A KITBASH TRIBUTE TO THE MG ZAKU II 1.0

When it comes to kitbashing, a great source of parts can be those kits that are commonly considered "outdated" or past their prime.

Case in point, the MG 1.0 Zaku, a kit whose parts layout and construction has since been surpassed even by HG kits, can still find a use as a great source of spare parts and interesting shapes for kitbashing.

I received this one in a blind swap at a local model club's event. However, almost immediately, my enthusiasm to build it "properly" was a little low (it was already partially built, but NOT de-nubbed - can you blame me?) so thus it was consigned to the back burner for a while... until it suddenly became one of the greatest sources of kitbash parts I have ever encountered when I decided to crack it open just as a parts source.

The inner frame parts - although much more primitive than their 2.0 or 3.0 counterparts, are a great source of mechanical detailing. The head camera inner frame part made a great heat sink on the Dorvack customized powered armor.

The leg inner frame pistons and joints became an exposed waist joint on the Zaku III; with the addition of a few coil spring pipes, it fit right into the aesthetic of the build. I was heavily inspired by the many IBO kits coming out at the time with the exposed frame detail.

When doing the heavily armored style for Zeon suits, mixing 1/100 parts with an HG kit can create some great proportional changes. The MG shield mated quite well with the bulky Zaku III for a "ground pounder" look that also also serendipitously offered more surface area for a larger Zeon emblem.

The backpack inner frame was used to create the ventilated backpack for the Desert Zaku, as it already had a large vent on top similar to the original lineart. Despite the addition of a few small parts to bulk it out, it was used almost more or less as is.

The round shoulder armor also served as a 1/100 to 1/144 conversion for armor bulking on the Desert Zaku. The spikes being removed and replaced with small vents were the only changes made.

I wanted to make an Ace Combat Electrosphere inspired armored enclosed cockpit for the G-Bomber and the knee cap of the Zaku fit almost perfectly over the molded kit cockpit. The kit parts for the cockpit are quite crude (the pilot is essentially a stick figure), and I didn't have the skill to remake a cockpit at 1/144 scale with a new figure. These kinds of happy accidents where kitbash parts fit perfectly with almost no need for modification are what I live for!

A more subtle change involving 1/100 to 1/144 parts came into play with the chest of the Origin Gouf. The side parts of the Zaku chest were placed over the Gouf's armor, and with a mix of styrene sheet and polyester putty, smoothed in to fit the existing armor. With a small modification to the shoulder pegs, the arms were able to remain fully movable with the bulkier chest design as well (and I think it fits the original Origin artwork a bit closer than the slightly skinny kit proportions).

The missile boxes were used as "jet boosters" on the Dom Paratrooper, just reversed so the missile tubes became exhausts, and the vents on the "back" of the boxes became "intakes".

Another subtle 1/100 to 1/144 change was the use of the upper shoulder boxes on the Dom Paratrooper. I needed a larger surface to attach the wings and jet engines and the stock Dom parts are round - thus the square shoulders of the Zaku worked almost perfectly - and bonus: the bicep swivel still articulated simply via a small peg extension! The older MGs have simple construction and thus mate with HG and 1/144 parts fairly easily.

The MG Zaku shoulder spikes were used on the Gouf Custom build in order to create straight but still exaggerated shoulder spikes. The extra separation of parts on a MG makes quick part changes like this a breeze.

The original 1.0 generation MGs came with something called "Heavy User Parts" which were small detail parts similar to those on armor kits such as tow hooks and handrails. These were applied to the Gouf Custom to add, what else, small mechanical details - they may not be in scale perfectly but they do add some interesting surface detail.

For dioramas and scenes, where many surfaces need texture for added visual interest, almost any spare part can do - for example the stick magazines from the machine gun of the Zaku became just a random mechanical surface detail on the wall of the Kauz diorama. In any kind of space station/colony/hangar wall, random geometric bits are your friend.

Sometimes parts are useful simply for their shapes: for example the upper foot parts of the Zaku became just "structural" parts of the Qubeley kitbash. The parts were glued to the existing kit parts and then smoothed over with polyester putty and sanded to blend the shapes together. A useful technique to add a specific shape to something without needing to sculpt it from scratch.

On the TOTEM Suit, the original arms were absolutely awful - they were hollow one-sided parts and rather than deal with filling and cleaning them, I just replaced them outright with the Zaku arms. Using epoxy, the join between the body and bicep was smoothed in order to join a square part to a round part.

Sometimes parts don't need to be modified at all... and will serve their original purpose (what a shock)! The leg missiles served as... missiles in the GM diorama. With just a paint job and some cotton batting for a smoke effect, the missile did it's job of being a... missile.

Hopefully this article threw a couple ideas out there into the world for those kits that are sitting around unloved and unbuilt - every unbuilt kit has tons of untapped potential and is a treasure trove of creativity waiting to be touched up. Old snap builds, random kits received in swaps, and just older "outdated" kits in general, they can all be given a second lease as a source of kitbash fodder.

Enjoy and experiment with enthusiasm!

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