The Zaku Warrior Live Concert Version (Lacus Clyne/Meer Campbell Custom) is complete.
I try not to confuse you. Meer Campbell is the imposter of the real Lacus Clyne.
This Mobile Suit is given to Meer Campbell, imposting as Lacus, who was performing as for the ZAFT soldiers.
This is a GD Model kit and cost only S$7.90.
Don't get me wrong, I strongly support Bandai products and urge all to do so too.
But I just had to experience a GD Model MS and furthermore, I just refuse to get this Live Version Zaku from Bandai, because I find it rather insignificant and I have some many Zakus, furthermore, its not available as NG 1/144. Hence GD is the cheapest and best solution.
GD Model is made in China. Refer to earlier post on how to detect the distinct features of the box. It bears a great similarity to that of the original. Even the small red box that is supposed to write 'Bandai' is present, except that this writes '1/144 scale'.
One of the tree is not completely opaque. For example, this has about 10% transparency. This is got to do with the material. There isn't much flash upon trimming, which is attributed to the mysterious material used by GD Model. However, the main problem with the tree is that there is a lot of molding-bleed, especially the PC (Polycap) tree. There is so many that I couldn't recognize that its a PC tree.
Another thing is that there is a MISSING TREE!
After I started building the head... the torso.... the arm and damn! I realised that the PC-7 tree is missing! I had to salvage the PC-7 tree from one of the unbuilt Bandai's NG 1/144 Strike Gundam given to me by Desmond. Lucky, he has many spare NG kits! Phew! That is something quality control over at the China side eh!!
The parts also tend not to snap fit very well. Plenty of trimming, cementing and putty is required to seal gaps as much as possible. Not really putty, but Tamiya Surface Primer is used in the ball-joint holding the shield on the shoulder. The inital state was to loose and resulted in a droopy shield. I had to coat the socket with a few thick layers of the primer and let it cure overnight. The result is an excellent fit, like a condom! what a description!
Another puzzling thing about the translucent material (shown below) is that it doesn't allow vallejo paint to stick very well. Despite, a few coats, the color still doesn't seem right. I did not use primer because Vallejo usually doesn't require much priming for close colours. In the end, I only used one of the two bottle of Vallejo bought from Miniature to paint.
The GD Model came with the proper stickers and wet decals. Can you see the sticky paper on the decal!? Damn! I had to carefully scrape it off with my nail and some water, before using it. The bottom of this picture shows the translucent tree. Can you spot the transparency of it?
The completed Zaku Warrior. It has got very tight joints that do not droop when posing, strangely unlike Nexus' Saviour Gundam. However, the limbs tend to fall off the main shoulder and upper limb after some posing, not because it is loose but probably that the 'stick' running throught the knee/elbow joint and into the fore/lower limbs, is too short. But all in all, I rate the kit an overall 7/10, not bad for a GD Model. The only thing that can make the GD Model a perfect imitation is by perfecting their tree production.
Emotion!...... (there I go again!)
Click on images to access more photos or
access MECHA-BASE.
I try not to confuse you. Meer Campbell is the imposter of the real Lacus Clyne.
This Mobile Suit is given to Meer Campbell, imposting as Lacus, who was performing as for the ZAFT soldiers.
This is a GD Model kit and cost only S$7.90.
Don't get me wrong, I strongly support Bandai products and urge all to do so too.
But I just had to experience a GD Model MS and furthermore, I just refuse to get this Live Version Zaku from Bandai, because I find it rather insignificant and I have some many Zakus, furthermore, its not available as NG 1/144. Hence GD is the cheapest and best solution.
GD Model is made in China. Refer to earlier post on how to detect the distinct features of the box. It bears a great similarity to that of the original. Even the small red box that is supposed to write 'Bandai' is present, except that this writes '1/144 scale'.
One of the tree is not completely opaque. For example, this has about 10% transparency. This is got to do with the material. There isn't much flash upon trimming, which is attributed to the mysterious material used by GD Model. However, the main problem with the tree is that there is a lot of molding-bleed, especially the PC (Polycap) tree. There is so many that I couldn't recognize that its a PC tree.
Another thing is that there is a MISSING TREE!
After I started building the head... the torso.... the arm and damn! I realised that the PC-7 tree is missing! I had to salvage the PC-7 tree from one of the unbuilt Bandai's NG 1/144 Strike Gundam given to me by Desmond. Lucky, he has many spare NG kits! Phew! That is something quality control over at the China side eh!!
The parts also tend not to snap fit very well. Plenty of trimming, cementing and putty is required to seal gaps as much as possible. Not really putty, but Tamiya Surface Primer is used in the ball-joint holding the shield on the shoulder. The inital state was to loose and resulted in a droopy shield. I had to coat the socket with a few thick layers of the primer and let it cure overnight. The result is an excellent fit, like a condom! what a description!
Another puzzling thing about the translucent material (shown below) is that it doesn't allow vallejo paint to stick very well. Despite, a few coats, the color still doesn't seem right. I did not use primer because Vallejo usually doesn't require much priming for close colours. In the end, I only used one of the two bottle of Vallejo bought from Miniature to paint.
The GD Model came with the proper stickers and wet decals. Can you see the sticky paper on the decal!? Damn! I had to carefully scrape it off with my nail and some water, before using it. The bottom of this picture shows the translucent tree. Can you spot the transparency of it?
The completed Zaku Warrior. It has got very tight joints that do not droop when posing, strangely unlike Nexus' Saviour Gundam. However, the limbs tend to fall off the main shoulder and upper limb after some posing, not because it is loose but probably that the 'stick' running throught the knee/elbow joint and into the fore/lower limbs, is too short. But all in all, I rate the kit an overall 7/10, not bad for a GD Model. The only thing that can make the GD Model a perfect imitation is by perfecting their tree production.
Emotion!...... (there I go again!)
Click on images to access more photos or
access MECHA-BASE.
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