Star Wars X-Wing & Snow Speeder Kits

[Mike]

X-Wing & Snow Speeder Kits
1:112 & 1:52 Revell

The mainstay of the Rebel fighters, the X-Wing and Snowspeeder have taken part in some of the most dramatic battle scenes in Sci-Fi history, and gained a well-deserved place in people's hearts as such. Luke Skywalker famously piloted both, and although the Speeder was only used in Empire, who can forget them buzzing round the Imperial AT-AT Walkers like so many angry flies?

The Kits
These are both in the Level 3 range, and as such are more of a traditional kit than any of the Level 1 and 2 snap-together offerings as they require glue and paint, and are quite small thanks to the scale, which doesn't seem at all consistent throughout the five kits released so far for no apparent reason. That gripe aside, They arrive in a small red themed box with Kylo Ren (the new baddie) menacing us with a light sabre at the top, with a new style of colour printed instructions on slightly better paper stock.

X-Wing Fighter

At a diminutive 1:112 scale, the X-Wing isn't likely to take up much room, and consists of only two small sprues in light grey styrene, plus a clear sprue with the canopy parts. It does have a sizeable decal sheet however, as the X-Wing is a colourful ship. It has a single piece cockpit and a surprisingly good pilot for the scale, which snaps into the upper fuselage, trapping the canopy in place, which has a decal to avoid tricky painting or masking. The wings are full-width, with upper attached to the opposing lower, allowing them to be posed open or closed. The inner engine half is moulded into the spoiler, and when the outer engine nacelle is attached, completes the shape, a task which you must perform for all four engines, which have a small intake insert added before installation.

The wing-tip blasters are single parts (x4), and attach to two studs on the tips, with blue spiral decals on two of them, and after adding those, you can join the fuselage around the wings and rear insert, then it's just a case of adding a full-depth R2 into the cubby behind the cockpit. Paint call-outs and decal instructions are supplied throughout, as usual in Revell codes with no tricky mixtures. The result is a small but quite detailed model that would be useful in a diorama where size is at a premium, or as an exercise in forced-perspective.

Snow Speeder

This one is the largest scale, at 1:52 and it's a shame they didn't just increase the size a tad to make it 1:48, as it would make more sense to a lot of modellers. It has a detailed cockpit with separate instrument panels, and continuing the tradition of the old MPC 'speeder, the two pilots have the most ridiculously out-of-proportion arms that desperately need some work! The cockpit slots in the upper shell, and with the addition of the rear bulkhead with those big cooling vanes and lower air-spoilers, the lower shell can be added, followed by the cockpit and the large cannons, one on each side with two integral angled cowlings, which are nicely done, but don't have the top-up spoilers on the rear, as seen in the movie. The important harpoon gun is the last part to be added, and then it can be placed on the two-part stand. Painting and decaling is again called out during construction, with just the orangey red stripes (which seem too orange to me) supplied.

Conclusion
Two nice kits for the smaller scale modeller, let down only by the inconsistent scales mentioned at the top… and the 'speeder pilots' gorilla arms. Watch out for the rest of the Level 3 kits – next it's the Dark Side.

Recommended.

Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit

[FlyingPenguin]

Very odd scaling on all of these, wish they'd at least have stuck with one scale (within reason).

[Pete in Lincs]

Wot he said.

At the right price these might be worth a go.

And thanks for the review, Mike.

[galland]

Level 3 kits seems to be from the former Easy Kit Pocket series.

Now they are not pre-painted but the decals are included. What is interesting, Level 3 kits are cheaper than Pocket kits...

[Mike]

I did wonder that from the X-Wing, which I've built with my Son from the Pocket Kit range. I guess the pre-painting must be expensive?

[galland]

finally, the new decals are definitely improvement, my biggest issue with Easy Kits were pre-painted clear parts - it was hard to remove the paint. Now it's solved.

And the kits like X-Wing or Falcon are very nice and detailed even in these weird scales...

Edited October 21, 2015 by galland

[Paul A H]

X-Wing & Snow Speeder Kits

1:112 & 1:52 Revell

These rather excellent little kits, ably reviewed by Mike above, are also availble in Model Set guise. This means you get a handy double-ended paint brush, a selection of Revell's own acrylic paint and a pot of Revell's superb contacta adhesive (my personal choice for sticking kits together). While these sets might be of limited appeal to the serious hobbyist, they are an excellent introduction to the hobby for youngsters. Part count is low, detail is good, ease of assembly is... er, easy, and now you get everything you need in one box. I made one with my four-and-a-bit year old son and he absolutely loved it. What more could you want for Christmas? Highly recommended

Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit or