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This was a quick weekend build of Bandai's box scale (1/144) TIE twin pack. The kit turned up on Friday, and I built them up that evening, adding a little battle damage to one of the standard TIE's solar panels. The X1 was a straight OOB build. They were painted yesterday (Saturday), then weathered today. Nothing fancy with the painting/weathering. Just base coats over a black primer, detail painting, then a few pin washes and some dry brushing over the damaged areas on the panel. This is how they looked on Friday night And then fully finished tonight The obligatory scale comparison shots with paint pot and, of course, Nigel. The Gunze barley grey in the photo was used for the main base coat on both TIEs Thanks for looking

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

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

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.

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 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!

Hi Everyone, This one I've worked at on and off for months (with huge gaps!). I've overdone the weathering (particularly the exhausts), which meant I parked it for a while. I'm happier with the end result now though, even though it's not perfect! Good fun though. And for those not familiar with the size, it's pretty small:

My last build... Bandai Patlabor Hope you like it

Started on my first Bandai Star Wars kit yesterday, that I plan on making into a small diorama with a resin figure I have ordered from China. R5 DP is still WIP but the all the painting is done apart from the foot cables and weathering. The silver parts from the kit got painted gun metal then a light chrome dry brush and the purple is an Alclad candy. A quick and enjoyable build so far.

After a long break i started a new kit. Actually i'm not a big fan of patlabor anime's but i love this one. The kit has got a lot of details, very soft plastic ( careful for sanding), but especially arm joints looks weak, and i dont like the cover material for leg&arm sections

Hullo all. Thought I'd finally post up some pics of my X-Wing build. I received this Christmas before last, but only in the past few months did I really crack it open with intent to complete it So here she be in progress Still need to finalise a surround for the base, probably out of balsa wood. Pilot is painted up (in blue), just needs a wash and a bit of highlighting Gaz

Well it's been a while, (had a bit of modelling mojo loss), but finally i've finished my Sandtrooper, the construction of this build couldn't have been simpler, And has been covered by other folk on here , for example Andy Moore, whose work has been an inspiration whilst working on the various Bandai stuff i've got stashed. The whole figure was assembled in sub sections where it was possible and then sprayed with a couple of coats of Vallejo SATIN varnish, weathering was mainly MiG engine oil for the darker coloured sand and smudges, and MiG Gulf war Sand weathering powders for the lighter tones, The supplied Decals were used for the various helmet markings, and the pauldron was painted with Vallejo Model Air 'aged white'. Base was covered in Tamiya surface texture 'paint' to which fine sand was added with copious amounts of watered down PVA glue, then painted in various sand/desert colours, and a few Model Builder grass tufts added for a bit of variety. He was finished in a style to replicate the Sandtrooper named as Davin Felth...'Look Sir !..Droids'. anyhoo, onto the pics. Comments appreciated..

Hi Folks, I started another Bandai Star Wars Vehicle Model a few weeks ago. I built the model during lunchtimes at work, so no WIP photos of the build I'm afraid. It went together like a dream. The kit is designed to be snap fit, so I didn't need to use glue, but I did anyway, just as I felt it helped fill any tiny gaps between the parts - even though I doubt there would be anyway, the fit is so good. Started painting by airbrushing a Vallejo Model Air USAAF Light Gray (spelling is correct according to the bottle!), and I used multiple layers of citadel Nuln Oil for the canopy windows. Using a wash this way made it easy to fill in right the the recesses without having to worry about accidentally painting over the canopy trim. The big mistake I've made, which you can't see from the photograph (as I've intentionally not taken any to show it!) is the engines, where I tried to apply a blue wash. As I'd already built the kit, I just couldn't get a brush in the gap to paint it without also catching the edges of the plating around the engine. I've got a second version of this model along with a number of other vehicle model series kits, so I'm going to make sure that I always check before gluing together. Vents and engine pits were painted with a wash mix of Nuln Oil and one of the citadel brown washes (can't remember which!). I then applied an overall wash of the citadel brown wash (watered down with some airbrush thinner or water - can't remember which!). This had the effect of weathering the grey. The kit comes with stickers rather than decals, so I'm going to brush paint the individual panels next. This shouldn't be too taxing, I think the trick is just to make sure I take my time and I'm neat - certainly not going to try faffing around with masking and an airbrush on this one!

Wow as i say a real time Bandit. I think this is the longest build of a Falcon i have had. I was watching the TT pre race shows on tv when i started this. I have been building it every evening since. Wow what a model though. Its just amazing and really lives up to the hype. It fits together flawlessly. This is the Perfect grade standard version. This means it comes with stickers instead of decals and no light system. Dont be fooled by the fact they are stickers and not decals , they are made of a very thin vinyl and settle down as good as decals , and were easier and quicker to use. The lights were no problem to replace as i had some 3mm leds laying around. There are 3 seperate switches to control them. One for the ramp/landing gear , one for the engine and one for the cockpit. Now when i say its finished , a Falcon is never really finished! There will be more weathering added in the form of rust washes on the sidewalls later on and im sure i will tinker with it over time Thanks Bandai , this is a dream model for us SW fans!

Hi all, I finally managed to finish my Bandai TIE Fighter that I started many months ago. I wanted to do something a little different, so I tried to create one that has a replacement port-side 'wing'. The base was entirely scratch-built out of a large bottle top, an old PEZ dispenser, two pens and some parts from a Tamiya 1/35 King Tiger. Thanks for looking!

Evening One and All, I've had this kit sitting on my shelf for a while and now, it's bugging me. So I decided to build it, please see below. This is the Team Try Fighters version and as far as I am aware the only version in HG? The "cloth" bit always reminds me of Deathsythe Hell which is also a cool mech. You can see the episode it's from below - this is uploaded by Gundam Info (Sunrise I believe) so it's all legal. I'm going to try an make it more the "original" version, I just need to find some decent source material for this. I did purchase loads of the re-released Bandai Decals a while back, so I can use the warning decals on that. I need to find somewhere that does the Skullheart ones tho or even a decent sized skull decal (not The Skull and Crossbones). This will be a long term project at the end of this I have a spaceship to build. All the sprues... yay Stuff I can't read... Pretty pictures and more stuff I can't read.... Cool pictures and the Core Fighter, but more writing I can't read. This is where I was up to the other day. Not sure I like the armor plates/thrusters being attached as they are. More to follow... Kind Regards, Dazz

This month i started a new kit,

Hi everyone, My first post here and I just wanted to post my favourite build from last year (and it took pretty much all of last year to do!). This is the 1/144 Bandai Millennium Falcon that I have modified to be (my favourite) version, the one from Empire Strikes Back. Mostly an out of the box build, it uses a lot of 3D printed parts (the radar dish, cockpit interior and exterior, maintenance pits, sidewalls on the mandibles), some photoetch (the rear circular grills) and is lit (although you can't really see this in the photos). The engines have a blue flickering glow, the headlights are SMDs, there is an interior light for the upper gun well (the lower one is where the support pole is) and the cockpit rear wall is a mix of fibre optic and back lighting. I have some videos of this knocking around online (on Instagram mainly). Painted with DOA paints (hand brush) as well as Citadel ones and various washes, etc until I was happy with it. Feel free to ask any questions.

This came in the post today, after I paid a £25 import VAT to Parcelforce to receive it. I'd been waiting for these kits to come back into stock on HobbyLinkJapan (I also got another larger kit). Overall, I'm impressed. Some parts of the instructions will be translated using Google Translate, but generally these Bandai kits are a pleasure to build, so I might not even need the extra information. A nice instruction book, with drawings. A very comprehensive painting guide. In my opinion, a good instruction booklet can really make a kit. I miss the older Tamiya-style instructions, where they'd have drawings of uniforms, and diagrams of the vehicle. The car parts... ...and a very blurry photo of the figures. Included is a digital camouflage decal, which can be cut on provided templates and used on the uniform of one of the soldiers. As with most Bandai kits, there are multiple plastic colours on the sprue. I will of course be painting them. The faces are nicely moulded, and should paint up well. The equipment sprue impressed me. I love the Wehrmacht style. Also, all of the weapons have slide-moulded barrels, even the pistols. Considering some modern kits don't even do this, this is pretty good. here is the other kit- I couldn't be bothered to take photos of the sprues, because the box is seriously packed with them. This kit is similarly high-quality, and the vehicle itself is huge. I'm excited to get started on these kits. I'll start with the smaller one, though.

Hi everbody, here is my last build, hope you like it

Snowspeeder & Millennium Falcon Masks (for Bandai & Revell/FineMolds) 1:48 & 1:144 GreenStrawberry The superb Star Wars Bandai kits are click together and don't need painting, but for extra realism and to achieve that beaten up Rebel/Resistance look, it's almost mandatory if you're going for accuracy. The Revell/Finemolds kits are designed for painting, however. The Falcon and the Snowspeeder are pretty liberal with their number of panes of glazing (I hesitate to use the term "glass", as it's Sci-Fi), with parallels able to be drawn between the Bf.109 and He.111 respectively for their canopy styles. Masks aren't provided in the kit, and with the number of panes to mask it can be a bit of a chore, especially if masking isn't your favourite modelling task. Those nice folks have GreenStrawberry have got you covered! Each set arrives in their familiar re-sealable packaging, with a printed black(ish) backing card, instructions folded up within the card, and the masks at the front on view through the transparent packet. The masks are a soft green matt vinyl-like material, and all the panes are pre-cut for your convenience, with a diagram in the instructions showing the associated number for each one. Rebel Snowspeeder (AM014-1/48) This is the larger of the sets, including glazing masks for the big canopy, but also supplying masks for the squadron markings, which adorn the nose, engine pods, and are repeated on the underside of the ship. This will mean spraying the squadron colours first, but it makes for a huge convenience to the modeller. Millennium Falcon (AM015-1/144) Patterned for the Revell/FineMolds kits, the former of which were released some years back and have more recebtly been reissued by Revell, this set provides a complete set of glazing masks for the iconic Flying Hamburger, including both the cockpit canopy and both of the cannon windows from which Luke and Han battle the TIE Fighters in the 1977 original that sparked a revolution in Sci-Fi. Review sample courtesy of

This came in the post today, after I paid a £25 import VAT to Parcelforce to receive it. I'd been waiting for these kits to come back into stock on HobbyLinkJapan (I also got another larger kit). Overall, I'm impressed. Some parts of the instructions will be translated using Google Translate, but generally these Bandai kits are a pleasure to build, so I might not even need the extra information. A nice instruction book, with drawings. A very comprehensive painting guide. In my opinion, a good instruction booklet can really make a kit. I miss the older Tamiya-style instructions, where they'd have drawings of uniforms, and diagrams of the vehicle. The car parts... ...and a very blurry photo of the figures. Included is a digital camouflage decal, which can be cut on provided templates and used on the uniform of one of the soldiers. As with most Bandai kits, there are multiple plastic colours on the sprue. I will of course be painting them. The faces are nicely moulded, and should paint up well. The equipment sprue impressed me. I love the Wehrmacht style. Also, all of the weapons have slide-moulded barrels, even the pistols. Considering some modern kits don't even do this, this is pretty good. here is the other kit- I couldn't be bothered to take photos of the sprues, because the box is seriously packed with them. This kit is similarly high-quality, and the vehicle itself is huge. I'm excited to get started on these kits. I'll start with the smaller one, though.