HGGTO MS-05S Zaku I Char Custom

Last month was horrible. Genshin Impact did take most of my time but when I did work on model kits, I end up making a lot of mistakes. 

So, I took out a new HG kit for the weekend build. Man, it feels good going back to a simple build. 

This is MS-05S Zaku I Char Aznable version. It is an HG kit from Gundam the Origin. 

I really love Gunpla. So simple, so easy, so relaxing. 

I had three day weekend, and I finished it during that time. Although, I didn't do the final assembly until Wednesday since I wanted the Vallejo Mecha Color topcoat to cure properly before I pose this thing. 

As expected of the Origin kit, It has a lot of details, yet simple to build and great to pose. 

Starting from the box art. It includes a CG image of the mobile suit similar to what you see in the Anime. 

Here is the instruction manual. The front shows the same image as the box art and the back shows sticker placement and color guide. 

The instructions were well laid out and easy to follow, and some parts were in color. It did include one page that sows finished kit and some details of the mobile suit. 

The kit also includes a real type of stickers for all the marking. I do wish they add some water slide decals for this kit, There are a lot of limitation when it comes to stickers and some part such as the shoulder marking goes on the round part, which makes the sticker impossible to apply. 

At least it's real type stickers that are really thin. 

All the parts were detailed and nub marks were located in easy places. I also noticed one part which was really bright red. 

It took about two hours for OOB build. Parts were easy to remove and nub marks were located in a good hiding spot and they were easy to clean. It really shows how much effort Bandai puts into these kits. 

And here is OOB build of the kit without stickers. 

As you can see, this kit looks great even for an OOB build. In fact, this kit will look great even with simple detailing like its stickers and panel lining due to all the surface details. 

It also poses extremely well. There are some limitations due to its bulky design, but all the parts move just enough to make some awesome dynamic poses. 

For painting, I decided to use the Splash Mecha Color line. I did buy some Char red and pink. 

I have been using this lacquer paint for a while, and I think I got used to it. The paint is really thin, so good air pressure and good trigger control are required and I think I got the hang of it. I gotta say, the color is different from the kit, but it is bang on with MG Zaku II color. I like Spash Color better. 

I did the usual shading by painting the kit with a darker shade and carefully painting the main color as the highlight. I also weathered it using oil paint and Tamiya Weathering master. 

Here is what it looks like. 

The kit also poses well even after painting. Here are some more pictures in some posing. 

It looks great next to HG Gundam Origin.

One downside of this kit is that it does not have a lot of accessories. It has that one belt-fed machine gun and the heat hawk. one folded and one extended. that's it. I do wish it at least included the shield. 

It is easy to build, poses well, and looks awesome. I recommend this, although there are other Zaku kits from the HG Origin line. I heard Zaku II have a lot of accessories for a similar price.