I haven’t posted in a bit, but was finished up this bad boy!
Little bit of a backstory I find amusing.
First, I started my modeling career building Gunpla and absolutely love Bandai kits.
So, I went to an IPMS model show last year and put a bid on a bundle of kits for an auction. I didn’t look at the brand, but liked most of the vehicles. No one else put a bid on the kits, so I won them. My first thought was maybe I bought some really bad kits and didn’t know what I was getting into lol. After looking at them closer, turns out they are Bandai armor kits from the 70’s! I never thought I would get my hands on some!
I hadn’t heard of the vehicle before building this and found out that it played a pretty big role for the German forces. It was one of the first attempts to make a SPA piece, which I think is interesting.
Building the kit was great, but painting was a challenge for me. This was the first time I painted an open top vehicle, so my normal painting process would not do. I ended up painting 3 sub-assemblies and putting them together after. I didn’t glue the upper and lower hull cause I painted everything and didn’t want to mess it up lol. You can see a gap in the back cause of that. I also forgot to drill out the MG barrel, woops. I’ll get better at modeling at some point right? lol
What is your process of painting open top kits? I know I could do it better, but didn’t have the confidence to.
Hi! First off, I love those old Bandai kits, I have a bunch of them. Second, painting open top vehicles. Your basic idea is just fine, and your paint job looks good. Now you just need to glue it together. Use liquid cement, which ever brand you choose. Tamiya might be good for this, it dries fast. If you got any paint on the gluing surfaces, carefully sand or scrape it off. Start at one end, use a fine brush or a needle applicator, and work your way to the other end. Be careful not to touch the seam or get any of the cement on your fingers. Any small defects can be touched up. Be confident, and that’s it!
Ken
I like it as well. Bandai kits were among the few I could afford as a kid, unless I wanted to save for a few weeks, which I generally didn’t. In fact the Wespe was one of my favorites back then because it did have an open top. Yours looks very well done.
Your Wespe looks fantastic! I love Bandai 1/48 armor. As a kid, I used to wash cars, mow lawns, and shovel snow to earn model money but couldn’t afford Tamiya 1/35 kits, so Bandai 1/48 armor was my thing. I built them all. They still hold up pretty well for detail. I wish Bandai would re-pop them!
wow you did a fantastic job on that kit and i didn’t know Bandai made military kits back then, i guess they never made it to the UK or at least my part of it.
Do they still make them as they look very interesting?
A bunch of the old 1/48 scale kits were reissued in the 1980s, nothing since. But they do show up at swap meets and online, sometimes with great prices and sometimes with totally outrageous prices.
Right now there are about 900 listed on eBay, at various prices.
Ken
There was a Stug III in the bundle I got, so that will be a fun build when I get there. As for the kits holding up, sure it’s nothing like the Trumpeter kit I’m putting together now. But the details in the molding are pretty good and the fit of the pieces are surprisingly snug. I wouldn’t pass up one of these kits if I saw it.
David, Bandai quit making the armor kits sometime in the early '80s, if I recall correctly. However, a company called Fuman acquired the molds and re-released several of the tanks in the late '90s and early 2000s.
Bandai’ss offerings were on par with what Tamiya had out, and maybe one or two extra kits compared to Tamiya’s military range of the time. It was extensive. Every vehicle had an interior. Very basic, and clunky, but some of them are pretty nice. The radial engine in the M12 155 mm Gun Motor Carriage is as nice as many recent aircraft model manufacturers make. To give you an idea of the range of models, they made Sherman’s in the cast hull, welded hull, 75 mm and 76 mm, and with the 105. They made US half-Tracks, but aside from a Jeep they did not make any soft skins that I recall. However, they made a Matador British truck, a Maultier, a Valentine and Matilda, and probably over a dozen figure sets of various sorts, including German sappers.
I’m thinking Bandai did rerelease them in the 80s, and then several of them were released in the late 90s under Fuman, and Frog/Fuman. I bought several of them under those labels.
One of the figure sets was of 8th Army Desert Rats. The figures themselves aren’t up to today’s standards, but they were fairly decent for the time. Inexplicably though, every set that I have seen and personally have, had the American weapon set in them, with M1s, .50 cals, bazookas, etc. I’ll have to look through my Bandai collection boxes to see if I have European British battle dress troops, but I don’t know what weapons they had.
Fuman did a release in the 90s, but I don’t know how many of the kits they released. I have only seen tanks from them, not any figures or accessories.
One source of figs/accessories is Gaso Line, out of France. I have some of their stuff, it’s pretty good.
Ken
