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X-Wing Bandai 1/72 Yes, I know. Another Bandai X-Wing. You've got my permission to yawn and go off to read a more interesting post. For what it's worth, I'm going to try and do something a bit different with it. There's been some great X-Wing builds on Britmodeller, but rather than do another Red 5 or other Red Squadron ship, I'm going to do this one in a non-movie scheme and maybe give it a few modifications too. I won't bother with the usual sprue shots as everyone knows these kits by now, so I'll just jump strait in. As with most builds of this sort that I start, I've got no idea what direction I'll be going in. I just tend to go with whatever seems like a good idea at the time. In that vein, I decided to start by removing a panel on the upper starboard wing to show some internal detail underneath. The centre panel on the wing extends right back to the trailing edge. I didn't want to remove a section that big, so I marked a new panel line, scribed it, then cut it out On the underside of the wing, I thinned the plastic to create a lip to which I added some thin plasticard framing. The separate insert panel that covers the underside of the wing will need chopping up, as I'll only be using the outer tip and the section that forms the leading edge. I'll make a new plate to go under the cut-out section, and add some general plumbing and wiring. I'll build the model grounded with the wings closed, so I don't have to worry about neatening the underside of the wings which will save time I'll probably be removing other panels on the wings and/or body, and I'd like to make some mods to either the engines or the guns. I'll see what ideas pop into my head over the next few days. As far as colours go, I'm currently thinking of something red based. I've got a couple of schemes I'm working from at the moment, both from the animated Star Wars series. The first being a red and white scheme worn by the prototype B-Wing featured in Rebels The other being a red/black scheme on a transport from The Clone Wars These are just general ideas, I won't be reproducing them exactly. No hurry to make a decision though, as there's plenty of building to do first. Andy

Starting with the interior of the cockpit, I painted it using various Vallejo greys, drybrushed it with some Tamiya metallic pigments, and then picked out some details. I also painted Poe using a mix of red and orange Vallejo paints for his flight suit and then free-handed his helmet. After priming the entire model with Alclad grey primer, I gave everything a coat of Tamiya German Grey (XF-63) with a couple of drops of Flat Blue (XF-8) added to it. A thin, splotchy coat of NATO Black, which despite it's name is actually a very dark grey, was added on top of the German Grey base color. These two colors make the "undercoat" of the model and is what will be showing under the paint chipping. I used a torn piece of foam to apply Vallejo Liquid Mask along the leading edges and anywhere paint chipping would accumulate. Once that was dry, I gave the entire model a light coat of Flat Black (XF-1) mixed 2:1 with German Grey, which served as the final "black" paint. Some of the metallic bits on the S-foils were painted with Tamiya Gunmetal (X-10) and the laser canon tips, barrels (painted after I took this picture), and engine nozzles were painted with Alclad Aluminum and given a little discoloration with Alclad Pale Burnt Metal. In addition to painting the fuselage and S-foils, I masked the canopy and gave it coat of Alclad Aluminum, sponged some liquid mask on it, and then a little bit of Alcald Dull Aluminum to give it a worn look.

Bandai "Vehicle Model" Star Destroyer; finished in Tamiya & Vallejo acrylics, 502 Abteilung oils, and MIG Productions enamels. I primed the model black and then gave it a coat of Tamiya Flat White darkened with a little Light Grey. After that, I cut a bunch of tiny pieces of masking tape to a simple "Aztec pattern" on the hull. Then I lightened the original base color with more white and sprayed the ship. After I pulled the tape off, I felt that the panels were a little too dark so I dusted them with the base color to tone them down a bit. I put a coat of Future on the model and when it dried, I gave the recesses a wash using 502 Abteilung Oil Faded Grey and gave some of the darker areas a wash of toned down Mig Productions Dark Wash (enamel). Once everything was dried, I'll gave it a matte coat it and pick out some small details with a brush using Vallejo Game Color Ghost Grey. The decal was lifted from the AT-ST kit.

Well, here we go. Finally have enough done to warrant my first post in my first WIP here. This is also my first time back at the bench in over a year. And this is my first personal project since... my Tamiya P-47 many many years ago. Time to shake off a lot of rust. This is a little out of my comfort zone. I don't do much sci-fi. And I've only dabbled in 1/72 maybe a half dozen times in my life. It's so much smaller than 1/48! I mean, look how tiny BB-8 is! FYI, the body detail was sanded off as I want to position his head on an angle. And since his body is on a sphere, all I need to do is adjust the placement of the decals on his body when the time comes. Seemed silly to cut off his head an re attach it. untitled by _m_sinclair, on Flickr Since this is a Star Wars kit, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to add my own "greeblies" to this X-wing. A great way to add a little extra detail and help make it my own. I went looking through old kits. But due to the small scale I quickly realized that my collection of photo etched detail sets was the way to go. I even found a supply of fine solder wire I probably purchased ten years ago and never touched. Till today. I also drilled out a vent (maybe, who knows) and added some very fine etched screen. Why? Because it looked right. untitled-2 by _m_sinclair, on Flickr More random etched pieces added where it looked appropriate. Some came from an Aber King Tiger set. Other pieces are from an old Verlinden Humvee set. I also used a fine drill and added the appearance of fasteners all over the ship. Just another way to add a little more visual appeal. This is the bottom of the fuselage.I had planned on adding some antennas like what you see on current aircraft. I was thrilled to discover the kit already has two! They just needed a little sanding to thin them down to make them look just right. untitled-3 by _m_sinclair, on Flickr I removed Poe's head and angled it to make it appear he is looking at something. Likely need to add a little filler to clean up the neck area. untitled-4 by _m_sinclair, on Flickr I made a small pitot tube and attached it inside one of the intakes. I figure since the ship flies in atmosphere frequently it might make sense to have one. And if you don't like that, just call it a random sensor. untitled-5 by _m_sinclair, on Flickr Same as the fuselage. Various bits of PE. Fine solder wire and a fine drill used to replicate fasteners on different parts of the S foils and engines. I expect the lower engines will be more visible so I added a little more detail on them. untitled-6 by _m_sinclair, on Flickr One of the "top" engines detailed on the right. untitled-7 by _m_sinclair, on Flickr This time it's one of the "bottom" engines on the right side. untitled-8 by _m_sinclair, on Flickr Oh how I missed you. untitled-9 by _m_sinclair, on Flickr Got some primer on just to see if anything needs cleaning up. untitled-10 by _m_sinclair, on Flickr untitled-11 by _m_sinclair, on Flickr Looking pretty good so far. Still early days though. And I am immensely rusty! untitled-12 by _m_sinclair, on Flickr This kit is amazing. By far the best 1/72 kit I've ever seen! The cockpit detail is better than many 1/48 aircraft kits!These intakes are fabulous. untitled-13 by _m_sinclair, on Flickr So this is where she stands as of now. untitled-14 by _m_sinclair, on Flickr I do apologize for the blinding white background. Haven't done this in a while and need to pick up some coloured paper to put in the photo booth I threw together today. Oh and if you haven't seen Andy's X-wings, get your butt over there now! Stunning work. Thanks for looking. -matt

Morning all, I've received a Bandai X-Wing and TIE for Christmas and, being on such a massive Star Wars binge at the moment, can't wait to get stuck into them. My only issue is knowing what colours to paint them. Reading around, there seems to be a bit of a conflict of opinion, but I'd appreciate any further suggestions for both the interior colours and exterior greys on both fighters. Thanks in advance, Shaun

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

R2 & R5 So, R2 & R5 finally found their way from the land of the rising sun to my front door this morning and I've had a chance to have a rummage through the box and fondle the plastic. I had been a bit put off by some of the online photos of the parts but in person they seem pretty good, maybe not as pin sharp in the details as the Chicken Walker but that could be down to the garishly coloured plastic which makes it harder to see the details. I probably won't be starting these two just yet as I want to get the SS-23 finished and that build seems to be stretching out in front of me like a never ending road so, for now I'll just post the sprue shots so anyone who's not got theirs yet can see what awaits Sprue A Sprue B1 Sprue B2 Sprue C1 Sprue C2 And the two bases As has been pointed out in other posts, R2's dome is split in half and the top is a separate piece as well meaning there'll be some seams to sand. It looks like some of the inset panels can be installed post head-joining which will make life easier but others need to go in first so some care will be needed when sanding the dome The various body panels look well moulded and can probable be painted before installation then masked off for painting the main body The body itself looks nicely crisp. Both droids share the same body moulding There's only a single clear part included for the main eye on R2 R2's secondary eye (the red one under the main eye) is moulded solid which is a shame. It could be drilled out and an LED installed but since neither the body or dome are hollow mouldings, running the wires will be difficult The metallic gold bit of sprue A is for the hoses on the feet. Seems a bit of a waste of metallic plastic since the hoses are generally grey or black on the droids The two narrow flaps on the chest are moulded as a single piece so displaying them open isn't possible without a lot of work And for anyone wondering about size the body is about 2" so the finished height will probably be just over 3" There is the usual choice between decals or stickers and there's some nice touches on the sheets including the milled aluminium squares that go round the bottom of R5's head and the little cluster light panels on R2's dome. You also get the red pinstripe for R5 which will save a lot of masking I'll probably be tackling R5 first as it seems like the easier build. At this stage though, I'm not 100% sure if I'll be doing them as R2 & R5. There are so many astromechs in the EU now, many with more colourful paint jobs, so I may pick a different subject but we'll see Andy

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

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

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.

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

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

Now get that lisp sorted out! Happy Star Wars day to you all

Hi, my first post in this section of the site for my first ever SF build. I picked up one of the little Revell 1/52 Snowspeeder kits for a couple of quid the other week to have a play about with as a distraction from my usual subjects. I decided to paint it up myself and do a little chipping etc and see what I could get it to turn out like. I'm pretty sure it's most likely to be widly inaccurate, over weathered, the wrong colours etc and so forth but I really enjoyed the change of subject matter and I am fairly pleased with the way it turned out. So here it is, is painted with Tamiya acrylics, chipped with Maskol and weathered using a couple of Ammo products:

A few months back I managed to pick up 3 of the large Hasbro Special Forces Tie Fighters from Tesco at a bargain price. One has gone to my lad, one is staying in the box and the other is currently sat on my work bench......... I'm planning on stripping it down and doing a repaint. However, my imagination has just decided to up and leave with regards to possible schemes. I was thinking of doing an 'unpainted' craft in chromate yellow as though it was undergoing major servicing but I am more than open to suggestions. There are loads of alternative and 'what if' colour schemes out there for other SW vehicles such as X-Wings but I'm really struggling to find anything for Tie Fighters. Over to you guys.........

After becoming slightly obsessed with the new Star Wars movie, i decided i wanted to actually be IN it as a character, unofficially of course. So i needed a ship.. a Starfighter to Bounty Hunter and Smuggle my way accross the galaxy! I love the new T-70 X-Wing esp the new wing design, but i wanted something more individual than just a re-colored one. I love Lamborghini's and Ducati's and after looking at an Aventador.. a light bulb went on in my head. This isnt an ordinary X-Wing, cockpit forward, based on a lengthened Lamborghini Aventador roadster, now a single seater with Ducati wing Intakes. It will have a segment of Millenium Falcon style engine on the rear, with the main fuselage tapering up/down to meet it. Lighting planned for Cockpit, Engine nozzles & front guns.

T-70 X-Wing Fighter Bandai 1/72 I ordered this from an ebay seller a few weeks ago, and it's just turned up. It'll be a slow burn build as I'll be fitting work on it around other projects, but I'll put up some sprue shots so you can see what's to come. It's not giving too much away to say that it's easily up to the high standards of Bandai's earlier releases. There's only three sprues for the T-70, plus a forth for the base. Everything's exceptionally crisp and sharp with some incredibly fine detail on some of the parts. Sprue A has most of the fuselage parts, and is the one sprue that's moulded in multiple colours (that's one of the small niggles with this kit, which I'll get on to later). You also get the pilots and BB-8. One point to note, like the X-Wing (and most SW fighter, really) it's surprisingly small. The main fuselage section is about 12.5cm, which will go up to around 15.5 with the nose attached. To put that in context, it's just slightly longer than a Mig-15. I think, because of the elongated profile, it looks larger on screen. Wingspan's about 15cm. Sprue B has the wing parts.This has a slightly different set-up to the original X-Wing in that the split is down the centreline of the wing so that, when opened, the leading edge drops down and the trailing edge moves up. The parts are moulded with an opposing upper and lower wing on each half, the two halves just push together and remain posable. Sprue C is moulded in a silver grey which is a bit swirly in places, but the detail is still very sharp. This has got the landing gear, the alternate canopy frame, BB-8's compartment and a few engine details. The last sprue is the base. This is essentially the same basic base that comes with all these kits, in this case with a sand dune texture/colour. Wing close up Inner wing detail panels Upper fuselage Fuselage side panels. This is where I have a bit of an issue with Bandai's policy of moulding parts in colour. The blue stripe that runs down the side is moulded as a separate piece, meaning it can be installed without painting should you wish. The problem come from the fact that the other blue sections, such as the dashes on the wings, only come as decals so, since you'll have to use the decals or paint the remaining blue sections, it makes the inclusion of the moulded blue parts somewhat redundant. If the blue sections hadn't been included, the whole of the side section could have been done as a single piece. Cockpit parts. There's some nice raised detail here, best painted, as the included instrument panel decals aren't great The pilots are probably Bandai's best yet. No funny, extended arms here (the one on the left isn't a dwarf, he's just sitting down) And, of course, you get a mini BB-8 Those big split engine intakes are very well done with very deeply moulded detail The split canopy is moulded in clear. There's a couple of flow marks in it which I've found in some of Bandai's other clear parts. It's not quite as prominent as it looks in the photo. You also get a slightly pointless glassless canopy frame, should you wish to pretend they fly around in space with no windows. You get the usual Bandai choice of stickers or decals Some are well printed, some aren't. If you look at the silver decal for the canopy frame, you can see that they can print a decent solid colour, so why then do they print some in a dot pattern that looks awful. Hence the reason it's best to paint the cockpit detail. BB-8's marking are also a bit pixely, so I might try painting those too These are the decals for the leading edge of the engine intakes, and if you want to paint the silver and blue parts rather than use them, Bandai do provide the small detail markings separately, albeit not enough, you get four of the blue diagonal marks when you would need eight. You do get enough of the little white triangles though This may not be a problem for me though, as I might not be doing this scheme. For any that don't know, the design of the T-70 was heavily influenced by the original X-Wing concept art by Ralph McQuarrie, and I think it might be fun to paint it up in the colours from his illustration Andy

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.

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

Hello! Here are my two Revell T-70 X-Wing Fighters from The Force Awakens. Both kits were repainted and I added figures modified from the spares box. I used a degree of artistic license with the weathering! You can see more pictures of this build on my blog: http://thescalemodelhangar.blogspot.co.uk

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

My first modelkit since a long time! Here are photos of my interpretation of the AT-ST. Comments and critics are welcome!

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Hi all, I'm still pretty new to model making, so this might be an obvious question, but is there any easy way to build a replacement clear part for the cockpit glass? I stupidly cracked the kit part after the below picture was taken, and it really is beyond repair. I can't afford to get into vacuum forming either sadly. This is only my second model building project, an old MPC Millennium Falcon I got for a reasonable price - and being the novice I am, I was totally unaware (or rather didn't read up before making an impulse buy at a convention!) of the amount of inaccuracies with this kit. I've made some minor modifications, such as building a new engine grill, lighting it, as well as ordering some aftermarket parts (the inner cockpit detail and a smaller radar dish), but I wasn't brave enough to correct the scale of the cockpit section. My hope with this kit was to get some experience using oil washes/weathering techniques, rather than getting a screen accurate model, as my only previous experience was building the Voyager from Star Trek (so, pristine and very little weathering). It's still not finished yet, so i'm hoping it will get a little darker/dirtier with the later layers. Hope you can help, as I'd rather not leave the glass out if possible. (the top half isn't attached yet, hence all the light leaks)

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