Hasbro The Last Jedi Tie Silencer mod/repaint

Chris8472

Chris8472

New Member
I found this rather large scale "toy" on sale last week for half price and thought it would make an amazing model with a bit of work. I know its not fully accurate, but its very impressive when put together due to its size.

20180116_121542.JPG​

Firstly I plan to remove all the toy elements, such as the firing mechanism, the pop-up hatch hinge, the screw holes and the clear vent on the dorsal. Following that I need to find out how the force link lighting mechanism works so I can use the built in LEDs to light the engines with a battery. Then I'll give it a really spiffy paint job with weathering and plonk it on a stand.

So far I have taken the whole thing apart and have begun to fill and re-sculpt the screw holes on the lower hull with A/B apoxy and sanded off the raised hasbro disclaimer.

20180116_121257.JPG​

Should be a fun project...
 
More progress on the Tie Silencer.

I cut off the hatch and removed the hing, then sanded it till it was flush with the rest of the hatch. First thing I noticed is its made of some kind of pliable plastic, like a really flexable abs. It sands terribly, but I managed to get it flush

20180120_122027.JPG

I then fillled in the gap with 2 part apoxy and sprayed it after it dried with Tamiya primer. Then I primed the underside of the fuselage and engine thrust array to spot any flaws with the apoxy filled screw holes. Wasn't too bad, so I only have to do some minor tweaking. After that I got out the dremel and sanded off the hinge brackets on the upper fuselage, scary stuff. Again the plastic piled up/melted rather than flake off, but I got out of it pretty cleanly.

20180128_115450.JPG

Next up is filling the holes where the hinge brackets were, filling the front of the canopy hatch lip which was made for young fingers to lift up and gluing the hatch down permanently. Then I'll spray the upper fuselage with primer.
 
Ok so I filled the holes with Aves Apoxie sculpt and filled in the canopy hatch lip. After this had dried I gave it thorough sand and, confident that is was pretty flush, glued the hatch down and sprayed it with Tamiya primer.

20180201_163951.JPG

Then I resprayed the bottom half after some sanding tweaks and slotted in the engine thrust array on both sides to get an idea how the overall shape was looking.

20180201_163552.JPG

What became apparent to me, is how lazy/economical Hasbro really are when it comes to making these toys. As you can see, the top and bottom halves are virtually identical in detail and form, which is totally not the case on the real digital asset from the film. I figure they'd have a separate mold for the top, because it has the hatch - so why not make it look more like the film model instead of just mirroring it?

sigh :facepalm..... anyway,


Next I thought I'd crack out the solar panel wings and glue on the "blasters". Which I think are not even blasters in the film, but more spiney antennas - but to hell with it, they look kinda cool and I'm not about to invest that kinda time into rebuilding the front of the wings. Then I had to disassemble the firing mechanism that pops out of the sides and grab the center piece of the wing thats missing and reattach it by building up a base in apoxy to affix it to.

20180131_155615.JPG20180131_155802.JPG

then I'll have to fill it to make it flush - well, hopefully it'll be flush - its a hell of a gap. I'm thinking about extending the barrel of the actual blasters in the center, but I'm not sure of the best approach just yet, any ideas?

I've also been gradually masking off the windows on the cockpit -
20180201_172631.JPG

Well, thats it for now - I'm back at work next week - so updates might be a little spaced out from now on - but she should still look pretty damn cool when finished. The pulsing lights I've got for the engines look amazing.
 
Turns out sprinkler pipe was the perfect size for extending the wing cannons....

20180317_132942.jpg

I just fitted it over the muzzle of what was there (also the perfect size) and 2 part glued it in place.
 
OK I'm in on this build now too !

Think I might do something similar, however will see how this turns out. No pressure Chris ;-)

Hoping you can get a bit more done during the Easter break.
 
Portaler said:
OK I'm in on this build now too !

Think I might do something similar, however will see how this turns out. No pressure Chris ;-)

Hoping you can get a bit more done during the Easter break.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately no I didn't. Hasn't stopped me tho - I'm in the middle of priming the wings/solar panels right now. Then I have some puttying to do...
 
Recently I got around to spraying the fuselage Vallejo Panzer Grey. The cockpit is still masked and will be till I coat it after all the weathering. The wings are still primed with some puttying to do around the seams where the guns sprang out on the toy. Lighting still to be added. Unfortunately I have to squeeze in a little bit at a time during my baby daughters naps. It makes it slow going - that and I have about 6 other things on the work bench lol and work of course.

DSCF2881.jpgDSCF2882.jpgDSCF2885.jpg
 
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I've been eyeing this toy myself -- over the last 20 years, I've collected at least as many Hasbro Star Wars toys (where basic accuracy permits) as I have model kits. Since you're working on this one, do you think the solar panels are at or close to the proper scale relative to the cockpit/fuselage? I'm hoping so, because it is an impressive size and the detail looks pretty good. I presume it at least passed your eyeball test or you wouldn't be working on it at all. If you don't mind my asking and it isn't terribly inconvenient, could you tell me the overall length of the toy? I'm also pretty sure I'm going to get at least one of the Last Jedi A-wings with the same purpose in mind. I am somewhat surprised there aren't more of us "accurizing" toys like this; in some cases, it seems no more difficult than some of the hoops we've had to jump through with actual model kits for the last several decades. Despite my best efforts, finding information and pooled experience on accurizing toys with Google has been very thin on the ground, beyond the occasional simple repaint.

I know there is a thread here tracking other Star Wars toy modification threads on the board, but most of them have dead photo links at this point.


SSB
 
sbaxter said:
I've been eyeing this toy myself -- over the last 20 years, I've collected at least as many Hasbro Star Wars toys (where basic accuracy permits) as I have model kits. Since you're working on this one, do you think the solar panels are at or close to the proper scale relative to the cockpit/fuselage? I'm hoping so, because it is an impressive size and the detail looks pretty good. I presume it at least passed your eyeball test or you wouldn't be working on it at all. If you don't mind my asking and it isn't terribly inconvenient, could you tell me the overall length of the toy? I'm also pretty sure I'm going to get at least one of the Last Jedi A-wings with the same purpose in mind. I am somewhat surprised there aren't more of us "accurizing" toys like this; in some cases, it seems no more difficult than some of the hoops we've had to jump through with actual model kits for the last several decades. Despite my best efforts, finding information and pooled experience on accurizing toys with Google has been very thin on the ground, beyond the occasional simple repaint.

I know there is a thread here tracking other Star Wars toy modification threads on the board, but most of them have dead photo links at this point.


SSB
Click to expand...

So sorry! I didn't see this till now - I'm still working on the model - did you still require the measurements? The wing to cockpit ratio looks pretty close to me. I've got a bunch of reference I'm using to accurize it as much as possible - time permitting. Its 48cm long.
 
Chris8472 said:
So sorry! I didn't see this till now - I'm still working on the model - did you still require the measurements? The wing to cockpit ratio looks pretty close to me. I've got a bunch of reference I'm using to accurize it as much as possible - time permitting. Its 48cm long.
Click to expand...
No problem on the delay in replying -- I still haven't bought one of these, but I plan to do so. I also think it looks pretty close in proportions, just from looking at photos to compare them. You mentioned having a bunch of reference -- any chance you would be willing to share that? I have only found one or two good images of the CG model from the film, but I make of habit of periodically looking for vehicle reference images -- especially high-res images -- to print out and put in a binder for eventual use. So, if you're willing, I'd really love to see what you've found.

SSB
 
Work still progressing on my Tie Silencer.

After puttying up the seams (which took forever) around the wing pop out function, all parts are now base coated with Vallejo Panzer Dark Grey and ready for weathering.
20181231_114318-01.jpg


From then on I proceeded to use Tamiya's Weathering Master to rust up certain areas of the fighter, followed by a black wash. I then mixed up a slightly lighter paint from the base coat and used that to dry brush all the raised areas to give the ship some scale.

IMG_20190105_161357_985.jpg


more to come...
 
Cool -- I'm still following your work on this. I did pick up one of these and will likely try many of the modifications you've done so well. I was thinking of using a few different black/very dark grey shades to add a little subtle visual interest to the exterior.

My younger brother owns and operates a vintage video game/toy store in the mall here in Tallahassee. Over the weekend I was in his store and he took me into the back room and showed me a huge stash of Star Wars toys he had just acquired -- mostly prequel era, but some look to be from the Power of the Force line as well. There were at least five or six boxes stuffed full of them. Most are action figures, but there are some vehicles; he has invited me to come and look through them before they start putting them out for sale. There are a few specific figures I want, if they happen to be in the stash, and I hope I'll come up with something I want and can afford! I know the sale included one of the 1/6th-scale speeder bikes with a bike trooper, and a Droideka "room alarm." He already has one of the large Droideka toys on the shelf, priced at $50 (I'd get a 10 percent discount, I think), and I am sorely tempted!

SSB
 
I love the way the paint turned out! it's a very nice dark metallic effect

I have a Revell version and it suffer from a lot of the same issues as the Hasbro one including the little finger indent so you can lift the top hatch up and the hinge
 
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