Post by venom1 on Mar 7, 2014 0:08:28 GMT -5
Well lads, after some firm encouragement from Dupes in his TIE/D thread, I thought it best to take off my "tardy" trousers and put on my "dosomethingyoulazybastard" designer jeans. So here we are!! 
This will be a pretty massive start as I've actually been plugging away at this in dribs and drabs since Christmas. So enough with the jibba-jabba, letz do eet!!
This is the kit in question. Another of FM's absolute gems, this one has a relatively low parts count and requires zero filler, so it doesn't take too long to get it to a stage where it is ready for paint!
Parts sprues laid out. As I said, fairly low parts count....
As you can see, the parts for the TIE itself are only on two sprues, with the third being for the stand and the two Darth Vader figures (one standing, one seated). You also get a small decal sheet, mostly consisting of decals for the cockpit walls which will be all but invisible once the kit is finished...
You also get a small sticker sheet with the canopy masks printed on it in black. These are not precut however, so you will need to cut them out manually....
Here are a few sprue shots up close so you can see the lovely detail. Typical Fine Molds excellence, with crisp detail everywhere you look. Makes you keen to get painting and make that baby pop!
The only annoying thing I don't like about this over the original TIE fighter kit is that the solar panels are molded as part of the wing, which will mean a lot of painful masking! The original TIE kit is great as the solar panels are molded separately to the framing and so it is easy to paint and weather them separately then glue together during final construction. Not sure why they didn't do that here......
This is the standing figure ofDavid Prow... James Earl Jo.... Darth Vader that you get in the kit. As you can see, lovely detail. Should come up trumps under paint!!
The seated one looks like he has.... issues. Funkiest legs I ever saw....
So here is the progress after a couple of hours(!!) of building. Pretty much ready for paint! Went together very quickly indeed.
Quick "hold together" to see what she will look like...
Righto then, next we have the cockpit painted and decalled.
The Dark Lord's ride would have been pretty pristine, but I wanted to bring the detail out a bit, so I gave the floor and rear cockpit wall a qiuck wash with Paynes Grey. Lovely jubblies.
Here is the pit installed and the front fuselage attached. I have already primed all the parts with Tamiya Grey Primer straight from the can. As I said, fit = exceptional!
Next up was the stand. After cleaning up the ejector pin marks, I hit it with the Tamiya Grey Primer, then Tamiya AS-12 straight from the can. Choice bro!
Next up wuz tha black bitz. Model Master flat black was used on the figure and the solar panels.
Once dry, I used a tiny bit of drybrushing followed by Future in strategic places to impart some shine where appropriate. Easiest. Paintjob. Ever.
Right then. Next came the tedious job of masking. Used my beloved vinyl sticker material for the edging around the solar panels, and filled in with painters tape. Cockpit window was done using the kit supplied masking and I used Bare Metal Foil for the top window.
Once masked up, I used Model Master Dark Gull Grey, which has a bluish tinge to it. This would set it apart from my standard TIE fighter. The destructions call up Air Superiority Blue, but I doubt this is correct. A bit TOO blue, methinks!!
Finally (last night actually) I removed the solar panel masking to see what it looked like. Was worth the effort! Masking for the top window is still in place as I have some minor weathering to do and don't want to buggerize the cleary goodness!! Solar panels have also been drybrushed to make the pattern pop out a bit.
So there we have it folks! That's where the old girl sits so far. Stay tuned for more TIE fightery goodness, coming to a forum near you!!!
Cheers,
Sam
This will be a pretty massive start as I've actually been plugging away at this in dribs and drabs since Christmas. So enough with the jibba-jabba, letz do eet!!
This is the kit in question. Another of FM's absolute gems, this one has a relatively low parts count and requires zero filler, so it doesn't take too long to get it to a stage where it is ready for paint!
Parts sprues laid out. As I said, fairly low parts count....
As you can see, the parts for the TIE itself are only on two sprues, with the third being for the stand and the two Darth Vader figures (one standing, one seated). You also get a small decal sheet, mostly consisting of decals for the cockpit walls which will be all but invisible once the kit is finished...
You also get a small sticker sheet with the canopy masks printed on it in black. These are not precut however, so you will need to cut them out manually....
Here are a few sprue shots up close so you can see the lovely detail. Typical Fine Molds excellence, with crisp detail everywhere you look. Makes you keen to get painting and make that baby pop!
The only annoying thing I don't like about this over the original TIE fighter kit is that the solar panels are molded as part of the wing, which will mean a lot of painful masking!
The original TIE kit is great as the solar panels are molded separately to the framing and so it is easy to paint and weather them separately then glue together during final construction. Not sure why they didn't do that here......This is the standing figure of
The seated one looks like he has.... issues. Funkiest legs I ever saw....
So here is the progress after a couple of hours(!!) of building. Pretty much ready for paint! Went together very quickly indeed.
Quick "hold together" to see what she will look like...
Righto then, next we have the cockpit painted and decalled.
The Dark Lord's ride would have been pretty pristine, but I wanted to bring the detail out a bit, so I gave the floor and rear cockpit wall a qiuck wash with Paynes Grey. Lovely jubblies.
Here is the pit installed and the front fuselage attached. I have already primed all the parts with Tamiya Grey Primer straight from the can. As I said, fit = exceptional!
Next up was the stand. After cleaning up the ejector pin marks, I hit it with the Tamiya Grey Primer, then Tamiya AS-12 straight from the can. Choice bro!
Next up wuz tha black bitz. Model Master flat black was used on the figure and the solar panels.
Once dry, I used a tiny bit of drybrushing followed by Future in strategic places to impart some shine where appropriate. Easiest. Paintjob. Ever.
Right then. Next came the tedious job of masking. Used my beloved vinyl sticker material for the edging around the solar panels, and filled in with painters tape. Cockpit window was done using the kit supplied masking and I used Bare Metal Foil for the top window.
Once masked up, I used Model Master Dark Gull Grey, which has a bluish tinge to it. This would set it apart from my standard TIE fighter. The destructions call up Air Superiority Blue, but I doubt this is correct. A bit TOO blue, methinks!!
Finally (last night actually) I removed the solar panel masking to see what it looked like. Was worth the effort! Masking for the top window is still in place as I have some minor weathering to do and don't want to buggerize the cleary goodness!! Solar panels have also been drybrushed to make the pattern pop out a bit.
So there we have it folks! That's where the old girl sits so far. Stay tuned for more TIE fightery goodness, coming to a forum near you!!!
Cheers,
Sam
