonating. Additional points for realism, i guess...
In reality, shield (and eventualy the rest of the model) met my, then newly acquired, grinder with drastic results. That was one of the reasons for numerous battle scars - i never thought, that wielding a grinder can be so fun After making those trenches i painted basic colors and drybrushed first brown, then black and finaly a bit of Testors magnesium metalizer. Combination of brown and black gives more convincing burn effect and metalizer adds... well... metallic look to whole thing

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The day is gray, the night is black and white.

That's another good example.



The Chaos didn't actually lose any limbs (it lost its shield, rifle and weapon pods), but the rest of your point is correct, and it would have been nice to see how one would compensate for the missing weapon pods. Since Phantom Pain had data on the Chaos, they could build new parts for it, but that would take a while, and it would have been nice, at least in the Indian Ocean battle in Phase-16, to see some improvisation related to this. Likewise, the Abyss loses one of its legs at Junius Seven, and God only knows how they would have compensated for that (maybe used the leg off a Forbidden Vortex).



There's actually an explanation for that one. While most people don't realize it, a good amount of time passes in between Mendel and the Second Battle of Jachin Due (where the Strike sees action again). Mendel happens on July 12, and 2nd Jachin happens on September 26, so the Archangel gang has over two months to repair the Strike.



Well, this one's a bit trickier, since we know that the Minerva does carry multiple replacement flyers for the Impulse, as we see at Angel Down. The question is how many replacements they have, and unfortunately I can't answer that.



Hadn't thought about that, but it certainly works.



That would explain the hole punched in the skirt armor.



That could be very true. Missiles, generally speaking, are not armed until after they are fired, and in this case I'd imagine a ZAKU hand grenade is not armed until thrown (or until just before it's thrown anyway).



Well you've certainly done a fine job; those burns look great. At first, I actually thought you took a blowtorch to the thing. Of course, then I remembered that it's a plastic model and it would have melted...

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"Attention passengers. We may experience some slight turbulence and then...explode."
-Cpt. Malcolm Reynolds, Serenity

OK, you got me on this one. I confused Chaos' damage with that of Abyss, although at one point it looked like Chaos lost it's arm along with the rifle. Oh, and there's a slight OT regarding lost limbs for you. I rewatched episode 6 on Youtube and noticed funny thing - Lunamaria's ZAKU loses it's leg to Gaia, but after Junius 7 is broken in two and everybody rejoice prematurely, it is shown with both legs in tact



Got me again. I am one of that "most" crowd and i've never paid attention to specific dates. It's hard enough for me to keep track even on days of week

Anyways, i think we both agree that a bit of added realism (even if a fictious one) does not hurt

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The day is gray, the night is black and white.

Not all mecha are Gundam and not all models are plastic. Here goes Novacat papermodel. for those of you, who dare to not know Battletech and Mechwarrior, Novacat is heavy omnimech of the Nova Cat clan. There's no more to explain.
This particular model is made by Zealot modeling forum member Walter, known as Shiftdel, and depicts Mechwarrior 4 game version of Novacat. In winter camo IIRC. I did a testbuild for Walter and the final release may somewhat differ from this model. I displaced torso and legs to add a feel of movement. Except from hollowed barrels, no modifications were made. Model stands approximateli 11,5cm tall and that makes it 1/87 in scale (i printed it with Pepakura software, which gives little if any control over the print result). The base is made from 2mm thick cardboard.

Here go images:
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... acat_1.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... acat_2.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... acat_3.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... acat_4.jpg

Close-ups of the base:
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... acat_5.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... acat_6.jpg

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The day is gray, the night is black and white.

Well, I've always been partial to the Mad Cat myself...

Battlemech aesthetics aside, the fact that that thing is made out of paper is astounding. The paint job goes a long way to making the surface look like metal, or at least like something other than paper.

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"Attention passengers. We may experience some slight turbulence and then...explode."
-Cpt. Malcolm Reynolds, Serenity

Well, should you want to try some cardmodelling, here is a free model of Mad Cat:
http://www.nebulastation.net/timby.php
It should be quite simple to build and even comes with markings for Jade Falcon, Wolf and Smoke Jaguar, as well as unmarked.

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The day is gray, the night is black and white.

Both models are spectacular. I think the improv with the Westenfuss Zaku was especially good.

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"That's it! I'll never Gundam the pilot again, Bright!"--Amuro Ray

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Very cool custom work on the Zaku! I love the damage to the shield, especially because the curves of the burns implies movement of not only the beam saber blade but also of the Zaku and its movement of the shield. I can imagine the pilot trying to evade while using the shield to block a beam saber strike. I haven't looked at a lot of custom work(I'm a Gunpla newbie) but I can't recall of another case of someone making burn damage look curved, it's usually shown as a straight gouge or cut.

The Novacat paper model is very nice too. I'd love to try my hand at paper models some time.

This one is perpetrator of all the misery my wallet has suffered during the last few years. Prior to that i already watched several UC series and have seen some cool mecha models, but wasn't really hooked on modeling them myself. But after seeing first episode of SEED (the opening drop scene is especially cool, way better drawn, than the rest of series) i just had to have GiNN. I must say, that up until now i regard GiNN as one of the coolest mobile suits in terms of design. It's a grunt, it doesn't have overkill weapons and it doesn't make coffee, instead it's just plain cool. So, it was my first mecha model, completed some three years ago. Except for some weathering and few scratches it's pretty much OOB. This year i bought B-club resin manipulators and while they are nice, they also are noticeably smaller. The wrist joint peg easily pops out at a slightest touch. I also ran out of Testors "RAF Ocean Gray" paint at that time, so the shade of wrist armor is somewhat different. Interesting anecdote occurred when i showed this model to my fellow modeler, who is professional soldier. He said "wow, this gun looks worn very realistically, much like my AK-47, which i had during my first year of training". There you go, it's a legally realistic mecha.

Time for some pictures
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... iNN_01.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... iNN_02.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... iNN_03.jpg

The good... The bad... I'm the guy with a gun
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... iNN_04.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... iNN_05.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... iNN_06.jpg

Swordplay
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... iNN_07.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... iNN_08.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... iNN_09.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... iNN_10.jpg

Some detailed shots
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... iNN_11.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... iNN_12.jpg

P.S. As this one was my first mecha model, it is sort of trend setter. I still prefer 1/144 scale, because HG line offers acceptable compromise between complexity and detail level. This way my collection has that uniformity, where all pieces are comparable in terms of size. Sure, MG is bigger (for those to whom bigger is better), more detailed and articulated, but i don't feel like paying for and assembling all the inner frame (that will be invisible, because i don't play with my models... much...) and other gimmicks. Still, i'm sure, that Bandai will eventually release MG, that will crack my determination.

Well, haven't been here for a while.
Just few days back i finished HGUC RGM-79GS GM Command Space Type. This kit was started almost 2 years back. It was completed once, but i didn't like paintjob and weathering. So, off it went. Then it was almost completed second time. But i decided to scribe some new trench... ahem... lines. Then another coat of paint. I also tweaked beam saber rack. One saber was fixed on the shield (a bit like Tallgeese), another - on the right back skirt. I made gun attachment point in the manner of MG GM. It can be folded flush, but then is a pain to fold back Beam saber from the skirt can be removed, but the one on the shield was glued after i managed to break attaching ring. Front skirt was split to enable both halves to move separately. As for the scribing, inspiration came from many sources - various MG models (both, Gundam anr GM), life-size statue photos and few ideas of my own. However, i tried to not overdo it. Space Type GM Command has beam gun with round magazines. So, unless in UC it is customary to carry wrong type of ammunition, flat magazines had to be cut from the shield. I was to lazy to scratchbuild proper ones, so i just slapped on some sort of attachment points for magazines and was done with it.
For comparison, few shots of snap fitted and unpainted kit:
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... type_2.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... type_1.jpg
And the end result. You may notice (or not), that EFSF insignia on the shield is a bit odd. The original one was masked off and painted, but the result was messy, so i filed it flat and then handpainted.
With beam saber:
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... 79C_01.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... 79C_02.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... 79C_03.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... 79C_04.jpg
With beam gun:
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... 79C_05.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... 79C_06.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... 79C_07.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... 79C_08.jpg
Some shield detail:
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... 79C_09.jpg
Few more poses:
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... 79C_10.jpg
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... 79C_11.jpg
And a big oopsie-daisy:
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... 79C_12.jpg
In reality, it would be hard or even impossible to grab beam saber after gun is in place. But i noticed this only after all the parts were painted, weathered, mattcoated and slapped together. Oh, well, life of a cannon fodder pilot is short, so he will not have to bear with this inconvenience for long...

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The day is gray, the night is black and white.

Nicely done. Did you have any trouble with the mod? I did this to a few GM Commands I was working on a few years back and I had a fair bit of trouble getting the surface smooth again...

Incidentally, those molded-in ammo magazines are entirely the wrong shape for the bullpup machine gun that comes with the groundtype GM Command as well. They're not thick enough, they haven't got the same shape as the ammo mag that comes with the gun, they're straight rather than curved, etc... It's just sloppy work on Bandai's part.

I'm more interested in exactly how you've weathered your GINN.

_________________
"That's it! I'll never Gundam the pilot again, Bright!"--Amuro Ray

My YouTube Channel!

My Photobucket Album!

My Gunpla Blog!