Mod of the week 1: Seperating Shield bits for 1/144 Zanbanya

By chubbybots

I got to thank Leon from Open the Toy who gave me this idea of putting my stuff into a series which is easier for readers to follow. Similar to my week of Toy photography, I am proud to debut a first of this series where I touch on just one mod in a single posting for specific kits instead of a general tutorial. Since I love modding but hardly finish the kits, might as well turn the mods into a topic themselves! Hope it can help those out there tackling a specific problem or a certain mod for their kits!

For a start, I’ll be sharing this little mod that I did for the 1/144 Zanbanya model kit from the Gundam 00 movie (Gwad I love that movie and for once, we have aliens for a change haha!) The Zanbanya shield bit comes with 4 sets that are actually together. So all in all the default bits out of the box is only 6 instead of ten!! But after examining the parts Bandai is actually quite mod friendly on this one and even molded the bits to be separated with a few simple mods 😛

My long trusted mini saw from Hasegawa…you have cut through many a pla plate my friend lol…

To maintain the same color consistency since I ain’t painting this kit, I am recycling the left over sprues 😛

Also presenting my alternative version as to how I like his bits to be positioned hehe. Bd did mention to me that his original bit arrangement look like movable fences lol!!

Till the next mod!!

Keep the gunpla spirit burning!!

62 thoughts on “Mod of the week 1: Seperating Shield bits for 1/144 Zanbanya”

  2. Whoa I just logged in and I saw this! great job Chubs, now it looks better than that ass fence it came with originally. Seriously I don’t know why the 00 movie design sucks so much. 😦

    • Lol ass fence! I was thinking if they have gone lazy on Zanbanya’s design by putting all the shield bits like that. But the main body itself is very very beautiful. I loved this version much more than cherudium cause it has closer and bulkier proportions to Dynames!!

      And Raphael has a very sexy pair of hands hehe…

  4. haha, you’re back ^^ with your environmental-friendly mods ^^ now that’s some holster bits ^^

    (can’t help but to call him carrying fences since it reflects his name’s derivation in which the guardian of the Hell’s gate) 😀

    • Haha fences are fences, but in the show, these fences sure more around a lot and with lots of fire powarrrr!!!!

      Thanks for the name derivation! Sounds cool though to be the guardian of hell’s gate!

      • yep ^^ Zabanya comes from Zabaniah, the name for the Angel that guards the Hell’s Gate in Islam ^^

        same goes to Harute, the name comes from Harut, one of two Angels sent to Babylon for explaining humans regarding spells and black magic (something like that). his companion is Marut ^^

        (that’s explain why people spew out the name Marute when Harute’s name is revealed :D)

  5. Brilliant work! To be honest though this is how the kit should’ve been like, good thing you’re here to show Bandai how do things right (not that it’ll change anything XD).

    • Lol, as modelers we can always change what we don’t like about the kit into something we want! Thats the beauty of working on kits hehe 🙂 If you don’t like it change it!

    • Heh thanks man….what?!!! buy several to get the 10 bits!? man they are rich (or their gunpla prices are damn cheap for them!!)

  8. Ooooo! nice! woah. i din look at the runners properly when i got him.. now your page will come in handy when im doing this baby.. muahahah. thanks chubbs! =)

    • No mention bro, just sharing what I know hehe. And this mod is not that hard also, just a bit of time cutting and cleaning up!

    • Ah business is damn hard, I can understand what you are going through! You’ll need all the time to start it up. Luckily gunpla is plastic and they last a long time 😛

  11. Modding this guy must be crazy with all those shield bits.. =O

    I am definitely going to follow this gunpls build series! Keep it up. I am trying to find time to build some gunpla myself.

    Gunpla on bro!

    • Haha actually I only have to repeat this mod twice! When you start on this kit you will know 😛

      Thanks for the encouragement bro! I’ll try to have more installed for this series as I work through the other 3 kits from the Gundam 00 movie!

    • Thanks man! I looked back at the movie shots I realized he had to put it like a fence so that Zanbanya can fit into the launch pad!! If it was positioned like the one i did here they will need a separate hatch for him 😛

      But still I prefer this position, looks cooler haha!!

  14. great series idea and sweet mod! always enjoy seeing your clever modding tricks, recycle recycle 😀

    my burning gunpla spirit literally means me burning my gunpla… LOL battle damage mod ftw 😛

    • Hehe recycling keeps cost down and I’ll have more funds for my milk powder in the future 😛 Look forward to part 2! Hopefully you guys won’t be disappointed haha ^^;;

      Haha your damage mods with the burning incense!

  15. Wow… Chubby baby is back… and as always… his modification skills is brilliant…. I’m not good with any of this modification… poor me… but I still love to see people doing well with their ideas… I guess I watch too much porn…. hahahahaha….

  19. A cost-effective and environmental-friendly mod there. thumbs up! Your visual guide together with the caption definitely help make it easier to understand.

    Any hint for the next kit you have in mind for the next mod?

    • Heh thanks!! Haha always trying to find ways to recycle those left over plastics! Feel it is a waste just to throw those sprues away!

      Ah I am working on an SD and hopefully if that mod is successful I’ll post it up 😛

  23. Love the new placement of rifle bits 😀
    And this mod is environmental friendly, hahahah, chubbs the green modeler? Somehow it suits your avatar.

    btw your mini saw is really mini, does it come in a set with other saws?

    • Lol green is in man 😛 Glad you like the nice placement it think it reminds me of your hi nu also with the bits place upright slanted!!

      Oh yes its a whole set of saws. Got it for about $22 plus plus some time back. There are various saws for all different angles!

  24. Great modding! It almost looks as if the holes/slots are deliberately there for this very reason!

    That mini saw sure looks handy. I may be interested to get my hands on one. I like how one can do simple modding to achieve greater play value, just like when I find one one thing is compatible with another (e.g. RD GM Sniper II is compatible with the sniper rifle that belongs to the 1/144 GM Sniper Ground Type plamo). A good gunpla spirit there!

    And I prefer Zabanya with fewer holsters, or at least not arranged in some ‘fence’-like way ^^; Your way is pretty cool though!

  25. Thanks man!! I like do just a little bit of mod to get more value out of our kits hehe! You definitely need to get your hands on these hasegawa saws, they are pretty nifty for these little mods ^^

    I think less is more in terms of looks for Zanbanya. Fences don’t look really cool when he is launching off the launch pad 😛

    • Ah the aim here is to green friendly haha! Magnets definitely will make a better replacement for these joints plus they look way nicer!! But I think strips will be a wee bit heavy if its place on all the bits.

  28. Cute mod. Thanks for sharing. I was going to do this with pla plates, but using the sprue labels like you did is pretty smart. Although I will be painting it, I’ll be saving a few square cm of pla plate.

    Thanks!

    • Haha no problem! Its a waste to throw away all that leftover plastic so I am trying ways to make use of them as much as possible! You have some crazy kit bashes going on in your blog mate!

  30. haha. specially went digging for this post cos gonna get zabanya a few days later and i wanna do this. helpful man. thanks:D

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