Bandai 1/72 B-wing differences between SDCC limited edition and regular

[Analyzer]

The SDCC LImited Edition one came with one battery operated LED for the engines. Both versions include all the clear pars for lighting but the limited edition included the Bandai Yellow LED which runs off a watch style battery. You can buy these as standalone pieces on places like Amazon Amazon.com: Bandai 258254 LED Unit (Yellow) for Plastic Model Kit: Toys & Games

The SDCC limited edition one also had no box art. It was originally sold at San Diego Comic Con but I believe it was available to the Japanese market as a Bandai store item. The SDCC release had no box art and just a black box with lettering

As far as the models themselves...

On the left is the SDCC limited edition which I refer to as the "no dots" version, the right is the Standard one I refer to as "orange dots"

Items labelled A are differences in decals B are physical tooling differences.

There is really only two physical difference beyond the decals and the markings in regards to the ship. The open panel right below the cross wing of the orange dot version is changed to a closed panel on the "no dots" version. The "no dots" version also has an open panel along the back edge of the main wing that is not on the orange dots version. Based on the greeblie detail in there, it looks like it could possibly represent landing gear?

Sorry these two pics have some blurry spots. I could not find any I took that had the side by sides with everything in focus. But this give you an idea

And of course here the big difference is the human vs Sullustan pilot

An oddity, I am assuming is accurate, the plastic sprue's color for the darker grey areas like the engine thrusters, cockpit and canopy is noticeably different. The "no dots" version is darker compared to the orange dots version. All the other plastic sprue colors are the same

As far as painting, I used a mix of mainly Tamiya XF-2 Flat White with some XF-55 Deck Tan for the body color and added in just a very small hint of XF-19 Skey Grey.So little that it probably makes no real difference

For the cockpit and engine areas on both I found Army Painter Grey primer made a great match for the lighter sprue color
for the other darker one I used XF63 German Grey mixed with XF-82 for the darker grey areas

Although the color is the same on both versions, as far as the engine striping and the wing markings, for the no dots version, I used Haze Grey for the blue/grey markings. I kind of wanted a darker look than Bandai went for.
For the No Dots version I wanted a light color closer to the studio model so I used a mix of XF-23, XF-82 and XF-2 and tried to get close to the sprue color. Basically the same kind of blueish grey that is on the Y-Wing canopies

And some "beauty" shots

 

[thegnome]

I am not sure about the landing gears but really nice job on the kits!

 

[skahtul]

Nice work. I have the special edition and did not know about the lights. I may need to pull it down off the shelf and get going on it.

 

[Galactican]

Thank you for this indepth review and comparison! Both birds look awesome.

 

[Jaitea]

Brilliant review & they turned out exceptional

J

 

[Analyzer]

I am not sure about the landing gears but really nice job on the kits!

thanks

The bits in there just remind of something you would see on the back edge of landing gear. We have never actually seen landing gear apart from the Rebels TV show version which is a bit different. I think of that open panels as the back half panel for the landing gear bay with the panel in front of it also opening but who knows

Nice work. I have the special edition and did not know about the lights. I may need to pull it down off the shelf and get going on it.

thank you
It is a fairly easy process to slide out the engine to turn the light on or off. The only problem is it takes a watch style battery which I do not have the right size yet so I have not actually been able to test out the light

Thank you for this indepth review and comparison! Both birds look awesome.

thank you and glad I can help



One other thing worth mentioning is the way the parts are split on the piece that holds the rotating cockpit, there is a nasty seam right down the middle that has been a pain to deal with. When looking at the shots of the cockpits side by side I can still see the seam. Despite filling it, I guess that filler has cracked during or after painting. They probably cracked because of the order of assembly after painting. I had left the whole rotating part with the cockpit as the two separate front/back pieces, assembled the rest of the body, then painted because it was easier to mask that way. Once all the base colors were painted, then I inserted the front/back halves, but being a tight fit they must have opened up the body join a little bit. If I was to do over, I would probably glue that seam before doing the filling

The back bullet shaped piece also has nasty seams to deal with. Luckily some of them fall right on the edge of where the stripe would be. This I had better luck filling, but I also glued those four panels instead of just relying on the snap fit so they would not move, and thus potentially crack the filler

 

[Analyzer]

Brilliant review & they turned out exceptional

J

thanks

I kept seeing posts asking what the differences were so I figured I would give it a go after finishing the second one

 

[RubiconLJ]

I currently only have the SE at the moment, but I'm thinking of combining parts from the two to create one that is not missing any panels. Anyone know if that is possible?

 

[Analyzer]

I currently only have the SE at the moment, but I'm thinking of combining parts from the two to create one that is not missing any panels. Anyone know if that is possible?

Yes it is possible.

The main fuselage parts are the exact same and the plug in parts can snap into either one so you can create one with all open panels, or one with all close panels, or a mix.

Unlike some other Bandai kits like the T-70 where they include previous parts as well as new parts so you could build either the previous version or the new version, the special edition does not include the panel option parts to build the standard version. But if you have both, you can choose whatever configuration you want

 

[StevenBills]

Very nice builds! I love weathering. Nice job!

SB

 

[RubiconLJ]

Yes it is possible.

The main fuselage parts are the exact same and the plug in parts can snap into either one so you can create one with all open panels, or one with all close panels, or a mix.

Unlike some other Bandai kits like the T-70 where they include previous parts as well as new parts so you could build either the previous version or the new version, the special edition does not include the panel option parts to build the standard version. But if you have both, you can choose whatever configuration you want

Thanks Analyzer, waiting on delivery of the standard. TBH, I haven't even cracked open the SE box to look into it.

 

[gedmac66]

Terrific informative reviews and wonderfully finished builds mate !
Thanks for sharing this.

Ged

 

[OlivierC]

I'm not an expert on the subject, but I did some research a while back because I own a studio scale kit. I believe these two versions are based on the two shooting models, referred as "orange" and "blue" by the studio scale community. I think the blue version is the one with the missing panels on the lower wing and orange is the one with the missing panel at the base of the engine. And I believe they have slighting different paintings and decals, reflected here. So it's actually a really nice effort put here by bandai, very nice attention to detail.
Most of the photos published in books and promo are from the orange model, references for the blue one are harder to find, but I have seen more lately because it's been part of exhibits.

So if you care about accuracy to the original, you should not swap parts between these two models

 

[Analyzer]

I'm not an expert on the subject, but I did some research a while back because I own a studio scale kit. I believe these two versions are based on the two shooting models, referred as "orange" and "blue" by the studio scale community. I think the blue version is the one with the missing panels on the lower wing and orange is the one with the missing panel at the base of the engine. And I believe they have slighting different paintings and decals, reflected here. So it's actually a really nice effort put here by bandai, very nice attention to detail.
Most of the photos published in books and promo are from the orange model, references for the blue one are harder to find, but I have seen more lately because it's been part of exhibits.

So if you care about accuracy to the original, you should not swap parts between these two models

Bandai did an excellent job of representing the differences. I am sure there are some quirks and other differences that are not represented but for the most part captured the differences people are most likely able to quickly identify

 

[OlivierC]

This thread has some photos of the Blue version (SDCC), the rarest of the two:

B-Wing (Studio Miniature - Star Wars : The Exhibition London 2008)

These were taken in January 2008 at the Star Wars Exhibition in London. The lighting is problematic, and I was winging it trying different focal lengths and shutter speeds to compensate. Resolution is 3504 x 2336. Click on the thumbnail, then click again for the full resolution. For easier...

www.therpf.com

You can see the opened panels on the long wing and the lack of orange dot