I picked up some paints over the weekend, hoping to get these bad boys back on track soon!
Let's see your work
Tonight I decided to weather two of my favorite Bandai kits with two different products.
For R2 I used Tamiya Panel Line Accent (Gray). Uses capillary action to spread. Clean up excess with lighter fluid.
For the Sandtrooper, I used the Tamiya Weather Master kit. Holy cow this stuff is awesome. It even has what looks like grains of sand. Very easy to apply.
Not a lot of hype or attention was given around this kit. It kind of flew under the radar. But this kit has become one of my favorites. I am wow'd!
It captures Kylo so well plus it succeeds at creating a decent robe from plastic (for the first time). The leg articulation is hindered as expected but not like some other kits. One downside to the rubbery robe is it attracts dust. But that's just a nitpick. I'm really happy with the final product. The texture and detailing is incredible, especially the helmet and robe.
Out of box, it needs bit of work. The gloss was my biggest issue. The only parts I did not paint Flat Black are the belt, boots (except boot straps) and helmet and external robe, scarf and hood. I even painted the inner skirt. What a difference such a simple thing made.
Some pics...
Here you can see the difference a little flat black paint makes. The off the rack gloss was not realistic.
Here you can see the rubber-like pliability of the "soft goods". IMO a great improvement from Vader and Phasma's cape.
I chose not to use the included mask sticker. Not as effective as paint.
So many layers to this kit. Very well thought out design. I had a lot of fun building it.
The elbows don't bother me as much as I thought they would.
I painted the hilt gun metal which is hard to capture in a picture but believe me when I say it is a lot darker than the pics would demonstrate. I added titanium gold, flat aluminum, flat red and sky blue for the accents.
And a little weapon storage
Final Analysis
This is a great starter kit for the novice. Very easy to put together and little effort is needed to add the details. It’s awesome! 9.5/10
Looks pretty bad ass. Only thing that I'm not to keen on is the skirt thing.
Actually built my first model/figure kit yesterday. I Did a Knock off of the Kotobokiya classic RockMan (Mega Man) just to see how I would enjoy the process...and of course it was of my favourite video game character of all time.
It came out really well and I was able to get rid of 99% of the mold flash that alot of people complained about just by shaving it off with a hobby knife and finely sanding it.
Looks like I might be ready to jump on the Star Wars kit band wagon now.