A little novel I'm slowly brewing on. Timeline is set in late UC0088, not long after the Kryps Conflict. There are about five or six mobile suits in the works. I'll roll them out as creative drive permitted.

The test team
Every manufacturer has it's own test teams to evaluate its products before rolling them out to their potential customers. Especially in the world of Universal Century, test teams' evaluation are absolutely paramount in every way. Anaheim Electronics, the megaton of Universal Century, not only excels in their Comerica and consumer products. Their military division is probably the most lucrative among its octopus-like ventures. Development of Mobile Suit pretty much encompasses the majority contracts of the division. Each Mobile Suit project is responsible by an individual department. Each department has its own test team for product evaluation. Test pilots and support person ell are drawn from civilian and military sectors. It's common to see ex EFSF and Zeon crew working in the same team. Most of the senior pilots are veterans of the One year War and Delas Conflict from both sides. They may faced off with each other back then, but now they're working as a team to make sure their parent company excels again with their latest products.

Testing of the new booster pod with two shield boosters was originally meant to be conducted with the RMS-117 Galbaldy β High Mobility Type. However, this Galbaldy β was lost when Lt Maxim Gunar defected to the AEUG. The tests were thus performed with the Hazel II, and their results are reflected in the Advanced Hazel. The new booster pod lacks the generator and thruster equipment of the previous version, and consists of little more than latches for the shield boosters and an optional propellant tank, acting as a multi-connector pod. Meanwhile, the sub arm unit was also adopted due to the good results of its testing with the Hazel Custom.

AE Test Team Hazel-F
Hazel 2A airframe 003 was originally part of Titans Test Team. Department heads at Anaheim Electronics have always placed a lot of interest in the ESFSF's own Gundam project. Previous attempts to acquire intelligence through official channels has gained little. Corporate espionage even turned dead lily with the deaths of operatives. With silent approval from the top execs, corporate intelligence decided to mount convert mission to hijack survived airframes. Dressed in Titans tech and allied EFSF uniforms, operatives successfully hijacked one known airframe with the help of AEUG sympathizers to their Von Braun City research facility at the Cayley crater, near the Apollo 11 landing site on UC0086.

Titans officials always believed AE was behind the hijack, but never had any proof. Soon after the arrival of the airframe, AE techs began to take it apart and study the technology. Technology which partially leads to the development of their own movable frame and panorama style linear cockpit systems that will become standard features in future Mobile Suit development. Hazel-F is a completely refined Hazel 2A with enhanced avionics and early versions of movable frame and linear cockpit. It also served as test bed for the classified fin-funnel attack drone system.

The kit
Reworked 1/144 HGUC RX-212-2A Advance Hazel with custom fin funnel attack drones.

Boxart

Designed late during the One Year War, the YMS-16M Xamel was the first true heavy artillery mobile suit, designed to operate as a mobile artillery gun battery. Equipped with a powerful hovercraft/hoverjet system in its legs and massive skirt armor, it could skim along the ground at high speed, giving it the ability to fire, move to another location, set up and fire again without giving away its position too easily. Its primary armament was its long-barreled 680mm cannon, which could be folded up for transport when not in use. It also mounted a missile launcher pod for medium-range fire, but its close-combat abilities were extremely limited, with only a pair of almost useless arms and a 20mm vulcan gun turret mounted in the head. The Xamel also featured a tandem-seat cockpit, crewed by a pilot and a gunner. It is unknown exactly how many of these prototype units were produced, although one Xamel is known to have been used by Delaz Fleet forces in its "Operation Stardust" theft of the RX-78GP02A Gundam "Physalis" prototype from the Earth Federation Forces in UC 0083, inflicting severe damage to Torrington Base in Australia

The kit
Repainted and heavily weathered Mobile Suit in Action Xamel. 3/4 of the main gun was replaced with brass tubing. Waist hoses are also replaced with aftermarket spring unit.

Un-assembled Xamel with stock paint work.	Painted with first base coat.

As the One Year War came to a close, the Federation began plans to mass produce the other machines of Project V. The RX-77D Guncannon Mass-production Type did away with the Core Block System and used the more economical titanium/ceramic composite armor instead of lunar titanium to cut costs. In addition, it possessed additional verniers and thrusters, making it even more powerful and maneuverable than the older model. However, this revision was never produced as planned, with only a few suits being distributed to units such as the Pegusus carrier Gray Phantom and the White Dingo team in Australia.

The kit
1/144 HGUC RX-77 D Guncannon built straight from the box. Painted, detailed with acrylics. Weathered with pastels. I also replaced the mouth protection bar with brass rod.

Gundam Astraea appears in the side-stories of Mobile Suit Gundam 00P and Mobile Suit Gundam 00F. The unit name derives from the goddess Astraea, who is associated with the card Justice -- one of the twenty-two Major Arcana in the Tarot. The other Gundam test-types follow this naming theme.

A prototype mobile unit, which serves as the intermediary design between the 1st-generation GN-000 0 Gundam and the 3rd-generation GN-001 Gundam Exia. It is a testbed for a number of experimental technologies, incorporated in pursuit of a greater general utility versus the 0. The GN Drive control mechanism differs from that of 0 Gundam, and benchmarks with both higher output and higher instability. In 00P, where the Astraea is initially introduced, its paint scheme is white with blue and red highlights. As of 00F, 15 years later in the 00 continuity, the scheme has been altered to red with grey highlights, and the face has been covered with a black mask, in order to disguise the fact that it is actually a Gundam; as 00F pointed out, Celestial Being and its associates want to keep only four Gundams being known to the world. No explanation has been provided for the other changes thus far. Astraea eventually got modified for second time into the GNY-001F2 using various parts from Exia. The two ear-like protrusions that extend backwards from the sides of the head structure appear to be a design feature unique to the Astraea, but their purpose is thus far unknown and its paint scheme is white with blue and red highlights.

The kit
1/144 HG GNY-001 Gundam Astraea with Dengki Hobby Magazine Feb 08 supplement conversion kit. Painted with Kryon indoor purpose paint, detailed with acrylics. Weathered with pastels and Citadel bolt gun metal.

The Guncannon is the second prototype design model that stemmed from the Earth Federation's Project V in the original anime series. It was developed during the One Year War in response to the Principality of Zeon's MS-05 Zaku I and MS-06 Zaku II mobile suits.

The first Guncannon was the prototype RX-77-1A Guncannon A, which had poor mobility due to its heavy armor. The second version, RX-77-2 Guncannon, corrected this problem. As defensive weapons, it mounted two 60 mm Vulcan guns in the head. However, the Guncannon's primary weapons were the twin 240 mm cannons mounted on the shoulders, which were used for the mobile suit's design purpose: mid-range fire support. The Guncannon was also armed with a high-precision beam rifle for sniping operation, being one of the first mobile suit equipped with a beam weapon. The Guncannon was less mobile but more heavily armored than its cousin, the Gundam. This allowed the Guncannon to be a significant threat to Zeon's Zakus. Unfortunately, the extra armor provided no additional protection against the powerful beam weapons, and heavy projectile weapons (such as the Giant Bazooka used by MS-09R Rick Dom) were also capable of causing severe damage. It also lacked any sort of melee weapon, rendering it having to fight empty-handed during close encounters with an enemy unit. Another disadvantage was that its 240 mm cannons only held 20 rounds per cannon, limiting the Guncannon's effective operation time on the battlefield. During the Zeon attack on Side 7, only one RX-77-2 survived the attack. It was later stationed aboard the Pegasus-class assault carrier White Base and assigned to Kai Shiden. However, when White Base made its way to Jaburo, another Guncannon was transferred to the White Base to replace the space-incompatible RX-75-4 Guntank piloted by Hayato Kobayashi. To separate the two units, they were named the "C-108" and "C-109" respectively. Both units were heavily damaged at the final battle of the One Year War at the Zeon's space fortress A Baoa Qu. Kai's Guncannon later reappears in Hayato's mobile suit museum in Zeta Gundam.

The kit
1/144 HGUC Guncannon built straight from the box. Painted, detailed with acrylics. Weathered with pastels.

Pegasus-Class Assault Landing Craft was the first ship of the Earth Federation to be designed around a capacity to carry mobile suits (MS). These Assault Carriers are functionally equivalent to an aircraft carrier, as their primary function is to launch and recover mobile suits.

Since Pegasus-class ships carry their own MS with them at all times they are somewhat less dependent on their main guns and anti-aircraft guns for protection and they enjoy more freedom on the battlefield, as they do not have operate in close consort with other ships for mutual protection against enemy mobile suits. All Pegasus-class ships are also equipped with a Minovsky Craft System which enable ships in this class to enter and exit the earth's atmosphere; additionally, the craft system allows for these Assault Carriers to float by creating a barrier between the carrier and the ground.

Unlike the other Federation ship classes of the time, the Pegasus-class is not so much a single class as a concept; rapidly advancing technology swiftly changed both the internal arrangement and external appearance of the Pegasus-class ships. Only the first three units (Pegasus SCV-69, White Base SCV-70, and White Base Jr. SCV-71) were completed to the original plans. After White Base Jr., technology was advancing so quickly that each subsequent Pegasus-class cruiser looked significantly different, though each had the same general arrangement of a central hull with two large aft thruster blocks, two wings, and two forward mobile suit launching "legs." The overall design looked like a sphinx or a winged horse, giving the class its name. After the One Year War, every ship was redesignated as Mobile Suit Carrier (MSC) whether it had survived the war or not.

The playset
I used fine-tip Gundam Markers to detail up the panel lines, and sealed with matte sealer. A relatively quick forward touch up, but make a big difference in the overall look. Image on the right is the stock playset.