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Bandai Snowspeeder


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Incom T-47 Snowspeeder

Bandai 1/48

 

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These finally turned up today and will be my last Star Wars builds for a while (unless the Ep 7 stuff is available for a reasonable price). I'll be leaving the X-Wing for a bit, but I decided to start the snowspeeder straight away.

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I'm probably going to do a red stripe one rather than Luke's grey stripe which are the markings that come with the kit, and I'll be doing it on the ground rather than in flight so I'll have to make a bit of hanger base for it.

I've not done much more than go through the box so far, but I've started to look what work I'll be doing in the cockpit. The moulded detail on the instrument panels is as good as all the other Bandai releases but I might add a few extra details here and there and I'll paint the controls rather than use the supplied decals.

It's got the usual clever engineering which allow the parts to just slot together. The side consoles simply slide into the upper fuselage so I'll paint these and the instrument panel before slotting them in

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As I said, It'll be on the ground, so I won't be using the gibbon twins with their super-long arms which is no loss (it would have been nice if they'd supplied a droid though, something to stand next to it. I may have to have a go at making something, maybe a gonk droid)

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The problem with not using them is that, like the AT-ST, Bandai have moulded big lugs on the seats to attach gibbon A and gibbon B, so I've ground them off and (rather roughly) rescribed the seat panels. They do look quite coarse but I'll pick up some etched belts which will cover most of the seat so they should be OK. I'll probably add a few extra knobs and switches to the consoles either side of the seats too (maybe a cup holder? or is that only on the ghia model)

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That's it for tonight. I should get some more done over the weekend

Andy

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Good work on the old armchairs there - you've cleaned them up a treat. As a kit-supplied pair of pieces, at least the pilot and harpoon operators don't look as bad as the standard issue airifx pilots.

I'll be watching and enjoying your build - good luck here onwards.

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This ought to be interesting. It's not my favourite vehicle of the SW movies but I'll be watching to see you work your magic. The figures look pretty good except for the weird looking arms and hands. So will this be a mini Hoth setting?

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Thanks guys

Yes, the figures aren't all that bad. The helmets are excellent but Bandai do seem to like to give their figures extra long arms

It won't be a Hoth setting per say, just a hanger style base. Basically just concrete coloured, with some lines/markings on it. You could say it was Echo Base or somewhere else. I may make some ground equipment or just a droid to liven it up a bit.

Jim, I'll send you a PM momentarily

Andy

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Looking forward to seeing how you get on with this one. I think they've made compromises with the figures to mould them in one piece but they are nowhere near as bad as the ones in the old AMT kit.

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Thanks guys

I've got most of the cockpit components painted. I wasn't sticking strictly to the film models for the colours, just going with what looked good, although in hindsight I wish I'd gone with a darker grey or even black for the main colour but it'll do as it is. After the base colour was on (Gunze H69), it all had a light dry brush with silver to give it a used look. I think this would have looked better over black. A few details were picked out with Vallejo colours and the seats were painted with VMA Interior Green, then the whole lot had a dark brown enamel wash. The display screens were done in Tamiya clear green.

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In the end, I didn't add much in terms of extra detail. It's pretty busy in there anyway. I just added a couple of bits of old PE to the coaming along with some wiring. I've ordered a set of Eduard fabric belts (Phantom ones, since I'll get two sets) so I'm waiting on those before I can install everything.

I've also got to work out what order I'm going to paint everything in. The rear panel, to which the big heat sink-like grille attaches, needs to be inserted before the upper and lower fuselage halves go together but, as that has to be black while the fuselage is pale grey, I think it'll be easier to paint it first to save on the masking. That'll probably mean painting the fuse halves separately too but the join's on a panel line so it shouldn't matter.

And then there's the problem of the undercarriage, the problem being there isn't any. The model's intended to be displayed in flight but, as I'm having it on the ground, I'll have to make something up. I'll have to check the film as I can't remember off the top of my head whether there's any shots of them in the background showing any landing gear. In theory, as it's essentially VTOL, it would only need some simple support struts which will make life easier.

More once the belts arrive

Andy

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beautifully painted cockpit! do you hand brush most of those individual consoles or mask and spray?

Thanks, it's all hand painted apart from the initial grey base coat. If the seats had been plain I'd have probably sprayed them but as they're ridged it was easy enough to hand paint without it looking patchy.

Andy

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Your progress looks great Andy. Neat idea to add some harness to the cockpit, it will certainly make it pop.

Inspired by your progress I have made a start on my Snowspeeder by attacking the figures with chisels and a trusty Xacto to give the detail more relief. Unfortunately I'm having a bit of trouble getting good paint coverage using a brush. The plastic Bandai has used seems a touch 'oily' even after a wash. Do you have any tips for getting paint to stick?

I am looking forward to what you do next.

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Yes, the Bandai plastic can be hard to paint on directly. These weren't primed but I used Gunze paint thinned with Mr Color self levelling thinner for the base coat and that will grab onto the surface pretty well. I also wiped the surface with a cotton bud dampened with isopropyl, which helps get rid of any remaining oilyness, before painting.

It's probably best to use a spray primer if you're brush painting acrylics or you could brush prime it with enamel

Andy

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While I'm waiting for the harness to turn up to complete the cockpit, I've been thinking about the base and the undercarriage for the speeder. I'd originally intended to scratch build some landing gear but that would have meant cutting apertures in the underside and building up some kind of gear bays along with making the gear itself and, frankly, I couldn't be bothered to put that much work into it, especially when you'd hardly see it.

Thinking about it for a while, I decided that, since I'll be leaving some of the side panels off, a maintenance platform might work better. That way it'll look like it's undergoing an overhaul.

So yesterday was spent hacking plasticard up, and I've come up with this little, wheeled cradle. It's pretty basic so I might add some more detail to it but once it's painted up (in yellow, I think) and given some paint chipping and weathering , it should look OK

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I might make an inspection platform as well but I don't want to crowd the base too much so I'll get the Speeder and base finished and see how it looks then.

Andy

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looking at the cradle and it's wheels, flashes of the Bat-Mobile / Tumbler flare up

Still, it's pretty cool :)

Will you add some wiring to it to simulate brakes? I would assume it would have some brakes of some kind, otherwise moving it around could be an exercise in precision driving

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Thanks everyone

Will you add some wiring to it to simulate brakes? I would assume it would have some brakes of some kind, otherwise moving it around could be an exercise in precision driving

Yes, it needs something. I was thinking that there would be individual electric motors in each wheel hub, so I'll add a control/power box on the frame with cables running to the wheels and maybe a detachable hand held control unit.

Andy

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I've added a few more details to the support cradle. Some cable and a few bits and pieces, to represent power units and a control panel, then it all had a coat of Gunze yellow. I'll add a few decals if I can find something suitable, do the detail painting and give it some weathering and then I think I should get some work done on the actual speeder.

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Andy

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The support cradle's now done, so I can get on with the base and speeder. The weathering was all done with acrylics to speed the process up, assisted by 'Eddie' who speeded the process even more, though not necessarily to the benefit of the final result :drink:

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Andy

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Your eye for detail and the look of real life objects is very good, and your modelling skill is superb, very nice build so far, I look forward to seeing how this turns out.

Are you going to be going for a standard colour scheme or an expanded universe scheme?

Rich

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