BANDAI 1/12 scale Imperial Storm Trooper

[The Chief Smeg]

 

Part 1

 

 

So, a new WIP for me to start and then leave partially completed because I've still not got around to buying the materials I need for the display and for my R2 kit.  Anyway I was eager to start this one because I've finally got my hands on a compressor and airbrush so I can paint the parts I want to a little easier, I guessed this would be a good kit to start with. 

I should add at this point that I have been chronicling this one for a while now, waiting until I actually had some real progress to how before posting, but as with all my projects I have precious little spare time so diving out to my 'Nest' in the garage does not happen as much as I would like. 

First things first let's flip over the build mat - can't build a Storm Trooper on the 'metric' side can we!

 

 

Here are the obligatory spruce shots. 

 

 

 

 

 

And this is just the water slide transfer sheet, but the plan is to use as few of these as possible

 

 

I decided to prime and top coat the black parts whilst they are still on the spruces. For this I'm using Vallejo Black Primer. 
I snipped off the obvious white parts 

 

 

and gave everything a coating of primer. 

 

 

Then I panicked as I realised I had just painted the translucent eye shields
So I snipped these off the spire and quickly rubbed a cotton bud soaked in airbrush cleaner over it to remove the paint. Phew! 

 

 

Now there is lesson number 1 for me: Double check the sprue!

 

I was struggling with a bit of paint spatter and clogging at first whilst I worked out the best air pressure. I can spray with a full size gun so I rather arrogantly decided I would be able to airbrush with no problems. 

So the spattering was lesson number 2: Learn some humility you big head!

 

 

Got a better layer of primer down in the end that I was happy with. 

Edited February 19, 2017 by The Chief Smeg
Problems with images not displaying

[The Chief Smeg]

Part 2

Primer is dry so let's add the topcoat to some of the black parts. I decided to paint the body suit and hands in Vallejo Grey Black 

 

 

Once my Trooper is built I'm going to give him an all over nuln oil wash and then dry brush some of the raised areas first with the Grey Black again and then with a lighter grey.

[The Chief Smeg]

Part 3
Now onto the parts I have decided to detail paint before assembly. 

The helmet sides have some sort of grey section so I mixed some dark grey and applied it, unfortunately it dried a lot darker so I'll dry brush some mid grey over the top once it has dried fully. 

 

 

The black insert for the helmet has some grey sections that also needed painting and again the dark grey dried far too dark for my tastes so I wiped it off completely and repainted it mid grey. The larger grey areas at the rear of the helmet are going to have to be covered with the supplied decals as there is some detail there that I just cannot reproduce in paint. 

 

 

The 'Bum Roll' has been hand painted with Vallejo Model Air Mid Grey

 

 

 

As have the button details on the Stomach piece insert. For the blue buttons I used Model Colour Imperial Blue and you can also see the part of the helmet I hand touched in with Vallejo Metal Air Aluminium to give the little filters a bit of colour. 

 

 

 

I also used the Imperial Blue (kind of fitting now I come to write this) on the vents on the sides of the helmet. To do this I used a technique AndyRM101 had mentioned in his Speeder Scout build where he painted the area and then wiped off the excess on the surface leaving the indentations holding the colour. This wasn't as straightforward as I had originally hoped and I had to strip the mask from the sprue to be able to handle it properly and had a good two attempts before I was satisfied. I also painted the Grey parts of the vent that sort of covers the nose. 

 

 

 

This is is it for now, next update is likely to be at the weekend. 

[Bigdave22014]

I've just built on of these, but the only paint I used was for the buttons. Still contemplating whether to weather or not.

Lucky save with the eye lenses!

[The Chief Smeg]

2 hours ago, Bigdave22014 said:

I've just built on of these, but the only paint I used was for the buttons. Still contemplating whether to weather or not.

Lucky save with the eye lenses!

You are not kidding about the lucky save! I had visions of having to scrape the paint off and then spending an age polishing. 

 

Im not weathering mine, the planned display is based on an imperial craft or outpost. I just need to find a model shop that has stock of styrene sheet and box section for me to choose from. Only one near me is in Hull which is 20 minutes the wrong way, unless there is a decent model shop in Sheffield (I'm working there at the moment) - hobbycraft don't seem to carry stock in store. 

[S5 modeller]

Nice work.

Where in Sheffield are you working? 

There is marcways models in attercliffe not far from meadowhall. 

 

Matt

[The Chief Smeg]

I'm right near Meadowhall at Forge Masters. I'll look marcways up and drop by in my lunch. Many thanks for the tip Matt!

Edited February 23, 2017 by The Chief Smeg

[S5 modeller]

No problem. 

[The Chief Smeg]

went today Matt and spent far to much money 

 

I'd driven that way out of town before but only as far as the other model shop that has closed - should have kept going!

Edited February 23, 2017 by The Chief Smeg

[BrotherMole]

Looks good and I'm looking forward to seeing your progress. I quite like the look of these 1/12 kits (a K-2SO particularly) but as beginner I worry about this large scale stuff in that there is nowhere to 'hide' a mistake, all of your painting needs to be spot on because everything is so (relatively speaking) - large.

 

 Your painting is looking super tidy Chief - keep it up.

[The Chief Smeg]

Thanks Mole, I'm relatively new to painting things, all the building I did as a kid was OOB: it was all about the construction rather than the finishing. I now love the creativity of the painting (and learning weathering), it's a very relaxing experience - right up until the airbrush clogs and you also realise you have just painted a clear part!

[The Chief Smeg]

 

Well this guy stalled for a while didn't he!

managed to bag some time in the garage to do a bit more. Helmet was assembled and I'm happy with the result, but I forgot to add the water slide decal to the back as I was building which is what I'd planned so that is to do

 

 

that mark on the right hand side is fluff (looks like paint). 

 

Next i I assembled the torso section that I'd pre painted

 

 

Then I put together the chest and groin so I could join things up

 

 

After that he just sort of fell together

 

 

i do have some parts of the vinyl spruce left over with which I have no idea what to do; they are obviously joints of some sort but I don't know where they would be used 

CP2 I've circled them

 

Anyway, regardless of extra joints I now have the weapons to subtly weather. The intention is to display this guy in a setting with an Imperial theme (specifically a shooting range at the academy or in the Death Star) so I am also going to build up my Mouse droid as well as construct a display base and wall - already got a image of a target for him to miss

 

 

no idea how long this part is going to take though. 

 

Thanks for looking,  Leigh. 

[Pete in Lincs]

Nice.

8 hours ago, The Chief Smeg said:

After that he just sort of fell together

I like that.

 

To me he looks a bit too clean.

Some markings might break up the

freshly minted look without weathering?

[langy]

Those 'extra' vinyl parts are for the other models, it's a generic sprue that fits all the figures..(at least i'm sure i read that somewhere),

 

loving how clean he is,

i'm throwing together the Sandtrooper, you can't beat a 'dirty trooper'.

 

[The Chief Smeg]

45 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

To me he looks a bit too clean.

Some markings might break up the

freshly minted look without weathering?

 

He needs to look freshly minted but I agree he is a bit shiny. I might give him a semi Matt varnish after I've added the missing water slide decals. Maybe add some markings to denote a training cadre. 

Edited April 17, 2017 by The Chief Smeg

[The Chief Smeg]

19 minutes ago, langy said:

Those 'extra' vinyl parts are for the other models, it's a generic sprue that fits all the figures..(at least i'm sure i read that somewhere),

 

Thanks for that, I must have gone back through the instructions a dozen times trying to work out what I'd done wrong. 

 

20 minutes ago, langy said:

'm throwing together the Sandtrooper, you can't beat a 'dirty trooper'.

 

 

Now he is a filthy little fella isn't he. I rather fancy building Sand Trooper now that I've almost finished the Stormtrooper, I'll definitely be giving him a very heavy weathering.  Yours is looking terrific. I notice that the helmet is slightly different to mine - the black "eye shade" thingy. 

[langy]

Thanks buddy, He's getting there slowly, 

 

go on you'll love it, it makes a nice change from a 'clean trooper'

 

 The sandy seems to come with a different 'helmet' trim, 

which is good as you can model it to replicate one of the various Sandtroopers in the film, 

 

It would appear that the extra parts are on the bottom of the sprue with the 'backpack' on..next to the pauldron..in the bottom middle of this pic, you also get a secondary helmet top to create the movable trim piece...

 

I'm aiming to finish him to look like a trooper called 'Davin Felth', 

there's a wealth of info about the sandtroopers here,

 

http://www.looksirdroids.com/index.htm

 

Edited April 17, 2017 by langy
spacing + Additional Content added

[The Chief Smeg]

I see the bit you mean. I also followed the link and read about Davin - you definitely need to weather him heavily then don't you. 

[SmegJr]

When you're not sure if these are the droids you're looking for... 

 

Edited April 18, 2017 by SmegJr
Punctuation

[The Chief Smeg]

5 hours ago, SmegJr said:

When you're not sure if these are the droids you're looking for... 

 

This is genuinely a picture taken by my son (aka The Junior Smeg) and I had no idea he had done this lol.

 

thankyou. Have you tidied your room yet?

[The Chief Smeg]

So, time for a little update. 

As I mentioned earlier in the wip I plan to also display the Trooper with a Mouse Droid; thanks to Warren at Tirydium I got this

 

 

I dug out the mouse droid components and gave them a good wash and allowed them dry. 

 

 

The two green bits of wire are supposed to be cut into 3mm lengths and stuck in place. My plan was to cut the pins out of an old VGA cable I could have sworn was lying around in my box of old leads and computer bits but it refused to show itself so I was actually forced to use the kit parts - more of this later. 

 

Started by removing the wheels from the sprue and de flashing them and the body. 

 

 

just in shot you can also see the handles of the pliers I would be using to cut the wire - all nice and rusty because I have what is known in the engineering world as "red fingers" - honestly, I could rust a melon. 

 

Next I cleaned up the body

 

 

 

 

there did not seem to be any pin holes that needed filling in the resin so I was pretty chuffed at the condition. 

 

Got the wheels glued in place and it was still all looking rather pleasing

 

 

All that was left to do was drill out the pilots that already exist in the top and trim the wire to length and glue it in. This simple task was accompanied by a lot of swearing as the sections I cut would ping off all over the garage or simply pop out of the tweezers and vanish just as they were being lowered into place.  Got there in the end though

 

 

i glued them in place with too much CA so ended up mopping up the excess with baking soda. 

 

I then filed the tops flat flat ready for the first coat of primer

 

 and here we are. 

 

I still need to do a lot of cleaning up here and there, especially on and around the little wire details I had cut that I'm not totally happy with. Im also contemplating colours for this little fella, awfully tempted to drop a stripe of some sort down his centreline and I may yet spray him silver and do a bit of chipping on his bumpers and corners. Watch this space. 

Edited April 29, 2017 by The Chief Smeg
Dreadful autocorrect errors removed

[The Chief Smeg]

After a good look over my little mouse I can see that the primer coat has shown up a lot of areas that need filling and sanding, as well as a lot of work to be done on and between the spikes

 

 

and to be honest I had thought I had managed to sand the edges of the 'bumper' smooth, this picture shows that is definitely not the case. 

 

Looks like I'll be busy with the superglue, baking soda and sanding sticks. 

Edited April 29, 2017 by The Chief Smeg

[The Chief Smeg]

So I managed to splat a bit of filler on this guy

 

 

and then he sat like this for weeks because I was knocking seven bells out of the interior of my garage to make a dedicated build and paint area. My plans got slightly away from me and I ended up racking out the entire garage and re-jigging the whole interior. It's much better now and I actually found time today to sit down and sand this little guy and then re Prime and topcoat him

 

 

you can also see the results of a minor highlight to the 'bumper'. Also had a go at the other side 

 

with patterns inspired by these two guys

 

 

i also put some Vallejo washes over it that I disliked and wiped off again which made a complete mess. 

 

 

Tomorrow I'm going to Clean up as best I can and then put a gloss coat on before playing with the ultimate weathering washes to see if I can get a better effect going. I am in danger of actually finishing a model soon if I can grab some more 'play time'.