I havent been around or posted anything for ages ...... so here's a few recently finished old school Bandai kits.

Nothing fancy, all OOB, supplied by a friend half completed and covered in glue, a quick clean up and a lick of paint later and they're ready to take to the table .....

Hi Brent,
I really like how the tracks came out on those Wespes, and of course your painting and weathering is always top notch. Love seeing models so thanks for sharing.

Wow,those are top notch,one would never be able to tell the age or the scale of those builds.

Just goes to show that all the high tech AM isn't necessary to have a great build

PS,I just noticed that tracks on the two Wespes are both diffrent,I can't remember which one would be correct ??

In the 3rd pic the one on the left is correct.

Great job finishing these. I've always thought the old Bandai kits were excellent, especially considering the time they were brought out.

Hello,
Really Nice models.Congrats!.


Tomas

Great job. Those kits just keep soldiering on. Even with all the newer better kits, I'd still buy them if they were re-issued, if only for a fast OOB build. Okay, maybe some nostalgia too.

Hey guys, thnx for the comments.

Gah, I didnt even check the direction of the tracks when I repaired them, too busy wading in superglue and sprue packers trying to get some "sag" into them. I have seen Stugs and Shermans with links and even whole sides on backwards so I can be forgiven ... lol ... they won't be noticed on the wargaming table at any rate ....

The Wespe was the first real kit I built as a kid and I still have a soft spot for it. Got some more Bandai stuff to finish over the next few months too, three 232-8rads coming up next.

cheers
Brent

I wouldn't worry about the direction of the tracks especially since they're to be used for gaming. I like that some models actually get used in an activity, and not just looked at. The Wespe was one of the last kits still around in quantity in the late 80s. Along with that was the US Jeep and Panzer IV.

Late 80s? Only by mail order I would guess... I remember this mentionned about the occasional Squadron leaflet at that time...

When I was modelling in the eary 80s, all the Bandais were long gone from Canadian Hobby Shops. 35th scale dominance was nearly absolute.

The demise of Bandai 1/48th scale armor occurred in the early 70s, with huge fire sales at $1 going on in 1973, just the year after Italeri choose to adopt Tamiya's motorized Panther-derived 1/35 as a standard (Italeri's move in 1972 was apparently the final straw of the industry-wide standardization on 1/35th, at least by my recknoning)...

It is sad, as I think the 1/48th aircraft diorama market woud have hugely grown in the late 70s and early 80s, mainly because of the huge popularity of the Monogram diorama leaflets by Sheperd Paine, and the Bandais were just few years too early...

Gaston

I was living in Ireland and I first saw Bandai in 1977. They weren't at fire-sale prices, either.
At first I got them from a dedicated hobby shop, and then I'm sure that in 1978 they became more widely available, and I could find them in mall toyshops near my home. I never got the sense that anyone was dumping them until I visited Germany in 1987.

David

These models - nostalgia on the past...

With huge work I managed to get "Ferdinand" of this firm (it is necessary to me for Tiger Porshe construction).
This model very primitive and not the exact. But analogs aren't present. I will use the modifed chassis of this model. Caterpillars - Gaso.Line.

You are right about the Elephant Dimitry: It is too wide and I had to cut it length-wise to correct its frontal width appearance: All the plate dimensions are wrong on the upper hull-superstructure, but close enough to give me hope... However I gave up when accurizing the superstructure failed to allow for a symmetrical appearance... (My fault in some part, but the model made it really hard to get the side plates evenly sloped, and a lot of interlocking armor features are missing):













The Elephant wheels were pretty good: I'll emphasize that not all Bandais are the same: M12/M30, Kubelwagen, 155 Long Tom, Daimler Mk I, Austin K5, and even the 8 Rad and motorcycle are all very much worth getting (I don't find the motorcycle spokes visible enough to be a problem)...

The Elephant unfortunately is more typical of most Bandai kits, and trying to accurize it was, for me, a complete waste of time. Note however that their Sherman transmission cover is more accurate than Tamiya's, at 17.2 mm height vs 17.6 actual, vs Tamiya's 16.2 mm, and this makes Bandai's M12/30 much superior to all of Tamiya's Shermans in my opinion (especially if using Tamiya parts!)... So it does depend on which Bandai kit you choose...

Gaston

Nice work Gaston.

I've got a Bandai Elefant to complete here also, with resin tracks, but it'll be a straight build and paint job for me I'm afraid. Looking fwd to seeing yours progress though ....

Interesting, as it shows the availability varied greatly from country to country even in the '80s (as far as Hobby Shops go in Canada, from at least 1981, Bandai was gone and gone for good from what I experienced)... I think this difference may be due to a slower degree of acceptance of 1/35th as the dominant armor scale, depending on the countries... Some popularity remained in some places it seems, but with no new releases it could only go one way...

The thing to remember is that in the 80s Fuman started re-popping them with a new box style, so they weren't Bandais anymore: That might explain the increased availability you mention in the late 80s.

Then in the 90s, Frog came out with their own boxing, which explains why they must have been still available in the 90s in England, at least for a while. I remember ordering those Frog boxings from a UK shop called Parabellum in 1999... They had more flash than the Bandai originals, and it was quite thick and hard in places, but the moulds were still in good shape otherwise. The plastic seemed even harder with Frog, but that could be just an impression from having to remove a lot more of that very hard flash...

The horrible tracks were always what killed those kits, and at Parabellum many of the better trackless Bandais were not available.

As far as making new plastic moulds however, 1/48th armor died in the early 70s... Until Tamiya brought it back in 2005...

Gaston

"I'll emphasize that not all Bandais are the same: M12/M30, Kubelwagen, 155 Long Tom, Daimler Mk I"...


If someone has a completed M12 and M30, please post pics. Those were my favourites of the Bandai kits.

Me too, the first armour kit I made bigger than 1/76... I got it in a bag with no box or instructions and the tracks in pieces, from my big brother's mate who was getting rid of all his modelling stuff. Crew were dwarfs, and the fuel cans weren't German, but it has the engine and transmission. I was very proud to have figured it out without instructions.

On the tracks, I built the PzKpfw IV H and managed to squeeze on Friul metal tracks (surgery to the sprocket teeth).

Thanks for posting these, any chance of a full photo of the Maultier?

Those are by far my favourites too... I have never seen them built either, and with a Tamiya running gear they are the best Bandais ever: I'll have to raise them on my priority build list, because it does seem strange no one ever posted them built...

Gaston

A few more pics as requested, a different commssion but the same kits. This combination of Wespes and Maultier is a popular with wargamers

I've got quite a few old Bandais in the pipeline, I think it'd be cool to post them all as they're completed in this "nostalgia" thread .....

B

Ace! Thanks for posting those. Maultier looks great.