Johns Zaku Painting Showcase Entry

When the sprue arrived, I was glad to see I got the pose I was hoping for, as there was a random choice between three available. (as far as I know)

This pose is nice and open, with plenty of room for playing around with my battle damage idea and trying to replicate the particular damage patterns from the one in the show!

I clipped, cleaned and dryfitted the parts before taking it apart and beginning the damage work. I wanted to ensure I could do the damaged shoulder and broken piping before going too far, as they were the areas I was least comfortable with modelling.

clippers, Pin vice, electric sanding thingy and a hobby knife let me dig out the material I wanted, and I was able to leave a bit inside the shoulder to represent the mechanical part under the armoured shape of the shoulder guard.

The broken piping was tricky, having to brutally cut away what was molded on the model was an exercise in patience I don’t often get!  Especially at this scale (roughly T-gauge railway or 1/425?)

One I had it cut away I drilled into the remains of the piping and carefully took some LED wire, cut and stripped the insulation and used my hobby knife and splay out the fine, copper wiring to give it a more frayed look.

Here is the collection of references I am using for the battle damage for my Zaku, from Episode 8 of Gundam 08th MS team.

Now all of my references are set out, I can finally put my hands on some plastic!

For my Zaku, I was immediately thinking of a scene from the series “08th MS Team” Which is loosely set in a Vietnam style setting. The combat is grounded, harsh and very “human” in this series, which appeals to my historical head, and adding giant, walking machines with guns and armour only makes it more my kind of playground for modelling in a Sci-Fi setting.

It’s in episode 8 of the series that I focussed my idea for my Zaku.

A team of three, battleworn and tired looking Zaku’s are on a patrol when they stop at a village for rest and food. The village is home to a group of Guerrilla fighters and things don’t go well.

What’s interesting to me in the context of a model project is that the Zakus in this scene are not the typical colours of green and dark grey, but more of a pale sandy yellow and brown.

The particular Zaku here is the one I am trying to replicate. Some good and interesting battle damage that makes it stand out as more unique to the pilot in the show.

I figured I should work to my interests and strength for the competition, so keeping it grounded and realistic in my approach might help keep the process engaging for me and give me a result I can be proud of!