Gunpla Build - High Grade Wing Zero Followup

This build went off the rails. Several times in fact.

First, I found myself in a bit of a foul mood around halfway through. I decided that I was tired of taking so many WIP photos. All the shots of loose parts, and semi-completed components - I was done with it all. I felt that it wasn’t really offering anything interesting or insightful to the audience. I decided that I would just work on the build, and maybe take photos of the finished body parts.

It was around that time that I had a COVID-19 scare. I ended up having to isolate in a room for three days while awaiting my test results. When they came back negative I was beyond relief, but I was also mentally and emotionally drained. Once I started feeling better¹, I went to the basement and realized that almost all the individual components of the Wing Zero were either complete, or were ready to be assembled. However, I hadn’t taken photos of any of them. After everything that had happened recently, I decided that I wasn’t in the mood for photography, so on Christmas Eve I did the final assembly, and that was that. The completed model looked great, and I was happy.

That is until a few days later, when I found the motivation to write the remaining build posts, but had no photos to use. There wasn’t anything to be done about it, but I was still frustrated, so I put the model aside and spent some time tieing up loose ends. By the time I was done with all that, the new year was already a week old, and I had four brand new kits that recently came in the mail. Naturally I was itching to build them, but I knew that first I had to finish up the Wing Zero with a final writeup and photoshoot. So here we are, after much procrastination, to get it done.

Appearance

I mentioned before how I wanted to do a slightly custom paint job, but that I wasn’t sure how it would work out. As it turns out, it’s pretty great!

As you can see, the Wing Zero now has a fully traditional Gundam color scheme, without any green whatsoever. While I still think it has an overall busy color scheme, it does help to minimize the number of colors being used. It makes for fewer distractions.

I also added some extra bits of color that aren’t normally there, such as on the legs and the wing tips. These sections were previously devoid of color, so I don’t think sprucing them up makes the model look noticeably busier than it already did.

Of course, I could be entirely wrong about all of that. And I’m sure there are diehard Gundam Wing fans that consider it blasphemy to change the color scheme. All I know is that I’m pleased. Everything worked out well. The golden eyes, the blue head camera, even the red “gem” in the chest:

Comparison to Master Grade

I am sorry to say it, but this is one of the reasons why I didn’t want to take WIP photos for this build. At a certain point it became clear that I was going to like this High Grade Wing Zero much much more than the Master Grade, and I lost the desire to do any sort of comparison. It no longer felt like there was a need:

The Master Grade Wing Proto Zero has a lot of mechanical problems. The gun fits poorly in hand, the body is overly light and hollow, and the joints feel wobbly and loosey-goosey. If I were to pick it up and give it a slight shake, everything from the torso down would move around (In contrast, if I did the same thing to the High Grade, everything would stay in place). Sometimes it feels as if it is on the verge of collapsing under its own weight. I’m not sure whether or not this is an example of the Square-Cube Law at work, but it feels like it is, and that has definitely made me wary of trying out other Master Grades.

But beyond the mechanical issues, I also have issues with its visual design. My biggest (and most obvious) problem is with the Buster Rifle. You can see it best in this picture here:

What do you notice is different about the two models? On the High Grade, the Buster Rifle is pointing straight down, yet it doesn’t touch the ground. On the Master Grade, this simply isn’t possible. Proportionally, it is longer than the High Grade’s, and in my opinion that makes it too long. Not only does it make it harder for it to hold up straight, but it also looks ridiculous for any mobile suit to hold a gun that long in one hand.

On the other hand, the High Grade’s shorter Buster Rifle is just barely reasonable. As we will see soon, it looks natural wielding it in all sorts of poses.

Beyond just the guns, I prefer the visual stylings of the High Grade. The Proto Zero design makes certain body parts look too angular, almost spiky. Look at the erratic silhouette of the MG’s wings, and compare them to the simple shape (but wonderful surface details) of its smaller counterpart.

Looking elsewhere, there are numerous areas where the proportions on the MG are smaller, shorter, longer, etc, and none of them end up looking as good as the High Grade’s “TV original” design.

What I realize now is that my years long dislike of the Wing Zero is due to the fact that my impression of it is based largely on this Master Grade, as well as the terrible animation and art quality of the original TV show. Turns out that when you take that original design and do it justice (like this High Grade does), it ends up being a decent enough looking mobile suit. As for the Master Grade? I may give it to my kid to play with. I have no more use for something that actively makes me dislike a mecha more than I otherwise would.

Articulation

The joints themselves are pretty good. The arm bend is strong:

The leg bends are good enough:

The head can look all around (including up), and the wings have multiple points of articulation that makes them easy to position in whatever angle you want:

The real problem with the articulation is that all the model’s different components end up blocking and interfering with each other. The shoulders bump up against the wings, the arms bump up against the shoulders, the shield bumps up against everything … you get the idea. Not only does this make certain poses more difficult to pull off, but it also increases the likelihood of parts falling off. I learned this first hand - I frequently found myself having to reattach the wings, arms, shield, and shoulders. I would be lying if I said it didn’t affect how much effort I put into photographing the model. After a while, I grew tired of fumbling with it. What follows are the poses I managed to pull off before my patience wore out.

Neo Bird Mode

Of course, we can’t forget the transformation mode. The Wing Zero is what many fans call a “partsformation” kit. That means that you have to swap out certain parts in order to make the transformation work. You typically find it on smaller, simpler kits which lack the articulation and complexity needed to reconfigure its stock parts. Different partsformation kits require different amounts of part swapping. In the case of Wing Zero, all we have to do is switch out the feet, which isn’t bad at all.

Here are the special feet used during the transformation:

Detailing these was a pain. You have to paint the white parts, and that means painting white on red. The end result isn’t the best, but then again, the feet aren’t going to be the center of attention once the transformation is complete.

Speaking of which, here it is!

Here is a comparison between the model’s normal feet, and the alternates:

The alternate feet are made to look as if the heel opened up, and they also point both inward and upward. I can see why Bandai didn’t try and make the stock feet transformable. I don’t think it would be viable at this scale.

Lastly, as always, the Neo Bird Mode looks a hell of a lot better from above as it does below:

You can’t avoid the fact that it looks like a robot tucked into itself.

Conclusion

This version of the Wing Zero came out looking much better than I expected, and I had a lot of fun messing with the colors. I even found myself coming up with more pose ideas than I thought I would. Unfortunately, the limited range of the articulation made me less willing to try most of those poses. Ultimately, I don’t think I took any more photos than I was originally expecting to.

I don’t think this is a bad kit. In fact, if you like Wing Zero, I think it is a pretty good one. It somehow manages to cram in every single gimmick and feature you would expect to see.

The problem is that there is a difference between visual appeal and practical design. I think this Wing Zero looks pretty decent, but it is still a design where body parts collide, where the short stubby arms cannot even cross its body, and where the feet can barely swivel because the leg armor gets in the way. These are not problems that can be solved with a bigger scale or more pieces. It is endemic to the design of the MS.

I think this kit is ultimately a wash for me. It will look fine up on the shelf, but I don’t see myself wanting to handle it too much. I’m just going to leave it alone, and be glad I got something out of it.

And hey, at least it can say it is better than the Master Grade:

Other Thoughts

• I know I said that I was going to make a melee weapon for this model. I still plan on doing so, but because it looked better than expecting wielding its Buster Rifle, it stopped being a pressing need. I’ll try to knock one out when I start building my next kit.