HG MS-06R-1A Zaku II Shin Matsunaga
What a build this was. No sooner did I decide to build the white wolf himself, Shin Matsunaga's Zaku, then it began the first snow of the year. That's a good sign.
Shin pilots a MS-06R-1A Zaku II, which is a high mobility type. You can tell by those massive cankles, with the thee thrusters on each. The -1A version is just the -1A with some minor engine problems corrected, and the larger propellant tanks replaces with exchangeable fuel cartridges.
The notable pilots of this type is a huge list, from the tri stars to Shin to Eric Manthfield to Char himself and about 8-10 others. Truly an ace's suit, and this white and grey for Shin's version really stands out.
Shin himself is a notable UC ace, building a name during the Battle of Loum, bodyguarding for Dozle Zabi, and shooting down 141 MS and 6 ships. And the nickname "white wolf of Solomon" wasn't just for his color, he also preferred very close in combat and was very warrior like.
Anyways, to the kit! Another nice high grade in 1/144.
New to me for this kit, we're moving from just Xurons to a Xuron for the "remove from sprue" cut and the godhands for the "remove gate from part" cut!
From what I've seen theres 3 major tiers of nippers. Theres utter garbage below $15, you're basically getting plastic crushers not cutters that will just smush the plastic and make not flat separations with tons of stress discoloration in all the plastic nearby. At roughly $20, like these Xuron Profession Sprue model, you get two nice sharp blades with a flat end. They cut mostly flat, but sometimes leave a bit in the middle where they meet. they mostly dont stress the part much too far from the cut, but can do so if used improperly or too close to the part itself. Then theres the high tier. Godhands and some other brands, usually $45 plus. You're paying for luxury. These are general "single blade" with one side flatter and the other super sharp, and you just put the flat side against the nub and then let the sharp side slide through like butter with a perfectly flat, no stress cut. But their precision means they're easier to break if you twist them at all while cutting, or cut to close to the tip, or use them on anything but thin soft plastic (including the thick structural supports of the sprue, or really any of the clear plastic, which is tougher).
So lets get building! As the snow fell, I donned a nice warm sweatshirt, queued up the start of Gundam Zeta, grabbed a drink and a blanket, and started nipping away. Being familiar with the ZAKUII chest by now, I put this chest/waist together in no time without thinking. Working with this bandai white plastic with these ultra sharp nippers was a joy, I barely had to sand. The head went very similar. Sticker for the eye on a raised bump, and you can adjust where the eye looks underneath.
Now lets dive a bit into how I remove mold lines. First if there's a significant part sticking up I'll remove it with a knife pass. But then its on to sandpaper! I've still got a lot I experimented with, so for this setup I used 400/1200/2k grit, with 3k available for any clear parts (yes you can sand clear parts with a high enough grade) I find wetsanding works better for me, where I soak the sandpaper in water and dab a drop on the part before sanding). I think in the future I might do 600/1k/1.5k/2k, with 3k for clear parts, the 400 is a LITTLE rough, but when you want to remove quickly, it works. Anways, check out the left of the post for each pass (I was just doing quick passes on the wide open area to show, so ignore the area close to the post). First you'll see the line, then a lot of scratches from 400, then less scratches from 1200, then a smooth area from 2k. I do circular motions to avoid just deepening a scratch each pass. I'll wipe off the sanded particles, sometimes redunking the strip of sandpaper in a water glass (and sometimes the part if its dirty enough). I find you can get variety packs of a ton of grades from like 120 to 3k for like $6 a pack, so no reason not to experiment! and dont try to over stretch the sandpaper use, as it parts of the sandpaper get used up cut it off. It's a cheap and disposable resources. Same goes with knife blades - if its not doing the job as good as it should toss it and add another, they're disposable. You'll end up with a lot of misery and way more time invested and a worse looking part over try to get a few extra cuts from a blade or strip of sandpaper worth literally less than 10 cents.
anyways got that backpack snapped together and on no problem the backpack is apparently where about 80% of bandais sticker production goes (seriously, look at that manual). I'm going to go back and paint in all these HG sticker areas later, so I left them off.
So, on to the skirt. Heres some good examples of a normal nipper cut vs a godhand cut. Both are purposely done far from the part to give a good comparison.
Again I was enjoying my build so much I didn't get many pictures of the pretty standard Zaku arms. It was just the fun of being cozy, starting a new gundam show, and the kit was just looking good and easy to work with and the new tools working well, I was just in the zone speeding along. So after adding those arms, I made some feet (look at that ankle rise!) and called it a day.
BUT I COULDNT STAY AWAY! The next night after dinner my brother visited for a bit and we watched some funny shows and chatted and all that fun stuff. But after he left, it was Shin time, and it was just as enjoyable as when I left off. Heres the leg both assembled and broken down. I really appreciate the extra little nozzle covers as well, one seen without and one with. Lets you get em pretty deep and it still looks good inside when viewed at an angle. And with that, he's read for assembly.
Now, lets get him together. Man is he posable (and I love that backpack) but those thick legs let him Michael Jackson lean forward (seriously, that picture is with no support. he can also one legged Axe chop. But make no mistake, when its time to shoot, he's got some big guns.
Now for the artsy stuff! I need to work on the lights a bit and my camera settings, I'm still getting a little too bight near the edges, but here's what he looks like with just the eye sticker, no others or panel lining he comes with some nice shoulder decals and other stickers besides that crazy backpack.
As you can see he comes with a bazooka, a machine gun with two ammo drums, and an Ax. he's also got a slide on shoulder mount to hold them all. He's got both a left and a right trigger hand, both a left and a right standard holding hand, and a left clenched fist. He comes with both the commander helmet (with a second antenna) and a flat normal helmet, and theres 2-3 spare parts on the sprue (I think a plainer loin flap and an extra shoulder piece.
It poses and holds most of the weapons GREAT. It's a wonderful kit. I love it. I cant wait to get to panel lining and painting it.
If I had to give it negatives, it does have a TON of vent/detail stickers (not much in wide color correction, but a few of those as well), and without them or paint it will be slightly plain. Also, the forever problem of the Heat Hawk just kinda rotating and not fitting snugly in the zakuII hand is present (like, it will stay if posed, but move it at all and the axe head just rotates straight down). Finally, that really cool machine gun shoulder stock that looks great if you're just firing it across his body with both hands will get in the way if you're trying to fire it normally, it restricts you to one position where its against the shoulder or a very narrow posing range below the shoulder.
But those are tiny gripes. This one comes highly recommended from me, it looks great, it's unique, good accessories, and if you're collection all the zaku colors its definitely a must.
Shin pilots a MS-06R-1A Zaku II, which is a high mobility type. You can tell by those massive cankles, with the thee thrusters on each. The -1A version is just the -1A with some minor engine problems corrected, and the larger propellant tanks replaces with exchangeable fuel cartridges.
The notable pilots of this type is a huge list, from the tri stars to Shin to Eric Manthfield to Char himself and about 8-10 others. Truly an ace's suit, and this white and grey for Shin's version really stands out.
Shin himself is a notable UC ace, building a name during the Battle of Loum, bodyguarding for Dozle Zabi, and shooting down 141 MS and 6 ships. And the nickname "white wolf of Solomon" wasn't just for his color, he also preferred very close in combat and was very warrior like.
Anyways, to the kit! Another nice high grade in 1/144.
New to me for this kit, we're moving from just Xurons to a Xuron for the "remove from sprue" cut and the godhands for the "remove gate from part" cut!
From what I've seen theres 3 major tiers of nippers. Theres utter garbage below $15, you're basically getting plastic crushers not cutters that will just smush the plastic and make not flat separations with tons of stress discoloration in all the plastic nearby. At roughly $20, like these Xuron Profession Sprue model, you get two nice sharp blades with a flat end. They cut mostly flat, but sometimes leave a bit in the middle where they meet. they mostly dont stress the part much too far from the cut, but can do so if used improperly or too close to the part itself. Then theres the high tier. Godhands and some other brands, usually $45 plus. You're paying for luxury. These are general "single blade" with one side flatter and the other super sharp, and you just put the flat side against the nub and then let the sharp side slide through like butter with a perfectly flat, no stress cut. But their precision means they're easier to break if you twist them at all while cutting, or cut to close to the tip, or use them on anything but thin soft plastic (including the thick structural supports of the sprue, or really any of the clear plastic, which is tougher).
So lets get building! As the snow fell, I donned a nice warm sweatshirt, queued up the start of Gundam Zeta, grabbed a drink and a blanket, and started nipping away. Being familiar with the ZAKUII chest by now, I put this chest/waist together in no time without thinking. Working with this bandai white plastic with these ultra sharp nippers was a joy, I barely had to sand. The head went very similar. Sticker for the eye on a raised bump, and you can adjust where the eye looks underneath.
Now lets dive a bit into how I remove mold lines. First if there's a significant part sticking up I'll remove it with a knife pass. But then its on to sandpaper! I've still got a lot I experimented with, so for this setup I used 400/1200/2k grit, with 3k available for any clear parts (yes you can sand clear parts with a high enough grade) I find wetsanding works better for me, where I soak the sandpaper in water and dab a drop on the part before sanding). I think in the future I might do 600/1k/1.5k/2k, with 3k for clear parts, the 400 is a LITTLE rough, but when you want to remove quickly, it works. Anways, check out the left of the post for each pass (I was just doing quick passes on the wide open area to show, so ignore the area close to the post). First you'll see the line, then a lot of scratches from 400, then less scratches from 1200, then a smooth area from 2k. I do circular motions to avoid just deepening a scratch each pass. I'll wipe off the sanded particles, sometimes redunking the strip of sandpaper in a water glass (and sometimes the part if its dirty enough). I find you can get variety packs of a ton of grades from like 120 to 3k for like $6 a pack, so no reason not to experiment! and dont try to over stretch the sandpaper use, as it parts of the sandpaper get used up cut it off. It's a cheap and disposable resources. Same goes with knife blades - if its not doing the job as good as it should toss it and add another, they're disposable. You'll end up with a lot of misery and way more time invested and a worse looking part over try to get a few extra cuts from a blade or strip of sandpaper worth literally less than 10 cents.
anyways got that backpack snapped together and on no problem the backpack is apparently where about 80% of bandais sticker production goes (seriously, look at that manual). I'm going to go back and paint in all these HG sticker areas later, so I left them off.
So, on to the skirt. Heres some good examples of a normal nipper cut vs a godhand cut. Both are purposely done far from the part to give a good comparison.
BUT I COULDNT STAY AWAY! The next night after dinner my brother visited for a bit and we watched some funny shows and chatted and all that fun stuff. But after he left, it was Shin time, and it was just as enjoyable as when I left off. Heres the leg both assembled and broken down. I really appreciate the extra little nozzle covers as well, one seen without and one with. Lets you get em pretty deep and it still looks good inside when viewed at an angle. And with that, he's read for assembly.
Now, lets get him together. Man is he posable (and I love that backpack) but those thick legs let him Michael Jackson lean forward (seriously, that picture is with no support. he can also one legged Axe chop. But make no mistake, when its time to shoot, he's got some big guns.
As you can see he comes with a bazooka, a machine gun with two ammo drums, and an Ax. he's also got a slide on shoulder mount to hold them all. He's got both a left and a right trigger hand, both a left and a right standard holding hand, and a left clenched fist. He comes with both the commander helmet (with a second antenna) and a flat normal helmet, and theres 2-3 spare parts on the sprue (I think a plainer loin flap and an extra shoulder piece.
It poses and holds most of the weapons GREAT. It's a wonderful kit. I love it. I cant wait to get to panel lining and painting it.
If I had to give it negatives, it does have a TON of vent/detail stickers (not much in wide color correction, but a few of those as well), and without them or paint it will be slightly plain. Also, the forever problem of the Heat Hawk just kinda rotating and not fitting snugly in the zakuII hand is present (like, it will stay if posed, but move it at all and the axe head just rotates straight down). Finally, that really cool machine gun shoulder stock that looks great if you're just firing it across his body with both hands will get in the way if you're trying to fire it normally, it restricts you to one position where its against the shoulder or a very narrow posing range below the shoulder.
But those are tiny gripes. This one comes highly recommended from me, it looks great, it's unique, good accessories, and if you're collection all the zaku colors its definitely a must.
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