Bandai 1/72 Tie Fighter

K

korben44

Master Member
While I'm waiting for parts come in for interceptor, I will be working on this Bandai Tie Fighter. It is full of detail and certainly the best at this scale. I've added just a few things to make it a little more detailed. Here's my progress:

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WP_20160224_10_17_19_Raw_LI (3).jpg
WP_20160223_11_20_09_Rich_LI (2).jpgWP_20160223_08_36_02_Raw_LI (2).jpg
 
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Hi Korben,

looking good. the detail in the cockpit looks great. Everything is so dark in the cockpit is is hard to make anything out... in the cockpit of the Revell kit that I just finished up, I painted the cockpit walls and the seat various tones of white and light grey to shine a bit of contrast (as well as a bit of light) on the matter.

I ordered the Adv. TIE and the X-Wing and will get the normal TIE as well sooner or later, so I will be following you here with interest! :)

Cheers
 
Thanks, opal1970! Definitely need good lighting to see everything in the cockpit, but I wanted to follow Steve the Swede's rendition of the 1/35 Tie Fighter he just completed. For the 1/48 Tie I have I'm going to add lighting, but I'm not ready or skilled enough to do that with these 1/72 scale models.

I just got the Bandai T-65 today and will be working on that one as well.

-Kris
 
Awesome! I'll make sure to follow this one. As soon as I can find some time I'll start working on mine too. I plan to light the engines with 1mm fiber optics but it looks really tight in there. :/

Steve
 
It's extremely, tight, Steve. I suggest you make sure you have everything the way you want it before putting the two main body halves together. They are tough to pull apart, even with out being glued. Or sand the mounting points down a bit before fitting them together. I made the mistake of putting them together before inserting the "engine" part located under the bottom hatch. That's why you can see the base paint scratched off in some areas...lol. You learn as you go. But I'm having so much fun with these kits. I'm really looking forward to scratch building a studio scale Falcon some day.

I thought about lighting this one up as well, but I'm going to wait and perfect my lighting skills on the 1/48 scale models I'll be doing.

-Kris
 
Dude, that base coat looks excellent! What did you end up using? If you keep the canopy and dash in that lighter tone you'll have a perfect ESB version.

Steve
 
STEVE THE SWEDE said:
Dude, that base coat looks excellent! What did you end up using? If you keep the canopy and dash in that lighter tone you'll have a perfect ESB version.

Steve
Click to expand...


Thanks, man. I really appreciate your feedback. I used the same mixture that I put on the interceptor. It's a near 1:1 mix of Tamiya XF-2 and XF-18. My plan is to use a mix of clear and flat base for a top coat. What do you think about that? And what would you recommend as a ratio?

-Kris
 
In case any one was wondering, yes, this is the same model in both pictures. One is taken in my room, the other is taken outside in natural sunlight. Really shows the diversity of the paint used.

-Kris
 
Looks great! It's a funky color isn't it. The only thing I don't like with the Bandai kit is the poor decals. They're surprisingly inaccurate, over simplified and the print is rather low res. How did they perform?

Steve
 
STEVE THE SWEDE said:
Looks great! It's a funky color isn't it. The only thing I don't like with the Bandai kit is the poor decals. They're surprisingly inaccurate, over simplified and the print is rather low res. How did they perform?

Steve
Click to expand...

Thanks, Steve! You're right, though... The decals are very poor. It's interesting, because Bandai pays such close attention to detail in the actual model, it's like they got burnt out and said screw it on the decals. The seemed to perform fine, much better than any FM decals I've had to use. Although that could be because of age, I don't know. I like my FM kits, but man, is the Tie fighter they made so much smaller than Bandai's at the same scale... I mean, it's almost as if FM isn't 1/72, but maybe 1/84 or 1/96.

-Kris

- - - Updated - - -

Darth Africanus said:
Great Tie Kris love the color you use on you're Ties I myself always loved the look of the blue ESB fighters
Click to expand...

Thanks, DA! I'm glad you like it. From what I've read, and I could be wrong, the same color was used on the Tie's from ANH to ESB... The only difference was the lighting used that caused the color variance. I could be wrong, but I think that's how it went. I'm sure someone here with much more knowledge of the studio models would be able to confirm or correct that.

-Kris
 
crowe t said:
Very nice job!

Did you paint the black sections(Koolshades) of the wings or is that the kit's plastic?
Click to expand...

Not speaking for Korben but i played with the idea of leaving the panels the original plastic shade...until I actually got the model and noticed certain areas had swirly artifacts ( probably from the molding process).

Painting the panels is a better choice in my opinion.






Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
DARTH SABER said:
Not speaking for Korben but i played with the idea of leaving the panels the original plastic shade...until I actually got the model and noticed certain areas had swirly artifacts ( probably from the molding process).

Painting the panels is a better choice in my opinion.
Click to expand...

I just picked up one of these Bandai Tie Fighters and there are some swirls in the black wing panels. However the shimmer effect they give off looks like Koolshades. I may just not paint them and live with the minor swirls.

Do you have any ideas for painting the black panels to achieve the shimmer effect?
 
crowe t said:
I just picked up one of these Bandai Tie Fighters and there are some swirls in the black wing panels. However the shimmer effect they give off looks like Koolshades. I may just not paint them and live with the minor swirls.

Do you have any ideas for painting the black panels to achieve the shimmer effect?
Click to expand...

Well, you could do a light gloss clear coat on the black panels.
But that would require an additional reverse masking job when applying the final dull/satin coat (whichever you choose) to the rest of the model.

Masking off the panels itself was a major pain, so a second reverse mask job would be twice the agony, but if youre up for it I say give it a go.


I simply painted mine with black primer and then with black paint and then the final satin clear....and yes, the difference between the black primer and black paint is subtle but there is a difference.



I was worried they wouldnt have a satisfying sheen but i was surprisingly happy with the results (even with a satin clear coat).
It still has a nice sheen.
My major concern was dust particles getting caught under the paint but I gave the panels a good scrubbing with a soft wide paint brush until every particle was gone. Then applied primer and paint.

If youre using an airbrush make sure the air pressure setting isnt too high.
You dont want the air blowing out the paint so hard that the droplets dry before they hit the surface of the panels. That will create a sandpaper effect with the paint.
I usually have mine at 15psi.







Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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