Zoids and Stuff » build review

M.S.G. #20 Gatling Gun (Build Review)

RCM — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 20:38:52 +0000

A motorized gatling gun with a totally hidden motor? How did they do it? The answer may surprise you.

The motor:

It’s a standard windup motor (more on that later). Once you put the piece on the windup knob, the mechanism is completely hidden. Last pic is some crappy phone vidya, showing how it works.
Painters beware:

Part #10 slides over the gun barrels and is a pretty tight fit. I’m not sure how you’d go about painting this.
Watch where you cut that:

The gate marks for part #15 here are right on the little bolts, so watch out!
Finishing up:

1) The ammo box can go on either side. 2) If you leave these parts off (made for the hands of Giant Human Like Battle Robots), you may have more options for mounting the gatling on Zoids.
But wait, there’s more!

Since the motor is a standard windup motor, you can use the TS motor. It just takes one tiny cut (or a ton of more intricate ones I’m too lazy to figure out). The only downside is the huge gap in the back, where the windup knob should be. I’d like to be able to run the wire through there, but I haven’t looked into it yet.
It works!

And here’s the crappy phone vidya to prove it.

GZ-006 Zabat (Build Review)

RCM — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 23:05:48 +0000

This review has only one thing to mention, but it’s an important one.

Point of no return:

Once you put B3 and B4 on the body, they are on there forever! I ruined my Zabat trying to take it apart for a swap. The tab that’s highlighted cannot stand the strain of trying to remove those pieces later.

HMM-013 Gun Sniper (Build Review)

RCM — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:38:51 +0000

This was a fun build, with very few tough parts (which weren’t even that tough). The main thing with these smaller kits is having to do a lot more painting than with large kits, if you want that “looks just like the box!” style. I think Kotobukiya’s getting better at engineering these things, because there were not as many parts that needed gluing to keep the kit stable.

Head (gluing):

This connection is pretty loose, but be careful not to get glue on the front “lens” part.
Head (painting):

Sure is a lot of white here. The jaw/seat pieces should probably have just been molded in another color, since only the teeth are meant to be white. The “ear” pieces need a little touching up too.
Does anyone have a ruler?

I could have saved an hour or so scrambling to find a ruler if I only knew that this diagram in the instructions was actual size. Well, now YOU know!
I haven’t figured this one out yet:

There needs to be some kind of gluing done here, because A10 and A7 pop out when trying to do some poses.
Paint me:

I’m going to be compelled to paint this gold, as I do with all such bits.
Not sure about this:

Gluing may be needed here (they pop off), but that could hinder future disassembly.
Definitely glue here:

You have to pull on that rocket to extend it, and it just pops off without glue.
Beware:

This piece (from the tail) is incredibly thin. It’s a miracle I didn’t break it just by looking at it.
Upper arms:

These are identical, until you put the cap on the appropriate side. Clever!
Paint me too:

Again with the silver/gold. At least there weren’t too many of these to do.
A-and paint us too, while you’re at it:

This Gundam Marker (GM09 “Gundam Eye Green”) works really well for all those pieces that need to be done green. Last pic: I thought I’d try an aurora sticker for the scope, but I’m not sure about it.
Racing stripes:

The note in the first pic about sticker #15 (a solid block of red) roughly translates to “have fun cutting them out freestyle, suckas!”

(Blue) Hydrazoid (Build Review)

RCM — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 08:02:33 +0000

OK, not so much a review as it is some highlights of the neato workings. This is because I’m lazy.

HMM-002(ltd) Empire Command Wolf LC (Build Review)

RCM — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:02:42 +0000

What to glue, what to paint, check it out, check it out!

General tip:
Apply the stickers as you complete each piece, instead of waiting until the kit’s finished. It is much less tedious this way! A-and: don’t work in a carpeted room, if possible. There are some really tiny pieces that can be lost easily. Every time I dropped a piece, I ended up crawling around for an hour until I found it again.
Sprues:

A lot of sprues are duplicated (4 of sprue G, for example), which saves on production costs, but also means you need to pay attention when building. Once I accidentally made three left legs and had to pry some pieces apart (dangerous, since most pieces want to stay stuck after assembly).
Head:

The teeth are part of the main head assembly, and thus unpainted. You must paint them, or your woof will look bland. For the Empire woof here, I went with silver.
“Bust”, as they call it:

Glue that peg, or else it will stay stuck in the leg’s polycap, if you ever need to remove them. For the rest of the “bust”, some detailing will work wonders. I used a foil sticker and green Sharpie for the chest light.
Waist hoses:

Glue them on this end, since this piece gets a lot of strain and they’ll pop out if you don’t.
Waist connection:

An interesting thing with the wolf is that the head and waist are connected by a “spine”, and then the chest attaches to that spine piece.
Waist and tail painting needed:

The shock absorbers are one piece in gold plastic, so some silver helps out. The tail piece is not even that lucky, so break out the gold as well as the silver.
Gun mount:

Depending on which way you face it, it will mount the default guns, or the Irvine gun. Also, gold and silver detailing is recommended on the hydraulics.
The big gun:

This is the big feature of the kit, and BE CAREFUL with piece O-1. The part where it goes into the main gun is the most fragile piece ever. “Luckily” mine broke in a way that’s not so visible. I’m afraid to even glue it, since the dab of glue would be even bigger than the break.
Leg and foot details:

The ankle hydraulic is tiny, but detailing is worth it. The leg one is gold only, so get out the silver.
Paint those feet:

Since the feet are on the same sprue as all the hydraulics, they’re stuck in an Empire-inappropriate gold. Thankfully some primer and Tamiya Gloss Aluminum spray saved the day.

HMM-005 Shield Liger Mk-II (Build Review)

RCM — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 04:02:18 +0000

Another HMM build review/tips guide! Today we ask: should you glue some parts, even though it’s a “snap together” kit? The answer will surprise you.

(The answer is “yes”.)

Hip weakness:

Gluing the piece from step 28 to the rest of the hinder will solve the #1 complaint about HMM Shieldy. Also, the D31 pieces look a lot better if you go over the pipe parts in silver.
Gun bit:

That hose does not like to stay in place on its own, so glue the sucker!
Tail:

The instructions only call for using three of the H2 tail pieces, but that looks too short and stubby to me. Luckily, there is an extra one! (I think that’s what the second pic is actually saying)
Ankle armor:

And here’s the #2 Shieldy complaint: these pieces will not stay on for love or money! Glue them. I did discover that if you squeeze the sides of the foot, the plate will snap into place (but I still glued them, just to be sure).

HMM-004 Geno Saurer (Build Review)

RCM — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:21:09 +0000

Since this one was a mega-build, usually taking a whole evening for each section, I thought I’d do an “in progress” review and point out cool features and potential trouble spots.

Eyes:

The piece that goes here was too dark for my tastes, so I did it in silver, leaving the raised parts for contrast. I also painted silver behind the actual eye, to help it catch light better.
Head/Neck:

You will want to paint the areas around the teeth, or else suffer an unsightly all-white mouth.
WEAKNESS:

On the chest/shoulder unit, the only thing holding the sides (F24 anf F25) together is that tiny spine (K5) and the earnest prayers of children. When you put the core block in, it helps a bit, but really superglue is necessary. You should also glue the ball joint pegs, because they aren’t held in very tight.
Beware:

This piece is as thin as a promise! I nearly broke the last rib while panel lining. Thankfully it’s held securely in place by later pieces.
Pelvis:

Much of this detail will be hidden when the model’s done. Also: glue required if you like stability!
Details:

Those hoses were really hard to thread all the way through, but so worth it. Tweezers helped on the top ones.
So far:

The next step is the tail, which is two pages of instructions and around 80 pieces.
Tail:

Those vents got really really small the further back you went. You will definitely want to glue the top vent pieces, because otherwise they like to pop off.

The tail pieces to glue: C14 (step 14), C13 (step 15), C29 (step 16), and C31 (step17).
Tip of tail:

The purple bits on this segment were too small to be cut out, so I painted the background black to make it look right. The “tail lights” on the back were reddened with a sharpie because it’s way too cold to bust out the airbrush and clear red paint.
A gun:

About an inch longer than the Tomy Geno’s gun, and a lot meaner. Only bummer is that it was largely one color. I was all happy when I finished this, until I realized I had to do the exact same thing again.
Something else to glue:

Otherwise the weight of the guns will cause the whole mount to pop right off.
Arms:

The arms took all me all evening, but more than half of that time was spent detailing: trying to color in the claws (which I still don’t have quite right) and painting the hydraulics (my gold marker was failing me). A word about the claws: they are SHARP! A word about that hydraulic piece behind the hands: it severely limits wrist movement and WILL break if you’re not careful.
Naked legs:

Before putting on armor, the left and right legs are identical (same with the arms).
Leg armor:

This step took longer than I expected. You will definitely want to glue the mounts for the calf armor, because not much is holding them in place. (Note from three years later: I’m not 100% sure the tabs at the ends of D11 and D12 are where I put the glue, but it seems like the most logical place. Be careful!)
Details:

(left) hidden detail behind the knee, (right) more sharpie-modded clear bits.
Feet:

Lots of glue required here–mainly for the armor bits. (Note from three years later: I’m not 100% sure where exactly I glued, but the tabs on C16 and D2 seem like the most logical places. Be careful!)