Star Wars First Order Stormtrooper [WIP - Blaster Rifle, Riot Shield & Hand Options]

This penultimate post on the Bandai Star Wars First Order Stormtrooper project sees work completed for the final pieces that require a paint job. What this entailed was lots of hand painting of white with a smattering of metallic, red and black hues. Vallejo Model Color was the go-to paint in this case. 

Bandai First Order Stormtrooper work-in-progress: Blaster Rifle and Riot Shield

While the hands were primed using acrylic-based Citadel Chaos Black, the blaster rifle and riot shield components received a lacquer-based primer coat instead. My reasoning was for the Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 (Black) to provide a stronger primer coat for paint to adhere to seeing that the accessory parts would likely face excessive handling. In hindsight, I should've also primed the hands with the lacquer-based surfacer/primer for similar reasons. But I can't change that now.   

Weapons and shield components to be painted were primed with Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500 (Black)

Blaster Rifle and shield components were painstakingly hand painted using Vallejo Model Color acrylic paints

Wherever possible when painting the blaster rifle I had tried to replicate the real world movie version within the limitations of doing so in the scaled version. In most parts I had succeeded while in specific areas it wasn't quite like for like e.g. the piece (small round white part in the photo below) which replaces the removable stock assembly. In the real world movie version, the horizontal bar-like handle on this piece is metallic while in my version it was just plain white. Plain laziness on my part or intelligent use of creative license ... hmm ... I wonder which one it could be.    

Sonn-Blas F-11D Blaster Rifle with removable stock assembly, side view (right)

Sonn-Blas F-11D Blaster Rifle with removable stock assembly, side view (left)

Sonn-Blas F-11D Blaster Rifle with removable stock assembly, top and bottom view

Painting smooth whites and coating it in a glossy varnish by hand was tedious work to say the least. In contrast to the blaster rifle, next to no work was required for the riot shield. Apart from the assembly process, the shield required minimal painting i.e. the protrusions in its four corners. These protrusions were painted in metallic grey or their tips were. The whites of the shield were kept in its original plastic whites. To me, they looked good enough to be left alone as is without being painted. 

Lightweight composite betaplast ballistic riot shield (front view)

Lightweight composite betaplast ballistic riot shield (back view showing arm straps)

Meanwhile, not all the hand options were used. I decided to paint up only those hand options that I will be using to pose the stormtrooper with. These comprised the right trigger hand, right open palmed hand and left clenched fist. But before they can be used in poses, they had to be painted first. It turned out that significant portions of the hands consist of white leather-like material. So to mimic this texture, I painted the required areas with white and applied a satin varnish to give it a semigloss finish that approximates how the leather-like material looks like in the real world movie version.    

Hands of the First Order Stormtrooper prior to the white parts being painted

A satin varnish was applied to give the painted whites a smooth leathery glove texture

First Order Stormtrooper hands with the white parts already painted

If you've noticed something slightly off from the photos above, then you may be wondering what has happened to the primed riot control baton (second piece from the right on the second photo). Well, I was so put-off by the unpleasantness of painting white hues by hand that I've no intention of reliving that particular nightmare with the baton. What this all means is I'm calling this project complete. So by the next post I should be able to feature the Bandai First Order Stormtrooper in various poses with the blaster rifle and riot shield. Until then though, thanks for reading and take care.