When I first saw promotional images for the Mk. II model kit, I thought that its Hyper Bazooka looked identical to OG Gundam’s. That actually isn’t the case. The Mk II’s Bazooka has the same general shape, but it’s grip and sight are entirely different, the missle pack isn’t as detailed, and it’s a bit narrower overall. Here’s a side by side comparison.
Quite a big difference compared to my original assumption. I prefer the look of OG Gundam’s Bazooka ever so slightly, but I do appreciate the use of blue on the Mk II’s barrel. It adds some nice color without being flashy.
In regards to the build, there’s at least one obvious (to me) mistake on each side of the piece. The side shown in the previous pic has some discoloration at the end of the barrel, while on the other side, you will see that the barrel decal is quite ragged (for some reason I had a lot of trouble positioning it).
But by far the most troublesome part of the weapon was the ammo pack, which is the grey piece at the end. The kit comes with two of them, and when it comes to mistakes, they’re practically identical twins. Both have similar sprue marks on the back end, and each is missing the same decal on the same side (the two decals got stuck together, and nothing I did managed to separate them).
One more thing - the Bazooka also has a shiny green sticker on the sight. I had to share:
The two pieces are easily my worst work so far in this build. I take a little solace in the fact that they’re two of the most insignificant pieces in the whole kit, but I was hoping the Mk. II would be close to error free. I’ll just have to be careful with the main body.
The Mk II’s shield is easily my favorite of the weapons. It embodies the overall theme of the Mk. II - to take the original RX78-2 Gundam, and make it tougher, meaner, and in a way more “serious”. Don’t get me wrong - OG Gundam’s big red shield and yellow cross is freaking’ awesome. But Zeta Gundam was a show that was firmly in the “real robot” territory, so it makes more sense for its armaments to have the same color scheme and visual style.
Build-wise, I made a very nasty gash in the top right edge of the shield, which I spent at least half an hour sanding down. I was expecting it to stand out in these pictures, but instead the first thing that catches my eye is that some of the decals are crooked. That looked a whole lot better when I first put them on …
… and are those metallic stickers already starting to scratch? What the hell!
Anyway, about those decals. I’ve always been impressed with the attention to detail Bandai puts into the Real Grade line, but when it comes to the decals on the Mk. II I’m floored. The decal sheet comes with two different Titans logos for the shield, and a full set of 01, 02 and 03 number decals for both the shield and the mobile suit. In other words, you can choose exactly which of the three Mk. II prototypes your model is going to represent. I don’t know if this is common with other grades, but I’m very impressed regardless.
As for my choice in numbering, because of its color scheme, I wanted my Mk II. to be one that was actually piloted at some point by a Titan, and the first thing that came to mine was Unit 01 (which Emma Sheen piloted when she traveled to the Argama for what she thought were negotiations with the AEUG).
One feature of this shield is that its length can be adjusted by sliding the top half up or down. I don’t remember this ever being demonstrated in the show. If I’m wrong about that, feel free to leave a comment; I’d love to go back and see it for myself.
Here’s the back side of the shield. Like with OG Gundam, it has room to carry extra weaponry, but instead of holding spare beam sabers, it instead carries two spare clips for the Beam Rifle. I’m not sure why this was changed, but the ammo packs don’t work quite as well. When attached to the shield, they obstruct the viewport. I don’t really care about this when putting the model on display, but the Real Grade line is supposed to represent a more realistic depiction of each mobile suit, and that isn’t a very realistic design choice (or maybe it is).
Here’s one more fun fact about the shield - even though it has kind of a weird shape, the shield is actually the same size as OG Gundam’s.
On a final note, I haven’t built the Mk. II’s beam sabers. They’re simple enough to construct, and they’re too small to have lying around loose, so I’m waiting until the end to put them together. They’re still using the absurdly long energy blades that were shipped with OG Gundam. I’ve heard that these are actually Master Grade size, and I’m puzzled as to why they’re being used here. I’d say it is a cost cutting measure, but I see no signs of corners being cut elsewhere, not when Bandai is giving you decals which they know won’t be used. Also, as far as I can tell, the Mk. II comes with only two saber hilts, as opposed to OG Gundam’s four (which I still don’t understand).
Now that the weapons are out of the way, it’s time to start with on the body. Normally I’d begin with the legs and feet, but this time, I’m going to get the most traumatic part out of the way. Cross your fingers that all goes well.