Gundam Plastic Model #1 Custom Zaku Gouf close combat type

Gundam Wing was my gateway to the Gundam Universe. It had cool mechas (large mechanized robots), a war is terrible theme and the oh so edgy boys who piloted them (this was the 90's so everything was edgy and emo!)

The very first model I did was the Deathscythe, then the Heavy Arms, Sandrock and last the titular Gundam Wing Zero. . Thinking of it, and I can only shake my head now, I was just using scissors to cut it. Absolutely not that clean in terms of buffing down the nubs.

Anyway last December due to some changes in my life I decided to restart this hobby and I spent a lot of times thinking what model to get. I was half tempted again to start with the Gundam Wing units as I know I already lost those models as most likely they have been thrown out or given to someone else. No point in crying over spilled milk.

I decided to go and build something that I have never done before. I always built the protagonist Gundams. As a young person you want to identify to the "good guys", to be the main character of the series.

I have never made the so-called "enemies" because it my simplistic view as someone younger was they were evil and I didn't want to build them. Yet in hindsight as well as more shows of Gundam has made OVAs or even full blown series from the POV of these enemies. That they too were human and had dreams and reasons why they did certain choices. Recently I have been more compassionate with them. Of course I still do not condone war nor think that fascism is correct but that not everyone in their faction was evil.

So I got the MS-07B Custom Gouf. In the series there are two instances that the Gouf was such a bad ass. One when it was piloted by Ramba Ral and against the OG Gundam the RX-78 piloted by Amuro Ray. For more context and please bear with me because the Gundam Universe is a bit convulated with so many timelines and threads but what can we expect from a franchise that premiered on 1979 and remains to have new series to this day.

There are two factions. The Earth Federation (the good guys supposedly) which is the sort of Super Government of the earth and then we have the Principality of Zeon which had begun as a space colony that sought to establish their freedom and be independent from the Earth Federation.

They did this because the space colonies was in a way treated like 2nd class citizens and their resources sent back to Earth. Typical colonizer government crap you know.

The ruling family that established the Principality of Zeon wanted freedom but sought this through violent means and thus started the One Year war were they deployed their mobile suits (mechas-big fricking robots) against the Federation forces in a blitzkrieg style akin to the Germans (the attempts to make them fascist, highly militarized and even down to their uniform is not lost to me that they were really being painted as the bad guys)

The Earth Federation lost colonies and even cities in Earth and there was this mad arms race of developing mobile suits to be able to counter the highly effective mobile suits squads of Zeon.

Here comes our OG, often called by the Gundam community as the Grandpa Gundam since it was the very first, RX-78 Gundam unit. It was one of a kind, a prototype with the latest system and armor. It was an absolute beast and made the mass produced enemy mobile suits called Zakus cannon fodder as anyone that stood in its way was just destroyed in seconds. While the Principality of Zeon did have these mobile suits, they were cheaper and mass produced and they had limited resources so it was not cutting edge like the Gundam.

Which is why the Gouf, while it is still a Zaku unit albeit usually assigned to officers, does not generally be different from the other Zaku units. So when piloted by someone like Ramba Ral put up a fight the Gundam got pushed back.

In fairness though Amuro Ray was a teenager although touted as a genius. So in terms of battle experience Ramba had the advantage but in terms of technology Amuro had a huge advantage.

The 2nd reason was the Gouf in Mobile Suit Gundam The 8th M.S. Team which is one of my favorites because it was realistic in its portrayal of the war. We had Shiro Amada using the EZ8 Gundam Ground unit (Ez8) and battled Norris Packard using a Gouf. Here we had two experienced pilots just using their advantages and skill although again in terms of technology there was an advantage with the Gundam.

So that is the reason why I thought it would be cool to have my first build as a Zaku unit this time. It was to make the series enemy mobile suit this time.

I dub the project as the Red Series because it is inspired by another character in the Gundam Universe Char, The Red Comet, Aznable who often pilots red colored mobile suits and is my 2nd build but more on that when I write about him.

The Build

So I started with the head and the torso for this model. New tools and I was still adjusting to the sharpness of the hobby knife and sanding nubs (the plastic protusions you get when you cut it away from the runner)

The feet and legs were next and I was able to attach the hoses to the torso although I was afraid at times that I might snap it into two so I was so careful.

Finally we went with the others and weapon systems. Armed with a beam sword, an electric whip and a shield this was a close combat unit that got right into the face of a Gundam and duked it out.

I had some problems with the pauldrons though because I over sanded one the horn parts because it was softer.

In the end though I was still happy how it looked and one of the things that I truly enjoy once I finish a project is to take pictures of it in various action poses.

Some people even have these action bases so that they can post it more dynamically using charging, flying and other action poses.

This was a High Grade Bandai Gouf unit and is often the entry level of the Bandai kits and it gets more expensive as you go through the various tiers from High Grade, Real Grade, Master Grade and then Perfect Grade.

The difference is the amount of details and parts often included. Now more expensive is not necessarily better and there are some HG units that look better and pose better than some of the higher grade units and so if you are looking to get into it don't always think that more expensive is better. Go with what you like. Get your confidence up as the more kits you make the better you will be at building it.

There was a point that I want to share this because I'm no professional and there are definitely other people that have better units than what I will post but I thought this is making me happy and I should be able to share that.

So here is Gundam Plastic Model #1 Custom Gouf of the Red Series that I will do this year.