Gunpla Build - Zaku II Revive (part 1)

The sooner we get this built, the sooner this Zaku can start kickin’ Gundams around.

First, the runners:

That’s a pretty impressive amount of parts. Take away the one with the rubber skirt, and the black one with all the weapons, and you still have five fairly large runners full of parts. I’m a bit surprised, especially considering how the model is intentionally designed to look so simple and basic.

To Shade or not to Shade

I’ve seen a lot of model kits that look pretty solid as a straight build, but the Zaku II is not one of them. Whatever the color, they’re a bit too monochrome, and a bit too lacking in color separation. Here’s one I found from a review on USA Gundam Store:

The builder did a fantastic job with it, and I don’t want to take anything away from that. No glaring nub marks, perfect placement of the monoeye decal - It’s an A-grade build. The problem is simply with the model itself. A straight build Zaku just looks too … shiny, and a bit toy-like for my liking. I guess it’s the nature of the plastic¹.

Anyway, I debated whether or not to jazz mine up with some shading. Shading around the edges always helps add definition to a monochrome model. It seemed like the obvious choice.

Except, it wasn’t, at least not in this case. The Revive Zaku is meant to be the companion to the Revive Gundam, and when I built the latter I didn’t use any shading at all. I want the two to have a consistent look, and that won’t be the case if one is heavily shaded. Logic dictates that I leave the Zaku alone.

On the other hand, if I went with no shading, the Zaku may not look quite as good as it could. Is it worth limiting its potential just to have a matching pair?

Ultimately I decided to split the difference - I’d do some shading, but I wouldn’t put it everywhere. That would give it some much needed definition while still (hopefully) retaining a largely “straight build” appearance.

Head

I couldn’t wait to build the head, so I’m doing this kit from the top down:

On its own, it may not look like much. But take a look at it compared to the head on the Real Grade:

Not only is the color distinctly different, but so is the shape. The Revive Zaku has that cartoony, “chubby cheek” look that makes it much goofier looking.

I can’t quite express just how much I like this cartoonish design. It feels exactly right for this particular model, and it is a sign that the rest of the build is going to go well.

Chest

I would describe the build process to you, but this is a case where a picture (of the instructions) is worth a thousand words:

It is as weird as it looks, and challenging too. The fact that you have to attach pieces at an angle means that you have to be extra certain that everything is straight and flush when you’re finished. Every part in the chest fits together very tightly, so there is no margin for error.

This is my third Zaku II model kit, and it turns out that all three have a different way of assembling the power cables/coolant tubes/whatevers that run along the body. On the Real Grade, you thread individual segments onto a piece of wire, ala beads on a string. On the High Grade C6 from the Gundam: The Origin line, they’re stiff plastic parts that slot into the body.

On the Zaku Revive, the tubes are made of rubber:

Do we really need three different ways to skin the proverbial cat? The Real Grade approach is arguably the “best” due to it having actual part separation. As for plastic vs rubber, I’d say they’re tied. They don’t look appreciably different, and the flexibility of the rubber cables isn’t appreciably useful in any way.

I love the fact that the backpack is an entirely different shade of red than the rest of the body. It is completely unnecessary, which is why it feels so right. It is the perfect bit of extra vanity courtesy of the Red Comet himself.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a shoulder joint slot into the side of the body quite like this:

I feel like this design only works because everything inside the chest is packed in so tight. Otherwise, I’d worry about these joints popping out and falling into the model.

You can see that I did quite a bit of shading all across the chest and backpack. I also added some gunmetal and silver weathering compound to the center chest plate. It all adds a ton of character, without quite making it look weathered.

I’m a little worried, though, that the head looks a little too clean in comparison. I’m not going to do anything about it until I assemble some more of the body. Sometimes color combos that look off at first start to look better once you add more pieces.

Comparisons with other Zakus

None of my other Zakus have a chest assembly quite like this one. My educated guess is that the approach they took for the Revive Zaku was an attempt to eliminate seam lines. I say this because, well, the chest has no seam lines, something that would not be possible if it used a more traditional, front half/back half assembly.