RG Char’s Zaku II (Finally)

Yes, November was some time ago. For some reason, despite the
Zaku being the second kit in a new series, and despite my enjoyment
with the first kit, I didn’t get around to building it. Well,
after building the RG GAT-X105 Aile Strike, and loving it, my interest in all things Real Grade
was rekindled.  So..

Zaku time!

Just like the first RG (and the third) the Zaku II comes with
plenty of parts, different tones of armor pieces, and a plethora of
very tiny stickers.

It also comes with these:

These are very small. I admit to being a little apprehensive when I
thought about this part of the build.

There’s even tiny springs for those tiny rings.

My Aile Strike post was quite in depth and this build follows
it closely so I am not going to put a lot of text here but there
will be plenty of pictures.

Feet

Unlike the RX-78-2, you needn’t remove anything from the
frame before adding armor.

Legs

The lovely Advance MS Joint frame.

Remember to loosen it up a bit before adding pieces.

Here you can see that you add a small foil sticker.

The next part of the build has you put in the tiny circle piece,
however, I have left it out of the build so I can have an easier
time panel lining it.

You’ll notice that this pink part, which is normally part of
the foot on MG Zaku II kits, is attached to the lower leg frame on
the RG. Just thought I would mention that.

Again more tiny pieces are used, but I will keep them off so I can
paint them before adding them to the kit.

Just like the RX-78-2, the upper leg armor consists of different
shades of pink/red.

Now the part I have been dreading. The manual makes it looks so
easy.

And the first step is relatively simple

Then you do this:

But it’s a little awkward to work in this space, so I advise
doing this:

Cut all those rings off and move to the next row.

You don’t use all of the second row so there will be some
extra afterwards.

Then insert into the leg.

This was actually easier on the RG than on the MG
Shin Matsunaga Zaku 2.0 where I first had to do this kind of
work. (Taking you way back.)

Skirt

The frame piece.

The frame piece minus the extra pieces (one of which will be used
later).

Front skirts.

Back skirts.

Another frame piece.

Flip it over and make the arachnid looking thing

So far so good.

Arms

Again with the cool frame.

Remove extra parts.

Loosen up those joints.

Then start adding stuff.

Lots of small armor pieces.

Here you can see how the back armor pieces move when the arm is
bent. Cool.

This small piece fits in the end, but isn’t meant to stay. If
I am following the manual correctly it is supposed to go on the
hand first and then attach to the lower arm. When you remove the
hand this piece will come with it.

The arms are quite flexible, too.

The shield is really cool too.

The use of three pieces makes it look great.

It attaches to the shoulder of the Zaku by this little set of
pieces.

With two movable parts in there you get quite a bit of
movement.

The spiked shoulder armor is simple enough.

Or so I thought. I actually tried at first to put it together
with one piece upside down and as the pieces are small and somewhat
thin…

Oops. Cracked. I put some glue on from the underside and held it
together while it dried.

It attaches to the shoulder with the exact same jointed
construction you assembled for the shield.

Next up (Yes, I am stopping here) is the torso, head, backpack,
and of course, the weapons.