Star Wars Darth Vader - Bandai 1/12 Scale Model Kit [Completed]

Darth Vader is finally finished. This model kit from Bandai has been a real joy to put together but not so much to paint. He's only the second 1/12 scale figure I've completed from Bandai's Star Wars line, the other being an original trilogy Stormtrooper. So now trooper TK-421 has none other than the Dark Lord of the Sith himself for company. Two welcome pieces in my small Star Wars collection.

If you only knew the power of the dark side

TK-421's joy at defeating Darth Vader in rock, paper and scissors was short lived

As a 1/12 scale plastic model kit, Darth Vader has two distinct shortcomings when compared to the Stormtrooper. Firstly, breaks in the appendages' joints look more natural on the latter. Secondly, the rigid plastic cloak on Vader's back not only looks unrealistic but it also makes posing more difficult. 

Come with me, it's the only way ...

Darth Vader's cloak has just one coat of paint on it i.e. matte black

But in focusing on the kit's "failures" I'm in essence actually comparing the Bandai version, rather unfairly, to more realistic (and way more expensive) versions from Hot Toys and Sideshow Collectibles. Not really a like-for-like comparison. Priced at just ¥2,592 Bandai's version is very good value for money, and in my opinion an excellent addition to any Star Wars fan's personal collection.

Various posing options for Vader's right and left hand

Weapon handles were painted to resemble Darth Vader's personal lightsabre

Details on the handle accurately depicted Vader's lightsabre

One thing that really impressed me about this kit is the high level of accuracy in the detail. Take for example, the vertical ridges on Vader's glove which is similar to the costume in Return of the Jedi as opposed to the horizontal ridges found in A New Hope. Another example is the weapon handle which is not generic but specifically detailed to resemble Vader's personal lightsabre. It's little things like this which convinced me that a lot of care and attention went into the making of this model kit.   

Join me and together we will rule the galaxy as father and son ... words all fathers long to say

Darth Vader against a dark background ... it kinda works too

With the Bandai Star Wars 1/12 scale model kit of Darth Vader completed, I can resume painting my work-in-progress Dark Sword Miniatures Female Mage on Stairs figurine. At the very least, working on my proxy for Game of Throne's Princess Myrcella Baratheon will inject some bright and cheerful colours back into the blog as my previous post can attest to. Up next is her skin tone and laying on flesh colours will further consolidate the overall colour scheme. I can't wait. See you in my next post!

Star Wars Darth Vader [Lower torso, belt, codpiece, appendages, feet & base]

Coming along nicely, the rest of Vader is. Well that's enough Yoda-ish grammar for one day. He is progressing well though and if all goes to plan he's then just a few days away from completion. 

Bandai 1/12 scale Darth Vader, work-in-progress on lower torso, etc

At this stage of the project, the only real challenge painting-wise was Vader's codpiece. Even then the issue was not in a complicated colour scheme but in getting clean painted lines on smallish details. Being used to working on a much smaller scale, I found the latter surprisingly easy to do. All that practice on 28-mm miniatures is paying off ... 1/12 scale is like a walk in the park in comparison.   

Every super villain must have his codpiece

Back of Vader's codpiece was painted a simple flat black

For Vader's appendages and feet, I've kept things simple either by applying just a flat black coat on the undergarments and feet, or by leaving the gloss plastic as it is on the shin armour. That leaves his inner cloak as the last black pieces with a non-black colour added to its highlights. I felt the other pieces were large enough to reflect natural highlights when shone with light from my IKEA lamps.

Vader's arms, legs and feet ... replacements for the Mustafar debacle

Vader's inner cloak (left) will be last black pieces with highlights painted on them while the base (right) is left as is

Below is a shot of Vader's back which will eventually be covered up by his main back cloak. Makes you wonder why I even bothered with the inner cloak highlights in the first place. Oh well, nothing is really wasted in our hobby. You can always tick that off as a much needed to do practice list. 

Back of the work-in-progress Bandai 1/12 scale Darth Vader model kit

There's nothing much left for me to do for Vader except his hands, light sabre handle and main cloak. Soon Vader will rise again and good old TK-421 will have some company at last. Soon.

Star Wars Darth Vader [WIP - Upper Torso]

Painting Darth Vader isn't as straightforward nor rewarding as one would assume. After all he's just black so how hard could it be, most (non-hobbyists) would argue. Worse still, the end result isn't as satisfying nor impressive compared with a miniature/model kit that has a more colorful scheme. Painting Vader, in other words, might not be worth the effort. But then I got to thinking. This is the Dark Lord of the Sith himself. I had to paint Darth Vader. I had to. Resist the dark side, I could not.    

Bandai 1/12 scale Darth Vader, work-in-progress with head and upper torso completed

For the upper torso, I focused on Vader's chest armour with its alternating metallic gun metal and gloss black stripes, the chest panel controls, the inner/outer cloak, and his undergarments i.e. clothing with a horizontal crosshatch design. The chest armour was given a primer/basecoat of Citadel's Abaddon Black with Boltgun Metal used for the metallic stripes. Then the black stripes were glossed back up using Vallejo Gloss Varnish. Meanwhile, Vader's chest panel was painted using Citadel Skull White, Abaddon Black, Fortress Grey, Ultramarine Blue, Red Gore, Blood Red, Chainmail, Boltgun Metal, Warplock Bronze, Dwarf Bronze and Vallejo Gloss Varnish. So much paint for so little effect!  

Parts of the upper torso, after painting using Citadel and Vallejo acrylics

Originally, the breastplate had a shiny sheen on which black decals were supposed to be applied (top). Instead, I decided to basecoat it black, add metallic silver and then apply a gloss coat on the black stripes (bottom)

Details on the chest panel were also painted; no decals were used

For the upper torso's non-shiny bits namely Vader's undergarments and cloak, I used a warm matte black (pure Abbadon Black) and an even warmer black (Abbadon Black plus Kommando Khaki) respectively. Bandai's colour guide had recommended a cool black i.e. black plus a pinch of blue for the undergarments. However based on my own research on the actual costume used on the set of Return of the Jedi, I found the blacks to be 'neutral warm' - somewhat less warm than the cloak.  

Barely half complete, Bandai's Vader would still look good as a bust

My empire for an arm ... or two

A nice silhouette for s stamp, don't you think so?

A clear view contrasting the glossy black of Vader's helmet and the warm matte blacks of his cloak

Being used to some excellent detailed sculpts at way smaller scales I suppose I should be expecting great details from a 1/12 scale model kit. Nonetheless, I was still pleasantly surprised by the effort and attention Bandai's designers had put into making this one of the most, if not the most impressive Darth Vader figurine at this price range (roughly ¥2,592). Proportion-wise Bandai has nailed it! 

Back view of Vader's work-in-progress upper torso

Gloss and matte black look like two completely different colours

Proportions seen on this side view highlight just how right Bandai got this one

From here on out, there will be four main considerations when painting Darth Vader: his belt; clothing (rest of the cloak, codpiece plus undergarments); appendages; and weapon (lightsaber handles). Seeing that Vader is in 1/12 scale which is rather large; the rest of the black to be painted can be done as a single flat coat because the clothing pieces are large enough to catch light and provide sufficient contrast without having to paint in the highlights. So things should speed up considerably with only the belt and lightsaber handle providing any real challenge. As such I should be able to put up another progress post before the week is out. Until then, it's bye for now.

Star Wars Darth Vader [WIP - Head, helmet & mask]

It feels good to hold a brush in my hand and paint flesh tones again. Perhaps it's a bit unorthodox I'm seeking to sate my desire to paint with a brush (as opposed to spray painting straight from a can) in a figure that is almost all black. But this model kit actually has a lot of little details that need painting. There is also all that black to paint. That's much easier than it sounds because painting black involves colours other than black ... and I'm not talking about grey. But that's a worry for the future. For now, let's take a look at the painting of Darth Vader's head, helmet and breath mask. 

Darth Vader's helmeted head at 1/12 scale

Clockwise from left: Darth Vader's locking helmet, magnetic clamps, breath mask, back of head

My one and only reference when painting Vader's head/helmet/mask was a book titled Star Wars Costumes: The Original Trilogy. I love this book both as a Star Wars fan and as a modeller who needs good quality photo references. For the most part, I use this book as well as another one called Sculpting a Galaxy when working on Star Wars-related projects involving the original movie trilogy.

Star Wars Costumes is an excellent reference book for hobbyists

Things got off to a relatively bad start when I got impatient and tried painting a bright gold metallic colour onto the breath mask's body heat regulators [square vent-like thingamajigs on the forehead] without first laying on a darker metallic base colour. As I don't practice painting metallic colours as often as I should, my forgetfulness played a part too. Other metallic colours on the breath mask were more straight forward: a simple dash of gun metal on all three points of Vader's triangular respiratory intake, and a mixture of gun metal/bronze for the top of the head i.e. the helmet's magnetic clamps. 

Darth Vader's breath mask without the locking helmet

Gold bits are the helmet's body heat regulators ...

... while the metal bit at the top is the helmet locking system comprising magnetic clamps

In contrast, painting flesh was like riding a bike. I guess the amount of practice I had put in working on flesh tones helped me adapt quicker back into the rhythm of painting with a hand brush. Results wasn't exactly awe inspiring but it's a step back into the path of small scale miniature figure painting. 

Neck support at back of the helmet was painted with metallics and finished with a wash

Back of Vader's exposed breath mask sans locking helmet

Scars on the back of Vader's head had a reddish brown wash followed by a purple one

At the risk of sounding like a lovesick fanboy, I can't praise the level of details on Bandai's Darth Vader 1/12 scale model kit enough, at least from I've seen so far. Vader's head/helmet/mask looks almost identical to the studio model based on the photo references seen in Star Wars Costumes: The Original Trilogy. Apart from my misgivings about the choice of a rigid plastic cape, the rest of the kit has so far been in Vader's own words ... Impressive, Most Impressive.

Sculpted details on Darth Vader's breath mask is excellent

Below is a quick How-To in painting Vader's pale, sickly, scarred skin using some old Citadel paints and washes I had on hand. It's one of the simpler flesh skin colour mixtures I use as it only involves three acrylic paints and three acrylic washes. The steps involved are as follows:
1. Primer: Tamiya Fine Surface Light Grey Primer, my go-to primer for any skin and most cloth related parts that need painting;
2. Basecoat: A 1:1 mixture of Citadel Tallarn Flesh and Space Wolves Grey;
3. Midtones & Initial Wash: Basecoat mixture with more Space Wolves Grey and some Skull White together with a wash of Dark Flesh and Devlan Mud mainly on the scarred tissue;
4. Highlights & Final Wash: Midtone mixture with even more Skull White and wash of Leviathan Purple mainly on the scarred tissue.     

Progression of how the back of Vader's scarred and injured head was painted

So that's Darth Vader's iconic head done and dusted. And as with most Bandai model kits to date, all those details are now hidden by his glossy black helmet. But at least the helmet is still detachable for a pose with the breath mask and back of his head exposed. So all that hard work hasn't necessarily gone to waste. Painting Darth Vader's head should be on the bucket list of every modeller who is a Star Wars fan. And that's a check for me. Now on to Vader's torso, armoured breast plate, et al.

Star Wars Darth Vader - Bandai 1/12 Scale Model Kit [Unboxing and Pre-Assembly Review]

After nearly three months of working solely on vehicle model kits, I had a hankering to paint miniature figures again. While dithering on which project to actually start work on, I finally decided to slowly ease myself back in by attempting to put together and paint the Bandai 1/12 scale Darth Vader figure. This plastic model kit will allow me to paint clothing (albeit mostly variations of black) and flesh (only the back of his head, but still ...). Both will be welcome after a continuous procession of hull plate spray painting and panel lining. Painting flesh again will be especially gratifying. 

Bandai 1/12 scale plastic model kit of Darth Vader

Side views of the Bandai Darth Vader box art

Two key issues - on extreme opposites of a spectrum - grabbed me straight out of the box. Firstly, Bandai got the most important part of this particular model kit absolutely spot on i.e. Darth Vader's head. The details on the Sith Lord's head are excellent. More importantly, the head's proportions are perfect - way better than most Vader action figures out in the market today. And then comes the least appealing part of the kit - Vader's cape. Hard, rigid plastic pieces just doesn't cut it. Bandai would've been better served with a cloth or soft pliable vinyl version. While it's possible to replace the hard plastic version with a self-made cloth version, it seems like too much work to me.

Bandai Darth Vader instructions, back and front cover

Darth Vader looks to be a fairly straightforward build

All parts come in gloss black except for Vader's lightsaber which comes in clear red plastic. Coupled with either the stickers or water decals supplied with the kit, this plastic model can be completed without the need for any painting at all. However, more experienced modellers may want to paint those parts that need painting for an added realistic look to the completed piece.

Sprue A: Head, chest, groin, etc

Sprue B: Appendages, etc

As disappointing as the cape seemingly is at first glance, it does come in separate parts (see below) which in turn allows for some freedom when posing Vader. Such freedom of movement wouldn't be possible if the cape had come in one big piece. In that respect, Bandai got it right ... well as right as they could've considering their decision to go with rigid plastic pieces for Vader's cape. 

Sprue C1:Parts of the cape and belt

Sprue C2: More parts of the cape, groin, feet, etc

The rest of the parts comprised the connectors, articulation joints and base. And detailed stickers and water decals will be appreciated by hobbyists who don't want to do any painting at all. 

Sprue PCF-6AB: Connectors, articulation joints, misc

Sprue SWB3: Base

Bandai stickers (left) and water decals (right) for the 1/12 scale Darth Vader

All in all, Bandai's 1/12 scale Darth Vader plastic model kit looks like a simple, straightforward project that has the potential to look very good. That's what all the Bandai model kits I have encountered so far - Millennium Falcon, Stormtrooper and Tie Fighter - essentially provide, namely a great sense of achievement with impressive end results regardless of a hobbyist's skill level.

Vader will rise again ... soonish

To try and fulfill the potential that this model kit has, I'm going to forgo the use of water decals and paint Darth Vader instead. Vader will rise but only Sith knows when. Soonish if the force is willing. Until then, Dum Dum Dum, Dum-te-Dum, Dum-te-Dum ...