HGUC 1/144 Zaku II F2 Team Balor Review By Prof. Layton [Modeled By Erlangshen]

Prof. Layton here. Today we will be reviewing HGUC 1/144 Zaku II F2. I know some of you have been anticipating this kit review for a while now and I apologize that I didn’t have the chance to publish the review before.

During the One Year War, the Principality of Zeon military introduced the mobile suit, a new combat weapon for a new type of war. The most heavily mass-produced and most well-known mobile suit model built during the war was the MS-06F Zaku II, and its combat role versatility and easy-to-master controls made it popular among mobile suit pilots. Midway through the war, the Zeonic Company introduced an upgraded version of the Zaku II, the MS-06F2, or F2-type. The F2-type was lighter, making it more fuel efficient and giving it a longer flight time, and it sported an upgraded, more powerful generator.

The armor protecting the cockpit was also improved, as well as its overall performance, putting it on a more equal footing with the Earth Federation Forces’ RGM-79 GM.

The F2-type could also be fitted with a pair of solid rocket boosters on its backpack, giving it a very brief but tremendous increase in overall thruster output; this option allowed ground-based Zakus to temporarily become airborne to attack low-altitude aircraft. Though the introduction of the F2-type came later in the war, it was used by forces such as the Midnight Fenrir team.

After the war, many F2-types remained in service – some being retained by remnant Zeon forces waiting for their revolution to restart, and some being captured by Federation forces and put to work as aggressor units in squadrons conducting pilot training and mobile suit field testing.

A classic, yet fan-favorite model kit, Zaku is very popular amoung Gundam fans’ kit builders. It stands just slightly below RX-78-2 in height. In my opinon, the proprtion of F2 Zaku’s are way better than the original Zaku or even compared to Real Grade Zaku. As usual, Bandai did not provide extensive amount of decal or stickers for finishing (unlike Real Grade Zaku), but Erlangshen has managed to came up with slight modification to the slight shield to provide more decoration to the kit. In addition he also snatch Dom Tropen’s bazooka, for this kit to use. In my opinion, it fits perfectly.

Erlangshen modify the Zaku as a fictional Team Balor. Balor is the on-eyed god of the fomorians.

Articulation-wise, this kit is pretty standard. The knee and joints usually only bend about 90 degrees. There’s also a bottom waist pivot as well. The rocket booster in the backpack is poseable as well. Unfortunately no joint that can bend more than 90 degrees, may limit some poseability action.

Over-all there’s no big filling task that is required to fill out some hollow parts. In fact, besides decorating the side shield there’s really no need to do a lot of modification for detailing this kit.

This kit also comes with a decent amount of accessories. We got both MMP-78 120mm machine gun and

MMP-80/90mm Ver.8 machine gun. We also got the heat hawk and 2 side feet grenade launchers. We also receive an extra magazine for the rifle and 2 variant head top.

As this kit is relatively easy and didn;t require extensive paint job, I would definitely recommend the kit especially to people that wanted to start getting into plamo building. The look is an instant classic. Who would not love a grunt unit form the enemies to accompany you RX-78-2 kit?

Review by Professor Layton, Modeled by Erlangshen.

Source: Kaskus.