MSZ-013C1 Z-Cannon

The "Mass-Produced Gundam ZZ," or MSZ-013, only ever saw limited production -- four, to be precise -- because the whole project turned out to be impractical.

Well DUH.

The idea of making what is, essentially, a super-powered GM is bass-ackwards, if not downright ridiculous. Okawara's designwork and drafting on it wasn't too great either. Oh, and its color scheme is horrendous. All in all, the MSZ-013 stands among my least favorite ZZ MSVs. However...

Out of idle curiosity, I've tried recoloring the MSZ-013 all sorts of ways: Gundam ZZ proper colors, Nu Gundam colors, Titans colors, New Desides colors, etc etc etc. None of them offered much improvement. For some reason I kept casting around for more options. After I tried (and wasn't too thrilled with) the GM's colors, I realized one of the few schemes I hadn't tried was the Guncannon's. I liked the idea. So I did it. And I LOVED it.

Once I'd stumbled upon the ideal repurposing of this damned machine, I became obsessed with it. I tweaked the art all over the place: I took out all those dumb holes, replaced the ugly hands, modified the elbows to work more logically, put its rifle in its hand, swapped the derpy little hip launcher for another set of beam sabers, angled said sabers backward, refined the color scheme... there are a TON of layers in the photoshop file). But here it is, the final result. The MSZ-013C1 "Z-Cannon."

I envision the Z-Cannon as a more effective, adaptable, and survivable design than the Guncannons and GM Cannons that precede it. It would also be cheaper to make and easier to maintain than Task Force Alpha's artillery unit, namely the FA-010A "FAZZ" MS. As an added bonus, it offers a convenient "missing link" to the F71 "G-Cannon" seen in Gundam F91.

It's truly amazing what a difference a new color scheme can make. I used to be annoyed by this design. Now I'm quite fond of it. Go figure.

Credits:
I didn't draw this. It was drawn by Kunio Okawara. This, and anything Gundam related, is the property of Sunrise, Bandai, Yoshiyuki Tomino, Hajime Yadate, etc. No infringment is intended nor implied. I ain't makin' any money from this, it's just for fun.