Studio Scale 1/48 TIE Bomber JPG Productions

[Scarecrow Joe]

Decided to start a thread for this one since I am taking a break from my Randy Cooper Sandcrawler build and started to clean and prep some of its parts. The solar panel have very good detail but of them was slightly warped. It needed some hot air gun action to correct its geometry. Here is a comparison between the prepped one and how it came from in the kit:

20190902_134144 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

Left one prepped, straightened, borders corrected....right one untouched.


Its not a complicated model but instructions for assembly are next to none. You have to figure it out for yourself, at least the basic assembly. The instructions provided are more related to the detail parts and various greeblies. Whats in the box:

20190902_123948 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr


Detail of the solar panel corrected:

20190902_134219 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

Both panels corrected and connected by the central tube provided. The mode of construction follows very closely the screen used prop. They are straightened and squared. Both needed hot air gun work to make them straight and true. If you decide to go with the hot air gun, a little does it, don't over do it. You could also try hot water.

20190902_144341 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

20190902_144328 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

More to come later.

 

[Duncanator]

The castings look pretty good from the photos. Very few discernible bubbles.
Not surprising the thin wings warped a little. Nice work straightening them out.

 

[joberg]

Going to look good!

 

[joez2391]

glad you're starting a thread for this kit, i just picked the same one up a few weeks ago but haven't started it yet.

 

[Scarecrow Joe]

Today I continued tackling this kit and went to the middle area that separates the two tubes. To properly have everything squared I suggest to building this area first to figure out the relationship between all the little greeblies, the front and back plates, and the upper and lower plates around this central part. That way you will properly estimate the distance between the panels and the left and right tubes. There is a greeblie that looks like a little wing that will determine the space between each tube and its panel.

I started today detailing the inner central area of each panel:

20190908_105424 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

20190908_105440 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

20190908_111128 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr



Mock up of the main parts joined by the tube provided. My tube needed some trimming to provide the proper distance between the panels and the tubes:

20190908_134727 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

20190908_134738 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr



Started adding the greeblies to the central part:

20190908_144534 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

20190908_144547 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

20190908_144609 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr


Im still debating as to adding light inside the cabin. The original filming model had lighting only in the engines at back. I have a MPC Vader TIE that has some parts to complete an interior specially the frontal plate directly behind the frontal round window. Some indirect lighting and some other details could give the general impression of an interior and a pilot. The majority of these builds just black out the window and call it a day. Lets see what I decide later.

 

[ecl]

Love this kit! One of my personal favorites.

 

[Scarecrow Joe]

Took some time to figure out the way it will be displayed but I think I got it. Tricky to guide the cables to the main cabin area but doable.

20190915_163522 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

20190915_163416 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

 

[Scarecrow Joe]

Decided to add some interest to the cabin area using parts form the MPC Vader's TIE. Added some greeblies to provide more texture and detail.

20190915_185017 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

20190915_185154 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

To further add some more details I will add a pilot. The original shooting model had no detail inside whatsoever. Windows were blacked out.

20190915_191003 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

20190915_191156 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

Notice the pilot is not from any Star Wars model. Its a generic one I got because it has a very similar look to a TIE pilot. Once inside the cabin and using indirect lighting my guess is that only the general silhouette and basic form of it will be visible. In the above image the dark background will have a red glow that will throw shadows to the pilot. I will also paint the pilot like a TIE one in gloss and flat black. Let see how it goes.

 

[Stu Pidasso]

Great job so far! Following this thread...

You did mention the instructions as being next to none. Care to elaborate?

 

[Scarecrow Joe]

The instructions consist of a single piece of color paper which only shows the whole model already built. It shows very sparingly where the surface greeblies go. It has maybe 4-5 illustrations in all. You need to have experience with previous models and look at reference material to figure it out completely.

 

[ecl]

During my build, I found it much more helpful to just find as many photo references as possible to figure out where the pieces go. There’s also a thread on the RPF somewhere that has PDF part diagrams labeled and mapped out, which helped a lot too. Luckily, the overall assembly of the bomber isn’t too bad, once you figure out where all the small greeblies go!


Edit: Here’s the link! http://www.x2creativos.com/pdf/tie_bomber.pdf

 

[Inquisitor Peregrinus]

Your pilot figure actually looks a lot like the non-Stormtrooper (i.e., regular Starfleet) pilot gear we get a glimpse of in that deleted scene from Solo:

Since you have the MPC kit, could you perhaps measure the outer diameter of the cockpit ball portion? I need to check something...

 

[Scarecrow Joe]

About the MPC cockpit diameter is about 1.75 inches aprox. Bigger than I thought.

Did some work today figuring out its base. I used a bamboo cup with a magnetic sliding lid. The cup will house the battery.

20190929_135344 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

Routed the cable. Kind of tricky.

20190929_140606 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

20190929_140638 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr


Started work on the engine lights. Went for a LED on the inside instead of having the bulb shown outside. Cleaner look, IMO.

20190929_145930 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr