ZM-S22S RIG SHOKEW 1/144 BANDAI PLASTIC MODEL KIT Modelling by Lewismaster Photos by R. Petti The ZM-S22 is one of the most advanced 'trooper' mobile suit created by the Zanscare Empire, during the short war fought in U.C 153, as depicted in the V Gundam series. This machine derives directly from the powerful ZMT-S12G Shokew prototype and equips both the Zanscare elite guard (ZM-S22G type) and the Motorad Fleet (ZM-S22S type), the two models being different only for the armament. This is the first (and at this moment the only) model that I built from the V Gundam series and it's… well… different! First of all, it's smaller than any other model that I built and second, it's so easy to build that I had it cut out from the sprue and perfectly assembled in less than twenty minutes without a drop of glue! And it was completely movable and action ready! You may not like the general design of the V Gundam mobile suits, but the kit designs were top notch, fully adopting the nylon joints and completely movable frame philosophy, already used in some garage kits. Of course, after a closer look I disassembled the model and started doing a series of necessary modifications, but anyway the first impression was very good.

	HEAD - The head of this model has two main defects: its proportions are all wrong (the lower part is too narrow, the upper part is too flat) and the big horn on top of it is small, fixed and with the wrong angle. So I cut out the horn and its support together with the frontal lower parts of the head and remade them using some of the original plastic and thin plasticard. I increased in this way the thickness and the length of the horn and I made it mobile too, creating a small hinge made with copper iron threaded in the thickness of the horn support. The increased thickness of the horn permitted to create a new opening for a sensor on top of it. The rest of the head was modified with plasticard and putty to satisfy the correct proportions. BODY - The body doesn't need many modifications except for the upper part around the neck and for the backpack. In fact the frontal upper part of the chest, just before the neck, needs to be enlarged and remodelled to be like the original design. The backpack on the contrary needs more work. Five new holes for all the main exhausts and air intakes were opened and new inner surfaces were created with plasticard. Everything inside the backpack was painted black, of course. On the outside, some new details were etched on the backpack with the knife and the drills. The whole backpack was later fixed to the body in lower position to permit the movement of the head, otherwise blocked.

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