1/12 Bandai Stormtrooper

[kahunaminor]

I buckled and purchased a Bandai 1/12 Stormtrooper. IMHO these are an absolute gem OOB. I noted the seam at the rear of the lower helmet and filled the tiny gap with CA. It has yet to be repainted, but the good thing is the whole thing will just pop off! I was also worried about the ankle joints but they are not too bad really. The front and rear of the arm and leg armour have small mould seams. Nothing that cannot be easily removed with a sharp blade or sandpaper and polished up again. The equipment roll at the rear will need some attention as there is a slight seam and a gap on one end. I think it should also have either black or dark grey retaining straps. Any way after about 3 hours, I was left with this:

 

 

 

 

He is a bit armless at the moment but he will go through a qualifying shoot before I let him loose on the The Rebellion. He won't be weathered as he has duty on The Death Star, but I have a Sandtrooper that will receive a good dust up to show the results of poor career choice!

 

Regards,

[kahunaminor]

Main construction complete. This is one option, you get three pairs of hands as well as a different pistol and the MG34. The beauty is I can now disassemble him and do the touch ups and decals. I think I will spray all the black parts in matt. The weapons will get repainted and weathered a tad:

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking,

[kahunaminor]

Having completed construction, the next obvious step was to disassemble him. I did this so I could paint the black plastic parts in matt black, hopefully to negate the toylike appearance:

 

 

I had used cement on the torso so it meant a bit of masking to preserve the nice white armour:

 

 

The ankles were treated to some fill in work with Perfect Plastic Putty:

 

 

Ande here we are at the moment. The matt black looks much better than the shiny version. The blaster has been painted MM gun metal and highlighted with a combination of silver and HB pencils. The kit decals were used on the helmet and went on well with Set/Sol but the little buttons in the front of the armour were painted:

 

 

 

 

 

The legs and ankles still need a bit of work and then a repaint and gloss coat:

 

 

Regards,

[Wingco57]

Very nice, let's just call him......Finn!

Cees

[kahunaminor]

Thanks guys. I hit a small hurdle late yesterday. I had masked and repainted the lower leg as with Tamiya flat white. It gave a good approximation of the original colour. After about an hour I hit it with Testors Gloss enamel as a topcoat. I went away for a few hours to let it dry. When I got back, the parts were a nice gloss but had yellowed considerably! It was literally chalk and cheese! I first thought of masking and respraying, then using a lacquer but as I have the Sandtrooper to come next, I will just swap out the lower legs and feet:

 

 

 

 

Regards,

[Wingco57]

What a pity,

you will find a solution though.

Cees

[kahunaminor]

I found the problem.....

 

 

Curse you male genetic code for not reading instructions! I can attempt a respray or I might just swap out the legs with the Sandtrooper.

 

Regards,

[kahunaminor]

Finally finished up the build. I resprayed the lower legs Tamiya Flat white and once dry, I applied a coat of Testors Glosscote from the bottle through my Grex. I also painted the base with Tamiya German Grey from the rattle cane and applied one of the kit stickers:

 

 

Thanks for following what has turned out to be an enjoyable, if somewhat educational, build.

 

Regards,