In the end, I did manage to get this assembled and panel lined in a single night, just as I had hoped.
That being said, in terms of level of effort, this wasn’t my best. I didn’t use most of the decals, I didn’t topcoat it, I didn’t do any detailing on the weapons, and I barely did any painting for color correction.
But hey, it’s done.
Extra Parts?
As you might imagine, Zaku models from the Gundam: The Origin line of High Grade kits share a lot of parts, and thus they tend to reuse lots of runners. Often times this leads to lots of spare parts, which in terms leads to potential for customization. On a given kit, you might have the opportunity to swap things such as heads chests, and backpacks.
However, this particular kit was shockingly light on spare parts:
You can attach the Zaku II-style shoulder shield if you want, or swap out the chest or the knees. But that’s about it. I can’t help but feel a little disappointed.
Weapons and Stuff
As I suspected, the weapon loadout here is identical to that of my Origin version of the Zaku II. The only exception is the machine gun. While the Zaku II came with a weird belt fed gun, somehow the Zaku I comes with the classic, Zaku II-style drum fed gun:
It’s weird. This is arguably the most iconic weapon used by any Zeon mobile suit, and yet of the four Zeonic Origin models I’ve purchased, this is the first and only one to come with this gun.
Anyway, let’s do a comparison with my many other versions of the Zaku II machine gun:
I think it compares nicely with the others.
Finished Model
Here it is:
It’s … fine I guess. It doesn’t make me feel much of anything. It’s not simple enough, and the colors feel wrong.
Comparisons
Let’s line it up with some other Zakus to compare:
This just reinforces how I already feel.
Weapon Poses
For reference, most of these weapons came from other kits, including the Origin Zaku II, and the Zaku I Sniper type.
With the bazooka:
It looks too bulky in its hands.
With the Anti Ship Rifle:
Same deal.
With the Zaku II machine gun that came in the box:
This doesn’t look right to a purist like me, but it also doesn’t necessarily look bad.
And finally, with a Zaku I machine gun:
Perfect! There’s something about the size and shape of this particular gun that fits this particular mobile suit.
Conclusion
I’ll be honest here - if I knew of a way to quickly and painlessly sell this kit, I would have done so. It wasn’t worth keeping and building in the grand scheme of things. But since I have no knowledge of the Gunpla reseller community, I figured I might as well build it and put it on the shelf to try and get my money’s worth.
But all in all, this was a mistake that I highly regret. If I end up learning my lesson in the end - that is, to be patient and not settle - then perhaps it won’t be for naught.