Gunpla Build - Master Grade Gundam Ground Type (Build)

The MG Gundam Ground Type, GM Ground Type, and EZ-8 were all released in very close proximity to one another (the first two in 2000, and the third in 2001). Because of this proximity, and because they’re all extremely similar in design, they share a whole lot of parts with one another. In fact, if you look closely and zoom in on this photo, there’s at least one runner stamped with “RX79(G)” and “RX-79(G) EZ-8”, despite the fact that the EZ-8 wasn’t out yet:

One of the consequences of this decision is that, in the name of cost savings, there is at least one bit of armor that’s supposed to be unique to the GM Ground Type, but is reused on this model too, even though it’s supposed to look different (it’s really not a big deal, but I just wanted to point it out)

Color Escapades

When I first bought this model, there wasn’t a lot of grey spraypaint in stock, so I ended up settling for one called Corsa Grey. It’s a wonderful color, something that would look lovely on a number of cars, but it’s a little too blue for my purposes here.

Once I realized that, I went and got another color called “Light Ghost Grey”. It was still a little too dark for my liking, but it was close enough.

But then I ran out of it before I finished the model, and I couldn’t find any more in stock nearby. Rather than put the whole build on indefinite hiatus, I bit the bullet and finished the rest of the parts with the leftover Corsa Grey. This included the head, the beam rifle, the elbows, and a few bits of armor on the shoulder and knees.

In the past I might have been upset at the mixing and matching of colors, but if there’s any mobile suit that’s allowed to be a frankenmachine of mixed parts and colors, it’s the Ground Type. More importantly, the Corsa Grey doesn’t really look out of place. I wouldn’t say it’s fully camouflaged, but if you’re not looking closely it might not stand out that much.

Indeed, I had at least one person on a Gunpla Discord tell me that they wouldn’t have known it was two colors until I said something about it, which I consider a good sign. And even if you can tell (and I can definitely tell), it still looks fine.

There’s one more color I’d like to share. I’ve seen a lot of builders online with really cool looking weapons, and my gut told me they were using semi gloss black. I bought a can to see if I was right:

(Spoiler Alert - I was)

The Screws

I don’t know why, but I felt compelled to show you the screws:

There are four total, and it turns out that they’re all used in the arms. One pair has a matching nut, and the other pair doesn’t.

Stickers and Decals

I just wanted to point out that arguably the most important markings for the Ground Type come as dry transfer decals:

This includes the ID numbers, all the little arrows, the little grey rectangle that goes on the left shoulder, as well as markings featuring the names of the three main 8th team pilots for customization purposes.

Fun fact: Terry Sanders name is spelled as “Telly Sanders” on the decal, which … yeah. Also, Since I tagged my High Grade version as Unit 2 (which is Karen’s unit), and the EZ-8 is Shiro’s, I decided to make this build Terry’s Unit 3.

Meanwhile the sticker sheet has some caution and warning labels, as well as some EFF emblems (which, to be fair, are always nice, but in this case they don’t feel quite as crucial as the stuff on the dry transfer sheet)

If you only used the dry transfers and tossed out the stickers, you’d still end up with a really nice looking model that has all the most important details.

Alright, that’s enough housekeeping. Let’s start the build!

Machine Gun

This is meant to be grey anyway, so it could be left be. However I wanted to add a bit more zazz than that.

Perhaps more than anything else in the box, the weapons for this kit really show its age. They’re basically giant High Grade weapons.

They’re straight up monochrome, and aside from the grips and other fiddly bits, they’re made out of two halves snapped together. That means seamlines to remove, and if you want to get fancy, maybe some masking and painting.

The machine gun was the first thing I used the semi gloss black on (along with a bit of grey and metallic paint for some extra pizazz:

That semi gloss finish really hits different. It’s the perfect balance between not looking too high tech, or too rugged.

Beam Rifle

The beam rifle required quite a bit of masking, and since I painted the remaining grey parts black, also required a lot of careful touching up once it was “done”. But I think it ended up being worthwhile in the end:

180mm Cannon

Like with the High Grade version, the cannon of course breaks apart, and if you spraypaint all of the individual sections you’ll make it a lot harder to fit them together later. Best thing in my opinion is to put it together, spray it, and then disassemble for storage. No one’s going to notice the unpainted sections once it’s stored away in the backpack:

And here it is finished and sitting next to the High Grade version:

Side note: the model comes with a part to make it look like there’s a shell chambered in the magazine:

Backpack

It’s a bunch of big sidewalls that all fit together. And you have to line them up and assemble them all at once otherwise you might miss something:

I don’t remember fully, but I think I might have had a problem fitting the disassembled cannon into the HG backpack, but no such trouble with this one:

Part of me thinks it might have been fun to do more detailing on the inside (maybe spray the whole think down with some dark metallic color), but then part of me knows that I’m never really going to look in there.

Shield

Not much to say here:

On other models, the shield might have a tripod feature so it can stand on the ground, but not here. Though it does have a bit of a gimmick on the inside, but I’ll wait to show you that until we get to the photoshoot.

Feet

Two things of note here. First, they don’t attach to the leg via a normal ball joint. Instead, the joint is sandwiched between the two halves of the leg’s inner frame, so you have to assemble them all at the same time.

Second, it’s got those cool moveable pistons in the foot just like on the Mk II, though unlike the MG Mk II they’re not made out of shiny silver plastic. Still cool though.

Legs

The inner frame is another area in which this model betrays its age. It’s more complicated than the partial inner frames found on modern High Grades, but compared to a modern MG it has fewer moving parts, less surface detail, and on top of all that it uses polycaps.

Now let’s look at the beam saber storage compartment that’s on the side of the leg. It actually has these little arms that the armor attaches to, and allows it to swing out and open:

Here is the full inner frame before adding all the armor. Notice how the foot is attached:

And then here is some of the armor before assembly:

Lower Torso

I have exactly WIP photo here:

This photo is of the hip joint. It’s made by stacking two parts on top of each other, and in the end the joints end up even and level. I’ve never seen this kind of construction before, but it looks like it might give the legs a little bit of forward and backward motion.

Upper Torso

The top half of the chest has an inner frame, but not the bottom half. And even then, the inner framing doesn’t have much in the way of surface detail. If you like building Master Grades because of all those little mechanical details, or the intricacy of the build process, this one may not be for you.

Like most MGs, we get a working cockpit, though it’s really nothing more than an undetailed seat with just enough room for the pilot figure:

We also get some nice part separation for all the little details on the front, though be warned that the two barrels for the multi-launcher are white plastic, so you may want to repaint them

We get all the usual fiddly bits on the front the chest, though be advised that the barrels of the multi launcher are white, so you may want to recolor those.

Backpack (the other kind)

I guess this is technically the actual backpack, and the other thing is the weapons pack:

Here we can see all the interior bits that allow it to flip open and extend so as to secure the weapons pack. All of these mechanisms are extremely stiff. You have to apply “I swear this is going to rip apart if I pull any harder on it” levels of force, which I don’t like. Hopefully it’s not something I’ll have to do very often.

Head

If you look closely here, you’ll see that I had some issues with the paint. I think I sprayed too close, and so I got a less-than-thin coat. I think I ultimately scraped it off and tried again.

Regardless, this does require a bit of color correction to make it really shine, which all in all the model surprisingly hasn’t needed much of. There’s also a small seamline, though I didn’t bother with it (I mean, I had already painted everything)

Arms

This is where we finally get to the screws. There’s one that goes right into the elbow joint:

And one in the shoulder joint:

After playing around with them, I don’t think you actually need the first screw. It certainly helps keep everything in place better, but if you took it out I don’t think the arm would fall apart.

You do need the second one, as it’s the only thing keeping that joint together.

Let’s see what else … the inner frame has some more polycaps, though instead of being sandwiched in between the frame, some of them plug in after the frame is assembled. It’s weird:

When we get to the armor, I’m not sure if this bit here is a seamline or not:

A note about the hands. They’re a bit more primitive than what I’m used to. It’s got a separate thumb and trigger finger, but the other three fingers are molded together into one piece:

And just like with the Master Grade Turn A, there’s only any articulation in one knuckle, and as we will see in the photoshoot, this has consequences, as the model can barely hold some of its weapons without some sticky tack.

Finished!

This was a good build. As is all too often the case with me, I got spooked and put it off for two years because I was intimidated by the prospect of having to mask and spray the beam rifle (and I guess also the prospect of spraying down most of the body). But once I put my mind to it, it wasn’t actually all that bad. And now that it’s done, I’ve got another model of one of my all time favorite mobile suits.

And I can’t wait to show it to you. I really like the way this one came out.