maquette

Just this once, a single little modelkit. No diorama, no theatrical production, no complicated decor. just a little building “out of the box” of a Bandai B-Wing.

One says that it is no longer usefull to write texts by ourselves. There are many alogorithmes doing this in no time. Let’s go:

“Good morning dear ChatGPT, can you please write a text describing the assembly of a Bandai B-Wing ?”

(you must be polite with thos things in anticipation of the time they will hold us in slavery).

“Assembly of the Bandai B-Wing model begins with the cockpit, paying particular attention to the details of the pilot and control system. The rotating gyroscopic mechanism is then integrated, allowing the cockpit to pivot around the ship. The asymmetrical wings are assembled in several sections, each with cannons and thin radiators that must be positioned with precision. The engines, detailed with nozzles and ventilation elements, fit together smoothly. Each part is easily attached using the snap-fit system, eliminating the need for glue. Adjustments are essential to ensure proper articulation of the wings and engines. To perfect the look, decals and weathering effects can be added, such as a light dry brush or dirt effects. The end result is an accurate 1/72 scale model, faithful to the Star Wars universe.”

(…)

(…)

Well, maybe I’m going to continue to write my own texts…

The cockpit

I always begin a model assembly with the cockpit interior. That usually means many hours in going into details but in this model, no needs. The detail level offered by Bandai is quite remarquable.

I just designed the cockpit ligthup and paintjob. Not so bad, is it ?

Featuring : optical fibers and LEDs. The only difficulty was to place the LED in the ship’s neck. Unfortunately, it can no longer rotates so I glued it in its final position.

The thrusters

This unclassifiable starfighter has many unique features. One of them is the quadri-thruster. Bandai did here a great job by providing the mean to light them with only one LED with an optical fiber system.

The result is very satisfying although not much luminous :

The main assembly

Contrary to my previous assembly of a B-Wing, I didn’t have to build this model like a kebab. The model is smaller, hollow thux very light and everything holds together well enough.

After positionning the wires, the assembly is very easy, just follow instruction.

B-Wing Bandai paintjob

First, the gunmetal underlayer. I usually use two underlayer colors: gunmetal when I want a dirty ship, chrome-silver when I want it cleaner. This one is dirty.

Then, the main color is applied, a very white grey (80% mat white / 20% skygrey) and then pre-shadded:

Please note the yellow and red colored pannels. I often do that in order to diversify the tints of a plain model.

The next step is decisive: I need to melt all these layers in the main color. I apply a very diluted version of this main color with reduced pressur on the aero:

The number of melting passes controls the opacity level.

This model naturally took place in my “Sullust” diorama which features almost all the rebel ships during the battle of Endor.

You already know all about my first post about the DeLorean by heart, here is the second one. This post is about the car evolution into the Flying DeLorean. Every big fan remembers the shock he experienced at the very end of the first Back to the Future when he saw the DeLorean taking off to travel to the future, 2015.

Roads ? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.

Doc Emmett Brown

From the rolling DeLorean to the flying DeLorean

I had to find a trick to make this 11 kg model fly, mostly made of metal. Hang it on wires was not an option : the wires would have been too thick and bringing the electric power to the underbody of the car would have been too tricky.

I got the idea to build a stand monted on a single brass rod. The stand had to show a proper representation of the underbody seen in the movie :

I couldn’t glue the underbody un der the car since I wanted it to feature the mark I DeLorean. The solution was to make the stand become the underbody as well.

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The result, once the flying DeLorean in place :

The assembly of the wheels

The main modification is about the wheels inclination. Indeed, the vertical thrusters are inside the wheel’s hub and those have to tilt in flight.

The next picture is a screenchot showing the tilt apparatus of the flying DeLorean :

We can easily see the triangular supports. Furthermoren the wheel are not as low as they are in the Eaglemoss model. Since I wanted to remake the all stuff, I decided to add the light inside the wheels to improve the rendering.

i bought a new 4-wheels bundle and made new supports for each one. Three DEL’s have been added, linked to a connector.

In order to position them, I attached some hooks (one for the aft wheels, two fir the rear ones) shown in the picture below.

Then, the wheel are attached directly on the original metallic part, once the car is on its stand.

The fusion generator, Mr Fusion

The last huge improvement from the first episode’s model is the fusion generator, replacing the the 80’s nuclear reactor powered by plutonium.

The DeLorean designers made the Mr Fusion generator from a real 70’s electric coffee grinder for the purpose of the film. This device was already used in the first Alien movie in 1979.

No big deal with this one, only a screw concealing, the screws being too big for the scale. The holes where filled with putty and painted whit a gloss white paint.

I wanted to make a DeLorean for years. Possibilities were not infinite. There is an acceptable Aoshima kit (reviewed in french by my friend Yvan West Laurence here) but when I learnt three years ago the publication of an “easy to do it yourself kit” from Eaglemoss including only 458 issues at the special price of 15$99 each, I didn’t hesitate one second. So this article is about the Delorean Eaglemoss assembly and of course, the result.

This imperial star destroyer model kit is from russia. The Zvezda brand is well known for errrr…. nothing. You can find a few planes or tanks kits from them in model stores but the imperial star destroyer edition is a real surprise (a good one).

The kit is high-quality, the level of details is satisfactory. Just a small flaw, it seems that the kit is a mix between the different shooting models. Indeed, the model from A New Hope and the Empire’s ones are quite different. I will review those differences in a further post in the Analysis category.