 |
MS-06F/J Zaku II |
| Series | UC0079 |
|
| Title | MS-06F/J Zaku II | |
| Release Date | October 1995 | |
| Suggested Price (JPY) | 2,500 | |
| No. of Parts | 167 + polycaps + stickers + dry transfers + water-slide transfer | |
| Plastic Color | light green, medium green, dark green, gray, black and clear | |
| Grade | MG | |
| Scale | 1/100 | |
| My Rating | Below Average | |
| Model Status | Completed (2006-07-28) | |
| Production Roll-Out# | #27 |
Comment
When I saw an article in Dengeki Hobby about how a Japanese Modeler did his MG Gyan
without painting, it hit me very hard on my head that I have made a miscalculation in my
method to do my MG RX-78-2 Gundam One Year War.
Most newcomers neither know how to paint, airbrush nor spraying top coat!
They are might be from the very young group and all those modeling supplies are alien to them. I can imagine that they are as happy as can be when they bought their first one or two favorite models with their saved up pocket money and snap them nicely together. Then what? Paint it? Painting comes with risk of destroying our beloved model (this is exactly how I feel when I first started). Moreover, most of them might not have the affordability or the know-how to buy the required tools and materials.
The question I ponder again is what more can be done to beautify a model without painting. I see the MG Gyan is done successfully by those veterans who has decades of experience. Is that possible for a newbie (like me who just work on modeling for only a few years)?
So I fired up this project and impose myself a rule, absolutely no paint but Gundam Marker only. I got this MG Zaku II kept for 4 years and I really do not know what to do with it. So it is a perfect test subject. Moreover, this kit is the very first 2 models ever release as MG back in 1995. Meaning that the part precision, division, seam line and plastic shine are the poorest among all MG. I believe if I can conquer this Zaku with what I have done here, I think it is applicable to all later released MG.
Construction Process
Basic building, gluing and sanding technique is applied here. There is no special trick
use except for extreme care has to be taken just to make there are no unrecoverable mistake.
There are a lot of tutorial on basic building technique everywhere on the net so I am not
going to explain this again.
The challenge is, unlike newer MG that has very clever part-division where gluing is not necessary, this kit is an old mold and require to glue those pesky parts together and sand it like crazy. That is all it takes and if you are doing some newer MG, gluing might not even your problem.
The tedious step is to deal with the plastic shine. Each part is lightly sanded with my electrical toothbrush sander (refer to 1/72 Armored Core Mirage C01-GAEA). The surface will turn slightly white and powdery with some rotational sanding marks. These marks are rubbed off with some Mr. Rubbing Compound 1000 (alternatively use Tamiya Compound). Just try not to rub too much else the plastic shine will return, rendering your previous work fruitless.
 |
 |
 |
|
| Built, sanded and rubbed with compound. | Using wires and stick to sand pipes. |
Next is to draw the panel lines with Gundam Real Touch Marker. If you look at the photos carefully, you might see the armor surface comes with subtle black and gray marks and brown rain marks on it. Normally, this effect is done using washing and oil painting but there is a no-paint rule here. I took the tedious way of using Gundam Real Touch Marker. It is applied to the armor surface and then smudges it with either my finger or a cotton bud. For the deep creases, corners or inner part, black or gray is applied, wait for it to dry a bit and then blend the color with the clear marker to create some gradation.
Only dry transfer decals are applied to this kit. I have been wondering for some time on what are those white bands they use for the PG Zaku II on magazine. I still do not know what exactly it is but then I come up with the idea to experiment with Liquid Paper's correction tape as an alternative. The white band on left arm, right thigh and the shield are done using that. One good feature of a correction tape is that it easily scratches off and with the help of a craft knife thus the scratch-off / weathered look are easily accomplished. The con here is that it is easily scratch-off too.
 |
 |
| Panel lines drawn and smudged. Correction tape is use for the white band. | |
All these steps might sound complicated but then it is quite easy to do. It is just tedious and it took me 5 days to come up to this point.
 |
Tools for Basic Building 1. Toothbrush Sander 2. Plastic Cement 3. Mr. Rubbing Compound 1000 3. Craft Knife 4. Cotton Bud 5. Gundam Real Touch Markers 6. Eraser 7. Liquid Paper Correction Tape 8. Wire Cutter (not displayed on photo) Note: This is the only tools that I use up to this stage. Nothing else. |
I am building a ground type Zaku here and it will not look right if there is no weathering. I use Gundam Marker Weathering set here. There are 3 colors in that set; earth, dark earth and sand. The weathering marker work like pastel but comes in a much more convenient liquid form. It dries powdery and can easily be dusted off.
Just remember that this Zaku is 16m tall so the lower body is heavily weathered compare to the top. The shoulder rust marks are done using Dark Earth. Metal scrapping is dry-brush using Gundam Marker silver.
This took a day away from me to weather this kit.
 |
Tools for Weathering 1. Gundam Real Touch Markers 2. Gundam Weathering Markers 3. Cotton Bud 4. Brush |
Conclusion
This technique is not hard to do at all. All you need is just a minimum set of tools, some
Gundam Markers, a good brain, a courageous heart and a pair of hand. I believe any modeler
who are not mentally and / or physically challenged can produce somewhat good result without
painting. The only disadvantages of this technique is its tediousness and a longer time
required comparing to what I did to my
MG RX-78-2 Gundam One Year War 0079 Version.
Please do not get me wrong that all I do is to find an easy way out. I still believe painting is the way to go and I seriously recommend it especially for those who can afford the tools and supplies for this hobby and yet those who has just started with some affordability issue still can enjoy this marvelous hobby by coming up with something that look like a painted job.
There are no more reason why you should not build a Gundam so start building!
I got this kit from my HK friend as a gift.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Shield is a bit clean here. This is reserved for phase 2. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Comparison between fully painted Char's Zaku II and Rambal Ral's Zaku I. Not bad eh for an unpainted kit? |
 |
 |
Document Date : 2006-07-30 |
Responses to this page:
Interesting! Always wanted to try this on a RX-79[G] or an Ez8. For the weathering though, how do you apply the markers? Just put in the basic shape and use the cotton bud and brush to smudge?
Also, how are real touch markers different then regular gundam markers?
You got it more or less. For the difference, please check my tools page.