hey everyone norm from tested here wrapping up this week uh yet again with another model making
project i'm getting into the groove of building these models again and today doing something a
little bit different it's going to be part show and tell part new product unboxing and then a
model kit build i spent today doing a little bit of my version of a one day build so you know it's
and the february march is starting up and in any normal year we'd be starting up uh conventions
going on the pop culture convention circuit something i really missed from last year not going
to san diego comic con not going to new york comic con and one of my favorite things to do at those
places is to meet up with some of my favorite toy manufacturers collectibles manufacturers
but not to worry even though we're not going to those conventions this month i have been in touch
with companies like bandai and in fact today they actually sent me one of their upcoming figures uh
to take a first look at them this is a actually a right off the line production unit that i have to
send back but i thought it'd be great to check it out show you what it's about and then also
gave me some inspiration to do a model kit build so switching over to our close-up cam right now
this is a figure from the bandai's movie realization line of course it's from the stars
universe or inspired by the star wars universe but it's their own kind of japanese feudal japan take
on it and part of their movie realization under the tamashii nations uh brand sub brand of bandai
and this one came out a couple years ago it's my favorites uh it's a stormtrooper who's also um
you know uh an archer and i love the giant bow here i love the hat this is one of those things
where i've actually seen a few people design some cosplay based off of this style of action
figure and uh it's just so so impressive love the aesthetic of this uh and they've built a
whole universe of these characters this field of japan take on the star wars universe and so uh up
for order right now and coming soon i got a chance to take a look at the one based on the mandalorian
it is the ronin mandalorian and we're gonna do a little bit of a kitchen show unboxing i say
kitchen show because uh i've already opened it up and checked out the pieces but let's see what it
kind of looks like fresh out of the box so taking lid off you of course have just some instructions
which we're not going to need and then underneath the plastic packaging you have the figure itself
the details here i love i love like with every one of these sculpts it's so fun to see um not
how they like pull together what's familiar of the star wars universe so in this case
it's got to be a take on that iconic mandalorian helmet they've done their version of boba fett and
now you have their take of the mandalorian uh and then the color scheme is right out of mandalorian
season one right so you have the pre-best car uh style of armor where you have that um the kind
of scavenged pieces that mando has from uh the stormtroopers in his universe it's got bandolier
you got some nice you know um gauntlet guards here uh the shoes everything very much in that japanese
style and then the helmet here you know what it looks a little bit like like shredder from ninja
turtles um it is a little bit weathered as you can see there's a little bit of that brown under the
helmet here and i'll give you guys a closer look yeah so you can see they've done a wash of brown
um and a little bit of weathering although i think it could use a little bit more weathering and even
the armor plates here they have a little bit silver that's supposed to be the armor worn off
articulation i think it's gonna be just in line with the articulation from the other figures we
get the pop-off hands replaceable hands and i'm actually gonna pop these off now to get some of
the other arms in place and show you some of the accessories so very easy to pop those out
it does of course come with his short blade here with a scabbard and that goes right into
the belt right there and then we're going to put this version of the mandalorian blaster again the
silhouette of the bergman number one that the tv show blaster is based on but yeah their own
sculpt their own take on it with a little bit of extra wiring on the top almost a little bit of
almost like a steampunk look to it same with his pulse rifle here has that fork tip which is uh
the silhouette of that design and the scope as well as well as the the faux wooden stock here
but a lot of these rivets and the hammer here that's all supposed to be era appropriate for this
version of mando let's zoom back out just a little bit posability is in line with all the other movie
realization figures so you know you've got double jointed knees twisting all the right places double
jointed elbows and a good range of motion here um not quite mixed-media everything is still
plastic the only thing that's not is this um still synthetic cape the cape i think could be
replaced it's a little bit rigid here doesn't quite flow that well but i don't think it'd be
too difficult to swap this out for something that drapes a little bit better and it is
soft on top but you see that synthetic weave that plastic nice plastic is on the underside
here um and these figures don't come with stand so they just stand on their own but because of how
opposable they are they do very well on their own and so for me uh that's a great chance an
opportunity a queue to take some photos and i didn't just want to take photos of this thing
i was inspired to build another diorama for and so that's what i did today put the packaging
aside for a second we're going to put mando off to the side as well as this stand and i'll show you
the project that i spent today working on so this is my take on the star wars movie realization
japanese style diorama and it is a star wars inspired dojo uh let me get the mando
figure back out made for 12th scale stands right there and i could not be more pleased with how
this turned out it is if you look at it kind of this three quarters diorama that i've taken
a liking to in terms of the design very much in line with structurally and the way the walls and
the the floorboard all come together in line with the dioramas i've built in the past using the glow
forge this time using their eighth inch plywood and one of the things i wanted to do was not only
capture this aesthetic but also experiment uh with a little bit of mixed media and something that i
always try to do when i build these is find out where i can create some depth because even with
the glowforge bed size the material size of about 12 13 inches by about 19 inches or so
that's not a lot of area to build a scene at 12th scale for about a six and a half inch tall figure
and so i want to create foreground elements i want to create some background elements and in
this case i created indoor and an outdoor part of the scene is what i sketched up initially and so
let me walk you through some of the uh the attributes of this and things i'm very happy
with so uh the main floor here is just uh eighth inch walnut and that's where i started off with
with the design sketching out i know i wanted i knew i wanted kind of like a two-thirds one-thirds
divvying between the indoor and the outdoor scene and then for the indoor you know this is very much
in line with that kind of imperial hallway that i built last year uh but instead of the
translucent uh plastic acrylic plastic uh for the imperial lights hallway lights here of course
it's these shoji screens and that's just some vellum some kind of semi-opaque vellum that's
spray glued and attached the laser-cut wood here and one of the things i wanted to experiment this
time around also were different thicknesses of materials so to give it a little more of a real
architectural look so it's not kind of everything doesn't just look like eighth inch plywood and
for that i uh decided to add some artwork in the background and so this uh freeze here is actually
um engraved veneer i just found some great poster art that i like that i thought would be
appropriate for the scene um processed it etched it onto the veneer which has the 3m backing and
then applied it as some artwork and then same with the artwork in the back here and then having this
wall in the front and then a wall in the back even though it's just about two inches between them
gives a little bit of parallax gives a little bit of depth and gives different ways of having to
light the scene as well i also made use of some thicker wood so glow forged cells the thicker
0.2 inch uh fifth of an inch not quite quarter inch ply and by kind of inlaying that
with some of the eighth inch ply that allows me to have a little bit of this this depth
here as well for the molding around this main door and the molding around this door
as well it sticks out just a little bit subtle but it catches or creates a shadow
when i shine light on it that just makes it feel more like a real place in a miniature scale
i really wanted to get a circular door here not only because it's authentic to you know this type
of japanese architecture but also if you recall in the very first episode of the mandalorian when he
walks into that bar for his first bounty he goes through that uh that door that circular door and
so they have that shared architectural attribute um also put some pillars out in front here and
uh this is something i had fun with designing super easy i want to again not just have walls
interlock with each other and so i created these little pylons that just they just slide together
and they fit very well you know added compensated for the kerf put a little bit of super glue in and
then they stick through the bottom uh which elevates the entire platform a little bit
again um that i love how it uh these dioramas if i can get them to look like they're not just
sitting on the table but they're a little bit off of the table i think that adds a lot to the
scene and so again these are foreground elements put them in the front here very happy with that
and then for the outdoor scene i again knew that i wanted maybe a little bit of mixed media something
to not look just like laser-cut wood and so i thought what could i do uh in terms of getting
some foliage in here and the real winner for this diorama is this tree here this is a miniature fake
bonsai tree that is plastic completely plastic that i bought for 12 online and pulled it off of
the base and the potted base that came in and then super glued it onto the wood here and then hid
the seams with some of this floral moss that kate and i have used before in our past model
making projects also sprinkled in some uh crushed nut shells which should look like gravel and uh
create this nice path in the front here and then in the interest of again creating more
depth uh put a little bit of a pergola archway at the front here just to tie the whole scene
together oh and then there's also one last element that i wanted to add also to take advantage of the
fact that i created this little hallway for the illusion of depth and that's to have a little bit
of an antagonist here and all i did was uh cut a silhouette of another one of these figures found
some stock art uh and cut this out and then by pressing this against the vellum against the shoji
screen and then putting a light behind it uh it actually looks like you know it's the the shadow
of an assailant coming to hunt this mando and one of the things i really enjoy is that as i shine
light around it there's an opportunity um to do some really interesting lighting because i have
both an indoor and an outdoor environment so i can use maybe a cool cooler light something at 55 5600
kelvin to emulate moonlight from the back here and then contrast that with a warmer light
on the interior to emulate maybe candlelight or lantern light and then by having a mixture of warm
and cool i think that's gonna create a really nice scene uh so it's time then to pay all this off
the whole reason to spend the whole day designing this in illustrator laser cutting this and putting
it together is to take pictures of this thing so i'm going to take this diorama get some of
my other figures um and set up for a photo shoot and let's see how it looks under the camera lens
so there you have it uh that is this first look at this mando ronin figure from bandai tamashii
nations thank them for sending me the sample that might return back to them and also an opportunity
for me to build this really fun diorama as always i'll share links to where you can find materials
for this build the foliage that miniature bonsai tree as well as some of the files i created for
this diorama if you want to make your own hope you enjoyed this little model making project and
some of the photos i'm really pleased with this i think the figure looks great looks great nada has
a place to live and i'll be doing more of these model making projects and photography projects
in the future thanks so much for watching have a wonderful weekend and i'll see you next time bye