Harmony of Gundam Model Kits

Gunpla Build - High Grade Zaku I Sniper Type (Part 4) 2021-02-16

I felt like I built up some good momentum with the last build, so I decided to keep it going and knock out the last two components shortly after. Once again I tried not to overthink the weathering - whatever happened happened, and I left it at that. Let’s see how it turned out.

Arms

Not much to say here. The shoulder pauldron connects via a polycap, which makes it easy to remove if need be:

Gunpla Build - High Grade Zaku I Sniper Type (Part 3) 2021-02-13

I decided to keep bulldozing forward with this build. Weathering effects look great, but I just don’t have a fun doing them, at least not to this extent. It’s not a matter of impatience - after all, I can easily spend several days painting smaller details onto a weapon.

No, the problem is more that I overthink weathering, and exactly how I want to do it. It leaves me feeling stressed and/or unhappy with what I come up with. It’s just not a good headspace for me to be in.

That’s why I’m going to keep it simple from here on out. Whatever weathering I come up with is what I come up with, for better or worse. With that being said, let us begin.

Gunpla Build - High Grade Zaku I Sniper Type (Part 2) 2021-02-09

The build keeps trucking along.

Skirt Armor

Here are all the skirt pieces. This time, I’m not showing them so you can see how many pieces there are - Zakus have a very predictable number of skirt sections - but rather so you can see the weathering effects I chose. Note that the piece in the top right of the picture was Photoshopped in, as I forgot to do it as part of the initial batch, and had to come back to it later:

It isn’t a GOOD Photoshop, but it’s not like I’m trying to fool anyone

Gunpla Build - High Grade Zaku I Sniper Type Part 1 2021-01-23

Delays

I’ll admit, this build is taking quite a long time. That is because I am trying to do a full body weathering job. I still don’t have a lot of experience with weathering, so I have to (and want to) take my time. If I don’t have a couple of solid hours on a given night to work on the model. I simply won’t try. Lately, the problem has been more that I haven’t had the energy to build, but there’s not much of a difference between “I don’t have X hours to spare” and “I can’t stay awake for X hours”.

Last night, I took a look at my pile of finished pieces and realized I had almost - but not quite - enough of them to justify writing about. I decided to grit my teeth and stay up a bit late to knock out a few more.

Gunpla Build - High Grade Zaku I Sniper Type 2021-01-11

I only ever ruined a model kit once. It was back in 2017, and it was due to a serious, full body case of clearcoat fog, which I attempted to fix with more and more layers of topcoat. Unfortunately, outdoor conditions were such that this only made the problem worse. By the time it was all done, the paint was a goopy, sticky mess even well after it dried. I was so upset with myself that I threw the finished model in the trash¹.

The model in question was Char Aznable’s Zaku I from Gundam: The Origin. The only traces of it I have left are some spare parts in a bag. Call me dramatic, but I very nearly quit building model kits after this fiasco. At the very least it has haunted me ever since.

And it looked so good before I ruined it. RIP

Now it is time for some of closure. My next build is the Zaku I Sniper Type: