Star Wars GB Episode II CLOSED

Lol, we're all nuts, I reckon.

Small update....painted yellow striping on nacelles, and over the past week or so, have been painting and attaching a couple of pipes per night (about all I have time for). Still need to knock down the shine on them a bit, but will do that later:

Meanwhile, pondering weathering strategy for nose/cockpit area. Hm.

BK, looking forward to your pics!

Thanks for looking,

PB

Alrighty then ! I am off and running with this X-wing. It is the Finemolds 1/48 if anyone is asking.

I have some assembly done and just finished the main cockpit and Luke. My biggest concern is how I am going to spray this thing, but I think I have a plan. It should work, but we will see. I hope to make more extensive progress this weekend.

I think the brunt of the work on this kit will be the weathering and paint work. This is a pretty simple kit to assemble, but making it look good is going to take some creativity in the paint booth. Thanks for looking.

BK

PB, that is looking really good. I hope I can make my X-wing look half that good.

BK

Thank you, BK. 

Very nice start, and the figure looks awesome. I will be watching this build with great interest (as the man said). :-)

I'm doing the FM X-Wing next and had similar thoughts--looks like not very difficult assembly, but painting could be tough. Will be watching to see what you do.

And in other news, for those hoping to get Bandai Star Wars kits--get 'em while you can. Disney has apparently clamped down on the sale of them outside of Japan, ie, from resellers like HLJ. Bah.

Not sure. There's all sorts of speculation going on over on the SSM forums. The popular consipiracy is that Disney is protecting Revell's Star Wars kit sales from Bandai's purported superior offerings. Someone posted that Disney is even monitoring social media to catch any black market shenanigans. 

Who knows? I figure that just like any huge global corporation, Disney is policing its licenses and IP. Not that it doesn't stink, though.

Yeah, it gets into trade complexity that I'm no expert in. FWIW, someone posted this reply from Facebook:

Hi everyone, I have been liaising with a few of the Japanese retailers I shop with regarding this restriction and wish to clarify a few things (from what I have read here so far and from my correspondence with them): 

1. If you have any pre-orders from HLJ or Hobby Search for Boba Fett and Slave 1, they will honour it. The restriction encompass ALL of Bandai Star Wars model kits. HLJ are still selling theirs but once their stock runs out, that's it. 

2. The restriction imposed is based on the contractual agreement between the Japanese manufacturers and Disney in which states the Star Wars trade mark merchandises are only meant for sales within Japan. This not only encompass model kits, but other Star Wars merchandises as well that falls under this agreement. From what I am hearing, it was a blanket agreement that was given to Japan (this one is not confirmed and I am guessing only applies to all the newer agreements). 

3. From my understanding (and I may be wrong here since my sources' English isn't that good), apparently these products became available to the world due to a misrepresentation of the terms of agreement in which case the manufacturer's claim of "selling within Japan" referred to only covering Japanese retailers, was not in spirit with the original agreement, which states the products are only meant for sales within Japan regardless whether its from the manufacturer or retailers. In this case, Bandai was deemed to have breached their agreement. 

4. In all my correspondence with the retailers, there were no mention of any outside influence (Revell, Hasbro, etc etc). It was basically Disney finding out Japanese Star Wars products were being sold openly everywhere against the agreement, so their licensing department initiated a clamp down. 

5. Fans worldwide are not the only ones unhappy. The retailers too are badly effected as they not only stand to lose out on potential sales esp with the coming movie, but some of them had ordered massive stock in anticipation of a sales surge, but they have no choice now but to comply or risk getting blacklisted by Bandai (who is under tremendous pressure to police their distributors and retailers). 

6. To make matter worse, Disney apparently is pressuring on the manufacturers directly, so the retail shops in Japan are in limbo as to which other Star Wars products will be effected next. They themselves are hearing a lot of rumours, so to be safe, some have chosen to remove the products while others are still waiting for an official directive.

That is horrible news, if it stays that way. Yeah, we will get some nice kits from the FM molds that are already out there, but what about the new stuff. Revell is not exactly known for there Sci-Fi kit accuracy and the detail is normally soft. I do not think that they would be able to produce a new kit that would be equal to what Finemolds or Bandai has produced.

Stinks. And, yeah, you would think Disney wouldn't care where the money is coming from, as long as it's.....money. That's all the mouse *really* cares about, right? :-)

But apparently legality and lawyers trump even cash, so contracts and licensing agreements have to be enforced.

Revell has posted a statement on FB:

Statement Revell and Bandai

We are massively confronted with the accusation that Revell invited Disney as licensor of the Star Wars license to prohibit Bandai selling Star Wars licensed products outside of Japan. This claim is plain wrong because we haven’t and won’t at no time take influence to the business matters of other manufacturers!

The truth is rather that each licensee, whether Revell or Bandai, is only be entitled to sell its licensed products under its own license contract and the countries agreed upon. These license contracts are concluded solely between the licensor Disney and the various licensees. We as Revell GmbH therefore aren’t allowed to sell our Star Wars products in Japan. On the other hand it is not possible for Bandai to sell its Star Wars products in the US and Europe, if these regions are not part of the contract.

Apart from that, we are convinced that a license like Star Wars lives from the wide variety of products and thus inspires young and old. Therefore we see the model kits of the company Bandai not as competition but as a supplement on the market for Star Wars model kits.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

But at this point, I'm not too upset. I've got two Bandai Y-Wings (one of which I guess is suddenly more valuable here is the US), and at this point I'm not interested in any TFA stuff. I'll only freak out if Bandai releases a large Star Destroyer. :-)

Well just to let eveyone know, I have started a new thread  "DeAG Millenium Falcon High Detail Build".  As I won't even have all the parts for almost 2 more years, it doesn't qualify for the group build, but I am sure some of you might be interested in what I do to it.

I am just starting up the thread so hope you will have a look see.

And a teaser

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/6/t/167858.aspx

Here is an update on my X-wing. After having spent some time looking it over and paying attention to the assembly instructions, it became clear early on that painting this in a mostly assembled state just isn't gonna happen. There are just too many places you can't get to with the wings installed. For example, the wing configuation can only be painted with them in a exagerated open position. They simply cannot be painted once installed. 

Then I looked over the fuselage and noticed that it too had areas that simply can't be reached to paint once the wings are installed. SO, that said I have taken the task of painting this in stages of assembly.

I first primed the unit with Tamiya grey primer, decanted and applied with my Iwata at about 10 PSI. I then thinned Tamiya XF-1 flat black and pre-shaded all the panel lines. Once this was done I mixed up some Tamiya X-2 white with several drops of XF-1 flat black and a dash of XF-19 Sky Grey. I wanted a grey that was just slightly darker than the styrene it is moled in and I like how this is going so far. It should look nicely dirty once the weathering and such are applied.

I sprayed each and every panel individually with the grey leaving the pre-shading showing up rather well. Once all the panel were filled in I applied the color over the whole the surface to bring down the pre-shading to show the panel lines like I wanted. I am very pleased so far with the look, but I have a LONG way to go. 

So, without further chatter. This is where I am at thus far. I will update more later this week. 

BK

Great preshading, BK. Looking forward to seeing more.

Note to self: paint wings before assembly.

Recently got a Star Wars Biker Scout complete with his vehicle from Bandai. If this is still going I will include it or depending what I do start a build thread.

BK and Porkbits, Nice work going on there. Those will be fine additions to the rebel fleet.

As for me, Chewie was completed this weekend. I just need to get some good pics of him to post. Also, I made a lot of progress on C3PO. Again I need to get some pics to show you guys. Will do that ASAIC.

-Stephen

Here is C3PO. Quick pics from my tablet.

Sorry, but you will have to wait on Chewie.

Nice, Stephen! Is that the Bandai kit?

Thanks Bish, sorry to tease about Chewie. I guess, like the new movie, we will have to wait.

Porkbits - This is Screamin's quarter scale vinyl kit, circa 1993. Bandai's kit is 1/3 the size and has the shiny plating. It replicates 3PO's metal very well, I hear. 

Update on the X-Wing.

I finally got all the major parts painted to match without running out of my custom mix grey. Once that was complete I thinned down Tamiya X-2 White about 70% thinner and sprayed the whole kit with a light mist of white to brighten up the grey, still make the white appear dirty. I think it came out pretty good. I then began to paint the mismatched panels with tow different darker greys, both Tamiya. I then hit two more panels with Tamiya x-3 yellow green and very lightly painted them to make them appear faded. 

I also painted (as an experiment) the exhaust. I began with Alclad straight over the styrene followed by Tamiya clear Orange and then by MM clear red. The attempt was to give the engines a "lit" look as this will be posed in flight. Not as good as I had hoped, but it will have to do.

Now all the major painting is done I have to clear it and begin the finer detail work. Once the bulk of that is done I can begin to assemble the kit. Now that I have worked on this for a while I can say it is easier to handle and paint in pieces rather than whole. I should make good progess this week. Thanks for looking.

BK

Oooo, this is going to be good! How dirty are you going for, BK? 

And thanks for the info, Stephen. I was not aware of the Screamin' kit.

Entering my ATST build that I've been chipping away at. It's going to be mounted on a base covered in overgrowth as it had been sitting for decades. I've taken inspiration from WW2 tanks and aircraft found in jungles and forrests.

Here is a quick pict of it and a link to my build log.

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/6/t/165653.aspx

Porkbits

Oooo, this is going to be good! How dirty are you going for, BK? 

And thanks for the info, Stephen. I was not aware of the Screamin' kit.

 

Right now it is still pretty pristene. I plan to make it look well used and battle hardened. The painting and detail work on this one are taking all the time. The assembly is very simple and can be done start to finish in about and hour or less. So, to make this look truly good I will have to spend all my time weathering it up.

BK

Got word that my next DeAgostini shipment was sent.  I hope to have some updates soon.

BK- That is looking nice. I did not realize how big the model is.

Bish - My Screamin collection is missing Han, Yoda and Luke. Luke is the hard one to find.