Star Wars The Force Awakens Captain Phasma 1/12 Scale Model Kit

I'm a noob when it comes to building model kits but I was able to finish this in 3 hours. Beautiful when finished. I did use some special clippers and an exacto knife, but it was straight forward.Seller was great, it took a while because it shipped from Japan.A few cons.Clipping on some of the individual chrome pieces was challenging. When you take it from the frame you need to shave or clip some additional bits so things can snap flush together. Sometimes you might over do it and clip the chrome plastic. I think this is easy to fix with non mirror chrome kits, but because this is such an awesome mirror finish you need to be very delicate. It will be difficult to cover up your mistakes on the chrome pieces. So this might not be a good first model kit.The another minor con is the cloth cape. You get 2 options, a hard shell plastic and some polyester fabric. The plastic shell is ok, but the fabric looks really cheap.Last con, on the advertising of the box and the instructions the gun has black elements on the scope and down the barrel. The gun did not have these details and no decals were provided to match the box version. It's all chrome as you can see in my image.Overall fun to build and looks like a great.

This kit, overall, is pretty great. It's closely based on the First Order Stormtrooper kit, and has many of the great features from that, with the addition of the excellent chrome finish.While a lot of the parts look the same as the First Order Stormtrooper parts, and Bandai has a history of reusing molds for similar kits, the Captain Phasma kit enjoys completely new molds for most of its parts to accommodate the chrome finish. Bandai uses what they call "under gates" (アンダーゲート in the instructions) to hide the places where you cut the part from the runner. Basically, if a part would normally connect to the runner on its outside surface, Bandai moves that connection to a place that's better hidden after the kit is assembled.The one drawback of this kit is the capes. The plastic cape is stiff, doesn't move well for posing and just looks like a blob of plastic. The "cloth" cape is also stiff, so it doesn't hang well, but it's also far too thin and transparent. Neither option looks right on the figure. I ended up buying microfiber cleaning cloths (here on Amazon, of course), cutting them to shape based on the cloth cape that comes with the kit, and using that to much better result. The attached picture includes my improvised cape.

Awesome looking model. The fit of the parts is excellent and very little painting is involved. To get the model that burnished metal look that you see in the movie, it will take some very light sanding with 3600 grit sanding pads that professional modelers use. Also, a very light misting of flat black paint will give it that distressed metal look. The gun is chromed as well. I took some flat yellow, thinned it out to maybe 1 part paint to 7 parts thinner and sprayed the gun with multiple coats until it got the bronzed effect. Then take flat black to paint the trim on the weapon. You do get the option to display it with a fabric cape or the plastic one. I opted for plastic since it laid better. Another GREAT model from Bandai. I plan to get them all.

Haven't done a Bandai model before, but as I'm creating a Captain Phasma costume, I wanted a nice detailed 3-D visual reference. This certianly fills the bill, but is also a fun little kit to put together. Managed to do it in one afternoon; most of the pieces came together very firmly, with the exception of one or two belt gadgets. Also, couldn't get it to stand on the base in the little foot-brace for some reason. Didn't bother with the decals. The plastic cape could go together better (haven't tried the cloth one) but overall it's a nice looking figure, looks like the premium ones out there, but cheaper. And of course putting it together was a bonus. I may have to look into getting some more.

Nothing bad to say about this model. Yes she needs to be assembled. She took me about 3hrs. She's all snap together. I will probably glue a few of the parts..like the cape. It likes to pop off when I'm posing her. No big deal. She comes in chrome and black, no paint needed. I guess you could do a little weathering if you wanted to, but it's not necessary. I think I'm going to display her as is. NOTE: She's about half a head taller than the 6" Black Series First Order Stormtrooper, which is soooo perfect! I love you my sweet.

Excellent detail, for a relatively simple subject. Anyone who knows Bandai's models will be familiar with their attention to detail, and the multiple options that their model kits provide. Only thing I didn't care for was the plastic cape, which I elected to replace with black satin. It may not have the scaled draping that the formed plastic shows, but I really didn't like the look of the segmented shoulder section.

Just finished this model. Only snag I ran into was the chrome colored plastic is attached to the runners so that most of them require more than average clean up with a file so the pieces will snap together. This is to prevent the chrome plastic from being marked up visually once put together but I did find it a real hassle on some of the smaller pieces.

My son loves it, quality is good. This is exactly what I was anticipating.