Gunpla from Gundam's Universal Century setting

This is the page with the UC plamo kits I've made!

MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam [RG]

It's a sign of Zeta.
Waverider mode...

Why is the Zeta first in this list? Well, the RG Zeta is actually the first Gunpla kit I ever made. Yep. The RG Zeta. Really.

These days I certainly understand why it has the reputation it has: I don't think I've put together a kit that's more prone to falling apart or feeling like it's going to snap besides the RG GP01-Fb. But coming from like, Airfix and Warhammer 40k and stuff, it still felt like a revelation - all this mechanical detail, multi-plastic injection joints, full color seperation... and all for Not That Much, All Things Considered. And hey, the Zeta Gundam's not a bad design.

Waverider, coming at ya.
You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like.

I did a little overhaul of this kit semi-recently, removing some of the decals (the RG Zeta has Too Many and I originally applied all of them), as well as doing a little bit of reinforcement and re-detailing. Definitely helped with cleaning up the appearance a bit.

RX-78-2 Gundam [HGBG]

It's The Gundam! From Gundam!
Look I didn't have Char's Zaku yet, so a different red mobile suit with an axe had to do.

The HG Beyond Global RX-78-2. This is basically the gold standard for HG kits, and for good reason: full color seperation apart from the eye sticker, excellent poseability, and a great take on the original Gundam's design (including a very nice, warm color scheme). If it came with a seperate little core fighter in the same design language (look I'm not asking for it to transform, I saw what happened with the RG RX-78) then it'd be perfect. But I'll settle for 'extremely good'.

Ah, much better.

RX-78-2 Gundam [EG]

It's... The Gundam! Again!
oof.wav

I had to give the EG RX-78 a go, and the kit engineering is also incredible: you really can just snap/twist the parts out of the runner, stick them together, and have a complete RX-78 with excellent poseability and colour seperation. I don't really have a lot else to say about it though - that's all I did with this kit. At some point I want to do a full repaint, but who knows when I'll get around to it.

MS-06S Zaku II Commander Type (Char's Zaku II) [HG]

It's that red mobile suit!

If you have an RX-78, you need to have Char's Zaku II. I think it's the law. But that's no great obstacle, because the Zaku II is an amazing 'enemy' suit design. Bulky armor, a spiky shoulder, and a big menacing looking monoeye. It's great.

The Zaku monoeye just looks cool. It just does.
This kit has very good movement range, like most modern HGs.

This kit has pretty good color seperation and accuracy to start with, so I didn't do much to it apart from panel lining. The only thing I did was use some fluorescent pink paint marker on the rifle scope (just about visible in the first image) and on the monoeye, making it a bit more vibrant than the stock sticker's pink.

RB-79 Ball [HG]

The Ball is aptly named.
The HG kit comes with two of them, presumably to make it worth producing.

The Ball is one of my favorite non-MS designs. It simultaneously looks more 'grounded' and 'realistic' than mobile suits, yet extremely cartoonish and silly, and also terrifying. Did you know that the only thrusters it has are solid fuel boosters? Like the type that can't be switched off, like a firework? Mobile Coffin indeed.

A new sport for Universal Century.

There isn't much to say about the kit, really. I did some detailing with metallic green sharpie for the scopes (although after these pictures were taken, I think), and of course did panel lining, but it's pretty much 'what you see is what you get'. My hope is that one day there'll be an RG of the Ball from the beginning of 08th MS Team (hey it's piloted by a protagonist, so it's technically eligible!) but in the infinite meantime I'll just have to be satisfied knowing the Ver. Ka exists.

RX-78GP01-Fb Gundam "Zephyranthes" [RG]

Hello hand grenade.
Absolutely the best part of the kit.

Oh, the GP01-Fb. Piloted by one of UC's greatest losers, rebuilt from one that was destroyed for stupid reasons, and cursed with an RG that just refuses to stay in one piece. Despite all that, I really like the design - verniers everywhere (yes, I will be calling it the Full Vernier, thank you very much), a much cleaner color scheme than the regualar GP01, and the core figher. Oh, the core fighter. All time Weird Little Thing.

MSN-04 Sazabi [RG]

Char is fighting for our prayers!
The funnel rack and fuel tanks sticking out of the back looks so sick.

Finally (for now), we have the RG Sazabi. An incredible mobile suit and an incredible kit. Every inch of the kit has little details, panels that open, thrusters that gimbal, and so on. It's huge. It's solidly built. The subtle red/red color seperation looks stunning. What can I say about it? All-time suit, all-time kit.

Just from assembling the foot, I knew I was in for a fun build.
Even the inside of the funnel rack has detailing.

Despite being a complex RG, I still did some metallic detailing with the EX Chrome marker, touching up little pipes and thruster nozzles. Apart from that and panel lining though, it doesn't need a lot else unless you're going full decal/scribing/topcoating/whatever.