#Zaku Amazing

[gundamfight]

[sailorfutaba]

@fureiya

[dragongirl-casca]

Slowly learning Japanese sound effects so I can read Berserk better

Miura loves his サ sounds

[wyrddogs]

Happy second birthday, Zaku!

He is just the bestest boy-- jolly, silly, and ready to participate in anything with 100% enthusiasm 100% of the time. He's amazing in every way, and I can tell that he's going to be the dog that I compare all future dogs to.

[atapi]

my #beautiful and #amazing girlfriend denied my request to put tiny 3d printed truck nuts on my zaku gunpla

[strangeweaver]

our interior decorating has gotten out of hand but i finally got around to getting it up there! thank you again

hi im the one with the crucified zaku post that i think you also drew. correct me if im wrong! but if im not, would it be alright with you if i were to print your drawing out and put it on the wall there as well? i can put your name on it as credit, in case i share any more photos haha. no worries if not either of course

oh my god... thats more than ok i would be honored.....

[hath-e]

Mobile Suit Gundam Gquuuuuux, episode 1: The Red Gundam

(Source, Gundam Gquuuuuux Ep1)

So our first look onto the newest mainline Gundam show, and let me tell you, they delivered.

Before I get into my actual thoughts on the episode, let me say that I am in love with this art style. Everything about it just clicks for me, and this is just the first outing. The way the Colonies look, the ships, and most importantly, the suits, it's just amazing, and I can't wait to get my hands on some of these kits.

From now on, I'll refer to Gquuuuuux as Gqx because I saw someone else do that, and it helps me, so I think it's a good shout.

Now, with that out of the way, spoilers below cut:

Where is bby girl? Like that was my thought throughout the whole thing, I already know that the Red Gundam used to belong to Char, even if that wasn't that hard to figure out, but still where is baby girl.

Zeon selling Zakus to the public post-war seems really cool also and a nice little detail as to how they see suits, not as weapons but tools.

Also, it's Shuji in the Red Gundam, right? Since we know it's not bby girl. We'll probably find out next week anyway so it's not that important to speculate on.

I also wonder why the whole "Mav" thing seems to be a main stay in MS combat of this timeline, like so far we've seen every non Gundam work in pairs, this implies that during the war something happened to make having a Mav a mainstay.

Also, Yuri again? Yes, please, like the outro heavily focuses on Machu and Nyaan, and the whole hug scene during what appears to be a psycho projection happens.

So the Omega Psycommue seems to require a strong Newtype connection to work. Could Machu be on the level of like Kamille, Quess, or Banagher?

Shouts out to ridiculously big Funnels on the Red Gundam BTW, although the Amazon version calls them Bits but it might just be a naming thing after the success of WFM.

I wonder who messaged Machu at the start and how that's going to spiral into a bigger plot point, probably.

Xavier is probably going to become a direct rival to Machu. I'm willing to bet he'll probably even reach Char clone level of rivalry.

And one last thought for this week: the Gqx itself looks really unarmoured, so I'm personally expecting that either it gets trashed halfway through and gets a whole revamp or gets a FA variant for the final battle.

That's all I've had on this episode. I'm excited for the next Machusday.

[rokkupla]

Completed build of the MG Zaku Gunner Warrior. Amazing kit and would absolutely recommend it both as an entry to MGs and seasoned builders

[billveusay]

I just watched Requiem for Vengeance and...

Eh. Could've been worse. Don't get me wrong, it's not good, but because I came with very low expectations, it managed to positively surprise me by not immediately face planting and breaking its nose as it took its first step. I also heard that the English dub wasn't good, but I wouldn't know about it because I watched it in Japanese (I watched everything in Japanese since the start of my Gundamarathon so I stuck with it just for the sake of consistency, and the Japanese dub is perfectly serviceable) so that probably helped.

The most immediate comparison is obviously MS IGLOO. Both are small side-stories from the One Year War, both have a very gritty pseudo-realistic tone with pseudo-photorealistic CGI instead of the usual 2D animation, and both follow a squad of Zeon grunts. And quality wise... I'd say it sits at the exact middle-ground between The Hidden One Year War/Apocalypse 0079 (the worst Gundam media I've experienced) and Gravity Front (somehow genuinely excellent, and a testament to making the most out of a limited runtime). I.E it's mostly bland, with some good elements and some really bad ones.

First of all, I'm fine with the attempt at gritty photorealistic Gundam. Not because of my personal preference for this style, it has little personality and looks more like 40k than Gundam (funfact: I mentioned the show while helping a friend with a 40k short fan-film he was making in Unreal, ironically, and he had heard about it because the director is someone known in the 40k community as "The Lord Inquisitor", which tells you everything you need to know). But I don't mind it because I don't see it as a definitive take on Gundam as a whole, but an addition that adds variety to the franchise. I like Gundam for the same reason that I like Star Wars. Not because I especially like space operas, or samurai movies, or westerns, or spy thrillers, or war stories, but because you can tell any of these stories with the associated aesthetic in that universe, and it will still feel like Star Wars. Same for Gundam, I like the range it has, with Requiem for Vengeance on one end and Turn A Gundam on the other. Obviously Turn A Gundam is far far better by every metric, but if I'm not in the mood for cottagecore Ghibli Gundam, then it still has something in store for me.

However, if I'm instead in the mood for some gritty grounded Gundam, then I'll probably rewatch the old trinity of War in the Pocket, Stardust Memory and 8th MS Team. Or Gravity Front. Because those have a decent plot and actual characters, whereas this one has tropes. Not necessarily poorly executed tropes, but because there's no meat or creativity behind them, they fall flat. It's predictable, there's no suspense, and the story went through my head without leaving a mark, save for a few moments that dipped from mediocre into entertainingly bad. The token acknowledgement in episode 1 that Zeon are genocidal invaders, which doesn't go anywhere because we still want the viewers to gawk at the cool Zakus and fascistionable uniforms (MS IGLOO did the exact same thing and it was bad too), captain what's-her-name yelling "but the Geneva convention!" out of nowhere in episode 4, and of course the amazing ending: "This war turns children into war machines. So I will... join the Zeon Remnants, therefore perpetuating the war and ensuring that the Federation still has excuses to plonk children into giant murder toasters. And my son doesn't really needed a parent anyway". They need a sequel hook, but they can't have her putting all the blame on the Federation because we know she knows that Zeon has killed dozens of millions of children, so she has to blame The War™, but blaming The War™ makes her decision to keep it going even stupider since she has shown no real investment in the Zeon cause, which she can't have because the writers want us to root for her and Zeon does genocide. They've written themselves into a corner so hard, I love it.

So what's to save? Well the action scenes are pretty good, making the most out of its grounded aesthetic with over-the-shoulder shots that manage to be immersive while the action remains easy to follow. They also have some good ideas for the setpieces, like the busted up Zaku tank that can only drive in reverse. Honestly, I think the show would work better as a collection of unrelated war snippets like Gravity Front. Maybe even cut the dialogue, focus on the visual storytelling. It's wouldn't be for everyone, and it wouldn't stay with you as much as something with actual characters and plot, but it would have its audience. I know I would get a kick out of it.

On the technical side, the mechanical design is pretty good, the Zakus look great! I'm not a fan of the Gundam EX's face though, it looks too much like a Bionicle and the added detail don't enhance the overall design. They're also animated pretty well and make the most out of the Unreal Engine. As for the characters... well yeah, it's not good. Frankly, it's the eyes that baffle me the most. Make them a little cross-eyed when they focus on something so the characters don't always have a thousand yards stare, and if you don't have time to move them perfectly for each shot, keep the controller in World mode instead of Parent mode (that was me showcasing my 3D animation chops). If you didn't have time for that, then something went wrong with the priorities.

So, in summary, I'd say this show is a box of off-brand Pringles. It's not particularly unpleasant while it's in your mouth but it's not gonna stay with you either. And the bad parts didn't really bother me because I wasn't invested in the first place.

Next is Gquuuuuux. Though it will take a while because I'm in crunch mode right now. Also, I plan to liveblog it and post snippets of that liveblog like I did for Gundam Wing so... anyone interested in hearing me poke fun at it?

My gundam reviews :

> Hathaway's Spark > Mobile Suit Gundam > Gundam Zeta > 0083: Stardust Memory > 0080: War in the Pocket > 8th MS Team > The Witch from Mercury > Gundam Thunderbolt > The Origin > Turn A Gundam > F91 > Gundam Unicorn > Gundam 00 > MS IGLOO > Gundam Narrative > Iron-Blooded Orphans > Gundam Wing > Twilight Axis > Requiem for Vengeance

[loth-caatgirl]

my first kit (HGUC Char's Zaku II) and my latest (P-B Amazing Z'gok)

[ephemeral-builds]

After my recent SEED re-watch and how much I enjoyed the Entry Grade kit - I just had to build the Real Grade Aile Strike.

This is an old Real Grade kit - only the third in the line. And I've been hearing folks complaining about the inner-frame in regards to the recent RG Akatsuki kit. So I'm really not expecting too much out of this build...

Of course it comes with the usual RG-style sticker sheet. Lots of tiny little marking decals. Lots of metallic bits. And I'm not going to use any of it. I've got some new metallic paint markers to try out, and a sheet of Delpi decals.

There's the B-runner, the Advanced MS Joint 3. We'll see how horrible it actually is... But the engineering behind this never ceases to amaze me. I can't believe they somehow mold working joints right onto the runner.

I just love the RG-style variations in colors. There's about three different shades of white. And two different shades of red. I love that subtle attention to detail.

And while I'm raving about the attention to detail in these RG kits... Look at those shoulders! Look at all that surface detail that just gets covered up with armor! It's fantastic.

So, like I said, I didn't want to use any of the stickers and I was trying out some new metallic paint markers instead. I'm using a Stedi MS-52 for the golden eyes, MS-54 for the coppery bits in the elbows, and MS-56 for silver parts. The markers work great. They give a nice, smooth, plated look.

I hate how the ankle armor attaches on this kit. It's basically the same way the original RG RX-78-2 did it, and I hated that too. It seems way too weak and floppy a joint. Doesn't feel secure at all.

The legs have some fantastic sliding-armor gimmicks with the knee bend.

The arms, unfortunately, have that loose collar around the wrist that I hate. It doesn't actually attach to anything. It's just kind of sitting there, waiting to fall off and be lost forever.

We get the two closed fists and two posable hands. That's it. No fixed-pose hands. And these posable hands are delicate as all hell. I absolutely hate working with them.

We've got an opening cockpit with some molded details in there. I threw a little grey paint on it to make those details more visible. But there's no seated pilot figure to go in there.

Another fantastic bit of gratuitous detail - the armor schneiders actually fold closed.

This is everything we get. Closed fists and posable hands. Armor schneiders, beam rifle, and shield. A tiny little standing pilot figure. The Aile Striker. And beam sabers... Which are a little weird. We get two different sets of handles - one with tabs, one without. But only one set of collars to attach the blade effects to.

The Strike Gundam stands just fine on its own. Holds a pose fine and looks good doing it. I had to tighten the neck joint... And there's a weird bit on the right arm that keeps wanting to separate... But none of it really feels too delicate or fragile.

And this is where I realized that the old Real Grade kits are designed specifically for use with the Bandai Action Base 2. That stand adapter has a square hole specifically for the ACB2. No 3mm hole, so it doesn't work with most stands out there. And I've only got the one ACB2 holding up my RG Destiny - so this had to be kind of awkwardly wedged onto an ACB4.

Like pretty much every RG kit - it looks fantastic up on the shelf. The level of detail, decals, and gimmicks are just amazing. It's holding a pose just fine and nothing feels too delicate.

But I have to say that this was probably the most cranky RG kit I've built to date. Even more than the original RG RX-78-2 or Char's Zaku II. More squirrely little bits that don't feel like they're holding on well at all.

There's an RG Skygrasper that I'm definitely going to have to build... But I'm sure that's going to cause issues. I can't imagine this thing is going to play nicely with the Launcher or Sword Strikers attached.

And I really want to see if there's a RG Strike Rouge out there.

[multibugorganism]

GUNPLA!!!

i started watching build fighters; Tatsuya's Zaku Amazing is so cool- i love the decision to go all solid-weapons

[argumentalist]

The kit that reignited my plamo hobby a couple years back was a HGAC Deathscythe that my Wife gave me - so it was only a matter of time before I built the MG Gundam Deathscythe.

I think I've mentioned a few times now that I wasn't a huge fan of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing - but I really think that Endless Waltz kind of retroactively improves the whole series. And I think I prefer these EW designs over the original TV versions.

This is an older kit and it definitely shows. It's still a fun design and a fantastic build... But the engineering isn't quite up to par with modern kits.

The nub-marks, for example, are kind of terrible. There's some surprisingly chonky gates in really awkward places on this kit. Nub-mark clean-up was really a pain. And there's still some visible on my finished kit.

This kit came with a sheet of dry-rub transfers which I'm not going to use. I know some people prefer them over waterslides... But I've not used them much. And the few times I have used them didn't go well.

I also opted not to use the included foil stickers. It's just a few shiny bits for eyes and cameras which were very easy to paint. I used my DSPIAE markers as well as some no-name fluorescent green marker that I got off AliExpress. The fluorescent green went on the eyes to try to make them pop more... And they're definitely brighter... But I don't have an actual blacklight so they're not doing anything amazing.

I'm again kind of feeling like maybe I made a mistake by starting with Char's Zaku II 2.0 as my first Master Grade kit... Because I've been slightly disappointed with most of the other MGs I've built. The inner-frame, specifically, feels like a bit of a let-down. It's mostly just there to hang the external armor on. There's not much detail or gimmickry going on.

While it's clearly anime/manga-accurate, this kit does feel a little light on accessories. There's the shield/claw and the scythe, plus a bunch of swappable hand/finger options... But that's it. I can't help feeling like there should be a rifle or bazooka or something. Having said that - the beam effects are absolutely fantastic in this kit.

I grabbed some cheap waterslide decals from AliExpress for this build. I'm not even sure what brand they are - maybe something like Flaming Snow?

The decals were fine. Nice and crisp. They came off the paper very quickly and stuck well with a little Mr. Mark Setter. It seems like there were a lot of extra decals though... You can see I've got something like half the sheet left-over.

I hit this thing with the Vallejo matte Mecha Color varnish through that cheap cordless "airbrush" again... And I think it turned out pretty well. I'm definitely getting better with the airbrush. And I think that varnish is working pretty good. I definitely like not having to deal with all the fumes and fuss from the rattlecans.

I'm honestly a little torn on the design...

Wing's designs, in general, feel more super-robo than I generally like. And that's definitely true for the "death" robot.

But, at the same time, they're undeniably cool. They just drip '90s edginess. Especially this kit with it's gratuitously spikey legs. I mean - look at those feet! Those toe spikes are downright ridiculous!

And the beam effects in this kit are absolutely fantastic. There's a nice bit of surface texture that really catches the light. They look like they're absolutely crackling with energy.

Of course this means I'm going to have to build more Master Grade Wing kits. The rest of the main quintet at the very least.

[greatcheshire]

This is my beloved pride and joy, my beautiful baby boy, the Zaku Amazing. This one uses the HGUC Revive as a base and so it's heavily kitbashed with the Zaku Amazing parts (that one uses the High Mobility Zaku II as a base) and so to make the legs work I had to scratch build parts there as well and then it was airbrushed+had waterslide decals applied and I even put metal parts in the thrusters in the back. I put my infinity% into this one, and it's my favorite thing I've ever made because of the amount of work and the amount of detail I put into it. (Sorry for the long message)

Yooo this is so cool!!! I love the colors here. It looks so clean.

[wyrddogs]

The boys had an amazing show weekend!

Kermit absolutely knocked it out of the park-- on Saturday he took BoB and earned his Grand Champion! On Sunday he stunned me by getting Reserve Best in Show! All this while he was having a stomach bug and was shitting his brains out. But he was perky and playful in the ring, and strutted his stuff like he owned the place.

Zaku got BoB and a Group Three in a very competitive Herding ring. I brought a toy in with me this time and it made all the difference. He was bouncy and playful and gave the judge that coveted expression like a professional.

Super happy with the boys!

[athena-gundampla]

RG 1/144 Celestial Being Mobile Suit GN-001 "Gundam Exia"

Another Real Grade!!! I've been working on this one for quite some time, and applied a lot of new techniques when weathering it. One which i found pretty cool was using a lead pencil over raised edges to add paint chipping and wear - I found this gives a really really cool effect.

Like a lot of older RGs, the Exia has a pre-built inner frame, which can become a little loose with manipulation. Like my RG Zaku II, I tried to stiffen it with PVA glue, however, I still feel like the shoulders and hips are a little weak.

In terms of build quality, this kit is a much better build than the Zaku. The panels sit a lot more securely, and the small little details really pop and look amazing. The colour separation is excellent, although there are a lot of very small parts that can be difficult to deal with.

The kit has a lot of really cool gimmicks, including the deployment of the beam daggers on its back skirt, the GN drive being able to open and close, and holographic stickers over the exposed GN particle conduits.

The kit has great articulation and can hold some pretty impressive poses, which is good because Exia is animated in a very fluid style. The articulation helps match some of the on-screen poses.

Overall, the RG Exia is a great kit and a really enjoyable build with plenty of fun gimmicks and details that any 00 Gundam fan will enjoy. Despite issues with older RGs this one definitely holds up.