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MS-06F ZAKU II Gundam Suit 1:100 Bandai Master Grade Gundam or as often referred to Gundam Series is a sci-fi franchise created by Sunrise in Japan that features giant robots or "mobile suits", that carry the name "Gundam." The franchise began in the late 1970s as an anime TV series called Mobile Suit Gundam, this featured the giant robots in a militaristic war setting. The popularity of this genre has spiralled from there, and they have since appeared in multiple television series, movies, manga, novels, and video games. The franchise has also led to the creation of one of the biggest toy and hobby franchises in the Japanese toy industry currently pulling in approximately £100 million a year in sales. The Principality of Zeon, also referred to as the Duchy of Zeon and Zeon Dukedom; is a nation featured in Mobile Suit Gundam. It was in control off the colonies of Side 3 and fought against the Earth Federation. The MS-06FS Zaku II is one of many variants of the standard MS-06F Zaku II created by the Principality of Zeon during the One Year War. The suit features head mounted 40mm Vulcan Guns. The suit features a shoulder mounted ballistic shield to block incoming ballistic and explosive projectiles, and can also be used in close quarters battle with enemy mobile suits. Other hand held weapons include A Heat Hawk axe-shaped close combat weapon, which uses a super-heated blade to cut through the enemy's armour, the thermal energy being generated by suit's thermonuclear reactor. The machine gun is the standard 120mm weapon for Zaku type mobile suits. This is a shell firing gun that does not require energy to be used, its effectiveness against heavy armour is very limited and it holds 100 rounds per drum, with spare drums that can be stored on waist armour racks. The other major hand held weapon is the 280mm Bazooka, and super bazooka. These fire explosive rounds that are quite effective against the armour of Earth Federation mobile suits and battleships. These can an be stored on the rear waist armour of the suit when not in use. The Kit The kit comes in a bigger box than I thought which gives some idea of how large the suit will be even in 1:100 scale. Inside there are six sprues of light grey plastic and four sprues of light green plastic. There is a clever spure which combines Dark grey, light grey, green and clear plastic all on the same sprue. Finally there are two sprues of a flexible plastic, one of these has a second colour plastic moulded around the primary colour. All of the parts are extremely well moulded with no imperfections that I can see. It should noted that the kit is designed to be put together without paint, or glue. In the instructions they suggest only the pilot be painted if you wish. As this kit will be the subject of a build review I will leave you with the sprue shots and combine the construction notes into the build review. Conclusion Gundam is a new genre of the hobby to me, and when researched it has a massive following in Japan which now seems to be taking off in the west. There are it seems a vast array of kits in different scales, as well as TV series, films, books etc. It would seem the sky is the limit. There are even an array of tools available for building the kits (See Japan Cool's Website) This looks to be a well engineered kit which should fit together with no problems (I hope! build review coming soon). Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Finally got some paint on the MEGA 1/48 kit – so that it's not just all white. Some black pre-shading and then white over that. I then masked off a bunch of parts and sprayed various shades of gray. Followed that up w/ a layer of Future gloss and am working through the many decals now! Speaking of decals... Does anybody have a sheet of the decals for this kit that they're not using? PLEASE!?!??!? I tore a few and it's going to drive me crazy if I don't find replacements. I'm building the "GFT" version of the Mega 1/48 kit. I would be more than happy to pay you for them if you're willing to send them my way! Thanks for reading and happy building to all.

Gundam plastic model news from Shizouka : watch full album at the HLJ facebook: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=np.1431565409330318.100002440552223&type=1 MSK-008 Dijeh new kit from new Bandai 1/100 RE/100 product line: 1/100 MASTER GRADE MSN-00100 Type 100 Hyakushiki Ver.2.0 b HG Mobile Worker: RG Gundam Astray: Bandai hi-tech molding technology - parts molded from two different plastics: (probably ABS+PS because PS+PS would mixed together)

1/72 Matsukaze mdl.2 Base Defense TypeSource: https://www.facebook.com/HobbyLinkJapan/posts/10153415630688072?notif_t=notify_me A new kit from the 1/72 Armored Core kit line is not standard mecha robot but an interesting mecha-tank similar to the Gundam-series tanks. price is ............... 125 USD....

This is my first entry into the Sci-Fi GB, I am not sure what to join in with after this one is finished. I have a few more Hazel Gundams, Few other Gundams or even a Valkyrie or 4. Could possibly join in with the Hasegawa ASF-X Shinden II. We will see, I started this one as I am having a little trouble with the paint for my F-5E/F, so I have ordered some Tamiya/Gunze to see if they work a little better. Anyhow... This is the Unicorn Gundam from the TV show with the same name. It's one of the newer shows from the UC timeline (the true timeline) and takes place 27 years before the events in F-91. This is the Unicorn mode version, I do have the Full Armor Destroy Mode at home. I might do that one yet, not so sure. I started this sometime last week and before I knew it, it was 2:30am in the morning and I had finished the building of the model. Here is what I started with... Thats where the Unicorn Gundam stands now, there is a few things I am going to paint and I might even place some warning decals over it. I have a few more things to put on to it as well... hopefully I will get some more time to work on this once I have gotten over this womans flu. Kind Regards, Dazz

An interesting little kit that I picked up very cheap on eBay. I'm not into Gundam stuff at all, I just liked the look of this because it was different. I'll be building it OOB.

washed the sprues last night, built the inner shell and stand and laid it out for priming/painting. going to try sparying decanted tamiya so playing a bit of dayz while the propellant boils off

Hello chaps! I am (sort of) pleased to present you with my 1/100 scale MSM-04 Acguy from the Gundam Universal Century Universe. The kit is from 1982 and was, frankly, a nightmare and well beyond my skill level to make half decent. It was also a series of firsts for me. First model since returning to the hobby, first airbrushed model, first painted gunpla and first attempt at weathering using washes, filters and Mig Pigments. Kit: MSM-04 Acguy (series 2, 1982) Manufacturer: Bandai Scale: 1/100 Paints used: Citadel and Vellejo Model Air Other: Mig pigments and Windsor and Newton Oils AB: Neo for Iwata Anyway, enjoy! Sorry about the quality, I only have my phone and its camera is poor to say the least. Anyone have any suggestions of cheap digital cameras that I might be able to pick up on eBay or somewhere similar? Comments, criticism and cat-calls welcome. Cheers, Paul EDIT: Poor grammar and lay-out.

This is my first entry into the "Under a Tenner" GB, this is a the "Advanced Hazel" Gundam from the "Advance of Zeta" series in Japan, I had a few problems with this kit, mostly the colour. But I beat this little bugger into submission, I am playing with the idea of buying another and doing a Custom job on it. The backpack was one whole unit until I had to take the thrusters off... it decided to separate then The build thread for this can be found here. Now I have got to make the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam. This is my fav picture, I did try to get him to sit on one knee like the Ez8 does. But his legs are far too chunky for that. So this is the best I can do Tried an "in-flight" shot, not too sure if I pulled it off or not. The classic Gundam action pose, couldn't pull it off due to the limited movement of the legs. It has been a fun built despite all of the cock-ups. As always, helps/tips/criticism greatly received, what did everyone think of my "photo-booth"? Think it needs more light tho. Kind Regards Dazz

Afternoon all, this, is going to be my third and final entry in the to LTAT GB; and what a crackerjack it is; Gundam MSM-07S 'Z'GOK' (char's custom) in 1/144 scale, from the HG Universal Century Gundam universe. I have never built one of these before (I only have a basic knowledge of gundam and gunpla also), I am looking forward to this build -won't be started until I have finished both of the other projects I have on the go (a week or so, I reckon). Without further ado, here are the (slightly blurry) box and bits shots! Pete

Hello everyone, Decided I would put this post up while I had some free time round my g/f's house. I was reminded by Paganpete that I had this kit floating around. I can't remember the exact price I paid for it, but I know it is around the £9.50 after the exchange rate, so it fits in (as far as I am aware?). For anyone who doesn't know a thing about Gundam or it's sidestories, here is a little link and background information I done for the 1/144 Group Build. I still need to finish my Hi-Nu of, not sure on what colours to do it tho. Right onto the pictures... Here we have the rather funky box art, the Hazel line of Gundams is from "The Advance of Zeta : The Flag of Titans" manga only story. Ironically enough, the story has turned out to be one of the most popular stories out there for Gunpla fans. I keep on meaning to get the manga myself, I just keep on forgetting. Must be my old age... As you can see there is lots of colourful bits on this. This is going to be my first Gundam that I will 100% paint and not just use the plastic colours. More colourful pictures from the instructions, gotta love the artwork. Back page and the Front page of the instructions respectively (the Japanese read right to left top to bottom, you get used to it after a while). A colour chart with the many colours I will have to make, if I decide to make it these colours. Set of sprues still in their plastic bag. More sprues with stickers! W00t! I has stickers! The main shield and various other bits and bobs. Last but not least the majority of the main body parts. I know the rules state that aftermarket isn't really allowed, but the stickers in the box are actually just stickers and suck. So I will be using these ones, I actually bought these for the TR-5 Gaplant and the Hazel (the version before this one), so technically I didn't buy the decals for this one The ones I will be using are ones in the top right. Those bunnies are kinda cute aren't they? I'm sure I have mentioned this before but a lot of the names in this series come from Watership Down (been years since I saw it). I haven't started this one yet, but I will once I have got the Training GB done, or I may just take this one slowly. See how it goes. Thank you for reading! Kind Regards, Dazz

I'm not going to be starting this for a while, but I thought I would get the background behind this down for Antony, and for anyone else who has seen these models crop up and wondered "WTF?!". This will be an extremely short background as the series has been going on for 40-odd years now, so you can imagine the history of it. Please note that all links will be directed to Wikipedia unless otherwise specified, which are all work-safe and contain no viruses. I've been using them for years and had no troubles (yet). Gundam backgrounds : Right the story of Gundam started in 1979, so is probably a lot older than some of the people on here (it's older than me!). The first story is a TV series called "Mobile Suit Gundam" aka Gundam First (I will not be bothering with the Japanese names on here). In it space travel is common place and we "have" (I think) 5 groups of colony's called "Sides" at 7 different Lagrangian points near Earth (yes, it's a proper term). Once we have started to live in space our time calendar changes from AD to Universal Century at what people think is 2000-2001 point. All of the bits in Gundam First, occur in UC 0079, after the Principality of Zeon at Side 3 had declared independence from the Earth Federation (EF) in UC 0058. Think of the Principality of Zeon like Nazi Germany, only in military and decorum ways mostly. Their structure is more like a Royal Family of some kind, best way I can describe it. Anyhow in UC0079 after the EF had placed strong sanctions on the colony to try and force it to re-join the EF. War was soon declared unilaterally on the Earth Federation after that. 3 seconds after the war had been declared, Zeon troops where on the attack, they managed to take control of a colony and drop it onto Earth in "Operation British", the force of the explosion is equal an 60,000 Mega-tonnes nuclear weapon. It lands on Australia, practically wiping it out. The One Year War (as it's called in Gundam First), is a lot like the Second World War in that one country has an advantage until that drive stagnates and they then have to be on the defensive (I'm making a lot of generalisations here to make this as short as possible, so may not be 100% accurate). Zeon has the advantage as they have a new weapon called a Mobile Suit, in the Zaku II (Non-wiki link). All the EF have is battleships/cruisers/frigates of various configurations and their fighters called RB-79 Ball (non-wiki link) that's when the story of Gundam First kicks in. Mobile Suit Gundam story : The story starts at Side 7, who are neutral, when the newly developed warship White Base (non-wiki link) arrives at the colony to pick up it's new weapon, the RX-78-2 Gundam (non-wiki link). Closely followed by a Zeon recon team, one of the members of the team disobeys orders and attacks the White Base, the resulting battle kills most of the military personnel and civilians. This is when Amuro Ray, finds the Gundam and uses it to neutralise the situation. The White Base sets out, deploying all of the forces it can to fight it's way out of the colony with Amuro in tow as the pilot of the Gundam. They did not know how they would change the face of the war from that moment on. I will not say what else happens from this point on incase anyone wants to see the show (it's worth a watch). Amuro Ray is later discovered to be something called a "Newtype", basically the next stage in Human evolution. It's said that as humans went into space and the vast distances involved the body developed heightened mental awareness. They appear to make the best kind of pilots for Mobile Suits. Amuro turns up in the other various shows after Gundam First in some form or another, and there is a lot of shows the time line for the Universal Century is below : UC0079 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam (the original series that started the franchise) 1989 Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket 1996 Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team 2004 Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO: The Hidden One Year War 2006 Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO: Apocalypse 0079 2009 Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO 2: The Gravity Front UC0083 1991 Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory UC0087 1985 Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (some compilation movies were released in 2005) 2001 Gundam Neo Experience 0087: Green Divers UC0088 1986 Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ UC0093 1988 Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack UC0096 2010-(ongoing) Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn UC0123 1991 Mobile Suit Gundam F91 UC0153 1993 Mobile Suit Victory Gundam If you would like to know more, please don't hestitate to ask, or go onto wiki. But please be aware I am by no means an expert. The model : The model I will be building is the RX-93-v2 Hi-v Gundam (pronounced "High-Nu", also non-wiki link), this is a different take on the RX-93 v Gundam (non-wiki link) that you see in the film Chars Counterattack. They are basically the same, just with more powerful generators, compountants and weapons. I wont bother listing the differences as they would mean nothing to most. However if you wanna see a little clip of the The video is in Japanese but has been translated for into English. You get the point of the various bits of it, I have a model of the Nu Gundam already from Bandai's Gundam Fix Figueration line. If you wanna see it, let me know and I will see what I can do. Onto the shots of the actual model parts. The box cover, cool drawing Instructions side1 Instructions side 2 Sprue A Sprue B Sprue C x2 Sprue D Sprue E Polycap joints and the boxed stickers, yes they are actually stickers!!! Aftermarket decals for the Nu-Gundam HWS (Heavy Weapons System). Aftermarket decals made specifically for my model. Hope that little lot is enough information for you, it's done my head in Hopefully I will get this started in the next week or so, haven't decided if I wanna just make it, or to put LEDS and stuff in it, which will take a lot longer if I do. Thank you for staying with me until the end of this post! Kind Regards, Dazz

Hi folks, I was going to save this until it was finished - I'm loath to clutter up the forum with yet another WIP thread when I should be finishing off some of the things I started last year - but I could do with some advice. To wit: I'm building Bandai's tiny little Salamis light cruiser and it's going OK, but I'm not sure if my paint scheme works: (Click for bigger) I think the green is OK, and the red on the inset prow section is a bit loud but what the hell. What I'm not sure about is the striping on the "ball rack" thing on the front. I wasn't sure about using this initially since it spoils the lines of the ship a bit, but the tiny balls are just too cool to leave out. I thought the wasp stripes would look cool against the green, and the rest of the rack is intended to be grey to mark it out as a retrofit. What worries me is that I don't reckon I can mask the stripes better than this, but they look pretty wobbly and give the thing away as a wee model rather than a nice big ship. They also maybe create a "too much going on" effect in the front section, what with the red. I'm tempted to get rid of them as a result, but I thought I'd solicit some opinions first. One thing that might work is masking just a thin section of the stripes off to retain it, and painting over the rest. Or just keeping the front-most stripe which is the neatest one. Suggestions most welcome! Thanks, Will