modelerdave
Sr Member
Hey everyone. This is only my third model kit as an adult. The first two were a TIE interceptor and TIE fighter.
I started this build about a year ago, worked on it for a while and then put it aside as a series of cascading life problems overwhelmed my time. I finally picked this back up about two months ago and have been slowly working my way toward the finish line. I am not a fast builder by any means.
The pilot is now not going to be used. The photo etch probably won't be seen very well either.
Photo etch landing bays will be largely hidden now that I've decided to mount this to a custom landing pad.
Original cockpit seat with photo etch belts. I decided I hated this seat and redid it. More below.
Some 3D printed parts I'm going to use to liven up the landing pad.
Painted, weathered, and with some decals.
This is going to be an open pit in the landing bay. Build from sheet styrene, with some TIE fighter base connectors, a guitar string, some solder, a small metal tube, and a few pieces of rube styrene as details.
The new cockpit seat compared to the old one. I'm much happier. Took a lot of sanding and filing on the bottom to make it fit. I did reuse the photo etch belts.
In the cockpit.
Landing pad started. This is just a FOR SALE sign from Lowe's. I got the idea from Boyd! Thanks!
Weathered and with a cool white SMD in place in the pit. The black base is a $12 picture frame with some foam board beneath the for sale sign for strength.
Lighting test of the cockpit. If you compare this to the earlier unlit cockpit you'll see I swapped out the main view screen image. The first one just looks too much like Eric Cartman -- it's all I could see. So I cut that out and used a different one.
I've just finished the engines, which will be lit with flickering blue 1.3mm LEDs from Model Train Software. I need one more light to finish the cockpit and then I can start putting this all together. I'm still unsure how I'm going to get the wiring into the base. I'd like it to be invisible but I'm not sure how I'm going to manage it. I'm thinking I may put in a fake fuel hose or something.
Here's the front landing strut. These things were kind of a pain to get out the seam lines and paint in a way that they look kind of interesting.
The engines. The side control rods were also rather difficult to attach. I gave them a dry brushing of copper to give these a slightly more interesting color variation.
Any tips are welcome! I'm still figuring all of this out as I go along.
Dave
I started this build about a year ago, worked on it for a while and then put it aside as a series of cascading life problems overwhelmed my time. I finally picked this back up about two months ago and have been slowly working my way toward the finish line. I am not a fast builder by any means.
The pilot is now not going to be used. The photo etch probably won't be seen very well either.
Photo etch landing bays will be largely hidden now that I've decided to mount this to a custom landing pad.
Original cockpit seat with photo etch belts. I decided I hated this seat and redid it. More below.
Some 3D printed parts I'm going to use to liven up the landing pad.
Painted, weathered, and with some decals.
This is going to be an open pit in the landing bay. Build from sheet styrene, with some TIE fighter base connectors, a guitar string, some solder, a small metal tube, and a few pieces of rube styrene as details.
The new cockpit seat compared to the old one. I'm much happier. Took a lot of sanding and filing on the bottom to make it fit. I did reuse the photo etch belts.
In the cockpit.
Landing pad started. This is just a FOR SALE sign from Lowe's. I got the idea from Boyd! Thanks!
Weathered and with a cool white SMD in place in the pit. The black base is a $12 picture frame with some foam board beneath the for sale sign for strength.
Lighting test of the cockpit. If you compare this to the earlier unlit cockpit you'll see I swapped out the main view screen image. The first one just looks too much like Eric Cartman -- it's all I could see. So I cut that out and used a different one.
I've just finished the engines, which will be lit with flickering blue 1.3mm LEDs from Model Train Software. I need one more light to finish the cockpit and then I can start putting this all together. I'm still unsure how I'm going to get the wiring into the base. I'd like it to be invisible but I'm not sure how I'm going to manage it. I'm thinking I may put in a fake fuel hose or something.
Here's the front landing strut. These things were kind of a pain to get out the seam lines and paint in a way that they look kind of interesting.
The engines. The side control rods were also rather difficult to attach. I gave them a dry brushing of copper to give these a slightly more interesting color variation.
Any tips are welcome! I'm still figuring all of this out as I go along.
Dave
