I love the 1:12 scale Star Wars figures so much and between the Black Series, Figuarts and Bandai model kit, my collection is fairly comprehensive, but I would love to build it out more with scenery pieces, obscure droids and aliens that we got with the old 3.75inch line over the decades. That’s probably why I jump at the chance to pick up 3rd party kits to build out that world. My latest acquisition is a Treadwell Repair Droid from FigureWorks. Let’s take a look!
FigureWorks is a name you are probably familiar with if you are interested in 1:12 Star Wars scale custom figures, but if you haven’t heard of him, he’s an extremely talented 3D sculptor and builder who has made tons of really cool set pieces and sculpts for 1:12 scale Star Wars figures. I follow him on Facebook and he posts tons of cool Star Wars stuff.
This kit is a manufactured piece based on FigureWorks’ 3D sculpt of the WED-15-77 Treadwell Droid and came in a nice cardboard box with a cool minimalist graphic on the front.
The pieces were packaged very securely and were well protected. The kit is basically one sprue tray and the tank tread base. A nice feature of the design is that the tiny little arms are double printed on the sprue in case you mess it up. As a model maker I appreciate that. A lot.
There is also a little instruction booklet that clearly shows you how to put the kit together.
The assembly is incredibly simple, you just have to cut the servo arms and main pole off the sprue tray. The neck piece and eyes pop off the sprue easily and it all fits together without glue.
The main work on this kit is painting. I decided to spray it all with a Tamiya silver spray paint I already had and used a flat blue based on some prop reference photos I found. The only tricky bit was painting the treads black and the piece where the wheels attach to the body blue while keeping the wheels silver.
I then gave the whole thing a wash with games workshop Nuln Oil and then dusted it with some pigments I got from a model train store. I hope the wash and dusting hides some of the paint mistakes I made along the way.
Once assembeled, the figure can swivel at the main base pole attachment point and where the head attaches to the main base pole. Each little actuator arm, the sensor eyes, and the antenna all hinge up and down and hold their position well.
The actuator arms and antenna are super thin and tiny, so I advise caution, but they look fantastic.
Overall, I’m so glad I hopped on this kit when I first saw it available. I’ve long admired FigureWorks’ (ahem) work for a while, so it’s great to have a piece for myself. I love the clunky aesthetic of these workhorse droids and FigureWorks captured it perfectly. He’s not currently selling these kits, but if it is made available again, I highly recommend it.
