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Hello all, I have been wondering whether I should add a third build or not, unfortunately when the subject kit arrived I couldn't help myself and immediately started fettling, and dry fitting, and generally thinking about how I would do it and the next thing I know.... BANG! like a low yield nuclear missile I've gone and started on the cockpit. Anyway here I am with Bandai's 1/48ish S.H.A.D.O Interceptor, from Gerry Anderson's UFO...as if you didn't know. The Cockpit base and rear panel replacing the joke like kit effort being detailed. The pilot is an ex RAF (Airfix sqn.) harrier pilot who is living the service moto to the full, however he just can't be without his home comforts so has brought his comfy Harrier seat with him. He successfully completed the strenuous S.H.A.D.O selection process whilst his kite was in transit from the factory in Japan. I know with my current poor start/finish ratio, embarking on another build is not ideal but I've been wanting to do one of these for ages. Additionally I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of the DVD of the series (this is for research purposes only and has nothing at all to do with Gabrielle Drake in a silver catsuit!!) More later, Mark.

Hello and welcome. This area of Britmodeller is new ground to me I have been stalking a few builds over here recently looking for inspiration on building Gundam suits. (Excuse me if my terminology is a bit off I’m new to these kits). I’m finding some good WIP builds but nothing that goes through step by step like what I’m used to on the other side, mainly it’s finished kits or finished parts, not a bad thing but I was looking for a WIP that might help me build THIS. 😍. I was gifted this lovely looking kit by a work friend on my birthday in April who has far too many in the stash. I decided that this would be my next build and I’d do the WIP exactly how I do them for my other kits. It’ll be a bit photo heavy and I’ll be learning on the job. I’ve gleaned some info about how these kits go together and they seem a lot different to your regular Airfix our Tamiya kit but we shall see.🤩 I’m planing on doing a nice amount of weathering on this but I’m not sure how you go about building and painting. Folk seem to build first and paint together (alien to me) or paint in chunks frame them armour? Oh I don’t know but I do know it’ll be fun🥳 so here goes let’s open the box.... I’d be honoured if some of you guys would follow along and help me out if I’m headed in the wrong direction. Here goes.... Okey so lid off and I get another lid? Nice pic though. 😍 woah!!! There’s a lot in the box. I love the feel of this crisp Bandai plastic and the cool multi coloured trees are sublime. 🥰 loads of bits and my first stumble block. I don’t know why I expected the instructions to be in English but what with Tamiya kits and the like you never know. So even still how hard can it be eh. 🤪 just like Ikea. 😩 Looky that molding 🤩🤩 so crisp. I do have these too. I’m used to water slide decals and these things are?? Stickers and what looks like those run on transfers?? What is this cRaZy? 🤪🤪🤪 right one with both feet. The first few steps sees lots of putting together and no glue? Oh my, I just don’t get it. 😳 strangely addictive though. sanding off the nub ( there’s no flash to speak of ) bits is great as the plastic is so nice. It does really scratch the plastic though. I got around this by smoothing off the rough bits with Tamiya extra thin. this part was rough as a badgers Harris but with TET it looks great. I’ll be priming and painting any how but how I don’t know yet. Quick as you like all the chest parts came together. I guess after each section gets put together I can see what needs painting then I can dismantle and paint accordingly. It’s this the usual procedure with these kits? What slightly rough bits there were I sorted out with TET. Looking sassy. And you can see how the TET has worked it’s magic in this shot. Even though it’s freaking me out that I’m not gluing any of this together yet I’m loving that all the seams are in logical places. Like here on the head. Oh man this is ace!!! The instructions (I think) ask for stickers to be put on the eyes... screw that. 🧐 I’ll paint ‘em .... probably.. 🤩🥳 So here we are. Looking good. I’m really loving this so far even though it’s totally alien to me. Thanks for looking in hopefully it’s not too boring and if she turns out well others might be able to use this as a good reference point. 😇 Take care and any comments are welcome. Happy modelling. Johnny. 😃

A few pics of my Unicorn, it really is a fantastic kit to build and looks good in both forms but I like it best like this in Unicorn mode. Comments wellcome. Cheers Brian.

Bandai's newly released Super Star Destroyer in the slightly ridiculous scale of 1/100,000. Despite the tiny scale, the model is quite large for a release in the Vehicle Model range, measuring about 19cm long, althought the slender design makes it still feel quite small. The level of detail is almost as crazy as the scale - it's hard to believe injection moulding can achieve results like this. Painting was kept on the subtle side to avoid creating an out of scale appearence on something that's meant to be 19 km long. The build can be found here. Thanks for looking Andy

Hello Dears !! Just let me know if I'm in the right place for such a build !! I spent my week End at a Made in Asia convention with the kids !! it's not the first time, but I always wonder about these kits !! And yesterday, I jumped in the game and bought one !! I suppose that you both know these beastie, I mean the kit, not the kids !! But I did'nt know, I even did'nt know if there are rules in it or paint scheme or so ! Here are the sprues !! I will just have fun and try it !! What is for sure is these kits are damn good !! In no time, I've got this !! Tomorrow putty and sanding !! But sincerely putty is barely necessary !! Stunning !! Have a great modelling time ! Sincerely. CC

It is very rare I decide to share one of my builds online- just making them for my own fun mostly. This one I chose to make an exception on- it is still needing a couple of minor things such as adding the engine lights, a bit more weathering and decals, but when I put it on the stand last night it felt finished enough to share. It is the SDCC Edition B-Wing. I figure there were enough people building it to match the filming model so I gave mine two additional twists. The first is that I made it Red 7. There was some discussion a while back about how the wing stripes on the X-Wings could show numbers higher than the five the space allowed for, I thought gaping them would work so I used that on this fighter. I also though the long fuselage strip on the X-Wings would look nice on the main wing of this build so Red 7 was born. The Second was giving it a bit of history. The SDCC has a couple of missing panels at the bottom of the main wing with exposed greebly. the stock version of the kit has an exposed panel up at the top that the SDCC version has a plug for. I liked it open so I added some mechanical bits behind it. I then started thinking- why leave these two areas open. What I came up with was that this particular fighter was damaged in it's last battle. The mechanics did not have time to do a proper repair so the power feeds the blast tore apart and just ran a couple of bypasses along the outside instead. This to me gives a reason for those missing panels and sort of embraces the feel for the Rebels doing whatever it takes to get things battle ready without having the time or materials to do it in a fancy way. As mentioned there are still a couple of things I think still need to be done for this build but I am going to put in on the shelf for a while and just enjoy it a bit...

So even though the workbench here at HQ is backing up with Group Builds, I've decided to throw my hat in with Bandai's mighty Millennium Falcon - someone had to, right??!!! How excited to see the postie finally delivering this one.....I really can't wait to get stuck in. Bandai Millennium Falcon_1 by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Wait...……..wha??????? Bandai Millennium Falcon_2 by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Why of course, it's the mighty small Bandai Millennium Falcon 🤣 - I'm still saving the cents and raiding the children's future college funds to save up for the Perfect Grade edition. Bandai Millennium Falcon_3 by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr That's a regular-sized paint pot with it, not a five-litre tub! As the Captain himself says, she may not look like much kid, but she's got it where it counts.. 😎 Cheers and enjoy your builds. Dermot

I've had in my mind to do an X-Wing probably since the Star Wars films first came out, way back when I was a teenager! Finally I picked up the Bandai kit at a show a few months ago. For this one I just built the kit out the box to satisfy the itch 😉 Now to find a Y-Wing.......... Comments welcome Tim

Still needs a matte coat...

Bandai's latest addition to the Vehicle Model range, the Super Star Destroyer, at the somewhat eye watering scale of 1/100,000. I'll probably make a start on the build later tonight, but for now I'll post some sprue shots to show off Bandai's exceptional injection moulding skills. There are only two sprues for the SSD, along with a third for the standard Bandai stand (back in black again, rather than the more recent clear), with only 20 parts to make up the ship. The surface detail (here on the lower hull) is even finer than on the previous Star Destroyer. Lower engine section and aft hull extension. Upper half of the aft hull extension. Detailing on the upper hull. Slide moulded engines. The absolutely miniscule (about 3mm wide) bridge. That's it for now. The build (not that there's much to it) should begin later. Andy

I finished this model some months ago but I haven´t showed it in RFI yet. I waited for new camera equipment, but I am not sure if I am happy with it. The lighting looks a little bit off. The real colour lies between the first pictures and the 2 WIP pictures below, which I have taken before. I tried to recreate every tiny scratch and chip from the studio model. I hope you like it. Some pictures from the finished cockpit while it was in WIP:

Hi folks - I see there’s been a lot of A-wing related content on here recently so I hope you still like Rebel starfighters that have that particular designation😂 I’m building this Bandai kit in an effort to do something different. I’ve just built ww2 fighters since I got back into the hobby and wanted to do something that didn’t have camo on it. I’ve had this kit in my stash for months so this fit the bill... Instead of doing an A-wing with that colour scheme (you know the one) I wanted to do something that was abit different- as in not necessarily canon - so mine is going to be a blue a-wing - more in line with a war wary F 16 crossed with a P 47... if that makes sense... it will still be an A-Wing with those sweet sports car lines but just a bit funky. I saw this colour scheme displayed at a model show and thought that it looked amazing... so this will be my take on it... it's basically going to be blue and cream with a steel metal finish on the engine nacelles. So started ripping bits off the sprue: After a brief clean, they were ready for priming - gotta love Bandai 👍 I used tamiya fine primer for this - sprayed from an airbrush... After 20 minutes these guys are ready for paint. Constructed and painted the cockpit tub: Nowhere near as nice as other people’s efforts I’ve seen on here but it does the job... Forgot to take pictures of this next bit but basically I started with the main shell - upper and lower airframe and preshaded the panel lines with tamiya sea blue - which is a very dark green blue colour... then put down a very thinned cost of the base colour which was white with a tiny drop of tamiya medium blue - and a tiny drop of flat earth... for the blue parts I did the same process using a mix of tamiya medium blue and flat blue... I was really happy with the blue tone I got here - it’s a very nice colour - deep but vibrant. I was happy with the cream colour too - it came out more a grey blue but it works... The following night I masked some bits off and started on the metal finish parts. I used Vallejo metal colour for these - colour is steel. I tried to highlight the panel lines with dull aluminum- used tamiya x21a to thin it but it didn’t work particularly well... To judge how I was going I put the bird together- as it’s a snap fit, I can do that... Coming along but really I wasn’t happy with those engine nacelles- it was the colour I wanted but not the result. I wanted them to shine a bit more. So the next day, I hit them with some Alclad airframe aluminum... just focusing on the centre of the panels... Much better - really like how these turned out - pretty much exactly what I was after - which almost never happens so... result👍 That's it for now. Amazing how quickly you can advance these kits - basically no build time - just painting happiness 😀 More coming soon... Cheers John

Finally I have finished one of my favourite starfighters. Here is the WIP-thread: My goal is always to be as close as I can to the studio model, what is not always easy because this 1/72 model is so much smaller. I hope you like it. Thanks. Green Leader standing by.

This is my special Ops Geara Doga. I made quite a few additions to this kit and really enjoyed the build. All comments welcome....

This is Bandai's little 1/144 Striker, from the U-Wing/TIE box set. It's designed along the same lines as their Vehicle Model series, with only a few parts and no clear moulding for the canopy, but it's still highly detailed, being essentially a scaled-down version of the 72nd kit. I finished this one in a scheme heavily influenced by the red TIE Interceptors used by the Royal Guard in various EU comics. Paint was my usual steel-over-black recipe for the panels, while the red was Gunze red over Gunze russet. Thanks for looking Andy

After seeing the awesome builds by RPC and Wouter, I decided to take the plunge and throw a bit of glue and paint at my first Gundam model.. I picked the 1/44 scale RCX-76-02 Guncannon, Mainly due to its old school military look, and the idea that I would alter the colour scheme from the customary grey blue to something a little more 'earthy'. so without further adieu I present my version of the RCX-76-02.

Hi Folks, Aile Strike is my fav. Gundam. I'n not a huge Seed series fan but Aile Strike look always fantastic to me. I've buil the mg version before. Now its the time to start the beast

Hello everyone well i finished the walker, my very first sci-fi build. Wont be my last one i can tell you that much. I built Bandai’s great little 1/48 AT-ST as a Rebellion captured walker. Its in a temperate camouflage for a moon/planet similar to Endor. I figured instead of a generic scout, it was modified as a Long Range Recon platform with extra sensors and commo antennas. I added a U.V. Searchlight under the chin guns & an anti-personnel Mg on the ring near the hatch. And grenade dischargers on the temples of the walker. There is a stowage rack on the rear of the head and a 3rd crew member - commander’s seat in the cockpit. I hope it meets everyone’s expectations ? Feel free to ask questions, leave comments, or jokes if you please. Dennis

I couldn't resist the temptation of starting this so I just put the inner frame together, an amazing bit of kit with so many amazing details tucked away.

Hi All, My interpretation of the Blockade Runner from Episode IV Bandai's immaculate box scale tantive IV Happy Modelling , Ian

Star Wars Hangar Crew & Equipment 1:72 GreenStrawberry That low-budget cult classic from LucasFilm is back again, this time with accessories to liven up any diorama that you may wish to create with your massive stash of Bandai kits, or indeed any other 1:72 Star Wars kit. Thinking of it, they'd be pretty useful with any 1:72 Sci-Fi model, with maybe a little adjustment to remove any of the more obvious Star Wars design cues. Each set arrives in a small card box, with the figures in a tiny ziplok bag, a sheet of instructions where necessary doing the job of protecting them from rattling about too much too. The detail is good (remember that they're blown up to approx. 5x real size on my screen), with the casting blocks sensibly placed and a few wisps of flash from where the moulds have been cut to enable casting of parts with gaps, such as legs etc. The range is expanding as we speak (type?), and this is just the first of the range, as follows: Hangar Crew Vol.I (72001) Pilot with mechanics on inspection Containing three figures, two of which have one separate arm, and one having two separate arms, you get a rather heroic-looking moustachioed pilot figure with chest out and a wide stance, a chap with the SW equivalent of a clipboard perusing same, and the third chap is stooping whilst possibly leaning against something. Hangar Crew Vol.II (72002) A-Wing and Y-Wing pilots Three resin pilots discussing tactics or previous battles using the tried-and-tested method involving hands and the waving around thereof. One pilot is kneeling, and has a separate arm, while the others are standing and gesticulating in their flight gear. All three have the requisite helmets for their rides – two Y-wing jockeys and one A-Wing flier. Hangar Crew Vol.III (72003) mechanics and power droid A 1:72 Gonk droid! Sure, you get two mechanics, one striding toward something, the other kneeling to inspect something with his monster clipboard, but you also get a 1:72 Gonk Droid! He's made up of top and bottom halves, plus a pair of little short legs with tissuebox feet. Awesome! Hangar Equipment Vol.III (06718-1/72) This is a simple set that just requires the casting blocks sawing off and making good. It contains four items commonly found in hangars in the Star Wars universe. An inexpertly stacked block of those funny Holocron-shaped packing cubes, a large ribbed box, a smaller stackable "monitor stand" box, and a bundle of cylinders on a palette. Conclusion This will take much of the hard work out of building a layered diorama of a hangar bay, as it's usually the background objects and their candid nature that makes for a good diorama. There is also a Maintenance ramp that will look superb in the background, which we hope to review soon. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

YT-1300 Millennium Falcon Perfect Grade FruitPack (FP-03) 1:72 GreenStrawberry Bandai have had the license for all things styrene and Star Wars in the Far East since the reawakening of the franchise, and have produced some truly amazing snap-together kits that have more detail than many "proper" model kits, and these are now being licensed by Revell for wider distribution to us westerners. Their Perfect Grade Millennium Falcon is a tour-de-force in plastic engineering, offering a 1:72 dinner plate sized Millennium Falcon as it appears in the progenitor of the series, Star Wars A New Hope as it became known once it was joined by other entries in the original trilogy. GreenStrawberry are clearly SW fans, and have released a substantial number of sets for the various kits, including the big Falcon. Now they're offering the sets in a super-set, which gives you all three and offers a discount on the individual purchase price. If you're going to splash out on the big Falcon, you either go big or go home, so why not? The set arrives in a thick card envelope with the details on the front on a white sticker. Inside are the three individual sets in the usual GS themed dark grey, green and red, each with a header card, the Photo-Etch (PE), instructions and any ancillary parts hidden within a resealable clear foil envelope. The following sets are included: Exterior (06318-1/72) Contained on a single large fret, this set includes six double-layered grilles for the aft deck exhausts, plus detail parts for within the vents that can just be seen through the grilles. The two lateral docking bay tunnels have their vents augmented with new two-layer grilles, and the upper hatch that is used to retrieve Luke from under Cloud City on Bespin is given a new irising shutter, and two hand-holds to the sides. More vents and exhausts on these areas are also detailed with a covered fan and perforated panel beneath the grilles. On the margin between the cockpit glazing and tunnel, the prominent grating is replaced with a fine PE part; a curved part is added to the right mandible; the nav lights are drilled and given a surround on the tips of the mandibles and in the back of the space between them a pair of steering-wheel shaped parts replace the kit detail. Finally, the base of the dish is fitted with a new set of grab-handle shaped parts around its edges. Landing Gear (06418-1/72) Supplied on two sheets, this set replaces the styrene landing gear bay doors and those perforated "anklets" that each leg sports. It also includes bay door actuators, and details for inside the crew access ramp, plus a ceiling panel that is fitted after a hump inside that area is removed, and holes are drilled to accommodate the four pairs of ceiling lights in the panel. Cockpit & Gun Wells (06518-1/72) Consisting of a fret of PE plus a pre-printed self-adhesive representation of the rear of the cockpit, the upgrades begin with an overhead console attached to the canopy interior, with a number of those odd protractor-like controls you see Han and Chewie fiddling with, as well as more on the main console. The comfy front seats are given new PE tuck & roll panels in their centre, while the more Spartan rear seats are fitted with new details too. The rear bulkhead is a new PE part with a laminated door frame and a door fitted behind, plus the stick-on pre-printed detail for your use if you see fit. The bulkhead part is then attached to the rear of the cockpit area before it is inserted in the hull. The gun emplacements are given a fairly comprehensive refit, removing the seats from their inaccurate mountings and retaining the upper half, then putting a new four-part floor in the well, a raised gantry for the seat, which uses the previously removed seat base to prop it clear of the floor; new controls for the guns; cushion detail for the seat; foot pedals and control box below the controls; a hatch ring; access ladder disappearing into the ship; other controls on the wall and ceiling, and new ceiling panel insert to finish off the area. Conclusion Lots of goodies here for the detailer that takes an amazing kit and makes it even more amazing without any serious hacking away at the styrene, with a healthy discount on buying them separately thrown in for good measure. Review sample courtesy of

I haven't built a Gundam in what seems like ages so I thought I would have a go at the very bling RG Strike Freedom. This is my 3rd RG kit and they always amaze me with the detail and engineering that goes into them. I started this on of with building the gold frame because it must be painted a better gold. So as a start I have brushed on some of the AK wax stuff onto the three gold runners (with no priming) to see who it looks and sticks. The hope is it works and will give a nice pale gold that I can brush onto the frame and not stick together all the moving parts. If the AK wax doesn't work I will try the GW gold paint. I have a few projects on the go at the moment so not sure how long this is going to take to build.

I was luckiy enough to grad one of these when they briefly came into stock at Hannants. This is the Revell distributed version. The only difference in the box is a small revell sticker on the back , otherwise its the premium edition of the Bandai kit with the leds and etched parts. Its a Beautiful kit with spectacular details. I made life a bit easier for myself by removing alot of the push fit connections and using Tamiya extra thin. Its a real time bandit , especially the paintjob with hundreds of tiny decals all over , and i still have not added them all yet. If you are a Star wars Fan and are thinking of getting one , do it!

CR90 Corvette a.k.a. Blockade Runner a.k.a. Tantive IV Some of you may have seen the sprue shots of the new blockade runner I posted in the Bandai discussion thread. Well, I wasn't intending to start it just yet, but since the sprues were laying around on the bench after taking the photos, one thing led to another, and here we are. I also wasn't intending to show any build photos, as the box scale kits only have a handfull of parts and very simple construction, but in the end I took a few shots of the build so I'll post a brief construction run-through before getting on to the painting. The main hull is split vertically, but the majority of the seam is covered by other pieces later on The lower hull, which incorporates the bottom of the cockpit, then clips in place. You can see that they've included (or not included to be accurate) the missing escape pods, so the kit represents a post capture Tantive VI. The upper hull clips on in the same way as the lower hull. The cockpit face and end caps are then added. On all the parts I lightly reamed out the holes for the connection pins to lessen the tight fit, the added a drop of glue to keep everything secure. Most of the parts joined without gaps, but there are a couple around the neck area that will need a smear of filler. The engines are a triple layed construction, with the lower cluster added first. The three engined mid-cluster then clips in place, with the upper cluster added last. There are panels for the top, bottom and sides of the engine assembly which finish off that area, but I'm leaving these off for now as I want to paint each engine cluster separately. The only other parts to add are the small gun turrets and the top radar dish. The whole thing comes in at around 5" (12 ½cm) in length. It doesn't sound all the big, but it seems a lot larger in person than I was expecting. It's certainly the largest kit in the Vehicle Model range so far. This release includes one of the newer clear stands, which I think are an improvement over the older black ones. It's hard to hide the sprue gate marks, but the clear plastic looks a bit more elegant. It would be nice if they'd release a set of these stands to replace the older ones. As I mentioned above, I've kept the engine section loose for now so I can get access for painting. That brings us around to the main part of this wip which will be the painting and weathering. Before that though, I'll need to decide exactly what it is I'll be representing. What it won't be is the Tantive IV. There have been a few CR90's across the films and tv shows but the've shown up most frequently in Rebels. It's a couple of examples from that show that I'm considering for this build. The first one is Liberator, which was the command ship of the Rebel Phoenix cell. It's a similar base colour to Tantive IV, but with blue accents and a grey engine section. The second one has similar colours, but with a different marking pattern. The white triangle on the cockpit on this one would tie in well with the similar marking on the Phoenix Squadron A-Wing I built a while back. The red trim adds a nice highlight too. It's interesting to note that the digital model of the CR90 created for Rebels replicates the missing escape pods from the Tantive. I'm not sure why they did that, but it saves me from having to replace the missing ones. At the moment I'm leaning towards the one with the red highlights, but I'm always open to persuasion. Andy