First off... big thanks to Chris Kelley who created these great TIE cockpit parts. They come from his SS TIE Interceptor and are also being utilized for his SS TIE ADVANCED that he is wrapping up work on. I got the cockpit kit yesterday and excitedly examined how to fit it into Steve's SS TIE Standard. I had to make some modifications to squeeze the thing in, but the things I had to trim will be easily rectified when it is painted and locked in place and replaced with custom cut panels and hoses to cover seams in the edges of the interior walls. I also had to lose the back panel (seen in the picture with Vader) and will have to do up the back wall of the cockpit with my own work since it's also the battery access door for the interior lighting:
Chris can be contacted at:
HighIntensity66@aol.com if you want a cockpit kit or to get on his SS Vader TIE list.
Well first off, thank God Steve was able to begin my task by delivering the cockpit cored as I asked him to on another thread. I still had to use my Dremel to really customize the space inside, especially after receiving Chris's cockpit kit. Had I not gotten the main hull cored my kitchen would look like Kate Moss was in there on a cocaine binge with the amount of resin powder that would have accumulated (the amount that accumulated as it is was a pretty big mess to clean up afterwards as well as running the fan for ventilation.) But here's the last of the customization of the main hull interior to make room for Chris's cockpit addition:
Chris's kit included TWO dashboards, so that there is detail on the inside of the cockpit also. Since Steve's front dashboard had the standard TIE detail, I used one of Chris's for the interior of the cockpit, and trimmed and sanded it for size:
Next, with the interior as cleaned out as I could get it and constantly inserting the sidewalls to see how much else needed to be cleared, they fit fine. I will detail that top crevice on each side when they are painted with styrene or other cockpit greeblie detail:
Here is a top view of the interior cockpit parts temporarily in place to make sure everything will fit when I am finished painting the parts. I also included an extra wire running to the front for a red dashboard LED to light the inside along with the outer engine lights all to run off the same batteries:
Finally I temporarily put the pilot in place on his seat which covered the light switch very nicely once I hollowed out the bottom. The only other part to add (along with some back wall detail) will be a scribed styrene floor panel to simulate a floor grate:
Finally, I added the front canopy to temporarily check on how things will all align. The one I got was cracked in shipping and I glued it back together but it is still a little warped, however for now it is helping me check everything until I get a replacement from Steve:
Now I have to decide what colors to choose to paint the interior and if I want to go completely insane and add fiber optics for the panel lights. I have to research some more pictures of the cockpit interior to decide on a paint scheme though. I would love to get some lightsheet to simulate the red lined triangle panels as seen in this screencap, but I have not heard back from the lightsheet contact I was directed to for some small patches to add (which I would tap into the LED batteries also if I decided to go this route:
Well for anyone who wants to take on modifying and detailing one of Steve's TIE kits with a cockpit, I highly recommend picking up an add-on kit from Chris Kelley. Once I do the painting and finish the lighting I will have the hull ready to mount to the wings which will hopefully be delivered soon so I can complete this. It's a little challenging, but I think having a TIE with a detailed and lit cockpit will put it even beyond the "Hero" version that features real Koolshade wings.
JV
