As expected, most of the parts are the same as the Ground Type’s. All the new stuff seems to be localized to three runners: a tan one (top of the photo), a blue one (bottom right), and a grey one (far left) that has some of the inner frame as well as the bazooka:
Giant Shiro Figure
So this was a thing back in the day with certain Master Grades. If the mobile suit in question had a specific named character as its pilot, sometimes it would come with one of these extra large paintable figurines:
I have no idea when they stopped including them, nor do I really know what the intent was in the first place. I tried looking it up, but all I got was a (poorly sourced) Google AI response claiming that it was to make early Master Grades feel extra special than what came before, and that they probably stopped making them in order to focus their resources on making the models (specifically the inner frames) higher quality.
I have no idea if that’s true, but it doesn’t sound entirely unreasonable.
Shield
This is mostly the same build as the original Ground Type shield, but now the blue part is extra long and runs across the front of the shield to serve as a mounting point for the new armor plate:
Guns
The EZ-8 has no weapons that I haven’t covered already in my last two builds, but I still built them and painted them in new colors.
Here’s the bazooka, which I did in grey (with some weathering):
Here’s the machine gun, which I did in straight gunmetal:
And finally the beam rifle, which I also did in plain grey:
It may not be fancy but it looks surprisingly decent.
I’m not sure if these are the versions of these weapons that I’ll pose it with, but they are there as an option.
Chest
If you’re looking for color accuracy, the inner part of the chest plate needs to be painted grey:
And under that plate they managed to model all the details:
This was really fun to paint up and weather.
In terms of functionality, the chest has some problems. The cockpit hatch likes to pop off, and the connector arms that allow the front plate to pull out and open also tend to fall out (or just get stuck). Thankfully I don’t plan on messing with them too much.
Legs
All of the new armor on the leg moves around and can flip open:
Between this and the chest, this model is giving off some Perfect Grade vibes.
Head
There’s some work to be done here. First there’s a small seamline:
After that you’ve got a bunch of panel lines and some vulcan cannons to paint. Then there are the antennae. I learned the hard way that one of the two need to be secured before assembling the rest of the head. If you don’t do that, then you’ll have to be like me and snip off the connection peg and just super glue it into place.
Also, just like on the High Grade model, the red tip on the grey antenna needs to be painted.
Finished
The new things on this model were fun and delightful, but with so much of this build being identical to the Ground Type (right down to the decals), I definitely got into a “I’ve already done this before and I just want to get it over with” mood. But now that it’s done, I’m very pleased with how it turned out.
Now I just have to get this and the GM Sniper II into the photo booth.