When it rains…
So as I mentioned previously, the Zeta’s beam rifle is a patchy mess. Not the best scenario, but it could have been worse, right? After all, when constructing the Zaku I almost damaged its leg beyond repair.
As luck would have it, the build did get worse. The Zeta suffered leg damage that made the Zaku’s break look like minimal in comparison. The model’s legs are attached to the torso via a series of hinges. There are four hinges in total, two per leg, and they’re all roughly in the shape of a pair of handcuffs. They are small, thin, and fragile looking, and aren’t something I would expect to see supporting the entire upper half a model. In my case, they never really had a chance. Of the four hinges, one had a single break, and two crumbled into pieces so small they could easily be mistaken for scrap plastic left over from a runner. And if I had any desire to see my finished model, I somehow had to find a way to put it all back together.
My first idea was to use some liquid cement, to see if I could get the pieces to fuse back together into a single, albeit fragile unit. It was largely a failure. Perhaps the quality of the cement is poor, but I think the more likely reason is that the pieces were too small. I couldn’t keep a steady hand long enough for the pieces to bond together, and the cement too easily spread everywhere, which made them stick to my fingers. So I switched to my old standby, super glue, and that didn’t do any better. Over the span of a week, I tried again and again to repair the torso, only to be defeated. By Friday morning, the broken pieces were looking half disintegrated from the constant applications of liquid cement, and the one of the hingers broke clean off. I was this close to losing any chance of making the repair, and in an anger fueled blur oI applied some glue, slapped a few pieces together, and somehow got it all to hold. I added the rest, dropped in some cement for good measure, and went to work. On my return, I had what looked to be a real repair. As for the damage assessment, the worst news is that this kit will never be able to transform into Wave Rider mode. Much as I would like to be able to use this feature, I’d much rather have the model work perfectly (or close to it) in mobile suit mode, and if the torso somehow manages to hold together over the long term, then it should only lose a little bit of mobility in the left leg. This would be an acceptable outcome for me, but I’m honestly unsure if it will hold. The left leg in particular is very unstable, and I’m afraid to do anything that might disturb it.
Before this fiasco, the Zeta Gundam was shaping up to be my best build ever. But between the torso and the Beam Rifle, it is becoming my worst. That is frustrating in general, but what makes it worse is that I have absolutely no idea how these hinges broke, or what I could have done to avoid it. I don’t remember applying pressure to any of the hinges, and they certainly didn’t bend. I remember reading how the kit’s torso is very delicate, but there’s a difference between “will break if handled improperly” and “will break while you work on an entirely different section, for no discernable reason”. I felt like I never had a chance to be careful. Going forward I may think twice before buying a transformable kit. This kind of risk just isn’t worth it.
Going Rogue
After the debacle I just got through, I decided I couldn’t continue the build according to the instructions. So I went back to basics, building the arms and other parts to completion before attaching them to the torso. Despite the manual’s insistence to avoid this approach, I see no evidence that it won’t work.
Arms, Shoulders and Hands
The arms and hand pieces came together nicely. Same thing with the shoulder armor, which are similar in assembly to the Mk II’s.
I have some photos, of both the good and the bad, on Google Plus.