MS-106 HiZack B

 

This build came out of a wonderful gift from Sean of the great website Zimmerit - a set of original 1980s Kazuhisa Kondo armor parts cast in resin. Both being huge fans of Kazuhisa Kondo's manga "The Revival of Zeon" a story about ground forces during the lead up to the events of Char's Counterattack, I decided to model the HiZack B, a heavy armored ground type HiZack used by Neo-Zeon forces.

The old resin parts really showed their age, and were very brittle with lots of bad air sinkholes that took several passes of filling and sanding to correct - luckily the cast texture applied with putty took care of the final pass once the really major air gaps were filled in. The skirts were extended with styrene strip reinforced with polyester putty for the full Kondo style look.

The weapon came from an old no-grade 1980s Jagd Doga kit as I felt the gatling style weapon fit the rough and ready world of Kondo's manga. Some builders parts vents were used on the back skirt to help sell the kit as a heavy armored ground type suit. A mix of HG sized generic Zeon decals and leftover Ma.K numbers made up the markings on the suit.

This was a great project that was made even better by being partially a wonderful and thoughtful gift. If you are a fan of old-school UC Gundam with a harder edged style, definitely give Kazuhisa Kondo's artwork and designs a look!