So I was digging through my boxes and I found my very first gunpla build... The old 1995 HG/NG 1/100 Gundam Wing Zero. I picked this kit up in the fall of 1999 at Narita airport right after I left active duty, fully intending it as a gift for my nephew. When he and my sister picked me up at the airport, I started asking him about the things he was in to, and it was pokemon and ONLY pokemon. When I asked him about Gundam, he just said "Gundam sucks!" At which point I resolved to maybe find my nephew something different.

The box sat in the corner of my apartment for probably a month or two, and curiosity got the better of me. I was an aircraft model builder, so i figured it couldn't be that different.

I was blown away by what bandai could pull off in a model kit! Wing Zero wasn't a particularly interesting design to me, but damned if this thing didn't seriously hold my interest long enough to go buy more. Eventually, either through US releases or fansubs, I saw most of the Gundam that was available at the time, and as an adult became a fan of the franchise (up through SEED anyway, I lost interest after that)

I recently rediscovered this kit while looking for a few others I had in storage (that I've evidently thrown away, damnit). Looking at the kit for the first time in ages, I was shocked by the lack of color separation that was available then... It just looked like a big toy.

I took the kit and broke it down to it's individual pieces. I had enough spare polycaps that I was able to replace almost every cap with a new one (except the hips, which the ball joints got a coat of nail polish). I painted all the exposed interior sections gray to look more in line with the modern MG line. I'm still working on the shield, which was largely just a piece of red plastic... Half of which needs to be white.

The revitalization isn't 100% complete, but I'm liking the progress so far. She isn't the youngest girl at the ball, and she's certainly in no danger of winning the GBWC, but maybe she'll still turn a head or two.

Maybe someday I'll get the proto-zero MG kit to pose with it just to show how far we've come.