Hobby desk update

Hi to the tough hobby guys, (and the fabulous hobby girls of course!)

No long article today, just something I've been working on recently...

My last review was about the 1:144 scale First Order TIE fighters. I pretty much finished them up by now and I'm about to crash one into the desert of Jakku...

Another Star Wars project I was working on is my crashed Imperial Star Destroyer, also one of the Bandai Star Wars vehicle kits I reviewed. This project is almost done now!

Lastly, I got this new addition to my pile of shame. Another project I really want to do but is in line with a ton of other cool kits, busts, and models... It's a Shaetann bust by mproyec, a limited edition figure that looks absolutely amazing and I just had to have!

That's all for now, people! I still have a review planned for the Bandai mini millennium falcon and if you guys want I will keep you more up to date on projects that I'm working on!

Cya all next time!

Bandai Star Wars Vehicle Model First Order TIE-Fighter set review

Hello my friends!

If you follow me personally on facebook you might know that I received two extra Bandai Kits. Today I will unbox and review the First Order TIE-Fighter set and I will do the Millenium Falcon (hopefully) next week. 

A couple of weeks ago I took a look at the Imperial Star Destroyer in this range of models. The diorama I'm working on is almost complete! 

Back to the TIE's! 

This kit features both the TIE/fo and the TIE/sf space superiority fighters. The First Order TIE's have a similar design to the old Galactic Empire TIE/ln fighters but are basically upgraded versions. The TIE/fo has deflector shields and improved solar cells while the TIE/sf is outfitted with a hyperdrive and has place for a pilot and a gunner to operate the ventral turret. The TIE/sf is reserved for the First Order's most elite pilots.

Enough with the background information. It's a Bandai kit so officially it's only sold in Japan. Thanks to Ebay I was able to buy this kit for $4.60 which for what you get is a steal! It's Bandai so details are great and the kit is easy to put together. This is kit number 004.

The box states this kit is suited for kids from 3y/o and up but I'm a bit skeptical about that. I don't have kids but I think it's more for like 8y/o and up due to the small pieces and the skill required to cut it from the sprue and put the model together. 

That doesn't take away from the fact that this is a very accessible kit in both price and required skill for younger people whether they are interested in model building or if they just want some cool Star Wars toys. 

Now let's open up this box!

Just like the Star Destroyer, the instructions on how to put the models together are printed on the inside of the box. Most probably to reduce costs. It has a nice, old-school vibe to it. Unlike most Bandai kits, some of the instructions are written in English, although the instructions are simple enough to just figure it out.

This kit comes with a little sticker sheet. I'm kind of disappointed that they didn't add decals as well, as I really don't like using stickers. I won't be using these anyway as I will be painting the model but I do want to share my opinion about it. 

Comparable to the Star Destroyer kit, we find five sprues numbered A1 through A4 and BM1. A4 holds a wing, TIE/fo front half, a cockpit window and two bottom plates. fist thing I noticed is that the wings are completely black. The TIE/fo is supposed to have white solar cells and there are no stickers for this. Again, I'm going to paint it anyway so it's no problem for me but I was expecting more from a Bandai kit. 

On sprue A3 we find another wing, the rear half of a TIE/fo cockpit, a bottom hatch and a piece of the stand. 

Sprue A1 holds a TIE/sf wing, the TIE/sf front half of the cockpit, a cockpit window and a bottom hatch. It also contains the TIE/sf heavy laser turret.

Sprue A2 holds the last TIE wing, again for the TIE/sf, the back of the TIE/sf cockpit, a bottom hatch and two parts of the hull that are supposed to be colored red.

The same as with the Imperial Star Destroyer, the sprue labeled BM1 hold the parts for the stand.

The model is easy to cut out of the sprue and easy to put together. Keep in mind that the wings have little pegs where they connect to the TIE and they will only go on one specific way.

For ease of painting the solar cells, I didn't glue on the wings yet.

Just a quick and dirty paintjob. I painted the whole model in black, painted a gloss varnish over the cockpit window and painted the struts in a medium gray. If you are hand painting it, don't forget that the TIE/fo also has two small windows on the top hatch and the TIE/sf also has a back window for the rear gunner. 

Below you can see the TIE/sf mostly assembled. I left the cockpit window out because I still had to paint the parts of the hull that are supposed to be red and if you put in the cockpit window before installing these hull parts, you can't put them in later!!! I make these mistakes so you don't have to.

That concludes today's article. Eventually I will turn the TIE/sf into another crash site from Star Wars: the Force Awakens. More on this later or on my personal facebook. 

I hope you enjoyed reading it!

Untill next time!

Sneak-peak, Crashed Star Destroyer

Hey everybody!

Sorry for not posting anything in a while but I didn't have much to post about lately.

I am working on a project, a crashed Imperial Star Destroyer in either a desert or a snowy glacier.
I was halfway working on the model when I found a model that was far superior in details so I ordered a new model halfway the project.

I won't leave you all hanging, I will share some pictures of the old project.

That's all I can tell and show you all about this now. I guess you can kind of see this as a sneak preview of an upcoming article.

Hope you don't mind the short article.

Cya next time! Happy painting! 

Bandai Star Wars 1/72 X- Wing Starfighter

Hi guys and girls,

I'm sorry my articles are not as frequent as they used to be. I just had a lot of stuff going on in my life (moving house and even worse, having to move my hobby stuff!!) that took a lot of my spare time that I would otherwise had used to write this.

The box art looks very cool! 

Acquiring this model kit can be tricky. Officially, Bandai can only sell this in Japan. So if you want to buy this you need to turn to Ebay, Amazon or a so called proxy buying service. The original price is 2.592 Yen (about $23) but this might get up to near $40 for some online retailers.

To me, Bandai was best known for their Gundam kits. These rather large, detailed robot kits usually have loads of moving parts like arms, legs, torso's and head. With this in mind I expected a lot from this kit. I was not disappointed!

Inside the box are four plastic bags containing sprue's, decal- and sticker sheets. First impressions are really good! The detail on the model looks crisp and to the naked eye looks just like in the movies!

As you can see they got multiple colors on one sprue.
White, red, transparent and transparent red.
This package also included the sticker sheet.

Hull parts, details and pilot parts.

Engine- and gunparts.

Wing parts.

The decal sheet

The base and stand of the model.
It comes with 2 parts.
One of them representing the 'thermal exhaust
port' leading to the Deathstar's reactor core.

The whole model is snap-fit so no glue is required. The tools Bandai recommends are clippers and a hobby knife, although I would add some small files and fine sanding paper to that list. No glue is required!

Do keep in mind though, this model is made for the Japanese market. This means that the instructions are also in Japanese. Luckily the pictures explain everything clearly, but you might want to double check some actions before cutting or forcing two parts together.

Clear steps to follow

The model is an absolute dream to put together! I had loads of fun and it was an 'easy' build for me. I ended up having some trouble painting the model though. I did wash the model (something I rarely have to do with plastics) but the paint and primer kept rubbing off. Also masking tape from Tamiya, generally known to be one of the best masking tapes out there, pulled the primer and paint right off! That is when I decided to use the decals instead... And they have decals for everything!!!

Stickers for the little side panels in the cockpit

The whole kit comes with tons of options! You can pose the X-Wing in a flying position or in a landed position. With the ton of extra bits (and some of your own) you would be able to make a diorama of it undergoing maintenance or something. It comes with one seated and one standing rebel pilot and with an R2 and R5 astromech droid.

Check out the cute little R5 droid!

If you want to paint this kit, I suggest painting some parts before assembling the model. For example, if you'd like for the astromech unit to be removable (yes you can switch the two out if you don't glue them in) you should paint them before placing them into the hull. (or you can use the decals they provided. TINY DECALS!!) Same goes for the pilot and the cockpit.

Painted rebel pilot.

Pilot placed inside the cockpit.

For the metallics (cockpit, engines, mechanical parts on the wings) I used AK-Interactive's X-TREME Metal paint. Earlier tests have proven that this paint is supposed to be very durable. Still, I was able to peal it clean off when using masking tape. It might have something to do with the type of plastic, so handle with care!

The rest of the model was primed with Vallejo airbrush black and light grey primer. This usually gives me great result but the paint stayed very fragile! I applied several coats and let them dry for 24 hours before applying the next layer. It might have something to do with the type of plastic.

I then continued to paint the hull with Vallejo offwhite. I applied thin coats and tried to make the center of the panels more opaque and the edges (near the panel lines) more transparent, showing some of the grey primer underneath.

The hull painted white.

After applying the white paint, I applied several thin layers of gloss varnish to protect the paint and prepare the model for the decals.

I loosely assembled the model .

At first my plan was to manually scratch up the decals to create realistic weathering but seeing how easy the paint came off during the painting process I chose for a different method. I sponged on white paint matching the original basecoat so the markings would appear to be worn and damaged.

After applying and weathering the decals I proceeded with the details on the rest of the model. I did a pin wash to bring out the panel lines and details using brown enamel wash by AMMO and I cleaned up using a cotton swap.

I used black pigment powder, engine grime, engine oil and fuel stains from AMMO to weather the engines.

I used a sponge with rust colored pigments to create streaks

After sealing all the progress so far I created the final chips, scratches and cracks by freehanding them all over the model. This was a lot of work but a lot of fun to do. You can also create some paint chips using your sponge by lighting dabbing your sponge against the surface you want to be weathered. This gives a more random effect but can also be messier. For the chips I used a dark brown paint by AMMO.

Freehanded chips on the wing and engine.

The final result is something I was quite proud of! I really enjoyed building and painting this model and I am more then sure this is not my last Bandai Star Wars kit. I still have the TIE Fighter, Y-Wing and maybe even the Millennium Falcon. The kits are super detailed and you can do all sorts of cool stuff with it like creating a crashed fighter or implement lighting effects with LED's and fiber glass.

The finished result

I really hope you liked this review and walkthrough of my experiences with this kit. If you liked it and would like to see more feel free to follow this blog using this link or to leave a comment down below.

What are your thoughts about the kit? Do you like it enough to try and get one or do you prefer a different brand?

As always thank you for reading and don't lick your brushes!

How to paint a miniature Star Wars Imperial logo and blood stripes on a TIE-Fighter

Hey guys and girls!
As promised I got a little tutorial on how I painted the small imperial logo on my TIE-Fighter. I found an example painted by a guy called Rodent Mastermind but no explanation how to paint it. I had to exeriment a couple of times to get it right.

 What I like about this is that it gives your X-Wing models a little extra character, like it could be a squadron leader or a decorated veteran. It's small enough to be a little forgiving on the details but it is detailed enough so it's recognizable from a tabletop distance.

You will need only one color of paint. This could be white, off-white or a very light grey. Whatever you like the most or what fits your paint scheme.

I began with the outer circle. This will mark the full location and size. I used the plastic rod to protect your brushes to "stamp" the location and used a brush to get a nice and even outer ring.

Outer ring stamped and corrected

When your satisfied with the outer ring, paint two small lines. One at the top and one at the bottom. Make sure these are pointing towards the top and bottom of your ship. After that, while trying to keep the Space between them as even as possible, add four more lines, bringing the total to six.

Divided the circle with small lines

Connect the lines inside the ring by painting a hexagon.

It's like connect the dots

At the corners of the hexagon, paint a square where the corner of the hexagon meets the line connecting it to the outer circle. I filled in the rest of the hexagon except for a small black dot in the middle.

Already starting to look like we are getting there! 

Now draw small black lines from the black dot. You can make these lines a bit triangular shaped if you like, but at this scale lines look good enough in my opinion.

Imperial logo is done! 

So on with the blood stripes. This is a visual introduced with the imperial aces. If I understood correctly imperial pilots are allowed to display these if they get ten kills. This means it is a nice way to decorate named pilots or veteran squadron leaders.

I started by masking the location of where I want to paint the stripes. Then, continuering with the weathered look, I choose to sponge on the paint.

Tamiya Masking tape applied

For this, I tore of a piece of blister sponge, dipped it into my red paint, rubbed off the excess paint on a paper towel and applied it to the miniature. The masking prevents the paint from hitting spots I don't want to to get on.

Blister sponge

I mixed up a semi-dark red for the blood stripe

Remove the masking tape and apply a thin layer of black wash.

Final, finished result

Your done now! You could touch some spots up with black, white or red but that's basically how you paint the logo and the blood stripes. Now if you weathered your ship a little (I did!) you can use some black and orangey - brown washes or pigments to give the logo and the stripe the same treatment.

I really hope you guys enjoyed this little tutorial! I sure did have a lot of fun experimenting and writing it!

Thank you for reading and see you next time.