Gunpla Construction: FAZZ part 3 (Final)

Thought I’d knock this out before moving on to todays State of the Gunpla Union.  I’ve got a backlog of Gunpla, but I don’t want to have a backlog on the blog as well!

I’ll be just lumping all the pictures in a gallery below this time because I want to put the FAZZ behind me.  Continuing from the last session, I finished out the torso and arms, finally attaching it to the waist and legs.  I found with the back pack, and the core fighter in the middle, that it was rather a pain in the ass to get connected.  A lot of the pvc caps? that are supposed to move to adjust with the back pack were just not moving, and some rather tight fits as well.  Throw on the arm gun, and attach the hyper mega lets blow the hell out of everything gun and you’re done.  As you see from the pictures, the FAZZ ends up being a fairly large kit, both in height and width, so to say.  Unfortunately, with the bulkiness of it’s armor, it is a hassle to really try and do any poses.  I haven’t done any panel lining, and at this point, I’m probably not going to. 

Overall, I found the FAZZ to be a dissapointing kit, I’ve always been a fan of big bad-asses who can take and dish the damage, but the FAZZ left a lot to be desired.  The fact that despite the fact you can’t do the the ZZ transformation, you still have to build all the parts the same way.  Also, being a fairly older kit (2000, or 2001?)  It is obvious how far engineering has come in the modeling field.  There are several pieces that don’t fit well or are too tight.  As I stated before, there are an amazing amount of extra parts left over as well.  For the time being, I’ve stuck them all in a zip lock back.  I figure by the time I finish up my back log, I’ll have so many extra parts I can build an entirely new mobile suit.  

If you are a fan of the Gundam Setinal era, then you may want to look at the FAZZ, but otherwise, you may be better off sticking with the Full Armor ZZ (maybe). 

Comments and questions are always welcome. 

Gunpla Construction: FAZZ part 2

 Ok, today’s update is going to be a hefty one.  Again, I’m pretty new to the blog as you construct bit, so if there are any requests for certain things to be shown (parts used, etc.) I’ll use it for feedback during future Gunpla contruction, so without further ado.

First off, I finished off the legs with the outer armor.  The good thing about all this armor means you don’t really have to worry about the main frame under it, in regards to panel lining and trimming of gate sprues.  Below you can see the initial pieces needed for the outer armor followed by a armored and non-armored leg comparison and the final two armored legs.

While the side leg armor fit well, if you try to pop up the front flaps, as if you were going to lean forward with the leg, the front white flap tends to pop out of the grooves it has with the side armor.  This pretty much limits the amount of movement you can do with the legs. 

With the legs done, I went ahead and made the waist, and for the hell of it attached the back.  Which of course made it top heavy.

 

Next, with the core fighter attached.  One of the good things about the FAZZ is it has enough parts to build a seperate fighter, as seen before.  Unfortunately it also has many parts that are wasted.  

 

 However, upon attaching the core fighter to the waist, I notice that the balance improves and the FAZZ is able to at least stand on it’s own.  Unfortunately, the legs are so bulky now with the armor that it’s pretty much do any other pose than just “standing”.

 

 That’s all for today’s construction, and will most likely finish up the FAZZ constuction series in the 3rd installment tomorrow or Friday.

Gunpla Construction: FAZZ part 1

I’ll start my construction series with the current model I’m working, while also trying to backtrack and go over ones that I’ve finished recently.  So, without further ado, here’s Gunpla Construction: FAZZ part 1.

Please note that I’ve actually just been taking pictures with my cell phone rather than my main camera.  But, Japanese phones are nifty and mine has a 5 megapixel camera, so at least these aren’t too crappy.

I’m going to start off with the current progress, as I haven’t had a chance to work on it since last week.

This is right when I got started.  The FAZZ construction starts from the arms.  Unfortunately I realized this is the only picture I took.

I forgot to take a picture of the arms after construction, but here are the feet and lower legs.  I found this part to be actually rather frustrating.  If you notice the upper part of the leg, the ovally looking thruster area, the inside has the only screws in the kit, out of which I stripped 3 of 4.  As this is an older kit (2001~?) a lot of the parts actually fit well together, almost too well, that I’m afraid I’m going to snap pieces trying to get them together.

The legs with the upper thigh attached.  As this is the Full Armor ZZ, there is even more armor to go over the legs, but I’ve not attached them yet.  Unfortunately, the FAZZ’s feet are rather narrow which mean they don’t stay upright very well.

Having grown tired of the main contruction, I skipped ahead and built the backpack.  As you see compared to my hand it’s fairly big.

Going forward I’m going to try and take better pictures of the actual construction.  Hopefully I’ll get some more work in this week depending on how early I get home from work.  I kind of want to knock this one out, as the construction is not as smooth as recent kits (Zaku Cannon, for example.