MG MS-06R Zaku II High Mobility Type (Reuse "P" Device) aka Psycho Zaku

Introduction:

If you have caught any of the YouTube, or blog posts talking about my 2018 plans; then you'd know I'm building a bunch of gigantic kits for 'The Year of Giants". The Psycho Zaku was first on the list, and it's unsurprisingly massive. So massive, that it cannot fit into my Ikea Detolf shelf with the fuel booster attached!

The 'Psycho' Zaku is an experimental unit equipped with a next generation operating system. This new system is able to integrate the pilot directly into the mobile suit; allowing them to control the suit directly via their thoughts. Even rookie pilots are able to master the controls in a very short period of time. Unfortunately there's is a gruesome price that must be paid for this advantage. To take fully integrate with the system, the pilot must be quadruple amputee to fully harness the power of this mobile suit.

Kit Talk:

I approached this kit with the intent of finishing it in three stages:

Weapons
Fuel Tanks
Mobile Suit
But, as the build started to drag on the Weapon and Fuel tanks stages congealed into one large stage. I posted a you tube video summarizing the first stage about a week before finishing the kit. If you're interested in my thoughts on these parts, you can check that video out here.

The mobile suit part of the kit was very straight forward, as it is essentially a Zaku 2.0 kit with some extra doodads and new parts. I wasn't sure about all of the gold details on the kit, and I chose to paint the thruster bells with a two-color gray and gold scheme. After everything was assembled I really grew to like the embellishment that they provide.


The joint covers are a tad bit frustrating, and the power piper covers were a bigger pain in the butt.

I've been experimenting with mono-eyes over the last year. I have used: detail parts, aurora domes, scribing and painting to create new effects. With this kit I tried a new technique, a simple white dot place slightly off center. It's a really basic effect, but I like it. In future projects I think I may take the technique further by hand painting for lens detail and coating it with a clear color.

I chose to hand paint a few details on this kit like: the gray belting on the legs and several of the small circular divots found all over the kit. They're small details, but small details make a good kit great.

Colors:

I used the following colors on the kit.

Main body: Gaia Color 003 Bright Red
Knees, feet, hands, etc: Gaia Color 061 Midnight Blue
Thrusters & details: Gaia Color 122 Star Bright Gold
Chest, biceps and details: Custom mixed orange (Identical to the orange used on the Thunderbolt Gundam)
Joints & weapons: Gaia Color 073 or 074 Neutral Gray 3 or 4
Fuel tanks & backpack: Custom mixed Gaia Color 014 Natural Brown & 02 Black
Details & thruster covers: Gaia Color 71 Neutral Gray 1
Topcoat: Gaia Color 008 Flat Clear

If you like my work and would like to help me out, consider purchasing this and other kits from Amazon using this link or others featured on my site. Every purchase helps me out considerably and it doesn't cost you a dime!

Photos:

Light Armor mode:

This isn't an official 'mode'; but without the heavy leg armor, the Psycho Zaku looks strikingly similar to Johnny Ridden's Zaku R2.

Standard Mode:

Once the backpack is attached, the Zaku has no chance of standing on it's own. The leg armor also starts to inhibit the mobility of the angles.

Details:

Before I attached all of the crazy weapons and fuel tanks, let's take a minute to appreciate all of the detail that Bandai molded into this kit. I hate that so much of it ends up being covered up!

The sub-arms are a nice gimmick, but I'm hesitant to put any weapons into them. There's no chance to keep the paint pristine with these claws.

Equipment:

Once everything is laid out, you can start to appreciate how much stuff this guy has to lug around with him.

I really like the detail this photo etch part lends to the scope.

Full Armor Mode:

Capturing some of these shots was a real challenge.

Action Shots:

This thing is a brick, don't expect much.

Comparison Shots:

I didn't notice the loose power pipe during shooting.

The Psycho Zaku is about the same height as the Thunderbolt Gundam (stand height is throwing it off), But the Psycho Zaku has bulk. Compared to the Psycho Zaku, the Full Armor Gundam looks thin.

Here's another large, red, Ver Ka kit for comparison.