Imperial Stormtrooper by Bandai

[Jaitea]

Hey, this kit arrived on Monday from HLJ.....just over £20,....money well spent


As with the other SW Bandai models, this is another very cleverly engineered kit


It is a joy,....even just to look at.....and drool


The box art is first class:

...and inside....the parts!

The Armour:

Look at how crisp & sharp the detail is,....and glossy

The black sprue with body glove parts, guns & hands

...even parts of hands wrapped around the grip of the guns!!!!

...again Decals or stickers

The joints sprue [left of pic] are made of a rubbery material .....and the stand on the other sprue:

Fantastic illustrations & artwork

and how the hands grip the weapons:

I'll post images tonight about a wee mod to the helmet that was suggested in Starship Modeller


J

 

[astroboy]

I'm not really into figures but that one is VERY tempting

 

[Randy13]

Figures are not my thing either but this kit looks great. Kind of reminds me of one of their Gundam kits.

 

[spacebob]

Wow, I had no idea that it would be that good, where do I buy.......

 

[Hunk a Junk]

Waiting for mine to arrive. I hope that at some point Bandai does an entire trooper line from clones to the coming Ep VII versions. I'd be great to have them all in a row.

 

[Jaitea]

I ordered mine through Hobby Link Japan, apparently the R2 & TIE are available to pre-order now,


As I mentioned in my post earlier I read a post by Rogue Leader on Starship modeller site:
http://www.starshipmodeler.net/talk/viewtopic.php?p=1597973#1597973


...in it he had done a bit of photoshop to illustrate the modifications he was going to do to the kit:

To give myself an idea of what the Storm/Sandtrooper will look like after a bit of plastic surgery I took a couple of the Gunjap images into photoshop.

For the front view I modified a few things. The top of the helmet has been raised so that there is a gap between the eyes and the mono-brow as most troopers appeared that way. The right thickness of plasticard will achieve that. I changed the shape of the eyes slightly and added more teeth, though I'm not sure how easy it will be to add them on the actual model. I also lowered the shoulder armour as that appears to contribute to the "low helmet" look. Lastly, I tightened his belt. Given how simple it is, it shouldn't be too hard to mod or scratch that if I decide to put in the effort.


Side comparison:

For the side view I just raised the top of the helmet and tightened his belt, but I think it brings the figure closer to how I prefer the troopers to look.

The first part in construction is the helmet,....so I'll have a go at modifying the brow trim.....just a bit.....heres a look of some of the Stormtrooper helmets in the movies:


Hero helmet.....only 7 made for SW....designed for close ups....eg on the Rebel Blockade Runner....Han & Luke's costumes etc,.....these were more expensive,....they had moulded lenses & finer details


The brow trim looks to be a rubber piece so it moves up and down from shot to shot:

Im gona try and make mine with a hint of a white line between the eyes & the brow by putting a thin bit of styrene in as Rogue Leader suggests


J

 

[mofo77]

yeah,mine arrived yesterday from hobbylink japan.
highly recommend it.tons of parts,crisp detail and great packaging.
they've certainly approached this the same way as there high quality gundam kits.
well done bandai:thumbsup

 

[Jaitea]

Yeah,.....I've said this before but I have to stress this....I get a REAL nostalgic 1977 buzz from these kits.....the artwork especially looks more SW than any kit I've ever seen.....(these boxes are not going to be thrown out!!)

The clever way that you build them up just makes me smile.....they are fun!......I just ordered the R2 & R4 kit,....I'd like the 3-PO to go with it....I've got Vaders TIE....I'd love 2 TIE's to go with them......I've built an X-Wing......I'd love to build another 5 of them to make a squadron ........the list goes on

J

 

[spacebob]

Hi J are you going to fix it in a pose and fill the gaps in the joints, or leave it poseable ?

 

[Jaitea]

Hi J are you going to fix it in a pose and fill the gaps in the joints, or leave it poseable ?

Yeah, I think I'll pose it....and fill

Likely this pose:

......kinda Luke Skywalker-ish

J

 

[spacebob]

Oh that is good, that would be cool having a few of them in all the promo poses
am I right in saying that this is the larger black series scale?

 

[Oddjobkia]

But the gun is pointing in the right direction?

 

[Jaitea]

Oh that is good, that would be cool having a few of them in all the promo poses
am I right in saying that this is the larger black series scale?

......I don't know for sure spacebob,....I think its about that scale

Well I added a bit of styrene which created a few gaps :'(......so I used some Squadron white filler....Its ended up creamy coloured,.....I might touch it up with paint

Thats it at the minute


Thanks for looking


John

 

[RogueTrooper]

Nice, really nice.

 

[Scratchy]

......Aren't you a little short for a Stormtrooper?

...couldn't resist, sorry.

 

[spacebob]

So J have you tilted the cap up at the front? Looks about right to me.
I have ordered one yay.
I have a proper helmet here if there is anything you want to compare to the model but to be honest its prob the most accurate sculpt I've seen

 

[Jaitea]

Thanks guys....

Ha Stormy Gru!

Thanks spacebob,.....yeah I'm pretty happy with the wee spacer put in,....but the gaps were a pain

Are you gonna keep yours adjustable?

J

 

[GF]

Nice kit! not sure why they did grooved side vents if they included the decals for them

 

[Zombie_61]

...The joints sprue [left of pic] are made of a rubbery material...

This is the thing that bums me out about these figure kits--the posable joints are too obvious (in the photos I've seen, anyway). I understand why Bandai did this, but if I wanted an action figure I'd buy an action figure. :angry

 

[spacebob]

I think I'll leave mine to pose, I can always change my mind later