Star Wars Scout Trooper [WIP: Hip Joints, Legs, Knees, and Feet]

 After completing a significant portion of the Scout Trooper's upper half, it was time to work on the lower half. For 'structural display' reasons, I plan to complete the bottom half comprising the Lower Torso, Hip Joints, Legs, Knees, and Feet before returning to work on the missing upper half i.e. the Shoulders, Arms, Elbows, and Hands. I figured that if I completed the bottom half first then I would be able to better pose it for those work-in-progress shots before the final reveal. This then is a work-in-progress blog update on the Scout Trooper's Hip Joints, Legs, Knees and Feet. 

Bandai 1/12 scale Scout Trooper Hip Joints, Legs, Knees, and Feet (front view)

Bandai 1/12 scale Scout Trooper Hip Joints, Legs, Knees, and Feet (back view)

 Of the two it's the Scout Trooper's right leg that has greater detail in the form of a Blaster Pistol Holster strapped-on to the side of the boot between the ankle and calf (see below, next five photos). The kit does provide parts for a Blaster Pistol that I have yet to assemble and paint. And as I'll likely pose the Scout Trooper seated on the Speeder Bike, the pistol would then be inserted into the holster. To differentiate the boots from the holster, the former was painted in flat white with the latter in gloss white. Meanwhile the holster straps were painted in ivory white. Also in gloss white was the Knee Pad Armor albeit left in its original molded color with grey panel lining the only paint applied. 

Parts/sub-assemblies making up the Right Hip Joint/Leg/Knee/Foot

Color scheme comprises whites, off-whites, blacks, dark greys and ochre

Scout Trooper Right Hip Joint, Leg, Knee and Foot (painted and assembled)

Color scheme comprises whites, off-whites, blacks, dark greys and ochre

Right leg has freedom of movement allowing it to bend at the knee up to around 120 degrees

 While not as detailed, the Scout Trooper's left leg is only missing the holster for the Blaster Pistol. Apart from that, both legs are pretty much the same (see photos below). As for the color scheme, I've already described the whites/off-whites in the preceding paragraph. That leaves the blacks/greys of the knees and thighs as well as the ochre of the soles of the feet. Like the Knee Pad Armor, the sole was left in its original molded color but I did spray on a clear matt coat on both of them. As for the thighs and other parts of the knees, they were painted a semi-gloss black with some straps on the upper thighs painted in black grey. Dut to contrast issues, the latter isn't too obvious in the photos.

Parts/sub-assemblies making up the Right Hip Joint/Leg/Knee/Foot

Apart from the sole, knee pad, and ankle, everything else was painted

Scout Trooper Left Hip Joint, Leg, Knee and Foot (painted and assembled)

Freedom of movement points are found in the ankle, knee and hip joint      

Similarly, the left leg can also bend at the knee up to approximately 120 degrees

 One thing that irks me to no end is the visible gap running down the calf of both boots. It irks me more knowing I was aware of this potential issue from the start. Initially I had planned to assemble the boots first before priming and then sanding them down in preparation for its flat white basecoat. But because that entailed some tricky masking of the top black section, I decided to risk the reverse i.e. paint first then assemble. Well, that gamble didn't pay off. From the back it doesn't look too bad i.e. it could pass off as a groove for the boot's zipper. But from the front it looks unnatural. Not a deal breaker. Not really. More like a splinter in a mind with OCD tendencies. Wait, that's kinda worse!

 Anyway, the deed is done. Short of removing repainting them, the boots will stay as they are, warts and all. It's a good lesson to trust my instincts seeing that I'm experienced enough to know better. Also it's about time for me to try to be positive about a bad situation as was the case for Formula One driver Daniel Ricciardo's radio reply after being told he had picked up a five-second penalty during the recent Russian Grand Prix at Sochi ... "Okay. I'll drive faster. Yeah, that's my bad. I'll make up for it."

Star Wars Scout Trooper [WIP: Head, Neck, Upper- and Mid-Torso with Pouches; Painted & Assembled]

 Amidst a never-ending pandemic that has effectively put paid to any future family income for the foreseeable future (... I'll spare you the details as my writer's mind will likely embellish it to become a story worthy of a Taiwanese melodramatic soap opera sobfest, trust me on this, those can be real tear-jerkers ...), there is thankfully the little island of calm that is my hobby workstation. And on it, crawling along at a snail's pace, is the 1/12 scale Scout Trooper with its latest progress posted below.

Scout Trooper Work-in-Progress: Head, Neck, Upper/Mid-Torso (Painted & Assembled)

Color scheme-wise it's all an interplay between the whites and off-whites ...

... with the blacks and metallic hues taking a backstage to that said interplay

In more ways than one, the Bandai Star Wars Scout Trooper is turning out to be an excellent kit. With its inherently detailed parts, it has the potential to look good even if only a few selected parts are painted. Heck, the kit still looks pretty good without any painting done on it at all. As for the paint job so far, you can color me satisfied with just how well the whites and off-whites play off each other.  

From left to right: Scout Trooper's Neck/Helmet, Upper/Mid-Torso and Neck

If you've been following the progress of this project you might remember that I had inadvertently forgotten to panel-line the grooves on the Scout Trooper's backpack. That little misstep has been rectified (see below) and the back view of the Scout Trooper's Upper/Mid-Torso looks so much the better for it. It's great what just a little panel lining can do to increase depth on a part.

Side view (from right) of the Scout Trooper's Head, Neck, Upper/Mid-Torso sub-assembly

Panel lining added a great deal more depth to the Scout Trooper's backpack

Back view of the Scout Trooper's Head, Neck, Upper/Mid-Torso sub-assembly

Scout Trooper's Shoulders, Arms, Elbow and Hands will be added later

Side view (from left) of the Scout Trooper's Head, Neck, Upper/Mid-Torso sub-assembly

 

 Admittedly this post has been a bit of a cheat seeing that the only new painted piece was the small Neck section as the Head/Helmet and Upper/Mid-Torso sections were already completed earlier, and used here only for the sub-assembly process. Outside of the hobby, it's been a pretty depressing few weeks so I guess this its an opportune time, if any, for a 'cheat post'. Another week is almost over, so that means I'm going to leave you with this quote by protagonist Frank Murphy from the animated show F is for Family ... “I hate my life, but I keep on doing it!” 

Star Wars Scout Trooper [WIP: Upper & Mid-Torso plus Survival Ration Pouches]

One step at a time is a phrase that perfectly encapsulates the progress being made on the Bandai 1/12 scale Scout Trooper aka Biker Scout. I had decided to take what should've been a quick, easy build and turn it into one requires much more input from the scale modeler. This means research on movie accurate details as well as both airbrushing and hand painting the said details. Even then I still inadvertently left out some details on the Scout Trooper's backpack (more on this later in the blog). That said, going slow is allowing me to pay close attention to what I believe is the most defining characteristic of the Scout Trooper i.e. the subtle interplay between the different shades of white.

Scout Trooper work-in-progress: Upper- and Mid-Torso plus Survival Ration Pouches

Top down view of the Upper/Mid-Torso shows the backpack top and the slot for the Neck/Head

Back view of the Upper- (onto which the backpack is attached) and Mid-Torso

When I initially laid eyes on the Scout Trooper's backpack, I did notice how bare the backpack looked but thought nothing of it and moved on. As careful as I was, it turns out I still missed the panel lines that can be seen clearly on the original costume used in Return of the Jedi (see inset photo below). That oversight is one I intend to correct by the next work-in-progress update post.

Inset photos shows how the Scout Trooper backpack looks like in the real life costume

Apart from the Mid-Torso which was put together into a sub-assembly before being painted, the rest of the parts were either left in their original molded color state or painted individually (i.e. without needing to be sub-assembled first). Colors used for the Scout Trooper comprised black, ivory, flat white, and the original unpainted glossy white. Panel lining was carried out using a brown wash on the ivory colored Survival Ration Pouches, while a grey wash was used on the Mid-Torso. Other than these neutral colors, a dash of red and metallic silver was applied on the top of the backpack.

Individual painted pieces and mid-torso sub-assembly prior to the assembly process proper

Inner section of the Upper Torso (almost all the black parts) assembled ...

... followed by the Scout Trooper's Back Armor and 'Backpack' ...

... and then the Front Armor and Survival Ration Pouches go on (note the already assembled Mid-Torso)

If one were to use the Mid-Torso region of the original costume as the baseline reference, then I wouldn't fault you for thinking that I had overdone the panel lining on the Mid-Torso region. Actually I was already very aware of this happening prior to applying the panel lines hence it was the reason I chose to use a grey wash instead of a black one, for a more subtle effect. But even with this precaution the Mid-Torso panel lines turned out a tad too dark for my liking. In the end, it will be one of those things that I will chalk off as a creative license exercise.  

Front isometric view of the Scout Trooper Upper- and Mid-Torso with the Survival Ration Pouches

Back isometric view of the Scout Trooper Upper- and Mid-Torso with the Survival Ration Pouches

For me, the next steps of this project are pretty clear cut in that it will involve assembling and painting the neck, followed by using that simple piece to connect the Head/Helmet onto the Upper/Mid-Torso. Concurrently, I plan to begin work on the lower half of the Scout Trooper i.e. the legs, knees, feet, and lower torso. Meanwhile, the arms, elbows, hands, weapons, and base will be worked on after that. Here's wishing you a good weekend and I'll leave you with a light-hearted quote from the late, great Ruth Bader Ginsburg ... In every good marriage, it helps sometimes to be a little deaf.

Star Wars: Join the Empire; Mini-Vignette 01 comprising the Race Queen & Stormtrooper

 As alluded to in my previous post, an underlying concept of propagandic media creation will form the basis for a whole series of Star Wars-themed mini-vignettes, which will fall under an all encompassing project umbrella titled Star Wars: Join the Empire. And it kicks off with a simple piece comprising the Race Queen from atelier iT and the Imperial Stormtrooper from Bandai. There is a story behind this mini-vignette. Can you guess what it is? If you can't, fret not as all will be revealed later.

Star Wars: Join the Empire mini-vignette No.1 featuring the Race Queen and Stormtrooper

 Scale-wise the atelier iT Race Queen figurine seemed a tad too small for the mini-vignette despite it being in the same 1/12 scale category as the Bandai Star Wars Stormtrooper. However, a number factors easily explain away this pseudo-discrepancy. For example if one took into account the fact that she is likely of East Asian origin then it's perfectly natural for her to be petite. Add to that a soldier of the Galactic Empire is likely to be at least six feet and above in height - Luke Skywalker was indeed too short to be Stormtrooper - then the size differences between both figurines become natural.  

At first glance the Race Queen might seem too small when compared with the Imperial Stormtrooper ...

... she is actually accurately represented in terms of scale, when you consider the fact that ...

... she is a petite, young East Asian woman standing next to a young, strapping model soldier of the Galactic Empire ...

... and if one assumes a height difference of about 20 cm between the pair of them, then ...   

.. the both of them are correctly and accurately proportioned with respect to each other

While I believe this mini-vignette can stand on its own as is, I won't yet discount the possibility of adding background terrain to the piece. Actually I did consider adding a wall and make it look like the interior of the Death Star, but in the end I decided against it as the said wall would've completely blocked the back view of the figurines. I had wanted a clear 360-degree view of the mini-vignette.  

Look closely at the Race Queen's hair and you'll notice something about the figurine's paint job ...

... that might seem trivial to the casual observer, but it's something I am extremely proud of ...

... namely how individual strands of hair managed to stand out from her mass of black hair ...

... a feat preferable to having a monotone flat look to the Race Queen's black hair ...

... so volume is what those highlighted individual strands add to her black hair

 Colors in this mini-vignette are mostly in the neutral and cool range, which is in line with the more lighthearted approach I wanted to take on this propagandic photo shoot mini-vignette. The story I'm trying to tell here isn't the serious, hardcore recruitment style videos that one would expect from an authoritarian regime under Emperor Palpatine. For this particular mini-vignette it's more of the backstory behind the photo shoot which I'll explain in detail a bit later in this blog post.

Contrast is what mini-vignettes with the Star Wars: Join the Empire theme will provide ... 

... that is a stark disparity between the cold, hard armor worn by soldiers of the Galactic Empire ...

... and the warm, soft skin tones of pretty lasses from across the galaxy ...

... in addition, it's also a contrast between the hard edges of a soldier's armor ...

... versus the beautiful, natural s-curves of the women in this propaganda effort

 Although the Race Queen figurine is static with her posture fixed permanently in what I call the "car show pose", the Stormtrooper is far more flexible in his/her posing possibilities. Despite having limited freedom of movement due to armor constraints, the Stormtrooper can still take on a far greater variety poses than the Race Queen. Moreover an added possibility of arming the Stormtrooper with a variety of different weapons (here he/she is holding a Heavy Blaster Rifle) allows for further creative posing.

In terms of mini-vignette poses, there is actually a variety of different ones I could've adopted ...

... with the caveat being the Race Queen's posture is permanently fixed in her "car show pose" ...

... thus leaving responsibility of all heavy duty posing work on the shoulders of the Stormtrooper ...

... with a further caveat that the Stormtrooper's freedom of movement is in itself ...

... restricted by the inflexible white armor which encases the soldier's entire body ...

... while ironically the Race Queen is attired in a skimpy outfit and yet can no longer move

    So what story am I trying to tell with this mini-vignette? Have you guessed it yet? Well, it's a tale of a young soldier far, far away from home who has fallen head over heels in love with a model who poses in propaganda pieces for the Galactic Empire. In this mini-vignette, the Stormtrooper is trying to get the Race Queen's attention by crooning a love tune while she is trying to focus on her job of getting into character for the propagandic photo shoot. Also notice how the Stormtrooper is holding his Heavy Blaster Rifle incorrectly, using it as a microphone stand instead of a weapon. Not entirely the appropriate time and place for such amorous acts but what is a poor love struck fool to do.

As the Stormtrooper gently bent his knees to whisper his undying love to the Race Queen ...

... he noticed that his Heavy Blaster Rifle was positioned in an exquisitely unique way ...

... closely resembling that of a microphone stand ...

...  so a nascent thought begins to form inside his innocent head ...

... of a new way to woo

 As a color comparison, included below are a select series of photos of the pair against an azure background. Because I didn't want to flood the post with more photos of essentially the same thing with a different background, I only choose a few representative photos for the sake of comparison. It could all be just an optical illusion but both the Race Queen and Stormtrooper seem to adopt ever so slightly warmer hues when posed against the brighter background. The differences here are much less than my initial photos of the Race Queen, which means I did a better job with the lighting.   

Star Wars: Join the Empire mini-vignette shown here against an azure background

Seeing that I am running out of captions to write, I'm just going to insert lyrics of an overly romantic love song into the ones below. And they are as soppy as they come. If you know what song those lyrics belong to, then by all means let me know in the comments below. Do enjoy. Or not ;)

Thanks for the times that you've given me, the memories are all in my mind ...

... and now that we've come to the end of our rainbow, there's something I must say out loud ...

... You're once ...

... Twice ...

... Three times a lady ...

... And I loooooooove you ...

Hmm, maybe I should name this piece "The Crooner". As at this moment in time, I still don't have a name for it apart from the boring one you see in the title above. Mini-Vignette 01 doesn't quite cut it for me. With the weekend almost over, I hope you've had a good week and will enjoy an equally good if not better one ahead. As good as it can be in these trying times anyway. Cheers and take care!