[WIP] HGUC Zaku I Sniper

LOOK AT ME, I'M A VARIATION KIT!


I mean, look at those oddly shaped runners.


As always, started from the bottom.
Standard gold thrusters and panel line.


Unlike the newer HGUC Zaku II F2, the front of the ankle does not move, which will definitely limit the movement of the feet.


All that you can see (and polycaps on the knee) are what there really are to form the calf, just some polycaps and two big piece of plastic and a knee part (the right knee has different knee parts which will be built later).
The inner side of the right knee are painted black with normal marker to hide the color even after the knee is placed.
As for the seamlines... well, I'm not really good in erasing those (and I'm a lazy bastard :P), so I'll pick the easiest way out:
Ignore it :(


Combine it with the feet to form the smooth and curvy lower leg.
Huh, "smooth" and "curvy", not words that I usually associate with "sniper".


And to create the movable right knee, we'll head into the ABS parts.
I understand using ABS plastic for movable or joint parts, but for hand and thrusters? (;O_o)


The right knee part, will help in making the Zaku kneel which is something Zakus were not designed to do because of the short legs and huge, hard to bend feet (RG and MG 2.0 revised these though).


The finished leg. Bend for a 100-ish degree, enough for the kneeling pose.


Other than the lack of pipe, the unique right knee, seamlines, and some minor detail, it's pretty identical to the HGUC Zaku II F2's leg (well duh).


Hey, a separate front skirt piece, that's unusual.
Some leftover gimmick from the HGUC Zaku I where a part on the back skirt can be opened to mount bazooka.
The sniper rifle won't fit into it, so... yeah.


The waist joint isn't a ball joint, so that means the waist will definitely not move up nor down.


Pretty nice forward arm range for an old HGUC kit.
The hole on the right shoulder is another leftover gimmick from
Zaku I's bazooka where it can be placed with a bazooka rack.
Well, I'm pretty sure are sniper rifle aren't meant to be used over the shoulder, so this gimmick is also completely useless here.


The only thing straight here are the lines on the le-- oh I just ignore it =/.


The simple ABS elbow parts of the old HGUC. Allows for a nice 180 bend but will be completely broken if it were to be even slightly damaged.


The connecting parts to the shoulder are also a bit unique.
While it does work (rotate), but a slight damage would make it loose, if not disconnecting it entirely *shivers*


And there's the simple and lonely looking right arm of the Zaku I.


Thankfully the left shoulder armor had a little bit of details.
Yes, I just called those straight lines as details.


Seamlines? What seamlines?


As for the eyes and rifle's scope, they gave us clear parts! \(O_O)/
The manual instruct us to put stickers on the clear parts, but putting stickers on clear parts is a crime!!
(unless it's a gundam eye stickers :p)
So instead I painted them. Didn't have pink (actually this kit uses orange for the eye), so I used red.
Didn't have green for the scope either, so I used blue, metallic blue to be exact (but it still looked clear).


And then I immediately questioned my decision.
It may looked kinda okay in the camera, but in actuality is pretty dark and hard to see the red eye as opposed to the usual pink eye.
Nevertheless I'm staying with it.


You know how creepy unfinished mech looked like? They should implement these as a psychological warfare.
They're still unarmored though, so it might be useless :p.


Finish up the head and the antenna.
The eyes cannot move, but then again the eye part is bigger than the opening. So I guess this is a design flaw?


And finally moving into it's backpack, starting with the thrusters and of-course-I-need-it gold.
Again, why are these parts ABS? =/


And finally here's something that I can use gold and silver again! XD
The silver I used here and the plated silver gundam marker, but just a normal silver gundam marker.
Not as shiny, but it still worked quite well, phew.


Put the lead wire inside the rope thingy~


Cool, but this looked more like a WWII field phone instead of something a sniper would carry ;^^.


And finally with the backpack, the Zaku I finally transform into the unique looking Zaku I Sniper!


A pose showing the 180 degree elbow bend.


And a pose showing the right knee kneeling function.


And what's a sniper without it's rifle?
The gray parts are painted using gray gundam marker.



Add the scope lens, muzzle, and wire, and it's finished!
The pipe on the backpack can be connected into the right side of the rifle, above the handle.

And now that the kit is finished, it's posing time!









Added Zudah to showcase Zeon's BFG XD.




"Nobody can hide, nobody can withstand the power!!"


Aside from the rifle, Zaku I sniper also had a slightly different Zaku machine gun with the side-angled magazine, no butt stock, and the stuff that goes around the handle, giving it a much more slim look.


Then again, giving a slim weapon into a unit carrying a big backpack actually made it looked kinda off ;^^



This kit has been a kit that I'm trying to look for all over the place, but once I have it (and built it), the fact that this kit is an old kit hit me pretty hard.
Nevertheless, even though the detail and build design isn't as good as nowadays HGUC, this kit will definitely stand out among my collection for having a big backpack, big eye, and that nice looking sniper rifle. :)

And we shall be waiting for the appearance of this guy on the 4th episode of Gundam Unicorn. XD