TIE Bomber

pave spectre

pave spectre

New Member
My first foray in to the world of star wars modelling shall be this fellow:

20160304_100138_zpsrsl3g5nc.jpg


So far I have just test fitted the pieces seen to get a feel for how it will go together.
I have glued two bits together, and in doing so managed to glue three fingers to it. Haven't done that in a long time. Takes me back :)

For those that like to follow this sort of thing I will say right out that this will most likely be a slow painful build, as it will be between bouts of studying at uni full time, and helping look after my 8 week old son to give my wife a break.

And in the meantime, I have Finemolds 1/48 kits of X-Wing, Tie Fighter, and Snowspeeder, as well as a Blue Moon(?) Tri Wing Fighter (AKA Tie Defender).

At some point in the future I want to add A-Wing, B-wing, Vader Tie, and possibly various others, all in 1/48 so I suspect I have a lot of scratchbuilding in my future.
 
Great first kit! And welcome to Star Wars modeling! It's quite addictive...lol. I was looking at that kit on starshipmodeler.com. What's the detail quality like? Is it worth the $60 or so that they are asking?

Looking forward to seeing your progress.

-Kris
 
Detail seems pretty good, but then I am far, far from an expert on the subject. It appears to match reasonably well with the info I have looked at so far.

Fuselage tubes appear to be fractionally out of round so will add some internal braces to even things out.
No cockpit at all so will need to scratch build something there.
Hopefully will turn in to a decent final product.
 
Ha ha very small world after all. I've lived here since the late 90's. Been into props and costuming since around the same time.

Regards
T
A
Z
 
On closer inspection, one of the wings appears to be either a bad cast, poorly mixed resin, or is just degraded somehow.
The resin has varying colour throughout the part most notably the edges, and has a great deal more flex than I would expect for resin, as well as a touch of distortion along one edge.
There are a couple of other smaller parts that exhibit similar colour variations and rubbery behaviour.

I may see if I can fix the distortion with careful application of hot water, and then recast the affected parts. Or I may just say to hell with it and use it anyway.
 
It seems to be studio scale, there's a dedicated section for these builds if you want !
If it's studio scale and that you cant get a replacement wing you can just buy a amt/mpc darth Vaders TIE fighter to replace that wing (and I would replace the 2 resin wings by the 2 styrene wings, much more stable over time). You'll just have to make the outer wing extension from 0.75mm styrene sheet just like on the original and shave the greeblies from your resin wings to glue them on the styrene one.
 
MonsieurTox said:
It seems to be studio scale, there's a dedicated section for these builds if you want !
If it's studio scale and that you cant get a replacement wing you can just buy a amt/mpc darth Vaders TIE fighter to replace that wing (and I would replace the 2 resin wings by the 2 styrene wings, much more stable over time). You'll just have to make the outer wing extension from 0.75mm styrene sheet just like on the original and shave the greeblies from your resin wings to glue them on the styrene one.
Click to expand...

Yes, It does say studio scale on the box and "instruction" leaflet. When I bought it, it was listed as 1/48 which was why I got it. I don't know what scale Studio scale is for this model, but length wise the model comes out pretty close to 1/48 against the "official data".
Trying to keep the same scale across all my star wars vehicles, and 1/48 is what I model all my WW2 and modern fighter aircraft in so makes for interesting comparisons.

Buying a Darth Vader Tie is not really an option. Single income, with mortgage and brand new child, means money for frivolous things is severely limited at the moment. On the other hand I already have a metric arse-tonne of silicone and resin for casting plus, vacuum and pressure chambers.
 
Jumping in the deep end, as it were! ;^P JP Graphics is a serious undertaking sure to keep you busy for a while.

Good luck and don't forget to have fun..."scale" is essentially irrelevant for 'vehicles' that never existed in the real world, especially when there is no identifiable feature to relate to a full size object (as there is for X-Wings, for example which have an Astromech like R2D2 visible.)

Replacing the resin wings with a set from the old MPC kit would give you a taste of what the ILM guys did with the original filming miniature - though I know what you mean about other priorities! (Ten years of diapers can take a toll...)

I look forward to your progress.

Regards, Robert
 
I'm thinking this is a problem:

20160307_181535_zpsv500hc15.jpg




20160308_085301_zpsfbird2wp.jpg


Comparing it to this:

kg_tie-bomber-075.jpg

The ridged portion looks to thin in my example.
With the angle it's at, additional thickness would account for the missing diameter.
 
rbeach84 said:
Jumping in the deep end, as it were! ;^P JP Graphics is a serious undertaking sure to keep you busy for a while.
Click to expand...

Honestly, the parts count and lack of fiddly bits on this kit should have made it a cakewalk compared to my most recent full resin kit, an M-50 Ontos, which I also scratch built the base and sandbags.

Full album of that fellow here for any interested parties http://s81.photobucket.com/user/pave_spectre/library/Ontos

I am now finding that my first impression of the kit quality were quite wrong. Had the quality control been a bit better I could could have knocked this out in a few hours of actual time spent over a 2-3 week period.

Now however my first post where I said slow and painful, seems more prophetic than I intended.
 
pave spectre said:
I'm thinking this is a problem:

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j205/pave_spectre/Tie Bomber/20160307_181535_zpsv500hc15.jpg



http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j205/pave_spectre/Tie Bomber/20160308_085301_zpsfbird2wp.jpg

Comparing it to this:

View attachment 600905

The ridged portion looks to thin in my example.
With the angle it's at, additional thickness would account for the missing diameter.
Click to expand...

I thought it was a problem too. However, the maker of the kit does not. I'll be interested in your solution, if you come up with one. I just put the kit aside. As near as I can tell the kit is closer to 1/32 than 1/48. If you get the 1/72 kit it uses copies of older AMT 1/48 kits in a couple of place. So I have no clue.
 
I printed out a copy of Rafael Mateo's plans / parts map and can see it being 1/48 scale as built by ILM, if it is assumed the Bomber has a much roomier cockpit and larger, more expansive viewport (as depicted in the Star Wars Cross Sections.) This would be in agreement with the general design paradigm of the movies (IV thru VI) that drew parallels to World War II warfare. Funnily, the "dimensions" cited in the X-Sections book have the bomber being shorter than the fighters!

Regards, Robert
 
Last edited:
Ladies, Gentlemen, Xenomorphs of indeterminate gender, I present to you, Plan A !!!!!! :





I glued the section to a 1mm plastic disc for support, cut off the upper ring to make life easier and filled in the underside with Klean Klay. Now the aim is to carefully go around with a rigid strait edge and try and match the striations. After that a simple matter of gluing the upper ring back on and making a pair of casts, and filling in any imperfections..

Tada, easy right? :p
 
Nice work! And before mounting those to the two hulls, you may want to drill the holes into the two cylinders coming out of them. That way you can eventually run red LED's through them.
 
For anyone who might attempt a similar technique, I recommend something a bit stiffer than klean klay. The only rigid item I have to suit, are hobby knife blades and the soft clay is easy to under cut if you don't keep the blade steady.
Something like magic sculp or apoxie would probably do the trick, particularly once it starts to cure and stiffen up.
 
Stage 1 of Plan is completed:



Little bit messy in some parts but that's a result of the softness of the clay. too much time trying to clean it up now will make things worse.
Next step is to create a silicone mold, and cast a replacement that I can use to create the final product.
 
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