Hasbro Star Wars COMMAND Hand-Painted Customs. Why not?

I was at a store a few weeks ago and saw these. In recent years I've been trying to stick to model kits and forced myself to not buy toys anymore (Really? Who am I trying to fool? The animated Star Wars Rebels will be out soon!). But when I saw these stark, unpainted figures I felt that tremor in the force again. 

Unpainted Star Wars miniatures? Sold!

At just 2 to 2 and a half inches, they make great gaming pieces and great miniature display figures. Warning: I'm not a great photographer and the digital camera makes the fine details look harsher. A LOT!

First, you have to prime them. This is absolutely necessary as the material they are made from has a certain residue that makes the paint slide across the surface. I washed the figures in liquid detergent, then let them dry thoroughly. 

Next, I sprayed them with Tamiya "Fine" White surface primer.

And last I painted them with different acrylic paints like Floquil's Polly Scale and cheap craft acrylic. Believe it or not, you can work wonders with some of those little 50 cent bottles!

The Endor set includes 4 Ewoks and I painted three of them as different characters based on my Hasbro figures from Power of the Force or the Saga series.

Obviously, they're all copies of Wicket. But they look real cute to the naked eye in 3-D. Who wants an army of just Wicket clones?

Next from the Endor set are the two vehicles, molded in a semi-soft, almost rubbery plastic.

After priming they can be painted real easy. I used Tamiya's panel line accent color again and I really need to get the grey and mix it with the black, I think. The pure black lines are great on darker colors. but they might me a wee bit too dark on the X-Wing fighter. It looks good in person, though.

Because of the molding of the three lines on the s-foils (wings), I recognized this as Red-3, the X-Wing piloted by Biggs Darklighter. So I referenced an old magazine I still have with a few great pictures of ILM's filming models to get the right color scheme. Bear in mind, this thing is about 2 inches long, so getting the details right on the little astromech droid wasn't easy. He's a little sketchy!

I still need a few colors here and there to get this one 100% done. This really inspires me to get a an actual X-Wing model kit like the 1/72 Fine Molds or even other versions. 

I love X-Wings.

The AT-ST Chicken Walker was A LOT easier to finish. Basically, grey spray paint and panel lines.

Will I use these in some game? Probably not. I've never actually done Star Wars RPG. That doesn't mean I'm not at least curious. But I want more of these. The "Rebels" one with the new characters looks really cool. 

Bandai 1/700 宇宙戦艦ヤマト Space Battleship Yamato aka Argo and Intrepido. A vintage model from 1978!

I would like to share a model I made back in the winter of 2010. The Space Battleship Yamato, called Argo and Intrepido in some countries, is one of my favorite spaceships ever. It is the main vehicle seen in 1974's 宇宙戦艦ヤマト (Space Battleship Yamato), called "Star Blazers" when it was released in English, later in 1979. Other language versions were "Astronave Intrepido" in Spanish-speaking countries, and "Patrulha Estelar" in Brazil and Portugal.

The news of the live-action film with Takuya Kimura and Meisa Kuroki, along with the trailers for the film, sparked some nostalgic force in me. So in 2010, I purchased the model and a few "mini-kits" (called Mecha Colle in Japan) from the original anime series. This model is in 1/700 scale. The miniature Mecha Colle kits are non-scale. I'll post some of those later. 

This particular casting was re-released in 2009. But the original molding was done as a "Mechanical Model" version back in 1978! It's basically the same model without the interior parts like the engine and the Wave-Motion gun. 

When I made the kit in 2010, it was my first model in nearly 7 years. So I was extremely excited to get my hands on this project.

I want to mention again that I'm not a professional model-builder so many of my remedies to details and such are experimental.

My first concern was the color. I blended a medium-to-light gray with a touch of blue and a few drops of purple. In some episodes it has this color. At other times, the color is more blue-green-gray. As the series progressed through the 1980's with sequels and seasons two and three, the ship's gray livery gets darker and darker. 

Windows, portholes, and other lights change from greens to yellows, even soft blues, throughout the many incarnations of Yamato. I chose the green lights. I wanted my Yamato a lighter color because this is the way it appears in the very beginning of the show as it rips out of the ground. My pictures make it look darker than the actual thing.

When I got the model, I was slightly disappointed by the lack of detail in some areas. Because Yamato is such a classic, there are many model kit releases available. The newer ones kept improving on the surface detailing, so I had to add some of my own. These subtle additions were mostly panels and hatches that I painted on the surface to bring my model up-to-date. 

I experimented with brushes and tried making some weathering on the hull. But I didn't want it to look too battle damaged.

I did some old fashioned "lighting" tricks, like using very light colors for glowing areas.

For a model from 1978, the halves of the fuselage fit together very nicely. I did have to do quite a bit of sanding but very little puttying was needed. 

I definitely want to get the 2199 version. Bandai makes it in 1/1000 and 1/500. But for right now, I really like my simple old-fashioned model kit.

There's something very expressive and very alive about these older kits. They really do capture the spirit of these classic animes from the 70's and 80's. And along with Kodai, Mori, Sanada and all the rest, the Yamato itself feels like one of the main characters as well.

BANDAI 1/1000 GAMIRASU WARSHIPS SET 2 (ガミラス艦セット2) PART 3

Kripitera Class Destroyer (クリピテラ級航宙駆逐艦)

An animation cell showing a fleet of Clipitera accompanying Emperor Desler's blue command Ship. Emperor Desler was renamed Desslok in the American dubbing by Voyager back in 1979. Image is courtesy of Cosmo DNA. As I mentioned earlier, Cosmo DNA is an excellent site for English-speaking fans.

In this screen capture from Yamato 2199, you can see two Kripiteras side by side on the Floating Continent in episode 3. Bandai's Garmillas Set 2 includes 2 of these sleek destroyers. It makes perfect sense. These are the most common warcraft used by the Gamiras. And they are often seen traveling in close proximity, evoking the sense of ambush predators hunting in a pack.

They are among my favorite of the Yamato 2199 designs, which is the reason I got this kit first.

Although I wanted to make two identical green destroyers, I finally decided and made one in the Royal Guard blue. My camera is very sensitive to blue and this is not the actual color of the finished model. The actual finish is a lot more toned-down. A LOT.

The engine exhaust on the green Gamiras/Gamilon ships in the anime appear fuschia or magenta. The "eyes' glow a soft lime and then change to bright yellow and orange when the ships are charging for battle. The blue ships of the Elite Guard have slightly different light effects. The "eyes" and engines glow a bright yellow-white that changes to hot pink in areas.

That's still not the actual blue. Why does my camera do that?!?!?

Bandai created a standard display system that allows most of the models from the same series to be interchanged on the different stands so you can mix and match your favorite ships. For this reason I haven't added the decals yet. The labels for the models look very cool in Katakana and Kanji. But I might switch the combinations of spacecraft from other sets. So I'll wait a bit before adding names to them.

The design of this is sleek and squid-like. I feel like the creators of these machines were seeing submarines in space, as well as surface vessels. 

This picture above captures the color of the blue a little bit better. I forgot to clean the models before photographing! Excuse my dust!

Here are the destroyers next to Colonel Schultz's larger Gaiderol battleship. I love these things!

A photo showing them next to some familiar objects for size reference. 

BANDAI 1/1000 GARMILLAS WARSHIPS SET 2 (ガミラス艦セット2) PART 2

Gaiderohl Class Battleship (ガイデロール級)

The Gaiderol (alternative spelling), first appeared in episode 9 of the original Space Battleship Yamato of 1974. It was commanded by Colonel Walke Schultz. You can see a Clipitera class destroyer right under it in this image, courtesy of Cosmo DNA, an excellent site for english-speaking fans.

The Yamato 2199 version is very true to the original design. The colors have been simplified and there's a lot more surface detail.

This is one of my favorite ships from the whole series. In my opinion, Yamato has some of the most original designs in anime as well as science fiction.

The look of Yamato is inspired by WWII military vehicles. The Yamato herself is the rebuilt battleship from WWII. There are fighters and bombers that engage in aerial dogfights in space. Battleships like this one have rotating turrets and fight battles side by side, just as they did in the 1940's.

The designs of the Great Gamiras (Gamilon) Empire incorporate a mixture of WWII sensibilities with organic shapes that are reminiscent of sea creatures. Gaiderol looks a bit like a giant catfish or lamprey. These designs were ahead of their time for 1974. That's 3 years before Star Wars!

I left the underside below the waterline mostly unpainted and simply panel-lined. I primed the inside of the engine in white and painted it a bright magenta, imitating the color of the exhaust in the anime. I've seen some more advanced modelers illuminate the model with LED's, which looks amazing. But I'm satisfied with the way mine turned out using old-fashioned hand-painted lighting tricks.

BANDAI 1/1000 GARMILLAS WARSHIPS SET 2 (ガミラス艦セット2) PART 1

Part One: Overview, Construction and Painting

It's been nearly a year since this wonderful model was released by Bandai. I acquired mine back in March for my birthday. It is an absolute must for fans of 宇宙戦艦ヤマト2199 (Uchū Senkan Yamato 2199). 

Yamato 2199 (2012-2013) is a remake of the original Space Battleship Yamato series from 1974. The original series was released as an english dub in the U.S. as Star Blazers back in 1979. I have to admit, Star Blazers has a strong nostalgic power over me. I would watch it as a child, every morning at 7:00 a.m., right before school. At age nine, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, and Star Blazers were all on an equal level. And they still are in my mind. 

When I was a child, we called the alien enemy that commanded these ships the Gamilons. Their original name in Japan is Gamirasu (the "u" is silent), sometimes written as Gamilas or more recently, Garmillas. I like Gamiras(u). It sounds more menacing. 

If you are a fan of anime, the new version is truly AMAZING. You can see a trailer for the english-subtitled release here. And here is a more explicit trailer for DVD volume 6 in the original Japanese. 

The kit consists of four models in one box. Included is the larger Gaiderohl Class Battleship (ガイデロール級), two Clipitera Destroyers (クリピテラ級航宙駆逐艦). All three of these are in 1/1000 scale. Also included is a bonus Salvar S-VI Heavy Tank in non-scale (probably 1/160 or 1/200).

I'm not a professional modeler. My skills include puttying, sanding, priming and basic painting. I have been building plastic models since the 1980's but it's not something I do all the time. If you're an average builder like me, you can still make a really good model from this kit with very little effort. 

I have to say that Bandai has raised the quality of their kits to near perfection. There is practically no flash. The parts fit with no mis-matched left-right warping whatsoever. There is only one area that really needs any puttying. It's a hair-thin gap near the front of the upper hull of the Gaiderohl Battleship. Apart from that, most everything else is a breeze for an impatient person like myself. 

The one annoying part is the tiny fins that cover all three of the spaceships. You can see one of them on my finger in the picture below. 

I don't have large hands! The fins are tiny!

My solution to this challenge was the method I used below, using tweezers and flipping the glue applicator. Otherwise, there would be glue leaks everywhere! I'm sure this method has been done a thousand times but I felt like sharing. IMPORTANT: The instructions indicate that these fins should be placed LAST. They are 100% correct. I made the mistake of applying some of them to the sub-assemblies, and had them fall off all the time when I started connecting the larger parts later. You can get as inventive as you like with the painting of this kit, but please follow the instructions carefully! As usual with Bandai, they are in Japanese but extremely easy to understand.

Another trick I found is an amazing product made by Tamiya, the Panel Line Accent Color. It is available in black, brown, or grey. This is a joy for lazy people like myself who don't like doing classic panel line wipes and inhaling massive amounts of paint thinner! 

As you can see in the above pics, it helps to accentuate the lines on the model. It works best with glossy paint or semi-gloss. It's not good with flat paint, where it drips where ever it wants to. Luckily, the Tamiya flat military spray paints I used are actually a bit semi-gloss. I have seen pictures where people made these same kits without painting the models and just used the panel line formula and they look fantastic! NOTE: excess panel line stains are removed using an enamel thinner like Tamiya's X-20. The thinner does not harm Tamiya spray paints as they are lacquer based. You can see a demonstration of this method here. Some people even use this method to make weathering streaks. The different colors can be mixed to make a dark gray, gray-brown, etc...

Above is a masking trick I used when painting the tiny curved bridge windows. Putting tape on one side allowed me to brush the paint on without being too precise. I primed the small spaces white first for maximum contrast from the yellow colors.

I then very lightly sanded the surface, removing the excess yellow.

I decided to paint one of the Cripitera Destroyers in the blue color used by the Gamiras Royal Guard. With coloring, I tend to be more of a perfectionist. So I mixed my own color. It's a semi-gloss mixture of navy, light gray, and a blue-violet. My camera doesn't capture this color well at all. The pictures make it look much more intense than it appears in real life. I applied this color with a brush. Obviously, an airbrush would have made the finish even smoother, but this worked out very nicely. I think it's because blue and gray acrylics tend to spread better than other colors.

Resurrecting my Star Trek models, part deux

This is what my Polar Lights Star Trek models were starting to look like prior to the disaster I wrote in the post right before this one. You need to read that to avoid making the same mistake I did. These pictures were taken almost a year ago. The models were basically waiting for minor details like the dome "light" that goes over the Enterprises' shuttle bays, a good gloss coat to help the decals adhere properly, and some paint corrections, like the copper rings behind the Pilot Enterprise's Deflector (I don't think both versions have the second copper detail).

They are currently being sanded down and repainted. I suppose it's for the better. Maybe this will motivate me to get the grid lines on the production Enterprise's Saucer.

Back from the Ashes - Reviving my damaged Star Trek models

It has been nearly a YEAR since I started on these Polar Lights kits of the Original Series Enterprise and Klingon D7! And now 11 months later I find myself having to repaint them entirely due to the fact that I used what I consider generic Clear Gloss Spray that almost completely ruined them! For ethical reasons I'm refraining from naming the evil product in question that gave my children a tacky(sticky) finish. But it is not gloss spray from Home Depot like Krylon or anything like that. It was a domestic and very common brand of "model paint" found at any Toys"R"Us or Michael's. 

I had gone to some time-consuming lengths investigating and gathering all the resources I could find such as studio photos and magazine articles containing interviews with Matt Jeffries and others to try to get the most accurate color schemes possible. And since I wanted to not just replicate exact studio colors but to tweak them to what I call "Screen Apparent" colors, I had to mix the crap out of the violet grays and the blue grey on the D7 for example. Even the cool blue-violet grey on the pilot Enterprise is hand cranked (I despise yellow-grays, with few exceptions). All modelers have to go through this process of making that "special color" you can't buy anywhere.

But how frustrating to have to sand everything down to start all over again after weeks of cutting, puttying, sanding, etc... So these are my shots of these models undergoing sanding and repainting refit. I was put off for months but I'm not giving up that easily.