MS from 0079-0083 with the Magnetic Coating

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MS from 0079-0083 with the Magnetic Coating

Good afternoon everyone,

Recently I've been wondering how common the magnetic coating became near the end of the OYW and the intervening years before Zeta. From Ultimate Mark this table shows that the Federation developed their version in December, 0079. The Zeon version of the magnetic coating was developed on the Act Zaku. Development on the actual mobile suit of the Act Zaku starts in July, 0079.

From the now defunct Gundam Official it had this to say about the magnetic coating.

A special membrane treatment applied to mobile suit joints to improve their response speed. The mobile suits developed by the Earth Federation Forces use special actuators called field motors, whose efficiency is increased by the magnet coating process. The treatment also reduces friction resistance in the mobile suit's joints.
First tested on the RX-78-3 Gundam, this process is then applied to the RX-78-2 used by Amuro Ray, reducing the time required for changes of direction by roughly 27%. The RX-78-4, RX-78-5 and RX-78NT1 are also equipped with magnet coating, and during the Gryps Conflict this technology is used in transformable mobile suits to speed up the transformation process


Here's my list of MS that have received the magnetic coating treatment. Primarily they are Gundam types.

RX78-2 Gundam
G-3 Gundam
RX78-4 & RX78-5 Gundam's Unit 4 & 5
RX78-7 Gundam Unit 7
RX78-NT1 Gundam Alex
RX79-BD Gundam Blue Destiny

On the Zeon side there is the Act Zaku.

Given how useful the Magnetic Coating is with turn around times as well as reducing friction on joints it's very likely this technology, unless incredibly expensive, would begin to be used as an industry standard on future new designs. It's also paramount to the creation of early transformable mobile suits (TMS) such as the Asshimar & Gaplant.

Drawing a comparison to the Movable Frame, a technology so new and revolutionary for the time that it later became identified on a suit by suit basis for which possessed it. Mark mentions in this thread that after Zeta Gundam you can assume this technology begins to get incorporated into most new designs (not retrofits) and thus there's no longer a need to reference it on a suit by suit basis anymore. The same train of thought can apply to the magnetic coating which doesn't get mentioned again after Zeta.

So my question becomes which Mobile Suits receive the magnetic coating both from the OYW and follow-on years up until 0083. Applying the magnetic coating to existing units might be unlikely, but newer units may have it depending on how much cost the Federation is willing to invest on a per unit basis.

In this thread Gelgoog Jaeger has an interesting hypothesis that the Federation version of the magnetic coating is very expensive and thus it's only applied to high spec prototypes whereas the Zeon version is more cost efficient and put on proposed mass produced units (the Act Zaku). When the Federation captures the Pezun Base they also capture the units there and their technology.

In this thread Mark shares some information from the MG Gundam 3.0 kit regarding the magnetic coating.
In particular, the manual claims that the magnet-coated version of the Gundam has different joints at its elbows, knees, and ankles - these have rounded caps covering the ends of the joint cylinders, rather than the open holes with diagonal whatsits that we've been seeing ever since Gundam 0080.
The OG Gundam statue had it's joint cylinders switched to the rounded caps as well. Mark points out a number of designs that have rounded joint caps and it's interesting to speculate which suits may have a magnetic coating applied, for instance the legs of the GM Sniper Custom. Of course any suits produced before the magnetic coating was developed wouldn't have them by default, but certain high performance units may have them retroactively applied.

Both these threads are about 8 years old, so new information from kit manuals or other official sources may have come out since then confirming MS that received the magnetic coating. If you've got any new information please share below.

Here is my speculation on a few MS from 0079-0083 that may be candidates for the magnetic coating.

Guncannon RX77-2
The magnetic coating is applied to the Gundam in order to reduce friction on the Gundam's joints and allow it to keep up with Amuro's remarkable reaction time. The tech, Mosk Han, who applies the coating to the Gundam tell's Amuro as thanks he can provide him with detail of the improved performance. Well, along that line of thought, why not apply it to the Guncannon as well! At least it will give another data point for the engineers who developed it and tested it on the G-3 already.

Counterpoint: I'm not sure I can pick out a single joint cap on the Guncannon from the original TV series. Kondo's version has a quite a few visible though.

Ace Units
Perhaps the Federation had this technology applied to famous aces like the Tenneth Jung's GM Command or Lydo Wolf's GM Sniper II.

G-Line Series
The purpose of these was to replicate the original Gundam's specs while mass producing them. Unless the magnetic coating was obscenely expensive I don't think they'd leave this off the bill of materials.

GP Series
As a next generation Gundam series it makes sense they'd include this.

GM Custom
A high performance GM with a design lineage that includes the Alex it makes sense it would have the magnetic coating as a new and expensive model. I recall that the GM Custom could use spare parts from the Alex as well, but that could be hearsay. Likewise if the GM Custom has the magnetic coating then the GM Quel and GM Cannon II likely would as well.

MSV Models at Jaburo
Since we Act Zaku's during the Jaburo arc of Zeta Gundam it's possible they tested out the magnetic coating on some of the venerable suits stationed there. Perhaps the Guncannon Heavy Custom, Recon Zaku or Gouf Flight Type were lucky enough to be a test bed to see how easy it would be to apply it to other units.

On the Zeon side I wouldn't be surprised if the Magnetic Coating was tested out on other Pezun units such as the Galbady Alpha, Gassia, Pezun Dowadge and of the course the rolly-ball Gigan.

Lastly there's the Wagtail from AoZ, a GM Type-C that gets upgraded with the magnetic coating. This seemed like a one-off deal so I'm of the opinion that the Federation would not refurbish all Type-C's with the magnetic coating, too much maintenance.
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