This is a pretty simple kit:
A simple kit with a ton of color correcting decals, for things like the top of the chest, the missiles on its backpack, and the inside of its thrusters:
It also comes with a ton of decorative stickers, featuring Zeon logos, the suits’s model number, and … a bunch of stickers that just say “Zeon”:
Let’s go over some of the highlights of the build.
Missile Launcher
Out of the box, this is all grey; you’ll have to paint the tip red if you want it color accurate:
Backpack
This requires by far the most color correction of anything on this kit:
By my count:
- The missiles need to be colored white (either with the included stickers or with paint)
- There’s a pink sticker in the center (not sure if that’s supposed to be a rear camera or what)
- There are red stickers lining the inner walls of the thrusters
- The rest of the thruster is painted grey and black
- The grill shaped area between the thrusters is supposed to be painted grey
All told it’s a lot of work, all for a section of the model that most people aren’t going to see. If you ever build it, you’ll have to decide whether it’s worth the effort.
Chest
The yellow sticker at the top of the chest actually looks … pretty good?
Shoulders
The kit comes with stickers for the tops of the missiles, but they don’t look too great, so I painted them.
On the right shoulder, the missiles are just decorative, but on the left shoulder two of them are removable caps, which can then be placed on these two missile bodies:
Both the caps and the missile bodies have to be painted if you want them color accurate.
This is a cute gimmick, but it’s also a pain. I don’t see how you can easily remove the missile caps without scratching them and chipping off the paint. I don’t really think it’s worth it.
Magnet Harken
The Magnet Harken comes in two forms. One is a cap that you can plug into the arm when not in use, and the other is similarly sized cap that can plug into the length of wire that comes with the kit, for when you want to have it deployed. Both parts need to be painted red.
Optional Parts
The kit comes with a classic Zaku Commander antenna, as well as traditional leg and chest sections. If you were to remove the backpack, and swap the leg and chest parts, you could in theory get this looking much more like a traditional Zaku:
Finished
The Zaku Mariner is ready for some underwater operations:
I got really excited for this build. I spent so much time writing and reading about this mobile suit. I even bumped it up to the top of the backlog priority. But now that it’s all said and done, I find myself underwhelmed.
I’ve given a lot of thought as to why, and I think I figured it out. Here’s a picture of the Zaku Mariner on the shelf with its siblings:
Look at all those other Zeon mobile suits. They all have spiky armor, and most of them have large weapons. Many of them are asymmetrical.
But the Zaku Mariner is perfectly symmetrical. It has no spikes. And it’s lone weapon looks like a pea shooter in comparison.
It just lacks that intimidation factor - that certain je ne sais quoi - that Zeon designs are famous for.
I guess that’s what you get when you have the Feddies design a Zaku 🤪
Well, let’s at least try to make the most of it with some action poses.
I will say this - I like the color scheme a lot. It’s like an aquatic take on the Zaku I’s, and that bit of yellow on the chest really brings it all together.
If I could make one suggestion to improve upon this kit, it would have been nice to have a second head, where you could put the monoeye along the top when it’s swimming:
I mean, you could still do that if you wanted to put it in a permanent swimming pose, but I’d like to not have to make that choice.
I think my other problem with this model is that I put a lot of decals on it, but they’re not really doing much for me.
Gimmicks
Initially I wasn’t going to mess with this model’s gimmicks. I was afraid I would break something, or chip away at the paint, or whatever. But I had so few action poses that I felt like I had no choice.
So I very carefully removed the Magnet Harken so I could attach the wire:
And I very carefully removed one of the missile caps from the shoulder so I could launch a missile:
And wouldn’t you know it, but I didn’t break or damage anything. Go me!
As for the leftover armor, I wanted to try and use it to convert it into a classic Zaku, but my plans were dashed. The power cables running along the torso plug into the backpack, so those would have to be removed as well. And the leg armor was attached so tightly that I didn’t want to break anything. The juice just wasn’t worth the squeeze.
Gundam Base Weapons
But while I couldn’t make it into a traditional Zaku, I could still equip it with some of the traditional Zaku weapons I just built. Like this Machine Gun:
You know, just this single, classic, heavier weapon makes the model look that much better already.
Or how about this double Heat Hawk?
I’m not sure why, but I’ve always associated underwater combat with knives, and this is close enough:
Conclusion
I was already happy I bought those Gundam Base Weapon Sets, but now I’m even happier still, because they helped salvage this Gunpla. On it’s own, the Zaku Mariner isn’t terribly exciting, but with some classic weapons in its hands it manages to punch a little bit above its weight.