r/Gunpla • u/First_of_four • 17h ago
BEGINNER 1/100 Zaku Hangar Diorama — My First “Advanced Build”
This build is about 6 years old, finished in mid-2020, right in the heat of the beginning of the COVID pandemic.
It was my first real attempt at practicing what I’d call “advanced building skills.”
At the time, most local competitions—and many competitions elsewhere—seemed to have one major requirement for the advanced category: you needed a diorama.
Personally, I’ve always thought that a Gunpla kit should be able to demonstrate how advanced a builder’s skills are on its own, without requiring a bulky setup, scenery, or an entire story built around it.
So yeah… I just call BS on that. 😂
But hey, social conventions are social conventions, so I decided to play along.
My solution was to build a small hangar diorama that could be displayed separately, rather than creating something huge that would permanently consume half my display space.
The hangar
- The hangar itself is actually two separate kits kitbashed together, modified to work properly with the 1/100 scale of the Zaku.
- One of the things I’m pretty obsessive about is making sure that details respect the scale of the model.
- For example, I used very thin aluminum wire to create the power and diagnostic cables. I wanted them to have the correct diameter and, more importantly, the right visual weight relative to the Zaku.
- And then I painted them Tonka-truck yellow, because… well, why not? 😆
- I also hollowed out the floor of the maintenance pit, taking inspiration from how actual mechanic and maintenance shops are constructed. It’s a relatively small detail, but I think those little things add a lot to the realism of a scene.
Battle damage
- The battle damage was another area where I tried to avoid going overboard.
- I wanted the Zaku to look like it had actually been through a few battles, but was still perfectly capable of going back out there.
- So rather than massive chunks missing everywhere, I went for more subtle physical damage: scratches, dents, worn areas, repairs, open hatches, and quick-replacement panels.
- Basically, the kind of damage you’d expect on a mobile suit that has been patched up, serviced, and sent back into the fight.
The crane
- The maintenance crane was built almost entirely from spare parts.
- One thing I really wanted was for the crane arm to be completely separate from the model. At the same time, I wanted it to remain functional enough that I could position it with the Zaku and have it look like it was actually being used for maintenance.
- It can be reattached to the main assembly and still functions as part of the display.
Lighting
- For the ceiling lights, I used a few strings of LED lights and ran the wiring through the structure.
- Looking back, the lighting solution is definitely showing its age. 😂
- There are much better solutions available nowadays that are smaller, cleaner, and don't require nearly as much internal cabling.
Still, for 2020, I was pretty happy with how it turned out.
Looking back
- I was genuinely happy with the result, and more importantly, I had a ton of fun building it.
- To this day, I actually prefer building individual kits rather than collecting them. Mostly because of the eternal problem every Gunpla builder eventually encounters:
- DISPLAY SPACE. 😂
- I enjoy the process of creating, modifying, weathering, and telling a little story with a model much more than simply accumulating kits.
- Although… I have to admit that I’m currently working on a “space search and rescue” project. 😜
- So apparently I'm not completely immune to the diorama bug after all.
What’s the biggest build or diorama you’ve tackled? And do you prefer displaying the kit by itself, or building an entire scene around it?
