Star Wars B-Wing (Bandai 1:72 scale)

[Jakko]

And now for something completely different for me — well, not really, it's not like I've never built Star Wars models before



A B-Wing from Return of the Jedi.

This is a Revell import into the EU, as witnessed by a sticker with contact information and description in German, English, French, Dutch, Spanish and Italian on the side of the box, but otherwise it's straight from Bandai, exactly as sold in Japan and (I presume) the rest of the world. (Oh, well, and the "Nice Price" sticker on the front clearly doesn't belong on the box It's accurate, though: normal retail price of these seems to be around 70 euros, but I paid only just over half for it.)

Instructions can be found on Scalemates, so let's start with some sprue shots:



This is only the third Bandai kit I've ever bought, and must say the moulding quality looks very good. Still, I don't quite see the point of the multi-coloured sprue A. It feels like it's something they're doing because they can, not because it adds anything to the model.

For markings, you get both decals and self-adhesive stickers:



I suppose you could use the stickers as paint masks, but I've not decided yet if I'll try that.

 

[Jakko]

Well, these don't take very long to put together. It's not finished yet, but here are the major parts:



Before I can put these together, I need to finish painting the cockpit and especially the pilot, because the cockpit goes between the main fuselage parts so it can rotate relative to those. Once that's done, I can put the fuselage together and attach all three wings to it, then just add the detail bits like the guns and engines.

Though you can't see it very well in the photo, I painted the cockpit grey with shading and highlighting. It seems it's mostly grey in the movies, but I can't find any good pictures of it — the main things that pop up when I try to search for it are screenshots from games and pictures of other peoples' builds of this kit, plus things like the Kenner and Lego versions, none of which really helps for accuracy.

 

[Jakko]

Dryfitting things (carefully so they don't stick firmly enough that I couldn't take them apart again), I found that you can fit the cockpit after assembling the fuselage, so I put that together first:



Then I attached the main "wing":



This turned out to be a bad idea. The instructions tell you to fit the folding wings first, and I discovered this is because their hinges (C1, C4 and C6) need to be fitted before the big wing is. As a result, I had to take it off again and fit C1 and C6 hinges first, then I added the big wing once more, fit the folding wings, and then found out that C6 also couldn't fit because its locating lug should be trapped between the big wing halves … however, cutting that lug off let me put it in place anyway:



The hinge mechanism is interesting. On the sprue with the stand, you get two hinge pins for the wings as well. Since the stand is made of ABS while the rest of the kit is polystyrene, chances are you can't accidentally glue the pins to the model if you do glue the parts together, because model cement generally dissolves polystyrene but not ABS. (Tamiya Extra Thin does seem to dissolve it, though, but not very well.)

 

[BarleyBop]

I figure you probably saw this article.

 

[Jakko]

I didn't, thanks for the link

 

[Jakko]

This is the quickest model I've built in years, if not decades …



Two parts still missing here, but you can't see them in the photo, because I can only install them after painting due to the way I've made the model into subassemblies:



Of course, since this is a snap-together kit I could have built it without any glue at all and taken it apart completely again, but the photo above shows everything that isn't glued together The pilot is partly painted, as is the cockpit, but I can basically now start painting the model — though not yet, I want to wait for the glue to dry first

 

[stevethefish]

Well, I just have to ask. Was it indeed a NICE PRICE?

 

[Eagle-1]

Jakko, ya' done a good job so far!

BANDAI Star Wars kits are all very good quality, so if the bug has bitten you, no need to be concerned there. You'll get the same joy with any of them.

I have had both versions of this "B-Wing" since they were released (the one you have shown and the San Diego Comic Con "Collector's Edition") and if that is a new release by Revell, what you have shown is identical to what BANDAI originally released. The Comic-Con kit is a little different, but not much and they weren't a nice price years ago, so half what they were originally is sweet.

Rob.

 

[Jakko]

Well, I just have to ask. Was it indeed a NICE PRICE?

Relative to the normal price of these, yes. I paid €39.95 instead of around €70.

BANDAI Star Wars kits are all very good quality, so if the bug has bitten you, no need to be concerned there. You'll get the same joy with any of them.

The only other Bandai kits I've ever bought have been two Robotech whatevertheycalltheminthat, but to me they're BattleMechs I've built one but never got round to painting it in over fifteen years, while the other one is still in its box …

if that is a new release by Revell, what you have shown is identical to what BANDAI originally released.

It's just the Bandai kit in the Bandai box, with only a sticker on the side with Revell information. Revell has released plenty of kits by other manufacturers in a Revell box with Revell instructions, but this is not one of those: it's straight-up Bandai of which Revell is clearly just the EU importer.

It looks like I might be able to paint the model today, BTW. The wind has gone down a bit, which is important because I have to open a window to put the spray booth's hose outside, but that faces the prevailing wind direction. If there's too much wind, especially in winter when that wind is cold, I don't want to be spraying models.

 

[Jakko]

I did paint the model on Wednesday, but forgot to take a photo of it before I applied masking tape today:



The whole model is sprayed in Tamiya XF-80 Royal Light Grey here.

I forgot to mask the recess in the middle of the leading edge of the big wing, so I did that after taking the photo, and then sprayed the darker grey parts with a mixture of the same light grey plus XF-18 Medium Blue, approximately 1:1 I would guess but I just poured blue into grey until it looked good to me. This is a science-fiction subject, after all

The gun pods at the ends of the folding wings also should be light grey, but they're very tricky to mask so I decided I wouldn't bother and just touch them up later.



The engine nozzles and the block they go onto, are XF-24 Dark Grey. The lighter part next to them is unpainted, to show the difference (that part is the holder for the optional lighting kit for the exhaust nozzles).

I do need to do some touchup

By the way, if you're reading this because you'll be building this kit too, don't make the mistake I did. I hadn't looked at the painting instructions closely enough when building the model, and so had glued parts together that I would have better left loose. Specifically, the radiators D4, the intake (?) grid A22, the gun base parts D5 (in the wingtips) and the whole gun pod A21/A36/A38. By leaving them loose, you will save yourself masking, touching up and tricky painting later on.

 

[BarleyBop]

I did paint the model

Don't know about canon, and I am looking at the colours on my phone, and they look great!

But Jakko, how would the colours appear in a system of a red giant, or binary stars burning something other than hydrogen and helium (I'm no astro physicist) or would the vehicle have any colour at all while 'jumping' through hyperspace?

 

[Jakko]

I shall defer those question to the honourable researchers at Bandai I followed my interpretation of their painting instructions, which are somewhat vague:




I recognise names such as "light gull gray" and "dark seagray" as probably referring to US and British aircraft colours, but since there is no mention of any paint brands, your guess as to the exact shade is as good as mine

 

[Jakko]

After the base colours, I applied an all-over wash of Army Painter Strong Tone, thinned with water (about 1:1 to 2:1 water-to-paint) to shade the model. Once that had dried, I drybrushed it with lighter versions of the base colours, a few shades of each that I made lighter for every pass.



And the engines:



These were given a wash of Army Painter Dark Tone, unthinned, and then drybrushed with dark and medium grey. The silver is Vallejo Model Air Aluminium, which is airbrush paint that I applied with a brush.