TIE Bizarro in 1/48 scale (TIE Fighter variant)

I finished up a little project yesterday. Anyone remember a campaign from the X-Wing Alliance PC game which featured some experimental TIE Fighter variants? One of them was a TIE Fighter that featured two cockpit pods with one solar wing in the middle. One pod housed a heavy turbo laser cannon. Unofficially, it has also been referred to as TIE Bizarro, since it is so backward from the original TIE configuration.

TIE Experimental M1 - Wookieepedia, the Star Wars Wiki

I've wanted to do one of these for years, but my plans didn't go to the front burner until I picked up a copy of Max Modeller Magazine, issue #7. It featured a build of the ship by Ricardo Rodriquez, utilizing a pair of Fine Molds kits for the project. At one time, there was a resin kit of this TIE variant available in 1/72 scale. In my stash, I had one of the AMT/Ertl 1/48 two TIE Fighter sets left over, so I decided to pull them out to see what I could accomplish. Here is my result:





I didn't set out to copy Ricardo's work exactly since he used some parts turned on a lathe. Plus, his was 1/72 while mine was 1/48. Thankfully, the TIE M-1 has only been represented in a low res polygon mesh for the game, so it was subject to a bit of interpretation.The main bit of modification involved modifying the one TIE wing to accomodate two pods. AMT molded the wing in one piece while FM did it in three (center solar wing, two outer frames). A separate outer detail cap goes on the outside of the wing and this featured a center hexagonal hub that had to be shaved flat to get the second wing hub to fit into it. I also had to cut that hex hub out of two other pieces to use as details for the outer part of the cockpit and gun balls.



You can see the hex piece at the end of the gun ball. I back filled the cockpit balls with Apoxie and sanded the areas smooth after I choped the unused wing struts off. I had thought about adding some additional greeblie bits to the ends of the balls, but they looked nice in their clean state. So I left them. The gun mount is made from an MPC TIE Interceptor rear hatch with some additional bits of styrene strip added to it. The transitional section is a Revell 1/144 space shuttle engine bell and a Monogram 1/48 AH-64 helicopter tire (the Apache kit is a great source of greeblie bits BTW). The ladder rung shaped bits are from the Apache as well. The gun barrel is made from two diameters of K&S Brass tubing.



All things considered, this was a rather fun and simple kitbash project. The base coloring is Model Master light gray over a flat back pre-shade (which I had to do in order to paint the wing due to how it was molded). Some drybrushing was done in white over the neutral gray accent pieces. I had thought about going with the TIE Interceptor based bluer color, but I like the brighter gray better as it shows more detail IMHO. I may add some blue trim stripes to it to give it some variety, but it looks nice in this clean paintjob. My TIE Bizarro also has a pilot in the cockpit. In the game, they were remotely flown. But I like manned fighters better.

Now I just need to finish up a couple X-Wings for it to fight.

Wow! Really looks good!

I still have a copy of this game as it is one of my favorite space flight sims.

I think the gray was the right color choice.

I like it !

It might be cool to try something like this in so-called "studio scale" if I ever get the disposable income to try as it really is a mean looking bird. That cannon is just nasty to look at. In hindsight, the turbo laser cannon might be a bit too long, but I think it adds to the nasty looks of this ship. It sort of looks like a TIE Fighter kitbashed with a Panzer tank.

Very cool! I've meant to do a couple of those experimentals (I love the booster TIE), but something else always comes up first.

nice!
i always wanted to do one of the uglies from x-wing rouge squadron. like these. maybe this could be your next project?:angel

Man, they don't call that an ugly for nothing! Looks like the Borg assimilated the Star Wars universe!

Well, it would be possible to do in 1/48, but one would have to sacrifice a Fine Molds 1/48 X-Wing to do it if I was trying to keep everything the same size. That is expensive. An MPC X-Wing kit is close, but a little oversized. Still, I suppose it could work and I do have some leftover MPC TIE Interceptor bits (which are also about 1/48 scale). Doing one in 1/72 is possible, given the FM kits available (even the Y-Wing ion cannons). But again it might get cost prohibitive.

i have all of the parts in kenner vehicles and have been close to cutting them apart and making this thing more than once. it'd be fun stuff for sure.

somehow I could see doing on with 10 balls and just two wings ...line a LIMO tie

I have several of these sitting my closet. I always thought the design was a bit too awkward for myself but after seeing your completed kit, makes me want to see what I can do with them.

Looks good, but the design always struck me as odd - If one TIE needs two panels to power it and it's normal, small, weapons... Extra weaponry and less power makes no sense!

Still, brilliant model. Well played

Reverend Scapegoat said:

Looks good, but the design always struck me as odd - If one TIE needs two panels to power it and it's normal, small, weapons... Extra weaponry and less power makes no sense!

Still, brilliant model. Well played

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LOL, thanks. I admit it is a little odd as well, although the total amount of black solar array on the TIE Interceptor is also a little less then a normal TIE and they doubled the guns as well. Star Wars is loaded with more then a few contradictions that people have tried to explain with some real world science. But at its heart, it is still mainly entertainment rather then something trying to be factual. As such, visual impact takes a front seat more then the question of "will it work".

The pseudo-science explaination that the black areas are solar collectors has never quite sat well with me for a couple reasons. First of all, in extreme deep space rather then in a solar system, there wouldn't be enough sunlight to generate sufficient power. With our best solar arrays today, a spacecraft still needs a different power source if they get past the orbit of Mars, due to insufficient sunlight to generate such power. Granted SW tech is more advanced, but no light still means no real power.

Secondly, the way the arrays are positioned, at certain angles they will be blocked by the second array. The crank winged versions of the TIE Advanced, Bomber and Interceptor make the inner surface even more blocked. So perhaps the array would only be to the outside of such wings. As such, one might say a single winged TIE would have arrays to the outside of a single panel and as a result they would get more solar power since they aren't blocked by anything else.

Now if one were to consider the panel to be some sort of heat radiator, it makes more sense even though no other SW design really uses a similar system. But again, one such array would be less efficient then two, so the TIE Bizarro runs into a similar problem. In the game, the turbo laser has a longer cycle between firings to recharge since it can't fire fast like the smaller laser guns. At the same time, the second pod does free up a bit more space for other systems. While the big gun takes up a lot, a few other things could potentially help with the heat and energy problems of this design. Of course, it is experimental and not a full production ship. So, it would likely have had a few issues anyway.

shenphong said:

I have several of these sitting my closet. I always thought the design was a bit too awkward for myself but after seeing your completed kit, makes me want to see what I can do with them.

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Well, I say give it a go. This model to me makes a nice exercise in parts modification and "greeblification" as you learn a lot about what you can do in the process. While this one did have some interesting challenges to overcome, it wasn't that hard a kitbash to do. And it can be built with only one of those AMT sets and something to source the gun parts from. I used the TIE Interceptor for a couple parts since they are also dirt cheap and I have more then a few bits sitting in my stash. And since I'll be using the wings on another AMT Ertl TIE cockpit ball anyway, the original MPC cockpit ball pieces became spares.

Another cool TIE variant that could be done with less work would be the old TIE attack craft (pre-TIE Bomber design) which was a standard TIE with a weapon launcher below the cockpit ball and a single laser gun in front. A couple of the old West End Games sourcebooks had images of it.

Awesome design and construction.

I like your build up of this. Thats one mean gun LOL!

I think it looks good in grey. All the studio TIEs were blue though, not just the Interceptors.

Thanks Nazgul, I appreciate that. I am liking your Gunboat work as well.

The ones done for ANH were done in gray shades (there are plenty of images of them and the Vaders TIE to prove it). They may have had a slight bluish cast to them, but they certainly weren't painted in the same blue paint as the ones done for ESB and Jedi. The light gray over black basecoat gives this model enough of a bluish tint to satisfy my eye anyway.

JMChladek said:

Thanks Nazgul, I appreciate that. I am liking your Gunboat work as well.

The ones done for ANH were done in gray shades (there are plenty of images of them and the Vaders TIE to prove it). They may have had a slight bluish cast to them, but they certainly weren't painted in the same blue paint as the ones done for ESB and Jedi. The light gray over black basecoat gives this model enough of a bluish tint to satisfy my eye anyway.

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Agreed, the ANH looks grey. But I was actually surprised how blue it is. :confused

Heres a great thread where member GKvfx was kind enough to show pics of a real ANH model. (One of his pics below.)



Resin Illuminati

I agree with you that the paint in the later films probably were even bluer. This is not to suggest that you change anything on your model! Just info that might interest.