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TIE Fighter & Vader's TIE Fighter


Mike

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TIE Fighter & Vader's TIE Fighter
1:110 & 1:121 Revell




The TIE Fighter is the standard Imperial single-seater attack ship, and attrition rates during the three films it starred in must have been horrific! Named after the bow-tie it resembled, a cranked "special" was also designed as the personal mount of arch baddie, Lord Vader. They have menacing designs in darker colours than Rebel ships, which emphasises their alignment with the Dark Side of the Force, as does the eerie scream of their engines, which as per most Sci-Fi films, can still be heard in the vacuum of space.

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.

Darth vader's TIE Fighter

boxtop.jpg


Arriving on three sprues of Imperial blue/grey styrene with a clear sprue for the windscreen, you get a diminutive but fairly well sculpted Dark Lord sat in the same seat as the standard TIE Fighter, with the same angled tray and side walls, but a different control panel, which we see Vader fiddling with during the flight down the trench in Ep.IV. The top hatch is glued in place on the upper hull with a clear insert, and in the lower half the leading-edge inserts, windscreen and cockpit tub are installed before closing up the hull. A windscreen frame decal is included, and then it's time to make up the wings, which are moulded as one piece with a separate detail insert that hides some ejector-pin marks on the vertical inner side. A scrap diagram shows the correct orientation of the detail, as you wouldn't want them installed upside down!

sprue1.jpg


As with the other kits, the decal and painting call-outs are made during construction in Revell colour codes, and don't forget to have some masking tape on hand for those "solar panels" on the wings.

TIE Fighter

boxtop.jpg


The standard TIE is presented in 1:110, which makes for a bigger kit than Vader's TIE, which is a shame for those wishing to create a small scale Death Star trench diorama. It is supplied on four sprues of Imperial grey/blue styrene with a clear sprue for the canopy and a decal for the framing in dark grey. The detail is better on this larger kit, and the pilot benefits as a result. His cockpit builds up the same way as Vader's, and the upper hull houses the hinging hatch with clear insert, while the lower hull accepts the cockpit tub and windscreen part. Closing the hull up should be fairly easy, as only the seams around the spherical crew compartment are properly visible, and they're quite short.

sprue1.jpg

sprue2.jpg


The wings are each one large part with a central boss added to the outside to complete the detail. They side over the fuselage pegs and then it's just a case of assembling the two-part stand to keep her off the desk, with a small hole in the bottom of the crew compartment keeping it in place.


Conclusion
Again we have the scale discrepancy reducing the overall appeal to the avid modeller, but individually they are quite nice kits if you do your research and make sure you know what you are getting. All these Level 3 kits are ideally suited to the casual or younger modeller, and with a little care can build into nice models.

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

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  • 2 months later...

TIE Fighter & Vader's TIE Fighter

1:110 & 1:121 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

tiefighterset.jpg

darthtiefighterset.jpg

Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit logo-revell-2009.gif t_logo-a.png or facebook.gif

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  • 2 weeks later...

The TIE fighter looks to be a rebox of the AMT release, although you get 2 plus a base. Worth seeking out on eBay as they occasionally crop up.

The AMT TIE fighters are 1/51 and a completely different sprue layout. This is the original pre-painted Revell snap together "easykit pocket" kit, re-released as a "glue & paint" kit with decals. All of the new level 3 releases are the old "easykit pocket" kits. Also, the reason for the different scales of these kits is that they were designed to fit the same size box.

While they are nowhere near as accurate or refined as the Fine Moulds or Bandai kits, they are great fun to build and far cheaper. Here's the result of a full repaint (including interior) of Vader's TIE fighter I built early last year, it was fun to build and I highly these kits for a quick and easy project.

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how did you get the window decal on TIE fighter to fit , as the decal is same size as window decal on darths TIE,but models are different scales

There was no decal, the kit used to come pre-painted prior to the new release, I striped and repainted the whole thing and masked the windows before spraying. It wasn't hard to do as the frames are very pronounced and as the new release has exactly the same parts it'll be just as easy to do. I cut the tape roughly to size for each pane and once it was in place I used a cocktail stick to get the tape right into the corners. Then I ran a scalpel along the edges and removed the excess.

Hope this helps ;)

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ok thanks ...the ones ive bought in last few weeks ..months ..have all had window decals instead of pre-painted windows.. The TIE fighter has the same size window decal as Darths TIE, yet both models are different sizes and scales . Im puzzled to think why Revell would expect one size of decal to fit both scales

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sorry I think im confusing you ..I meant the 121 and 110 scale ones...those all come un painted and the windows are in clear unpainted plastic , with the window frames as a decal...but both 121 and 110 TIE and Darths TIE, are different scales and model size, yet the window decal is same size in both kits

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I have the TIE fighter , Darths TIE , and TIE interceptor , ive just measured all 3 decals and they are 17mm across...where as the one that you need to be able to fit the TIE, would need to be about 23mm to fit...ive just measured the TIE window size on the model , and it would need to be at least 23mm to fit

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  • 3 weeks later...

While they are nowhere near as accurate or refined as the Fine Moulds or Bandai kits, they are great fun to build and far cheaper.

I don't think they're THAT much cheaper. The Bandai 1/72 Tie Fighter was at 14 EUR (a bit under 11 GBP) plus s&h from Japan (plus customs if you're unlucky), but you can't order them directly anymore because according to the license owners you have to be content with these old kits.

What a shame. Bandai was really doing a great job with these kits..

Edited by Dudikoff
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  • 8 months later...

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