RG Karaba Zeta Gundam – First Look!

I know that a lot of people have been curious about this kit and while I mentioned some things about it in the last post, I wanted to make a quick update before work with some actual pictures of what makes this kit so special.

The box itself is much larger than the standard Zeta Gundam box due to the fact that there are 5 extra runners involved with this kit.

Three of the I and E runners in gray, pink and white and two of the A runners with different coloration. Bandai really wanted to make sure this thing looked as good as possible out of box! I did some looking and if you could get your hands on another frame runner, two d runners and the runner that has the white armor parts you could build an entire extra RG Zeta Gundam and then some with what you won’t be using…but the cost of ordering those parts would likely run you more than the cost of just buying another RG Zeta.

This is a big one. When the promo shots for the Karaba Zeta came out there was an error on the leg sticker- “Karab”. People (myself included) were pretty annoyed that such a blatant typo could make it through Bandai’s QA and actually make it all the way to production again (phase shit armor, oops) but I’m pleased to report that the issue isn’t present on the kit after all! This is a huge plus and makes me really happy.

Given that my attention is focused pretty hard on the Stein right now it’s hard to say when I’m going to get to building this but it WILL be my next build and while it’s getting painted in stock colors you can be sure that I’ll be using every little sticker and bringing out every detail I can to make it a really impressive build.

Showdown WIP 4 – Hi-Stein

Tentative name, I haven’t quite found something that gives it that proper “custom” feeling. In any case the mods for most of the weapons are done now save for the shield/rifle mounted cannon (still mulling this one over- might be a step to far to mount it to the already oversized beam rifle) and leg mounted missile racks which I haven’t even begun to fiddle with yet.

Let’s talk how I got these parts on there. First and foremost the shoulder mounted weapons are connected to the shoulder via the shoulder joints from the MG Hi-Nu. I they fit in there by opening up the small gap on the shoulder frames just a touch, then tightening them up with super glue to ensure they don’t flop around at all. Using the shoulder joints gives the weapons the ability to rotate on the X and Z axis with the arm from the new Type-C ReZEL giving it movement on the Y axis. The huge cannon on the left shoulder was easy enough to fit since that’s the part it’s supposed to mount to in the first place but to mount the gatlings I had to get a little creative.

I forgot to take a picture of it, but there’s a PC part cut down and jammed in to the opening of the S8 part of the Type-C ReZEL and then I sanded down a chunk of sprue so it fit in the PC part. After that, I drilled some holes in to the side of the gatling guns and used superglue to tighten those joints, though they aren’t locked in to place so they can move up and down independently of one another. I’ll cover up the holes with some pla-plate to keep things looking nice and clean but for now that takes care of our shoulder mounting adventures.

I was initially worried that I would need to drill holes in to the Steins shoulder armor to accommodate the shoulder part’s male end but as it turns out the part that covers the area I attached the joint to is actually covered by the part that goes on top of the shoulder and all I had to do was cut off a little extra plastic to make it work. Here’s a comparison of the two parts, one modified and the other stock. This leaves enough room that nothing is in the way of the shoulder joint.

The last bit of work that I had to do on the shoulders- and this is something I realized I had to do maybe five minutes ago- is cut down a side of the part that hangs down from the shoulder since the balljoints are in the spot for the back side that slips in to the shoulder frame. This was a quick and easy thing to do and to make sure the part stays put with half the support I just tightened the remaining area up with superglue which is becoming shockingly common with this build.

The end results speak for themselves though, the joints are all rock solid and have plenty of movement to allow for the rifle to come under the arm so the kit can grip the cannon or have it sitting above the shoulder for firing. You’d think all these modifications would result int he suit having poor balance but thanks to the Stein’s larger size it supports all of these extra parts quite well and doesn’t suffer much in the way of stability. There are only a few things left to do now like figure out what I’m going to do with the Armed Armor DE and the second beam cannon. I really like how Syd’s fantastic build and my own are going towards two different schools of thought- high speed combat and overwhelming offensive power. Maybe I’ll have to mail my Stein to Japan when this is all said and done so they can be photographed together!

In other news, my Real Grade Karaba Zeta Gundam has arrived from Gentei Kits! I have a three day weekend this week, you guys can expect to see a preview of the kit at the very least because I know a lot of us were/are wondering why the ox is so much bigger than the regular RG Zeta Gundam box. There aren’t any extra weapons, but Bandai did go the extra mile on color separation and gave us multiples of the same runners in different colors to ensure that the Karaba Zeta looks are true to the artwork as possible. Be on the lookout for pictures soon since we’ve got some serious free time coming up!

Believe in a sign of Z.

After way too long of a delay, the page for the dual build of the Real Grade Zeta Gundam is live! Swing on by and leave a comment. We’ve got the next kit in the works already, but I’ll give it some time before I start making posts about it.

Complete.

You’ll be seeing pages for the following kits soon! I have the photoshoots mostly done for all three pretty much done but still need to put the actual pages together (as well as type my thoughts on the kits).

I would…

Re=do all of the pinks just because I found a better shade. I like this color MUCH more than the “it-kind-of-grows-on-you-but-is-really-in-your-face” fluorescent magenta I had previously used. Now I can really say this thing is done until February when the double funnel expansion set gets here. Pictures to come soon! As you can see, I also used Gaijin-Gunpla’s Fin Funnel fix (using 1mm brass rods which you can purchase here and now they don’t flop over or fall apart when left up on the funnel rack.

So what am I working on now that the Nu is pretty much wrapped up?

Oh. Yes.

Even more ‘oh yes’. It only took me 3+ years of building but if you keep parts in bags after you cut them off the trees you don’t lose the god damn things constantly.

With only a few red areas left to prime and paint on this Zeta (The cockpit hatch and wing tips), I’m going to get to working on painting the blue areas on the second Zeta. If you haven’t noticed by now, they’ll be rocking a nice modified Zeta Plus colorscheme and I really can’t wait to finish them both up because they’re going to look stellar together. With any luck it won’t take much longer before they’re done, as I’m generally flying through the painting/building process for these.

Hi, everyone!

Given the exorbitant amount of hits the site has seen today (thanks, Z!), I felt it somewhat appropriate to make a post to commemorate getting four times the average amount. So I did so in the best way I know how, with a bunch of pictures! While the kit itself isn’t a new one or one that was painted it’s still one of my favorite kits and one that has been severely lacking in the photography department for -quite- some time. So, without further adieu, I present you with pictures of the limited edition Karaba Assault Use Zeta Gundam! Please forgive any flaws in the construction or finish of the model as you can see it’s quite an old one. Someday I’d like to find another and give it another go..I’ve already got what I want to do all thought out.

More stuff…

God Gundam, Zeta Gundam and Hyaku-Shiki reviews up on the MG page…I’m almost caught up, three more to go before I can start building the other kits I have!

Group photo now!

Due to the marked lack of action around here, Here’s a picture of the ever reliable gunpla shelf (click for high resolution). I think the majority them have a post about them and if they don’t it’s something I’m working on fixing. You can also see that Nu is close to being finished! Then it’s just a matter of time until Sword Impulse. Will probably make a WIP post for Nu tomorrow to show most of the construction.

Zeta Waverider!

Got around to transforming this sucker today.

I’m pretty sure you aren’t going to get away from that. Rob, I don’t know why you had issues getting the cannon to stay put on the bottom, unless you’re neglecting the white hinge that has to go on/around the bottom of the shield before the tab goes in.

Updated the finished projects page with a link to Zeta’s gallery.

MSZ-006-3 Zeta Gundam

All done! I’ve never built Zeta before but after paying attention to the general consensus (ie: the feet suck, good thing it comes with a stand) I have to agree it’s a really nice kit. I managed to hunt down the limited edition Karaba Assault version, keeping in line with my usual penchant for being a sucker when it comes to limited editions of anything ever.

With this done, I’ll probably attempt to take a break for a day or two before I launch in to building the God Gundam. These things were supposed to last me until the end of March! It’s only the 6th and I’ve already gotten two of them done, oh woe is me. I should start finding ways to make these things take longer or stop working so fast/so much on them. The trade offs to being free on days when no one else is and all, you know?

Anyway! Enjoy your model pictures.