Skirt Armor
The skirt armor is more complex than in past builds, on account of there being seven pieces instead of five. I like how the beam sabers can be stored in the side skirt armor pieces.
Stabilizer/Armor Unit / Wings / Whatever
The manual calls it a Stabilizer/Armor Unit. When the Zeta is in Wave Rider mode, it functions as its wings. In mobile suit mode, it straps to the back and does … something. Maybe it still helps to stabilize? Or maybe the Zeta’s back is super sensitive and needs protection? In any case, this unit is more complex than I anticipated. It gets constructed as three pieces, and the two wings consist of multiple layers. There are decals to place on both sides, since the wings flip over when the kit is in Wave Rider mode. I put them on, even though they’ll never be shown.
Clearcoat Redux
I went back to holding each piece with tweezers and spraying it down. The results were drastically improved, so much so that I added a fresh coat to some finished pieces to improve their look. I guess my original approach was good enough in the first place, so long as I have enough time to let everything dry. I think that was the real problem I had with past builds - I sprayed a piece from top to bottom, laying one side down while it was still wet. Once again, my results are dependent on the amount of patience I have.
Beam Rifle Redux
I scraped as much of the gunky paint as I could from the Beam Rifle, and re-sprayed. It isn’t perfect, but it looks much better.
Assembly
Putting all the pieces together was a pain. The instruction manual just isn’t able to properly convey how the pieces should be positioned and where they should lock into place. And you need to do it properly, otherwise the Zeta won’t look like a cohesive and seamless mobile suit. I’m not 100% sure if I got it exactly right. There is some yellow lining right underneath the head, and all of the photos of the finishd kit suggest that it should be higher up than it is on mine. There also seems to be nothing you can do to make the side skirt armor appear flush with the body, which I assume is a tradeoff made in order to accomodate the tranformation feature. Speaking of which…