Saturday, November 5

From the beach to your bench - Bandai’s “Shoretrooper” in 12th scale

Bandai has let out the pictures of their new “Shoretrooper” figure kit in 1/12th scale – these soldiers of the Imperial army are meant to operate around the coastal and beach areas - we have the key points and images so take a look at this new kit before they land on D-Day (December) in our preview...

A new 1/12th scale Shoretrooper from Bandai in December…

"Shoretrooper” (Rogue One) Bandai Models
1/12th scale
price 2,916 yen
December release
Product Link
The new 1/12th scale figure kit of the “Shore Trooper” from the movie “Rogue One” is looking to get a release in December we are told. If you have not seen these guys in the clip then they are the general ordinance soldiers of the Imperials – loading and unloading and general patrolling duties around the coastal marina areas. We have a few pictures and details about the new kit – Let’s look a bit into the background of this new character.
The Shoretroopers are specialist Stormtroopers stationed at the top secret Imperial military headquarters on Scarif, Shoretroopers patrol the beaches and bunkers of the planetary facility.
Their gear is designed specifically for the ability to go in and out of the water, Patrolling the beaches and bunkers of the planetary facility that plays host to a top secret Imperial military headquarters.

The real uniforms at a recent Star Wars Rogue One event
A half-skirt style garment hangs over the back of this new trooper's legs, while the rest of the armour, aside from colouring, is fairly standard for Stormtrooper armour of the Imperial era. If traditional Stormtroopers are the Empire's Army Infantry, the Shoretroopers appear to the Imperial Marine Corps.
Let's look at what Bandai are proposing:

This kit promises three different configurations for the Shoretrooper. With changes in armour, belt decals and shoulder pads, you can configure the regular Shoretrooper Grunt, the Shoretrooper Squad Leader and Captain. So if you like these figures you might be up for three instead of one...
The differences between the three figure types are shown here, The grunt and captain have the addition of lower torso armour added to them , while the Squad captain has a skirt of material from his belt.
Now, to my eyes - this is where the kit might fall down a bit, the fact that the seams on the pants do not really look very fluid,
I reckon I would set him in the position I wanted to leave him in, glue him up and seal up the joints with putty or sculpting material. Then after a paint & proper weathering session, he would look a LOT better.
The skirt around this figure of the Squad leader's waist is also pretty dodgy looking. You would do better to source your own cloth and remake it with the kit template
Accessories that come with this kit…
Display base
Two belt parts
E-11 Blaster
E-22 Long blaster
Three hand parts (Holding a weapon, Open hand and relaxed hand options)
Well, that means that after a little more work you could make something of this kit. But until it comes out, then we must wait until December to see if the kit is good or not...

These kits will be available in December from Bandai’s distributors
We have found a really good seller of Japanese centric models - Tokyo Model Detective - here is his website of you want to find your own Star Wars/ or any other model from Japan for that matter.