Prometheus Rising Studios   Ben Mininberg's models, toy customs, and design work.

In the Universal Century tradition of Mobile Suit Gundam, ace Zeon pilot Char Aznable must have a special custom version ready of each and any mobile suit there is even a slim chance of that he might pilot.  They must all be red as well, or Char won’t pilot them (Hyaku-Shiki does not count, as he was in disguise).

The Z’Gok is a Zeon aquatic mobile suit with formidable claws and hand-mounted beam cannons.  The production model Z’Gok is stocky but not fat, with segmented flexible arms and legs like many of the other Zeon aquatic machines.  This upgraded custom Z’Gok for Char’s use is a G-System resin conversion for the Bandai MG Z’Gok kit.  The conversion is really designed for the Char’s use MG Z’Gok, as there are some slight differences in the joint-work of the arms and legs, but with a little extra putty work I was able to use the parts from a regular production Z’Gok MG kit without too much hassle.  The casting was flawless, and the kit was well designed.

Thanks to the design of the Z’Gok and the kit, I was able to keep the model in well-thought out sub-assemblies for the painting process.  I used my new Games Workshop Spray Gun to paint all the base colors, and tried Valeijo’s Model Air line of paints, which went on smooth, and has fantastic metallics.  Weathering was done with acrylics and an oil wash… I did not do any dot-filtering, as I wanted to keep the weathering light, since the aquatic Mobile Suits were only used for a span of like five episodes in the show (if that).  This was a first-issue of the conversion kit, so it included photo-etched metal parts for all the propeller covers.  These went on easily and really added some scale to the machine, but I accidentally broke off two of the vanes on one of the front cover, which had to be bent into position, so I added a little battle damage around that area, and now you can see the weathering job I did to the propeller blades, painting them brass-colors and adding a patina like on real naval ships.