Jump to content

Search the Community

Showing results for tags 'BANDAI'.

  • Search By Tags

    Type tags separated by commas.
  • Search By Author

Content Type


Calendars

  • Community Calendar
  • Group Builds
  • Model Show Calendar

Forums

  • Forum Functionality & Forum Software Help and Support
    • FAQs
    • Help & Support for Forum Issues
    • New Members
  • Aircraft Modelling
    • Military Aircraft Modelling Discussion by Era
    • Civil Aircraft Modelling Discussion by Era
    • Work in Progress - Aircraft
    • Ready for Inspection - Aircraft
    • Aircraft Related Subjects
  • AFV Modelling (armour, military vehicles & artillery)
    • Armour Discussion by Era
    • Work in Progress - Armour
    • Ready for Inspection - Armour
    • Armour Related Subjects
    • large Scale AFVs (1:16 and above)
  • Maritime Modelling (Ships and subs)
    • Maritime Discussion by era
    • Work in Progress - Maritime
    • Ready for Inspection - Maritime
  • Vehicle Modelling (non-military)
    • Vehicle Discussion
    • Work In Progress - Vehicles
    • Ready For Inspection - Vehicles
  • Science Fiction & RealSpace
    • Science Fiction Discussion
    • RealSpace Discussion
    • Work In Progress - SF & RealSpace
    • Ready for Inspection - SF & RealSpace
  • Figure Modelling
    • Figure Discussion
    • Figure Work In Progress
    • Figure Ready for Inspection
  • Dioramas, Vignettes & Scenery
    • Diorama Chat
    • Work In Progress - Dioramas
    • Ready For Inspection - Dioramas
  • Reviews, News & Walkarounds
    • Reviews
    • Current News
    • Build Articles
    • Tips & Tricks
    • Walkarounds
  • Modelling using 3D Printing
    • 3D Printing Basics
    • 3D Printing Chat
    • 3D Makerspace
  • Modelling
    • Group Builds
    • The Rumourmonger
    • Manufacturer News
    • Other Modelling Genres
    • Britmodeller Yearbooks
    • Tools & Tips
  • General Discussion
    • Chat
    • Shows
    • Photography
    • Members' Wishlists
  • Shops, manufacturers & vendors
    • Aerocraft Models
    • Air-craft.net
    • Amarket Model
    • A.M.U.R. Reaver
    • Atlantic Models
    • Beacon Models
    • BlackMike Models
    • Bring-It!
    • Copper State Models
    • Freightdog Models
    • Hannants
    • fantasy Printshop
    • Fonthill Media
    • HMH Publications
    • Hobby Paint'n'Stuff
    • Hypersonic Models
    • Iliad Design
    • Hobby Colours & Accessories
    • KLP Publishing
    • L'Arsenal 2.0
    • Kingkit
    • MikroMir
    • Model Designs
    • Modellingtools.co.uk
    • Maketar Paint Masks
    • Marmaduke Press Decals
    • Parkes682Decals
    • Paulus Victor Decals
    • Red Roo Models
    • RES/KIT
    • Sovereign Hobbies
    • Special Hobby
    • Test Valley Models
    • Tiger Hobbies
    • Ultimate Modelling Products
    • Videoaviation Italy
    • Wingleader Publications
  • Archive
    • 2007 Group Builds
    • 2008 Group Builds
    • 2009 Group Builds
    • 2010 Group Builds
    • 2011 Group Builds
    • 2012 Group Builds
    • 2013 Group Builds

Find results in...

Find results that contain...


Date Created

  • Start

    End


Last Updated

  • Start

    End


Filter by number of...

Joined

  • Start

    End


Group


AIM


MSN


Website URL


ICQ


Yahoo


Jabber


Skype


Location


Interests

  1. Star Destroyer Kuat Imperial Class Bandai Box Scale (1/14,500) Here's the SD, after a rather speedy 4 day build. Lovely kit, albeit rather on the small side (11cm long). It's sitting on the supplied stand for now, but I'll make something more presentable for it in the future. You can find the brief wip here Thanks for looking Andy
  2. Well I failed to resist buying one of these excellent little kits after seeing Andy work his magic on one. I picked it up from the post office this morning and although I was expecting a small box: I wasn't expecting it to be this small lol: And I couldn't hold off and started it immediately. I started at 8:40, as the time data for the picture told me. By 9:15 it looked like this: I have to say if the plastic was moulded in a darker grey colour then I wouldn't have bothered to paint it. As it happens I couldn't leave it as is so I reached for various Car primers. I started with a base coat of Etch primer as it is the darkest. Sprayed from a good distance so as to mist it on. Then I blasted on spots of white primer from a greater distance and then used an in-between distance to do the same with a normal Grey primer to blend it all together. And by 9:30 I had it finished: It is a bit spotty up close but from a normal viewing distance it looks good. Anyway that's my first Bandai kit and I have a feeling it wont be my last. But I have a NASCAR to be getting on with so... TTFN Ashley
  3. Imperial Star Destroyer Bandai Box Scale Don't worry, I haven't forgotten the X-Wing. This will just be a quick side project. There's only a handful of parts in the box, so I'll just run through the main assembly steps 22 parts in total for the destroyer, plus a poseable stand. The instructions are printed on the inside of the box lid Construction starts by adding the side walls to the upper hull. Like all Bandai's stuff, this is snap fix, although I added a little glue here and there to strengthen the joints After that, the docking bay clicks into place Followed by the lower hull. It starts to look like a SD now The rear panel's got some very fine detailing on it. I'll be leaving the engine bells off for painting The upper hull superstructure is built up from 5 main parts, plus a couple of detail panels on the rear tower Then the superstructure simply clips onto the upper hull Some of the detailing on this is pretty special considering the size. If Bandai do decide to scale this up, then the results should be spectacular. I'll post the final build shots later on Andy
  4. I've I already started on the walker and have nearly finished it. I've only built the legs and the hull so far but am painting the cockpit at the moment. Never posted my models being built on here before, neither anywhere else so I hope this goes well.
  5. Start of the my favourite gundam series mecha... Mg Zeta Gundam. I will paint all the kit with original paint schema. May be i can add some gray details. Start with head, added some grays for mask and head. Some chrome alclad details for the vulcans.
  6. This was build for the "Made in Britain" GB, but I thought I'd post it here as well. This is the old Bandai 1:16 scale kit. I'd built the Steam Roller version a couple of years ago and have had this kit in the stash ever since. My original intention was to add lighting to the bulbs around the roof, but in the end I released this was waaay too difficult to achieve so sensibly gave that up! The kit comes with a gold-plated sprue, but that got stripped off and the pipework and features repainted with Alclad paints. This allowed a variety of colours and textures from Pale Gold to Polished Brass to Copper, Aluminium and Steel. The main modification to the kit is around the dynamo at the front. The kit part is severely lacking in detail Close up of the dynamo. I've added cables from the control panel up into the roof to simulate how the lights would be powered. Here you can see the cables that would have delivered power to the lights, with a scratch built junction box joining two of the cables I've just realised on seeing this photo that I've fogotten a decal that should go on the end of the dynamo boss Here is the box - its a biggie! This is the dynamo as it comes in the kit and this is what a typical dynamo should look like and this is what I ended up with Having completed this, I'm really pleased with how it looks... its actually "pretty" How I EVER thought I could light all those bulbs...
  7. T-70 X-Wing Fighter Ralph McQuarrie Concept Bandai 1/72 The T-70's done. A quick(ish) build painted in the colours from Ralph McQuarrie's concept artwork. Surprisingly, I didn't think it was quite up to the standards of Bandai's previous releases. Not a bad kit at all, just not quite as good as the others. Despite that, I'm sure I'll get another one to do in the movie scheme. The wip can be found here Thanks for looking Andy
  8. First Order Stormtrooper Star Wars The Force Awakens Bandai 1/12 Here's Bandai's First Order Trooper, finished as an Officer, courtesy of the added shoulder pauldron. The base roughly represents the forest setting on Takodana during the attack on Maz's castle. You may notice the small snake (who I'm calling Marvin) hiding in the undergrowth. He may remain on the base, or he may slither off in shame at the poor quality of his sculpting. The wip's here Thanks For looking Andy
  9. Wing Gundam EW Build Review Colonies Liberation Organisation Mobile Suit XXXG-01W 1:144 Real Grade (RG) Bandai Shane sent this new release over for review, which you can find here if you're interested - there's a load of multi-coloured sprue pics before I set to cutting the bits off. It's number 20 from the Real Grade grade range, and is the latest in a growing range of highly detailed Mecha kits that must number in their hundreds if you cover all grades and scales I've built a trio of Bandai's Star Wars kits, which are equivalent to the High Grade (HG) kits, so although I've not built a Gundam before, I'm familiar with the style of assembly, and in awe of their engineering ingenuity. This is my first Gundam, so I'm going to take it easy on the build, doing little or no pre-painting of parts before assembly. I'm easily confused these days anyway, so I don't want to try to run before I can walk in the genre, so I'll limit my "painting" to a little light weathering and maybe some detail painting after construction. Let the battle commence! First up are the leggies, which have the RG skeleton at their core. In case you didn't read the review, they're co-moulded on the sprue so that the ABS and Styrene parts don't adhere to each other, leaving you with a part that is mobile. The pic below shows the left leg in the relaxed straight position, while the right leg is in (almost) fully extended kneeling/leaping position, which shows the huge range of movement they have built-in. Sure, you might not want to play with them even though you can, but it gives you a massive range of dynamic poses that you can show off the finished article. I've not yet put any of the armour parts on yet so you can see the skeleton, but that's the next step. I'm also not sure how much of the skellington will be visible after (I suspect very little), so I've only cleaned up the sprue gate marks, and left the moulding seams. On the subject of sprue gates, there are quite a few, as there were two injection processes, one for each plastic type, but the factory have made a neat job of removing the first injection sprues, leaving only a little pip to clean up. I might be wasting my time cleaning them anyway, but this is all new territory, so I won't lose any sleep over it. I shall hopefully learn from any mistakes I make on the way Having just had to mark all the points of movement, it's quite incredible that this is all fitted into a part that is barely 7cm tall when stood up. Hats off the designers at Bandai Sorry about the dust all over the parts... didn't notice until later
  10. Wing Gundam EW Colonies Liberation Organisation Mobile Suit XXXG-01W 1:144 Real Grade (RG) Bandai Gundam is a word that has been heard more frequently here in the UK in the last few years, but it has been a household name in Japan since the late 80s when the first cartoons/Animé burst onto TV with youngsters piloting huge robots known as Mecha. Spectacular battles in space or on planets are the watchword, and a familiar theme runs through the stories of a young oik that rebels against authority but has undeniable skill when behind the controls of a Gundam, whilst not always being entirely comfortable with the job. The main character is also usually terrible when it comes to the ladies, tripping over his tongue whenever romantic situations crop up. Gundam Wing, or Mobile Suit Gundam Wing to give it its full title was released in 1995, with 49 episodes of action, spawning games, books and a couple of movies that retell the stories in a more concise manner. It was very popular in the US, and was dubbed for the English speaking market, although it is sometimes a bit "odd" in places, due to either the writers losing the plot (quite literally), or the mouth movements not permitting a more accurate rendition. XXXG-01W is a Doctor J's creation after a partnership breaks down between the designers, so bears a striking resemblance to the original Gundam Zero in form and function. Referred to as Gundam 01 is has an additional Bird Mode for atmospheric flight to aid mobility further. Made of the rather cornily titled Gundaniam alloy it is tough as old boots, and can weather almost any attack, which makes for some rather explosive encounters with the enemy. The Kit If you're not familiar with Bandai's excellent toolings, you have missed out, and will no doubt be quite impressed with the finesse and technical skills applied to these complex models. There are a number of grades and scales to cater for different tastes and skill sets, but all kits can be built without glue or paint if you so wish. The multi-coloured sprues are impressive to behold when coming from the more restrained aircraft modelling world, and there are sometimes up to four or five colours, and even types of plastic on the same sprue. The Real Grade kits are super-detailed and as real as an imaginary giant robot could be, including a fiendishly clever working skeleton at the heart of the model onto which the other assemblies are layered. On one sprue are two types of plastic co-moulded or double-shot (I prefer the former, as the plastic doesn't fuse together) Polystyrene and ABS to create working limbs that make for a poseable model once completed. They really are incredible, and bring a smile to most faces when you realise what you're looking at, especially when you consider the comparatively diminutive size of the 1:144 kits that build up to around 6" or 15cm. As these kits are available primarily for the Japanese and Far East market, the majority of the box text and almost all of the instruction manuals are in Japanese, so will be largely unintelligible to us Westerners. The diagrams are excellent however, and Construction begins with the skeleton, which has a number of scrap diagrams that tell you exactly which parts to cut and where to cut them, because the detail of the skeleton is such that the uninitiated might accidentally cut a key lump off by mistake. There are also little pairs of triangles to draw your attention to the correct orientation of parts, which should again prevent any errors. Finally, there are occasional arrows that indicate the front of the model so that all the limbs end up on the right way. More advanced modellers will probably paint the outer parts before adding them to the skeleton, but keeping a careful note of which parts go where will be necessary until you are suitably experienced. The legs are built up first around the articulated skeleton parts, and they attach to the "skirt" of the lower body while the torso is built up, again around the skeleton assembly that provides shoulder, waist and hip movement, plus a double-ended ball-joint for the neck, which will be familiar if you have built one of their Star Wars kits, which are equivalent to the High Grade (HG) range. The torso is joined to the waist and several side parts are added before the arms are built up one at a time. If you aren't pre-painting the parts, it's a good idea to stick rigidly to the instructions for the first few builds, due to the complexity of the parts and their dovetailing with each other. The head and weapons are next, with a clear green visor for the head unit, and a clear green laser sword in the optional weapons. The backpack with those dramatic wings is also built up at this stage, with the finished article allowing them to pivot to achieve different looks. The weapons include the Buster Rifle, two Energy Cartridge Pods, a shield and the aforementioned laser sword. Different hands are supplied on the sprues to accommodate the various weapons, with additional parts for open or closed fist poses. The Bird-Mode instructions sit right at the end of the booklet, and involves the Rifle, Shield, the re-jigging of the arms, posing of the backpack, and clipping the now streamlined Rifle/Shield combination on the figure's head and shoulders. In this mode it would be an idea to consider one of the inexpensive "Action Stands", which clip to the figure and allow you to pose it in flight at numerous angles due to the stand's joints and pivot points. Markings The markings are mostly stencils, and here's where the 1:144 RG series hits a little bump in the road from this reviewer's point of view. The markings are all supplied as stickers, and although they are very thin and of good quality, it seems a little toy-like and could make it difficult to apply washes both from the point of view of dissolving the adhesive, and the wash drying in the edges, giving a noticeable outline. More on this later when I get to the building stage. There are decals available out there, so have a looksee if you feel like upgrading, although you'll struggle to improve on the metallic stickers on the sheet. Conclusion These kits at this scale are very reasonably priced when you see the detail and engineering technology that goes into them, let down a little only by the stickers in the box. You don't have to know a damn thing about the series to enjoy building the kits, and they do make striking entries in your cabinet once completed. You could build one as a break from your usual genre, or if you are interested in the genre as a whole, they're a great way to bring your favourite Mechas to life in a scale that won't take up half your display area. My Build Review can now be found here. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of
  11. I bought myself the at st kit and wasnt sure what colour to use for the main body. I have gathered paints for all the others parts like the cab, crew.... I got a new pot of paint for the body thinking itll be the cortect colour but wasnt happy with it when it arrived. Im after just the colour for the body and i prefer humbrol paints so if anyone can give me the best humbrol colour for what i need that will be perfect.
  12. First Order Stormtrooper Bandai 1/12 This guy turned up yesterday (less than 2 weeks from Japan, not bad at all), so I thought I'd do a small wip for him. As anyone who's made any of the Bandai figures will know, they just clip together with little effort, so I'll just show the basic steps of the construction, and what ever paint and weathering I end up doing. As it stands, I'm intending to do him as one of the troopers in the attack on Maz's castle on Takodana, so I'll make some sort of forest base along the lines of the one I did for my speeder build (so I'll be breaking out the tea leaves again). If I find the time, I might try making a shoulder pauldron for him too, to spice him up a bit. Before I get going on any construction, I'll show a run through of the sprues, and some of the (pretty amazing) mouldings you get in these kits. So, two sprues in white, and two in black for the trooper, plus one sprue of vinyl joints and one for the base. Obviously, the two white ones contain the main armour The black sprues have the body parts and weaponry. The second one also has the clear tinted parts and a couple of soft plastic clips that attach to the back of the riot shield Lastly the soft plastic/vinyl sprue for the joints, and the standard figure base that comes with all the 1/12 kits As usual with Bandai the plastic is very glossy. Although that's realistic enough to the real trooper armour, I always find it make the kit look a little toy-like, so I'll probably tone this down with a light coat of satin varnish, but I won't bother actually repainting it. The dome for the helmet is one piece, which avoids the rear seam that the OT trooper kit has Nice shiny shoes (in stark contrast to the ones I'm wearing) Chest armour (upside down here). I like the fact that the little slits are actually open, so you'll see the black of the bodysuit underneath Riot shield. This has a clear tinted insert that fits in the hole at the top The grill piece on the helmet. Most of this is covered by the white panels, leaving just the textured area showing Nice tread detail on the soles Ribbed parts to cover the joints. These are inevitably going to be the awkward looking areas due to the articulation. At the moment I'm not intending to fix and fill the joints, but I'll see how they look once they're built up There's a choice of hands depending on what he's currently doing, or grabbing hold of The blaster is a two piece moulding in black. Much of this will need to end up white, so quite a bit of detail painting will be needed. I can't help thinking that it would have been better moulded in white, as it would have been easier to paint in the black areas rather than over-paint black plastic in white The original gun for comparison Despite the awkward painting required, the detailing on the gun is beautifully done, right down to the individual bolt heads The two tinted parts. One for the helmet visor, and one for the little window in the riot shield The Z6 Riot Control Baton. Again, a lot of this ends up in white, and would have been better starting out in that colour Last up we've got the usual Bandai instruction manual, and the standard option of stickers or decals for the markings Hopefully I should get to clip a few bits together over the weekend, so I'll update then Andy
  13. The Force Awakens Millennium Falcon 1:144 Bandai It may have escaped your notice that there's a new Star Wars film coming Christmas 2015, which is set 30 years after the original, with new peril, new characters and new hardware. It also marks the return of the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy – The Millennium Falcon, which is perhaps the most widely recognised and iconic space craft, even though it's pure fiction! I'll not bore you with the history of this customised Correllian cargo ship, but in the years since she last graced our screens by participating in the destruction of the second Death Star with Lando Calrissian at the controls, there have been some changes, the most notable of which is the replacement of the old circular dish that got knocked off escaping from the Death Star inferno with a brand new low-profile rectangular unit. There have also been some minor detail changes to the "greeblies" that festoon the exterior of the ship, but from a distance she's pure nostalgia. Han is dead-on when he says "Chewie, we're home". The Kit Bandai have the license for Star Wars model kits in the Far East, and they have been trotting out kit after kit, beginning with some 1:12 figures that you really should check out if you haven't already. Some original series kits in 1:72 and 1:48 followed, and now the hardware and figures from The Force Awakens (TFA) are starting to appear. The Millennium Falcon is the second of the 1:144 range, pipped to the post by Boba Fett's Slave 1, and it arrives in a much deeper box that has the same footprint as the other kits, which is handy for stacking. A member of staff at Hermes (who we shall call "buffoon") had used the box as a stepping stone in the warehouse however, and the box had been badly crushed, but the contents were surprisingly unharmed apart from one of the sprues having a broken intersection. Inside the deep black box are seven sprues in light grey baboon…sorry, styrene (in-joke), although one of these has the clear and transparent blue parts moulded into it, which is a technique that Bandai use a lot in their kits, injecting one colour and then changing the configuration of the gates to inject further colours, which adhere to the other styrene and make up one multi-colour sprue. If you've not seen it before, it's quite a cool technique. Another sprue in a sandy yellow holds the base and stand parts, with both decals and stickers included to cater for the modeller and the younger audience that perhaps just want to knock up a kit with their dad to play with. The instruction booklet follows the design cues of the box, and is printed on glossy paper in colour. With this being intended for a Japanese audience, the instruction booklet is understandably almost totally written in Japanese, apart from a few key portions, such as headings and so on. The kit is designed to snap together without any glue, but don't be fooled into thinking that will mean a compromise in detail, because I was utterly stunned by the level of detail that Bandai have achieved with this kit. Having built the older Finemolds kit of the original Falcon that purports to be 1:144, it is officially left for dead in the detail department. The first thing I noticed about the Bandai kit is that it is substantially larger and deeper than the Finemolds kit, with a distinct curve to the top and bottom surfaces that is much greater than the older kit. I did a little looking around, and it would appear from the data held on the Star Wars Wookipedia here, that the Finemolds kit is underscale by quite a margin, leaving it 2cm shorter from the rear to the tips of the loading mandibles up front. It is also shallow, but as the figure included the dish that isn't present on this kit, it's more difficult to decide by how much. Another thing to notice is that the new kit is designed to accept a lighting kit that is available separately, although supplies of these are currently scarce, but our good friends at Japan:cool are trying their hardest to source some to ease the way. Basically, there's a battery box that slips into a receptacle in the underside, with a number of LEDs threaded through holes in the model to clip into holders within the important areas such as engines, cockpit and gun turrets. There are also some fun poseable parts such as the crew access ramp, the turrets, dish, and the option to install landing gear or have the bays closed over. How does it go together? It starts with the cockpit, which is although comprises only two parts, has a full cockpit tub with four chairs and instrument panel, plus a busy bulkhead and access door that will look great painted up. There are also a set of seated figures that are surprisingly recognisable at the scale, but Bandai have been producing these tiny figures for their Gundam kits for years. You also get a set of the same folks in the standing pose if you wanted to put the kit in a diorama setting. You get two each of Chewbacca, Han, and the new characters Rey, who appears to be the female lead, and Finn, the outcast First Order Stormtrooper, who turns out to be brim-full of Midi-chlorians and becomes a Jedi. The cockpit interior slots into the lower part of the cabin, which has a separate conical nose part, is joined by the upper tunnel that disappears into the hull, and then you have a choice of either a clear canopy with decals applied to the raised framing, or a styrene part that has no glazing, which is more true to the original filming miniatures of the first trilogy. The loading mandibles are next, with each one almost a mirror image of its opposite number. The two circular cut-outs are filled top and bottom by an assembly that snaps together from three highly detailed parts, which give a busy, layered look, and are held between the top and bottom halves, with the sides filled by detailed inserts, over which additional pipework and detail parts are installed. These parts are incredibly delicate, so will need handling with care when removing and cleaning them up. The lower hull has various cut-outs for access areas and the battery box, which receive the same treatment as the cut-outs on the mandibles, after which the side detail parts are clipped into the hull on each side, with the lower gun turret detailed with a tub into which a seat is dropped, then covered with the clear glazing. Detail in there is superb for its size, and it really deserves some lighting. The docking ports on the sides are built up from an inner and outer part, which again has two layers of detail moulded in, and they clip neatly in place in their recesses. At the rear is the engine exhaust, which after the first films, had a design done by ILM that is replicated here by a styrene outer part with rows of rectangular holes, through which the inner clear blue part will be seen. If the kit is subsequently lit, the blue glow will flood from the rear, amplified by the tubular ridges moulded into the blue part. If you elect to depict the engines shut-down, you replace the blue panel with three styrene parts that have extra detail moulded in that represent the exhaust ports. At this stage, the battery box is inserted if you have one, and the LED holders are slotted into position, which the LEDs push into, holding them firmly and directing the light accordingly. Fine exhaust petal actuators are added to each section of the outer, as well as the larger parts that appear along the underside, and the battery box lid is slotted into the aperture, with details added around it. The upper hull's turret is identical to the lower, and fits into the central hole in the same fashion with the cabin and seat under glass, which have decals on the sheet if you don't feel like masking and painting them. The upper hull has cut-outs to fill with equipment from layered parts, and the six circular vents on the rear deck, which surprisingly have some nice detail moulded into the hull under them, so it's a shame and a bit of a head-scratcher that it'll never be seen again. More detail is added to the engine deck in the shape of actuators and general greeblies, and it's then time to bring all the assemblies together after threading an LED through a pre-cut hole for the cockpit lighting. The mandibles are trapped between the two halves on sturdy pins, which are also used to hold the hull halves, and the cockpit assembly in place, relying on friction-fit to hold them together. This of course means that you could build your Falcon now and add lights later as and when they become available. Final construction begins with the new three-part dish, the cannon ports top and bottom, and ends with a choice of gear up or gear down. If choosing the gear up option, simple clip-in blanking plates are installed over the five bays. The gear down option is more complex, and involves building up seven two-part legs, then joining them to the upper gear legs and bay insert pieces, to which you add the gear bay doors. The double legs have one slightly different leg each, but the same process applies. When they are complete, you just slot them into the bays, and they're done, remembering to keep the gear-up covers in case you change your mind. The crew access ramp has a gear-up cover too, and a three-part assembly that includes the ramp walls, actuator struts and the walkway itself. Detail here is great, and looks just like the movie, and as with the landing gear, you can swap and change at whim. The stand is typical Bandai, and although it only consists of four parts, it allows movement in all axes to pose your Falcon as you wish. There is a removable panel in the lower turret under which you'll find the socket for the stand – another nice touch from Bandai. The counter-balance base has moulded-in sand dunes, and is of the interlinking type that is seen throughout the whole range, so you can link some or all of them together for a display, using the little clips supplied in the box. Markings There's not a huge amount of visual information available out there at the time of writing, as the film is still over a month away, but I hope we can rely on Bandai to have got the details right. As already mentioned, there are decals and stickers, but we'll concentrate on just the decals for this review, which are of good quality, if a little thick. They respond well to decal solution, but their thickness can limit your success, and I'd be a little wary of using the decals for the cockpit glazing. As well as the usual accent panels of various shades of grey, yellow and red there are also small decals not seen before, and six dark grey circles to use on the engine deck vents, which I'd much rather paint from a personal point of view, as the detail of the mesh is very fine and would be prone to catching bubbles. Decals Stickers It's possible to build and decal the kit without a single lick of paint if you're minded, but most modellers will probably give her a lick of paint, as the light grey styrene is a little stark to my eyes, and paint would give a better key for any weathering. I used Xtracrylix Light Gull Grey (XA1137) on my old Finemolds Falcon, and was very happy with the results, which you can see by following the link in my signature strip. If you've got access to any stills of the new movie, or can freeze frame her appearances so far, you should be able to get a handle on whether she's taken any more damage during the intervening years if you're going for ultimate authenticity, as some of the weathering on the build-up kit in the instructions looks a bit vague. Conclusion If you want a 1:144 Millennium Falcon from the new film, this is definitely the way to go, as it's the only one that's true to the published sizes. It also knocks the Finemolds kit off its perch as the best 1:144 Falcon model, with massive detail improvements, even ignoring the underscale aspect of the older kit. I'm massively impressed with the kit, and have a growing respect for Bandai as a company. Their designers have incredible talent for easing construction, using clever techniques to do so, and their implementation of detail is out of this world. Putting the two kits together is very telling. I for one would be very interested in another kit of the Episode IV Falcon, if anyone is listening? These kits are imported by Japan:cool in small quantities that are manageable for their business, and due to Bandai's recent embargo on selling directly to the public outside the Far East, their availability in the rest of the world has diminished somewhat. Shane has tried to keep the prices sensible of course, but has to pass on the additional costs to the purchaser, who then has the benefit of knowing that if they're in the EU, there will be no customs charges and collection fees to pay before they can get their hands on the new Falcon. Get out there and buy one before they're all gone! Extremely highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of
  14. My first modelkit since a long time! Here are photos of my interpretation of the AT-ST. Comments and critics are welcome!
  15. The Star Wars Bandai fest continues! This time it's their 1/12 Captain Phasma figure. Another superb kit that goes together without a hitch. Handling the chromed plastic is quite tricky as you can't fix mistakes like with other kits, but thankfully as the kit is well engineered there weren't any disasters! The only painting I did was a coat of matt varnish on the undersuit to bring the shine down and the small black areas on her armour. I also added restrained amounts of panel wash to bring out the details of her armour and tinted the rifle light gold using gloss varnish with a touch of trans yellow as the kit one is silver. The only let-down in my view is her cape. The kit has two choices; a three piece styrene one or very thin but stiff material neither of which look good. In the end I borrowed the cape from the Hasbro Black Series figure which which although plastic actually looks like the real thing! To further customise her, I adapted the head from Gwen Christie's Game Of Thrones Brienne of Tarth figure (just a bit of a re-touch to her make-up to make her look less medieval and more Star Wars). Photographing her was also tricky due to the shiny armour reflecting everything! I think I have a better solution but it needs some work. So anyway, here she is, comments welcome
  16. Start of the my favourite gundam series mecha... Mg Zeta Gundam. I will paint all the kit with original paint schema. May be i can add some gray details. Start with head, added some grays for mask and head. Some chrome alclad details for the vulcans.
  17. Hi all, I finished dusting and photographing my Cosmo Fleet ships, they're still pretty dusty and even after removing some more digitally I think I'm going to have to draw a line under. I also managed to knock off one of the torpedoes from the destroyer and spent a while getting it attached again and fixing the chipped paint. I think I need to clean my office from top to bottom and remove the dust from the environment before doing any more painting! Anyway... These are half of a Bandai 1/1000 scale kit of the UN Cosmo Navy from Space Battleship Yamato. I have another of each to finish building and painting at some point in the future. Fairly easy to build but difficult to build cleanly owing to the dense snap fit construction. I found a new way to do the cutting out in Photoshop (Quick Select tool is awesome!) so they're all on white backgrounds again (click for bigger pictures & more angles) This is what the stands look like - modified kit stands using brass tube for the pin instead of the provided plastic fin: And this is for scale - the little one has 42 parts in a really tiny space: I have a baddie ship in pieces at the moment, I'm hoping to finish the Guntank I'm working on and do some preparation on that before too long. Oh yes, I almost forgot. I did a Photoshopped picture of the two ships in their natural environment: Which I am rather pleased with to be honest. Time consuming but fun, I will try and do more of these when I have spacey things to show. Cheers and thanks for looking, especially to those who helped with suggestions and such on the WIP thread. Will
  18. Start the new project. Master Grade Gm Custom, its a little bit old kit, need some sanding etc. Opening the box. Start with arms... 18 years old kit need some sanding
  19. Evening all, Maintaining my addiction to these superb Bandai kits, here's another two completions hot off the bench. The first is Darth Vader's advanced TIE from A New Hope, whilst the second is the Special Forces TIE from The Force Awakens. Both were impeccable to build as is to be expected and great fun once again. As before, the bases are custom made using a laser engraver, although I've made life easier for myself this time using straight matt black acrylic to eliminate the need for routing required of the aluminium bases I used previously. Bandai 1/72 TIE Advanced x1 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Bandai 1/72 TIE Advanced x1 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Bandai 1/72 TIE Advanced x1 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Bandai 1/72 TIE Advanced x1 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Bandai 1/72 First Order Special Forces TIE Fighter by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Bandai 1/72 First Order Special Forces TIE Fighter by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Bandai 1/72 First Order Special Forces TIE Fighter by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Bandai 1/72 First Order Special Forces TIE Fighter by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Thanks for looking, comments welcomed Cheers, Shaun
  20. So here is the first of my Bandai Star Wars kits. I'm very impressed with the kit engineering, especially at this scale. You could put it together without glue, it's that accurate. The colour moulding also means you could avoid painting too, but this time (unlike the Revell kits I did) I have given it a full paint job. Main colour was Tamiya Nato Black with Aeromaster Light Mod Eagle Grey for the fins. Rest was panel washing with Tamiya Panel Line and silver dry brushing followed by a coat of semi-gloss varnish. I've also got the SF version plus T-70 waiting as well as a pair of OT TIEs and Vader's TIE advanced for a Black Squadron diorama Comments welcome as always.
  21. All done! My first completed model in several years, and the first I've ever weathered up! Took nearly three months of restocking paints and whatnot, but I think it turned out quite nicely Did my best to match the griminess of the movie model Gaz.
  22. BB-8 Astromech Droid Bandai 1/12 BB-8's all finished now, and he was a great kit to build. Probably Bandai's best droid to put together, and some of their best engineering in the way the parts connect. I'll definitely be getting another to do in different colours (presumably there are other BB units knocking about in a galaxy far, far away) The weathering was primarily done with enamels, with no adverse effects, although he'd had a clear coat first. The wip is here Thanks for looking Andy
  23. Hi all, Posted my Snowspeeder earlier and it was quite a painless experience so thought I would post this. I'm new to the hobby and still learning but this is probably my favourite build so far. It was painted with Vallejo paints and weathered with acrylics as the Bandai plastic does not like oils and enamels. However oils were used to create the rust stains. Hope you like! Thanks for the look, sorry about photo quality, they were taken on my phone!
  24. Hi this is my first post after taking the hobby back up about 18months ago. Before then I haven't finished a model since my teens! This is a great kit and needs hardly any glue, however after seeing these images on the pc I will be going back and fixing a few pieces to ensure the gaps close. I have also finished the 1:48 ATST from Bandai so if this post goes well and I don't get mauled to much I will try and get that posted to. This forum has really helped with my learning curve! Sorry about the photos they are done on my phone. Thanks for looking!
×
×
  • Create New...