All fully painted Star Wars model kits offered by Shire Works thus far has been vehicles until now. Presented here is the fully painted
Bandai 1/12 scale C-3PO as completed by Shire Work's resident painter. A fair bit of thought and effort is required to get the kit to closely resemble Threepio in the movies. Even then, there are many variations be it the Tatooine sand-weathered or bright and shiny final scene look in
A New Hope; the slightly weathered/semi-gloss look in
Empire Strikes Back; or even the damaged one eye-out-of-socket look in
Return of the Jedi. Shown here is the
Empire Strikes Back version.
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| Bandai Star Wars 1/12 scale C-3PO model kit; fully painted |
Originally, the model kit came in glossy, plasticky gold parts. However the kit has been worked on to changed Threepio's overall look into one that is predominantly semi-gloss (or satin) with moderate to minimal weathering in parts. Comprising effects such as panel lining, light battle damage and oil leaks, weathering was done carefully to prevent any of the said effects from overwhelming the semi-gloss gold look on Threepio.
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| A satin or semi-gloss finish to Threepio's arnour provides a mid-level shine |
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| Proportion-wise, this Bandai model kit of Threepio looks spot on |
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| In the original trilogy, Threepio sports a silver right leg (from below the knee) |
There is more than meets the eye to C-3PO at first glance. For example, all the innards in C-3PO's midriff have been repainted by hand. And if Threepio's back panel is removed, his instrumentation panel will be revealed. Fun fact: this exposed instrumentation panel with its gold, silver, red and white doohickeys was first seen in
Empire Strikes Back.
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| C-3PO back panel exposed; it was painted with gold, silver, white and red hues |
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| Each and every individual wire on Threepio's midriff was painted with acrylics |
As an
Empire Strikes Back version, Threepio armor is neither too shiny nor too dull as how the protocol droid looked in the rebel base on Hoth in
Empire Strikes Back. Weathering was deliberately dialed down so that Threepio
retained an almost-new-but-not-quite shine to his gold plated armor.
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| Back view of the fully painted Bandai Star Wars 1/12 scale C-3PO |
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| Photographing Threepio was a challenge in itself due to his shiny armor |
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| Fully painted 1/12 scale Star Wars C-3PO model kit |
Fully painted to resemble Threepio as he was in
Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back, this
Bandai 1/12 scale kit
retails for RM539 inclusive of shipping which will be on a
cash-on-delivery basis to selected public malls in Kuala Lumpur and
Petaling Jaya. For interested parties, please email us at
shireworks@gmail.com for more info on the purchasing process.
