--- Alright, first off - www.gundamstoreandmore.com is pretty awesome. HOWEVER, it's opened up ALL
kinds of questions for me to pose for your fellas. ---
1) Can anyone explain the different "grades" of kits to me? I have High Grade - assuming that's
good?
There are 7 different grades of kits. Ill list them here and what they are and show an image of a finished kit and a picture of how the joints go together from the manual, first from an older one, and then from a newer one (if applicable)
No Grade (not having a grade prefix) these are very cheap kits meant to be sold for cheap for
children. limited pose-ability and no details.
High Grade (HG) These are fairly nicley detailed to very nice (older to newer respectivly) they
use only polycaps for joints and the older ones dont have pieces to cover them. They are the
cheapest kits for the price but they can be made to look professional quality, while non grade
can not. For the past few years they have been making HG kits of the large designs, like the
psycho and Palace Athene, for example. HG kits are in 1/144 most of the time but there are some
1/100 scale kits marked HG, mostly Dundam Wing and Gundam Seed.
-----
Master Grade (MG) These are very nice, they have very nice details inside and outside, and are
articulate. These comes in 1/100th scale only. Parts that would be in two pieces in HG have sub
assemblies and alot more detail, shoulders and weapons for example. Along with a nicer kit the
manuals are actually alot nicer, having alot of nice illistrations to go along with the
instructions. Along those lines, the newer kits have alot clearer instructions, though bandai's
are notoriously clear and easy to read. MG kits normally come with stickers AND dry transfer
decals. On the newer ones the parts of the armor break down in a way that natural pannel lines
are in the same location as seams, making it so seam filling is not needed.
-----
Perfect Grade (PG) These are the top of the line, so to speak. They are massive kits, almost or
more then a foot tall. They are very, VERY detailed, articulate, and come with lighting kits to
make thrusters eyes, and such light up. The Inner Frame on the PG kits are nice enough to build
and display on their own. They are the most expensive, some being more then $229! (heh) The
deatil on the old ones equal the detail on some of the older MG kits, to be honest, but the new
ones are outstanding. PG kits have instruction manuals that are EXTREMLY detailed and beautiful.
they also come with a second book (about the size of an osprey book in some cases) with
background history and specs of the mech the kit is of. These are only in 1/60th scale. These
come with stickers and dry transfer decals. The parts often break down, on the armor, so that
seam filling is not needed
-----
(this next one will not be a zaku, I have been trying to use zaku and zaku type kits so far)
Real Grade (RG) These are 1/144th kits with the detail of a newly designed MG or PG kit. They
are very articulate and the details are utterly beautiful. Parts break down in a way that
dilling seams is not necessary. They can be pricy, about the price of a MG kit. they are great
for those who do not have the space for something as big as a MG.
You have the Hard Graph kits. These are a new line of kits in 1/35th. there designed like 1/35th armor and figure kits and honestly, they are stunning kits and if armor builders would give them a chance they would be astounded. (no instruction pics for these, since there mainly figure kits, but the non figure parts have the detail of a new Perfect grade, if not even more detail.
Lasty there are...
speed Grade Kits. These are 1/200th scale. There small, molded in color and prepainted. There sold in bags and have no articulation. there meant for little kids.
2) What's the difference between Gundam and Gunpla?
Simply put, Gunpla is shorthand for Gundam Plastic Model.
3) Assuming there are two different sides in this conflict (Gundam vs Zuku?) - does it get any
more specific than that?
Each time line has it's own sides of the war. For the one year war, which this GB is about, there are two sides, the EF and Zeon.
EF - Earth Federation - You will also see sub sections of the EF, like the EFSF Earth Federation Space forces, and EFGF Earth Federation Ground Forces. The Earth Federation is a planet wide government that controls earth and the space colonies. they do not treat the space colonies as well as they treat earth lings, and spacenoids do not really know much of earth, in some cases they know nothing of it.
Zeon - The Deutchy/Principality of Zeon - Started as the colony cluster of Side 3.
(ill simplify some of it) Basicly Side 3 were tired of being abused by the Federation and had a semi nazi-esque look at spacenoids as a superior race, compared to earthlings (Ill get to this later) They felt that the only way to gain freedom was to fight for it. They modified their space construction vehichles, into weapons (the first mobile suits) and used it to launch a campaign against the earth federation.
Zeon launched attacks against sides 1 2 and 4, side 1 being the space capital of the EF. They used tatics such as gassing entire colonies inorder to succede.
Zeon used one of the colonies from either side 2 or 4 that was severly damaged as a projectile weapon, droping it from space, with the use of thrusters, onto earth and the EF capital (which was in south america) but missed, hitting sydney australia and destroying 16% of the Australian continent, not damaging, but literially destroying it, sinking it into the ocean.
After this Zeon attacked earth and took most of it for themselves. The earth federation only had traditional weapons at the time, traditional weapons being space ships, infantry, tanks, and combat aircraft. Before now ground combat was done with infantry and tanks, space combat was done like Napoleonic infantry battles masses of ships lining up and firing broadsides at eachother.
The federation used 'Balls' which were just round capsules with manipulator arms as combat vechichles, mounting guns on the top and sending them into battle. They were cannon fodder. (to put it into perspective, it would have been like the Japanese in WWII sending their armor forces against a end war German armor forces (IE Panthers and Tigers). They made some kills, but were generally slaughtered.
The EF started work on developing their own mobile suit using state of the art alloys from the moon and state of the art energy weapons. They build three suits, the Gundam, the Guncannon, and the Guntank. These three units were stationed on a state of the art battle ship called the White base (in the rear of the picture) They were spent on special assignments and used as a trump card in large battles. It was this unit that changed the war for the EF's side and won them the war. 
Only one of each was made, they were prototypes, but a mass produced version of the gundam was made, called the GM. The GM was still basically cannon fodder but did alot better then the Balls in combat.
Instead of using one design throughout the war Zeon made many many prototypes, some of which worked (the Dom, for example) some of which did not (the Gyan, for example) Though some of these units did Not get to the right people at the right time because of Beaurocracy and causes major defeats (most specificly in my mind, Ramba Ral's loss against the gundam, if he had been given Doms, state of the art, instead of the Gouf, just a prototype, and he lost his duel because of it)
The rules of Zeon knew that people born in space were better and preached that, and they were correct. Those born in space had a sixth sense type of thing for progocnition, especially on the battlefield. These were called new types (which spawned an anime centered magazine by the same name) they were trained by zeon at the end of the war to controll special mobile suits and mobile armors that had small weapons that could be ejected and controlled by the new type's mind by a special interface. Being a new type was one of the major reasons that the gundam was victorious, it's pilot, Amuro Ray, was a new type.
At the end the EF won the war, but failed to completly crush Zeon.
4) I notice that there are many different "eras" listed for kits - anyone able to explain a
timeline for me?
The timeline is VERY complex, ill give you a link to the wiki about it
http://gundam.wikia.com/wiki/Universal_Century
5) 1/144 scale - assuming this means that a Zaku is ~ 50 feet tall? Maybe more?
Ill link you the tech specs.
Model
number: MS-06F
Code name: Zaku II
Unit type: mass production general purpose mobile suit
Manufacturer: Zeonic Company
Operator(s): Principality of Zeon; Neo Zeon
First deployment: March UC 0079
Accommodation: pilot only, in standard cockpit in torso
(later refitted and replica units equipped with panoramic monitor/linear
seat cockpit)
Dimensions: head height 17.5 meters
Weight: empty 58.1 metric tons; max gross 73.3 metric tons
Armor materials: super-hard steel alloy
Powerplant: Minovsky type ultracompact fusion reactor,
output rated at 951 kW
Propulsion: rocket thrusters: 2 x 20500 kg, 2 x 1000 kg
Performance: maximum thruster acceleration 0.59 G; 180-degree
turn time 1.7 seconds; maximum ground running speed 88 km/h
Equipment and design features: sensors, range 3200 meters
Fixed armaments: none
Optional fixed armaments: 2 x 3-tube missile pod, mounted
on legs
Optional hand armaments: ZMP-50D/120mm
machine gun, drum-fed, 100
rounds per drum, spare drums can be stored on waist armor racks;
H&L-SB25K/280mmA-P Zaku bazooka, 4 round magazine, can be stored on rack on
rear waist armor; heat hawk
Type5, battery powered, can be stored on
waist armor racks;
MIP-B6
cracker grenade, can be stored on optional
storage rack on waist armor racks
Basically, I'm a total Gundam n00b. If anyone has a good link for some background info for me to
read, it would be highly appreciated! I always feel better about modeling something when I have
SOME idea about it's back story.
Thanks guys!
Lastly Ill link you this http://www.bakuc.com Its one of the biggest sites for people to show off their work. There are some new people and some junior modelers there but there are some amazing ones as well.
Here are some people who's kits you should look at.
http://www.bakuc.com/modeler/fichtenfoo
http://www.bakuc.com/modeler/victorioussecret
http://www.bakuc.com/modeler/bad_andy
and last, but not least
http://www.bakuc.com/modeler/bsyamato :)
Mine are not on that list because honestly, im embarassed by them at this point.
Also check out http://www.mahq.net/mecha/gundam/index.htm