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TIE Fighter Updates for AMT Studio Scale 1:32 GreenStrawberry The TIE fighter was one of Star Wars’ outstanding and iconic space craft designs that stemmed from the original film that was released in 1976, but has since become Episode IV of the saga, which still rankles a little bit to this reviewer. Flown by the evil Empire, they were first encountered after the Millennium Falcon came out of hyperspace where Alderaan should have been, and was later encountered in their escape from the Death Star, then again when the Rebel Fighters attacked the gigantic battle station in an attempt to destroy it before it destroyed their base, which they clearly managed. The design carried on through the rest of the original trilogy, and has been seen in different forms at the end of the original trilogy and as updated variants in the sequel trilogy, plus the new TV shows such as the Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. We’ll ignore Kenobi. AMT released their new tooling of the TIE Fighter recently as part of their Studio Series brand, and our friends at GreenStrawberry have wasted no time in creating a new set for the kit to bring up the detail to what you would expect from a Studio Scale kit, as the model has been criticised for being a bit soft and low on detail. TIE Fighter Upgrade Set (20423-2/32) This set arrives in a flat package, with a substantial card protector hidden inside the dark grey themed outer layer of cardboard, and inside is a large fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, plus a clear sheet of acetate with various triangular shapes printed on it, and a clear red sheet of foil to assist with lighting your project. The instruction sheet covers both sides of a piece of A4 that is printed in colour, and consists of six steps, although the last two are both marked as No.5. Small portions of the two faceted inner cockpit walls are removed, then several facets of the interior are replaced with PE parts, applying the decals to the clear printed foil to show through the PE part with the same number. This extends to twelve panels, one in the corner receiving an additional PE layer over the top. The coaming that covers some of the faceted windscreen in front of the control columns has the instrument box cut from the top to be replaced by a new folded part, with the two control yokes detailed by adding small levers to the outer sides, removing the top surfaces of the grips, replacing them with small PE parts, with addition levers on the inner side where the pilot’s thumbs would rest. The clear kit floor is laminated together with a PE part that has the same decking pattern etched into it, sandwiching a section of clear red foil between them to assist with lighting the floor, and giving it a red hue. The pilot’s seat is detailed with a new PE head box that is folded up from three parts and applied to the back of the headrest, which will be seen through the hatch on top of the hull once complete. A small instrument box is folded from two parts, and applied to the inner face of the coaming, where it too will be visible through the hatch. Speaking of the hatch, this area is improved by folding up a new hinge from three PE parts, and adding a highly detailed etched rim around the rear lip that is curved to fit the contours of the entryway, gluing the hinge to a flat patch in the centre of the strip, and supporting the hatch itself in the open position. The interior of the windscreen is provided with a new PE inner frame that creates more realistic detail when looking out from the hatch, and another two-part equipment detail assembly is fitted to the bottom rail of the inner octagonal frame. There are eight “clamps” spaced around the external edges of the windscreen, which have their moulded-in texture removed and replaced by small PE rectangles with a crisp pattern etched into their surface, with two spares in case you lose some. The instructions note them as parts 29, but that is the kit part number, and they are in fact part 28. The final part is a honeycomb textured PE insert that fits within the hexagonal exhaust at the rear of the fighter. Mask (AM024-1/32) This set is also supplied in a flat pack, and contains a sheet of pre-cut vinyl masks providing a complete set of masks for the faceted windscreen, plus the strip-windows in the roof hatch, all of which lend themselves to coverage by vinyl, as they are relatively flat when compared to the curves of aircraft canopies (from the real world). The small instruction sheet gives each mask a number on a map, and shows each mask located on a line drawing of the TIE Fighter’s ball-like hull with the masks in green next to their number, plus the number of the opposite side of the symmetrical frame. Conclusion The PE is not a huge set, but neither is it expensive, and it improves the detail on the kit to a level where it will draw the viewer into the cockpit. The addition of the extra interior details that lend their use to lighting the model will be useful to the modeller with a hankering for some LEDs in their TIE Fighter kit. The masks will give a crisp, clean finish to the glazing, and show off all your hard work to great effect. You can see the set applied to the unpainted kit by following the “Available Here” links above, which gives a feeling for the usefulness of the sets in improving the kit. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

The recent rerelease of an old 80's kit. It's billed as a snap together, but make your life easier and snip the (mis)alignment pins and glue it. Obviously it's no Bandai kit, but the price tag is reasonable and the detail is decent for a 40+ year old kit. Weathering is a mix of Tamiya black and brown panel liner, plus AK streaking dirt and dust pencils. I was going for a Tuskegee Airmen inspired color scheme, but I think I ended up at "hot dog stand" instead.

Yet another small scale freighter scratchbuild for my wall display. No WIP but I will post an in progress pic here. If you think about it, How many people are on a Star Destroyer? The logistics of feeding and caring for them all. Plus keeping the ship going with spares, lubricants, replacement people etc would be horrendous. Plus, Just where is it at present in the Galaxy? So you'd need a stream of support vessels. Hence these little jobbies that I keep bashing together. Or am I overthinking this? Goodness knows what the scale is. Probably lots of zeroes. The basic hull was a 1/48th Hawk with 1/72nd Mig 15 fuselage halves each side. Then add drop tank halves etc. As for the colour scheme, I wanted to go a bit Chris Foss. (Hence the name) I used to love his seventies Sci Fi pictures. Last week I added some greeblies to the display. Just random bits from the spares boxes. Hopefully they add interest. \the solar panels are made from 1/48th Huey Cobra rotor blades. Here it is naked! The Hawk fuselage is upside down and pointing to the right. Closeup of the MIG fuselage half. Not sure what the fins are from, but they hint that this ship is atmosphere capable. The belly of the beast. The grotty/very worn paintjob was a bit of an accident. I thinned the Acrylic too much! Now the rotor blade roots become obvious. The build took place over about three weeks, whenever I had time. Thanks for looking. Your comments and questions are always welcome. Cheers, Pete

..or TIE Fighter to you and me Throwing my hat in with this one, Been on the shelf of shame too long, time for it to shine! Good luck with your builds. Cheers, Dermot

This ism first sci-fi build ever. I saw Episode IV in 1977 in DesMoines, Iowa when it was first released and I have been hooked ever since. It's the best of the whole franchise, imho. In any case... Bandai, OOB, Vallejo USAAF Grey for the colour and other Vallejo metals, etc...After sealing the decals with matte varnish I carefully used a fine grit sanding stick and wore them down a bit. I also used Flory-Wash for the weathering. I watched the film again to make sure. Yes...Red 5 was a grubby piece of work, but oh so reliable. I skipped the proton torpedo parts because I thought it looked hokey. This has been on the modelling bucket list for a while. I was very impressed by the kit. It all fits beautifully together and has excellent moulded detail. I enjoyed myself so much I have a B and Y Wing enroute as well as another X-Wing so I can have one with the landing gear down. Fun, fun, fun...Now, if only the Millennium Falcon kit in 1/72nd wasn't 500€... --John

I wanted to enter this for the X-mas blitzbuild, but as I was travelling over the holidays, that was a non-starter. Now I'm back and going to try to finish this model in my first blitzbuild. The model itself: I've never built a Bandai model, but it looks good (and huge in my opinion), there's a limited amount of parts, and the paint scheme is quite simple. I'm going for the Great Escape format, with some building and detailing happening on all days of the BB. /Jari

A-Wing StarFighter (01210) 1:72 Carrera Revell/Bandai The A-Wing was a minor character in the original (and best) Star Wars trilogy, appearing in the background in some of the large space battles. It has since gained a little more prominence in the new films and the cartoon spin-offs, which are numerous. It’s a small one-seater twin-engined ship manufactured (in a galaxy far far away) by Kuat Systems Engineering, and somehow finds its way into Rebel hands. Its speed and pivoting main cannons make it a useful tool that is suited for rapid interdiction and lightning strikes. The Kit This is a licensed reboxing by Revell of the excellent Bandai kit that was released in 2016, which was available only by personal import or from a grey-import box-shifter until now. This is the most minimalistic reboxing from Revell, with a sticker placed over a portion of the box showing Revell’s logo and their product code along with a few European-style descriptions of what it is – a self-assembly model kit. If you’re a Star Wars model builder, you probably know what to expect inside, and I’m one myself so I’ve already got one of the Bandai kits in my stash. Bandai have an incredible team of engineers creating their kits, who achieve amazing detail, simplicity and cleverness of construction, and skill of tooling the most stunning injection moulded kits around. They regularly inject several colours and types of styrene into one sprue with their kits that Western companies could only aspire to, which cuts down the sprue-count and makes for a less messy desk during the build. They’re also snap-together kits in essence, with pre-coloured parts that don’t require painting if you’re either a beginner, a child without the facilities or just don’t want to get the paint out. If you aren’t familiar with Bandai’s style of snap-together kits, you probably think that this renders them simplistic and toy-like. Get that mindset right out of your mind right now, as these kits couldn’t be further from that type of product. The box is pure Bandai with a black glossy surface to the top-opening box, with five sprues in cream; dull red, cream, black and clear; grey; black and finally clear red. Because the A-Wing is a compact fighter, you get the ship itself, plus a base with a Turbo-Laser Turret on a section to one side, which gives that frissant of Death Star to accompany your model. The decals are duplicated as stickers for the younger or less skilled builder, and the package is rounded off by the inclusion of a concertina-fold instruction booklet in colour. Originally, the instruction booklets were written almost completely in Japanese, but as time went on they have included more English, which is helpful to augment the visual instructions and icons that appear throughout the booklet. Construction begins with the A-Wing, which first has its cockpit made up from six highly detailed parts plus a decal or sticker (whenever I say decal, also think sticker from hereon in). The lower hull is next, adding inserts into the weapons mounts and their rear, after which the hull topside is clipped into place, with the cockpit dropped in from above. The red section of the topside is separate due to the self-coloured parts, with a separate spin behind the cockpit and the tapered apron toward the front. The spine has a three-part cream insert at the rear, then it clicks in place along with the apron into the upper hull around the cockpit tub, locking it in place. A similar red insert is fitted to the underside, and clear side panels smooth out the joint between top and bottom halves. The nose cone is red, as are two panels in the underside wings, and another red insert fits behind the tapered section under the hull. Flipping the hull over, a roll-over hoop is added to the rear of the cockpit, and a pilot figure with two small decals is popped into the seat before the clear canopy and a snap-on curved frame part. The engine nacelles project from the rear of the arrow-head hull, and have fins at an angle top and bottom of the exhausts. These have clear engine inserts with stoppers behind them for painting a fiery colour or lighting, and a two-part trunk is clipped to each side of the fins with a tiny part with two angled pipes/hoses coming out of the sides. At the rear are a pair of oval fairings with four more exhaust cups inside, the shape of which is akin to a pair of F-16 intakes, which given their kit-bashed heritage they very well could be just that. Having a second look, I seriously think they are! The twin ovals are attached to an insert with the four exhausts and are fitted together with the main engines and their fins, then are offered up to the rear of the hull to be clipped into place. The pivoting guns at the wingtips are each made up from three parts with hollow muzzles, then the three gear bay doors are clipped into place if you are depicting your A-Wing in flight on the stand, or in the open position with three two-part gear legs if you are putting it on the ground. There are plenty of diagrams to show you where the various parts should fit, so don’t concern yourself about making a mistake. That’s the A-Wing finished and now it’s time for the base and turret extension. The base has a greebly-filled surface to its single part, with an angular diagonal riser that has a jointed tip to allow the modeller to adjust the pose of their model at any time. The bases are able to be linked together by the included clips, which leads us nicely to the bonus Turbo-Laser turret that can clip onto the base, as its footprint is the exact same size as the base itself, and it also has the cut-outs for the clips. The tapering base is a single part, which is extended upward by another dual taper section that is made from four parts inserted into its flat top, and is joined by the turret at the top, which is three parts and builds up around the gun assembly. This begins with two hollow-tipped barrels that have toothed quadrants fitted on their outer edges and in between them, after which the barrels are raised to the vertical and bracketed by a two-part assembly that holds them in situ. The barrels are then returned to the horizontal and surrounded at the sides and on top by the turret shell. The turret clips into place on the top of the base, and can be rotated and elevated as you see fit – just so long as you enjoy playing with it Oh, and no, I couldn’t resist building the turret. Markings The kit is self-coloured, so technically you don’t need to paint a thing, but the back page of the instructions give you a six-view look at the model as per the box art, with colour and decal/sticker call-outs along the way. The pilot figure is also shown painted with the two tiny decals on the helmet, and there is some weathering that has been applied around the cockpit and the rest of the hull to give you an idea of what to aim for. There’s a lot of pictorial evidence out there for any other markings and schemes that you might wish to portray though, and we often see some adventurous schemes here on Britmodeller.com. Conclusion It was a gorgeous kit in 2016 when it came out, and it’s just as good now. If you’re a Star Wars modeller and want a well-detailed model of an A-Wing, this is the kit to get. Very highly recommended. Currently, Revell are unable to ship to the UK from their online shop due to recent changes in import regulations, but there are many shops stocking their products where you can pick up the kits either in the flesh or online. Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit or

My intended victims 🤪

Following the advice of Corsairfoxfouruncle I open my first thread about the modification of the Hasbro Stormtrooper helmet. Not being a model kit but a prop, I ask any adm/mod to delete the thread if it's not relevant to the site. Now. I was looking for the normal one however being out of production since years and possible to find at ridicoulous prices, I've got the artillery helmet that I'm modifying to the normal one. I glued it making it a whole and I started closing all the junctions with putty. I started to mask all the places not to be painted in white. A rea hassle will be masking the slotted tube vents on the sides of the face. Before to do this, I darkened the lenses which are too light. I used a plastic window film. You can see the difference between the darkened part and the outer edges remained lighter. I kept the original amplification system, but I've swapped the loudspeaker housed inside the pocket on the back of the head with two smaller ones that I will locate inside the hovis. I'll have to mount them in series instead of parallel because I haven't found the right size and resistance. I also found a metal grille to fit the hovis. I don't know if I'll open the vents on the sides ((the helmet is kind a oven when it's warm) or leave them as they are. I haven't elongated the bottom of the chin othewise I can't fit the helmet, having a big head. As for the kits I usually build, this has been stuck... I think for a year or so. So please be patient. I'll try to move forward quicker. The main problem is the painting: I'm forced by the weather since I'm painting on a veranda that's on my terrace. Although it is enclosed, it is not insulated from the weather as a flat can be.

Anakin’s Podracer (05639) 1:31 Carrera Revell After the original Star Wars trilogy ended, fans were left waiting for more Star Wars for a long time, so as the new millennium approached, there was a huge buzz of excitement when the prequel trilogy was announced, around sixteen years (in our galaxy) after the Empire had been defeated (or had it?). It was to tell the story of the Old Republic and the Clone Wars, a conflict that Old Ben had discussed with Luke Skywalker at the beginning of the very first Star Wars film that we now refer to as Episode IV: A New Hope. The new film was called The Phantom Menace, which was a reference to the unforeseen plot by a certain Senator of the Republic to take control of the galaxy, as his alter-ego Darth Sidious, a Dark Lord of The Sith. We streamed (physically) into the cinema in our millions with trepidation, and if you’re anything like me, you probably almost nodded off during the opening Crawl, which droned on about trade wars and blockades, seemingly ad nauseam. The film wasn’t particularly well-received at the time, and I found it a bit of a snooze-fest myself, and let’s not discuss Jar-Jar Binks and his many irritating facets. It has since been reassessed more favourably with the benefit of hindsight, for reasons I’m not entirely convinced by. Once Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn had rescued Princess Amidala and Jar-Jar (sadly) from the Separatist forces invading Naboo near the beginning of the film, their Royal Starship ended up stranded on a backwater planet by the name of Tatooine, needing an oil-change and some spare parts, but without any credits to pay for them. They bumped into Darth Vader, sorry Anakin Skywalker, who just happened to be a master of all things technological, having constructed C-3PO from parts (how do we explain the other thousands of them throughout the saga?), and had also made himself a Podracer to take part in the extremely dangerous local racing that took place nearby. Somehow child exploitation (and slavery) was OK in the Old Republic, and Anakin agreed to race for them to generate the cash they needed to get off the planet, with a side-bet to free young Ani from slavery at the same time. After a bit of back and forth on whether he’s going to win or not – you know the drill – Ani triumphed over the nasty, cheating Sebulba, and off they went, leaving Ani’s mum and the dust-ball behind. The Kit Originally tooled in 2012, this reboxing celebrates the 25th anniversary of the release of The Phantom Menace, and the end-opening box contains extras such as a tightly-rolled poster, a set of six acrylic paint pots, a 12.5ml bottle of Contacta Professional glue, and a #2 paint brush. There is also a kit in there, consisting of four sprues of grey styrene, two sprues of clear parts, a vinyl Anakin Skywalker figure, decal sheet, and the instruction booklet printed in colour on white paper. Detail is surprisingly good, given the relatively low part-count, and and the kit’s heritage as a snap-together Easy-Kit. The sculpting of young Anakin is good (the unpainted chin-strap gives him a strange look), as is his pose, with his arms up to reach the controls that he built surprisingly too large for himself, the engine pods have detail moulded-in, plus separate intakes and nozzle parts with more detail. Construction begins with the hull of the racer, which has the cockpit tub attached to the upper half from within after it has been detail-painted. A three-view step shows painting of Anakin and his oversized helmet with chin-strap, after which his chin won’t look so large, then more steps show detail painting of the high-tech ‘handlebars’, and the instrument panel, which is shown from three directions, as earlier. The bars and panel are inserted into the cockpit, adding Ani and his seat, then two cowling parts to the sides of the ‘fenders’ at the front. The lower half of the hull has some greeblie inserts moulded-in, adding a C-shaped part into recesses, then mating the upper and lower together with a fairing fitted into holes in each side. An overhead drawing shows the complex stripes that are applied to the completed hull, consisting of five sets of blue stripes, and a red logo on the port fender. Two more diagrams show the same process from the sides, with four more decals applied over and around the stripes. Once the decals have been sealed, the coaming is glued over the instrument panel so that the windscreen can be fitted over it, extending over the ‘bonnet’. If you’re wondering why there are so many speech-marks, it’s because the hull appears to be a combination of a beach buggy and a boat, and some of the parts have little or no apparent practical purpose. The engine pods are tenuously connected to the hull by long and mobile trunks (for no apparent reason), which are made from two parts each, with a corrugated hose the main feature. The engines are initially built in halves, adding pairs of control ‘flaps’ to slots near the front that seem to be used to control the pod’s direction, along with flip-out ‘air-brakes’ further aft. The halves are joined together, trapping a bulkhead near the front, applying more decals to the engine bodies, then installing the intake with over-sized inlet cone and blades moulded-in, and exhaust bullet at the centre of a jet-engine-like exhaust that belches plasma in the movie. The engines are joined together by a single clear part that represents the crackling energy flow between them that seems to stop the two engines from heading in opposite directions. A top cowling is fixed to each engine, and the hull is joined to the engines on the five-part base, which has a solid Y-shaped platform, three clear supports, and clear cups that stabilise the engines from beneath. Four small aerials are fitted into holes in the starboard rear fender, adding two more detail parts into additional holes on the rear cowling. Markings Anakin’s Podracer appeared in just the first of the prequel trilogy of films, and as such was only seen in one scheme. If you want to go off-piste and create your own colour scheme, you’re free to go nuts, but from the box you can build the following: Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt/gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. There is a ‘The Phantom Menace’ logo decal included on the sheet that can be applied to the base, as shown on the instructions. Conclusion It might not be the most high-profile of the many Star Wars kits out there, but seeing one that’s been well done really increases its appeal. There was a completed model displayed on this very forum some time back that convinced me to spend some money on getting one for myself, so be sure to look it up for some inspiration. Highly recommended. Carrera Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit or

Darth Maul’s Sith Infiltrator (05638) 1:120 Carrera Revell After the original Star Wars trilogy ended, fans were left waiting for more Star Wars for a long time, so as the new millennium approached, there was a huge buzz of excitement when the prequel trilogy was announced, around sixteen years (in our galaxy) after the Empire had been defeated (or had it?). It was to tell the story of the Old Republic and the Clone Wars, a conflict that Old Ben had discussed with Luke Skywalker at the beginning of the very first film that we now refer to as Episode IV: A New Hope. The new film was to be called The Phantom Menace, which was a reference to the unforeseen plot by a certain Senator of the Republic to take control of the galaxy, as his alter-ego, a Dark Lord of The Sith. We streamed into the cinema in our millions with trepidation, and if you’re anything like me, you probably almost nodded off during the opening Crawl, which droned on about trade wars and blockades. The film wasn’t particularly well-liked at the time, and I found it a bit of a snooze-fest myself, and let’s not discuss Jar-Jar Binks and his many irritating facets. It has since been reassessed with the benefit of hindsight, and is regarded more highly now, for reasons I’m not entirely convinced by. One of the best new ‘old’ ships was that of the best new character (all IMHO of course), the Sith Infiltrator, piloted by the spiky-headed, eternally angry Darth Maul, the primary overt antagonist of the film, ignoring the other more covert baddies of the movie. The ship is reminiscent of a stretched TIE Fighter, or TIE Advanced, with an elongated nose, and the same solar wings at the rear of the ship, which has a spherical cockpit area, with a terrible view over the nose. It must be a nightmare to park! It only appeared in a few scenes, but it made an impact, especially after Mr Maul hopped on a strange circular speeder bike in search of Princess Amidala and crew on the mirror-chrome Royal Starship that had escaped from Naboo during the invasion, landing with a bump on Tatooine with a blown engine and no funds to buy new parts. The Kit This kit was originally tooled as a snap-together Easy Kit in 2012, some thirteen years after the film, and I have had the experience of building one, leaving the pre-painted no-glue aspect to detail and accurize (I hate that word) it so that it looks like a proper Star Wars kit. It is now back on our shelves, twenty-five years after the release of the film, celebrating that fact, and dropping the snap-together aspect. The kit arrives in an end-opening box, and inside are four sprues of grey styrene, a single figure on a vinyl sprue, a clear part on a small sprue, a sheet of decals, a poster as seen on the box top (it’s rolled very tightly, so we haven’t photographed it), and the instruction booklet that is printed in colour on white paper, with profiles for painting and decaling on the rear pages. Detail is good, but some of the ‘greeblie’ or detail areas in front of the cockpit ball are a little simplified for the purists, which I chose to upgrade back when I built mine. There are also a few sink-marks on the exterior where there are internal structures, so it would be wise to get those squared away before you begin building the kit. There is a stand included that’s fit for purpose, and this time the decal sheet includes an Episode I – The Phantom Menace logo, which I’d have loved, as I had to use a spare decal I had lying around. If you add several layers of clear gloss over the stand after decaling it, it will give the impression of being moulded into the stand. It is, as they say, the only game in town, so well worth acquiring if you feel the urge for an Infiltrator in your cabinet. As this is a Special Edition, there are a bag of six acrylic paints in small pots in the box, plus a 12.5ml bottle of Contacta Professional with a needle applicator, plus a #2 paint brush, which has been deformed a little in transit due to the lack of protective tube over the bristles. Construction begins with the figure of Darth Maul, which is shown as having legs on the instructions, but in reality he’s almost as short as he ends the film, having only short nubs of his thighs, but as they won’t be seen after applying him to the seat, it shouldn’t matter. The seat is inserted into the cockpit part along with a dome-like detail part, and a detail decal that is applied to one of the walls. The upper cockpit hemisphere has the clear insert applied from the inside, painting the interior face red to give it a shiny, translucent look. The top is fitted over the cockpit floor, putting it to one side while the two fuselage halves are detail painted, adding various decals as you see fit. Before they are joined, the greeblie area in front of the cockpit is painted, trapping it between the two halves after fitting the cockpit assembly and an intake blanking plate at the front, then fixing two more detail inserts underneath. The exhausts are a pair of vertically slatted outlets that are contoured to fit against the rear of the cockpit, and decals are supplied to give them a green hue, but if you don’t want to have to apply copious quantities of decal softener to get them to settle into the recesses, you could used one of the new fluorescent paints that are now available. The solar arrays are each a single part that are hinged from two-part centres, painting the various raised panels by following the diagrams next to the instruction steps. The solar arrays plug into the tips of the wings moulded into the fuselage, and can be posed open or closed for landing, giving sufficient ground clearance for the short gear legs. The main bays each have two doors that slot into the sides on long tabs, painting the interior a zinc-chromate colour, then building the main gear legs from cranked struts and separate feet, then adding a single leg to the rear, all slotting into place in holes moulded into the bays. To pose the model in-flight, separate bay doors are included for the closed option, and that allows the modeller to make use of the two-part stand with a half-moon base. Markings Darth Maul’s Infiltrator only wore one scheme during the film, and didn’t make an appearance in any of the other prequel films because he was at least 50% dead. From the box you can build the following: For this boxing, there are several decals that depict the various accent colours around the ship, and these will be especially useful around the cockpit ball because of the compound curves there, but if you would prefer to paint the patches, the decals could be used as templates for masking, and avoid having to use decal softener solution to bed them down. Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion There’s a great deal of nostalgia for me, and the model isn’t half bad. A few extra details here and there won’t take too much effort, as I demonstrated many years ago here. Either way, it should result in a creditable replica, and if I managed it, it’s got to be easy. Highly recommended. Carrera Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit or

Here's another Scratch build that I've knocked together in the last few busy weeks when I've had a spare moment or two. It's about the same size as the small 1/241 scale Revell Millennium Falcon. I made it to go onto my Star wars Star destroyer wall display along with the other ships I've built. Starting out with one of these walking robots. Bought years ago on a Sunday car boot sale. The white one had a damaged foot so was always destined for this fate. BT junction box on the underside. The metal rod is how it's mounted to the display. So here it is. A Falcon amost visible to the extreme left here. Another view of the display. For those who may be wondering, it's based on a large pin board and used wood, foam and card. Lots of greeblies fill the maintenance trench here. A flight of white metal X wings (in the wrong scale) zoom past. During construction, (there isn't a WIP thread) The rear underside. Various greeblies stuck on. And the final colour is a lightened Tamiya Cockpit green. But it came out here with a slight lime tint. Front underside. The big square cargo hold was a BT junction box. The Battleship gun turret is obvious. And finished it came out like this. It's a bit rough around the edges TBH, but does the job. The black marking is a decal with a bit of wing walkway red added. The sticky out bits are probably probes. As is the Radial engine cylinder head in the middle. A close up. The yellow stripe is another decal. And that's your lot for this time. Comments are always welcome. Thanks for looking. Pete

Yet another of my fictitious scratch builds using parts from the bits boxes. This one is two ship hull parts to make a tube. The back end is 1/32nd MBB BO 105 Helicopter as is the nose bubble. Legs include Lego parts. The rest is mostly AFV bits. AT-LR. All Terrain Light Recce. The legs allow wading through swamps and on seashores etc. The main entrance door is ex 1/32nd Puma. Chin guards were tank mudguards. For the legs i used all sorts of stuff. The feet were pencil sharpeners. It's heavily weathered after wading in swamps. I've always wondered how the troops get in and out of these walkers. So here I've built a crane & pulley/winch system. The troopers are modded Para's. The PSP is printed (Thanks @bootneck ). Paint is lightened cockpit green. Roll over and show your belly! Bits of fuselage, Lego, B-17 engines & other stuff make it interesting. The ex BO-105 bubble. Here I masked the wiper sweep and dabbed on sand colour with a bit of sponge. The main gun was from a broken toy. Behind it is the LH emergency cabin door. Flush now, but in operation the leading edge would pop out so that it can slide forward. The top decking. The tubes are ex Aircraft weapons. I wanted that WW2 well used Sherman look up here. So there are some rolled up bundles in the stowage. Maybe I should have added more though. The weapons this side are from an AT-ST. The Driver is trying to figure out what the Commander wants him to do! They're on intercom, but it's only natural to look in that direction. I think it adds a little animation to the picture. And here it is with another one which I built a few years ago. That one used 'cut 'n shut' BO-105 fuselages. The 1/32nd BO 105 kits from Revell and I think Italeri used to be common, but I can't find any nowadays There will be a link to the build below. Many thanks for looking and your comments are always welcome. Cheers, Pete

After my 1/20th Kreiger scratch build, I'm bouncing back into a Galaxy far far away with this spares box Walker build. Form up! Shortest on the left tallest on the right! Or not. Ah well, I'll sort them out then. Gotta start somewhere. And I ended up with this. The main body, front to the right here. Transparency is ex MBB BO 105 Helicopter. Yes, that's an old Matchbox Puma door in the middle. And the tail end also came from the BO 105. This is inside the left half. A kebab stick superglued into place. The right side also got one. The rear is furthest away from you. The nearest square is the outline for a sliding door. Behind that is an ex Panzer engine deck grille. These two characters will sit just inside the bubble at the front. Mounted on plastic card which will sit on the kebab sticks. And about a week later, back inside the left half. Ribs, seats and greeblies. BTW, the idea is to have the power section at the rear. Hence the Panzer deck for cooling. So with the right side temporarily in place this is how it looks inside through the main (Puma) door. And in the nose, the control section. Three man crew. Two plus a commander. Plus half a dozen troopers down the back. Here's the LH sliding door and that Panzer deck again. And I just added the Commanders Cupolla. Again ex Panzer with Milliput to fair it in. So it's an AT LR. All Terrain Light Reconnaissance. There will be a section added under the command 'tube'. The legs will be attached to that as on an AT ST. Hopefully it will balance! I've yet to work out any armament. I hope you can see where I'm going with this, another bout of spares box madness, but it keeps me out of mischief. As always, Comments, suggestions and edible cookies (not the digital kind) are always welcome. This time I've restocked the tea bags and there's a scraping of coffee in the tin if you're quick. Cheers, and thanks for looking, Pete

Hi all my first post here in the sci-fi section well here is Revell’s 1:72 Mandalorian Razorcrest I finished this back in April and thought I’d post on here i will be at some point in the future do a diorama base for it an enjoyable build thanks for looking

TIE Advanced x1 (01214) 1:72 Carrera Revell & Bandai Namco In the Star Wars universe, the TIE Fighter is the standard Imperial single-seater attack ship, and attrition rates during the six films and various off-shoots that it has now starred in must have been horrific! Named by the Special Effects guys during filming of Episode IV A New Hope (the original Star Wars), after the bow-tie it resembled, a cranked "special" was also designed as the personal mount of arch baddie, Lord Vader, or Darth as he’s known to his pals. They have a menacing angular design 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 Kit Before the launch of the sequel trilogy that started with The Force Awakens (TFA), Revell gained the license to create new kits for the movies in Europe and the US, while Bandai got the license for the Far East and other territories. Revell have created some kits with wider appeal for the following movies, while Bandai concentrated on sticking to a scale, bringing their Gundam talents to bear on the toolings, making ships, vehicles and some figures that would be hard to beat if you’re happy with 1:72 scale kits on your shelves. A few were done at different scales to suit the subject’s size, most are 1:72, so it’s easy to pose them side-by-side without any scale clashes. The kits are intended to be click-together without paint or glue, and some are well-suited to this method, while others such as the space craft will benefit from painting and weathering to obtain a more realistic look, and given that this was all the product of George Lucas’s fever dreams, we’ll insert the phrase “screen accurate” wherever we see “realistic. That opens up another can of worms because miniatures of differing sizes and levels of detail were used for filming, but that’s a subject left to the online Star Wars fanbois, who can be quite unpleasant if they put their minds to it, as has been witnessed in the past. This kit is a re-release of Bandai’s 1:72 offering of Darth’s personal ship, and even arrives in the same black-themed box as before with the Bandai logo on it, but with a Revell logo and specification sticker placed over the bottom-right corner of the side of the kid, giving their product code and other information in a variety of languages. After undoing the tape on the top-opening box, you will find three heat-sealed bags of parts, plus a concertina-fold instruction booklet on glossy paper with colour profiles of the model on the rear to assist with painting and decaling or stickering. Yes, stickers are provided in addition to decals, suitable for the builder who doesn’t want to paint or decal their kit, such as younger modellers that just want to have a physical representation of Darth’s TIE Fighter on their shelves. Detail is excellent, as anyone that has any of Bandai’s Star Wars models will know, and I’m typing this beneath a shelf stacked with them. The quality and engineering of the moulds is highly-intelligent, hiding seamlines where possible, and instigating a change in styrene colour with additional parts, some of which are co-moulded on the same sprue as other colours, cutting down on the sprue numbers, and even the part-count in instances such the sprues that contain the ‘solar’ wings, which are co-moulded in black and grey to create the panels, and to cut-down on space usage, the clear sprue is moulded in between the wings. Inside the three bags are two sprues of grey styrene, one sprue of co-moulded black/grey and clear, a small sprue of black, another of clear fluorescent yellow, and another sprue of a different light grey that forms the stand. The package is rounded out by the decals, stickers, and the instructions, which are printed primarily in Japanese, with the addition of English where necessary, although many of the steps are handled with glyphs and icons that transcend language. Construction begins with the cockpit, starting with the floor that has Darth’s seat base moulded-in, and has a seat back, control console and steering yoke fixed in, and a seated Darth Vader figure in glossy black to fill the space. It’s always been a mystery why, but on the sprue with the figure, there is also a silhouette cut-out of a standing Vader on a base that isn’t mentioned on the instructions at all. There it is. With the cockpit complete, it is surrounded by two half circular wall sections, with scrap diagrams showing where to place the decals in the faceted sidewalls. The ball is pressed together around the cockpit and Lord Vader, then the flat bottom is capped off with a small circular section of the outer skin, taking note of the direction of two pins moulded to the interior. The two fuselage halves are then locked around the cockpit ball from front and back, followed by the access hatch in the top, a small detail insert behind, and the clear porthole with wagon-wheel framing, for which frame decals or stickers are included if you don’t have a set of GreenStrawberry masks, or the skills to make your own. There is also an unglazed styrene windscreen for those not wanting to place glass in the canopy, as many filming miniatures were un-glazed to cut down on reflections. Two greeblies are fixed to the sides of the hatch at the root of the arms, and a pair of blaster barrels are inserted under the windscreen, capping off the underside with another circular dome that has a small hole in the centre to attach the model to the stand. If you intend not to use the stand however, there is a stepped plug to fill the hole instead. The trailing semi-circular cowling that trails the fuselage is built from top and bottom halves, adding two inserts before joining them, two more above and below the central spine, and at the rear of the spine, noting the arrangement of detailing on the visible side of the part. The cowl then slots into the rear of the fuselage/hull, pushing it securely home to minimise gaps, preparing the two cranked wings by adding the greeblie insert to the inner vertical panel, then plugging the twin blades into the corresponding holes in the fuselage to finish construction. The stand is covered on the last page of the instructions, and is made from a base, which has a curved support plugged into a hole near the centre, and at the top of the support is a two-part pivot that allows you to pose the model at any angle you wish. There are two additional parts, one that is a plug for the hole left by the support if you do not use it, and the other is a clip that allows the joining together of multiple stands by clipping their edges together. The bases have a depiction of a small are of the Death Star’s surface moulded into the top, and if using multiple stands to create a larger base, the plug may be useful if fewer supports than bases are required. The two translucent yellow lances on the sprue can be inserted into the hollow barrels of the blasters under the canopy, to depict the TIE Fighter firing its weapons. They can be added and removed at whim, although you’ll have to find somewhere to store them during periods of inactivity. Markings The model has been moulded in colours that broadly match how the ships appeared on-screen, so if you want a clean TIE advanced, you can stop there, apply decals or stickers and call it complete. If you want to add more detailed painting and some nuance to the finish however, Bandai have included some paint suggestions, and while they don’t mention a particular brand’s codes, the colours could well be from Gunze’s Mr Color range, but they could also be from many other ranges. Bandai’s decals seem to have been a bit ‘leathery’ in the past, and not very responsive to decal softening solutions in my experience, but the decals are well-printed, in good registration, and are densely printed and sharp. Conclusion Darth’s TIE is an impressive and iconic spacecraft from one of history’s best-loved movies (certainly my generation) from a time where film-making was still willing and able to take risks. The kit is stunningly well-detailed, and will build into a more-than creditable replica of a screen legend. Very highly recommended. Carrera Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit or

Hi all, I’m trying to get a Star Wars themed group build for 2025 and I need just one more signup to get it to the bunfight. Also if we do get there we need votes to get into 2025. if you’re interested the proposal is here…

Imperial Service Gantry (20524-1/32 for AMT) 1:32 GreenStrawberry Given that in every Star Wars film and series, the Empire’s ships are always getting the worst end of the battle whenever they come up against the Rebels or the Resistance, the ones that return must need almost constant maintenance, and what better way to reach those high-up locations than to bring in a maintenance gantry or ramp. So much more high-tech than ladders, and who needs anti-grav platforms? This set is one such ramp that would sit next to any TIE fighter such as the recent AMT Studio Series (AMT1341) kit or other 1:32 Imperial ship, or just in the background of a hangar diorama or vignette. It arrives in a shallow black-styled box with the usual GS theme in green, red and grey, and inside are two Ziploc bags containing twenty-four resin parts, and a trio of thick-gauge laminated material in black that is rounded off by the instructions. Detail and sharpness of the set is everything we expect from GS, although with typical Star Wars logic there are no stairs to get on and off the gantry, but when has practicality ever been a thing in Star Wars? The laser-cut laminated material consists of three parts, by far the largest part being the walkway, plus two trapezoid railings, which are assembled into a C-profile with the help of pegs and notches, twelve resin ancillary boxes applied to the railings, heavily weighted to the ‘front’, but they could be arranged however you like. The two large double-pillar base stanchions are mated to a pair of angular supports via some recesses in their undersides, adding a stabilising bar between the tops and the outer pillars. The walkway assembly is then placed onto the two supports, lining up the holes and locking them in place with a single pillar at each end that is topped with additional tapering “feet” to complete the model. Conclusion Detail is excellent, construction simple, and the added height and detail it will bring to any diorama will pay dividends in terms of visual interest. Include some suitable 1:32 Star Wars figures on or around it, and you’ll have a winner. In case you didn’t know, GS have also created upgrade sets to increase the detail on the AMT kit for which this was probably intended. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Incom T-47 Snowspeeder Bandai 1/48 These finally turned up today and will be my last Star Wars builds for a while (unless the Ep 7 stuff is available for a reasonable price). I'll be leaving the X-Wing for a bit, but I decided to start the snowspeeder straight away. I'm probably going to do a red stripe one rather than Luke's grey stripe which are the markings that come with the kit, and I'll be doing it on the ground rather than in flight so I'll have to make a bit of hanger base for it. I've not done much more than go through the box so far, but I've started to look what work I'll be doing in the cockpit. The moulded detail on the instrument panels is as good as all the other Bandai releases but I might add a few extra details here and there and I'll paint the controls rather than use the supplied decals. It's got the usual clever engineering which allow the parts to just slot together. The side consoles simply slide into the upper fuselage so I'll paint these and the instrument panel before slotting them in As I said, It'll be on the ground, so I won't be using the gibbon twins with their super-long arms which is no loss (it would have been nice if they'd supplied a droid though, something to stand next to it. I may have to have a go at making something, maybe a gonk droid) The problem with not using them is that, like the AT-ST, Bandai have moulded big lugs on the seats to attach gibbon A and gibbon B, so I've ground them off and (rather roughly) rescribed the seat panels. They do look quite coarse but I'll pick up some etched belts which will cover most of the seat so they should be OK. I'll probably add a few extra knobs and switches to the consoles either side of the seats too (maybe a cup holder? or is that only on the ghia model) That's it for tonight. I should get some more done over the weekend Andy

Here's another spares box build. I knocked this one up on the quiet without an in progress thread, The idea is it's Star Wars ship from the Aratti system (It's a big galaxy they have) used to escort commerce ships. I had a 1/48th Cobra and a Mil Hind in 1/72nd. Other parts came from the bits boxes as and when required. It's an odd looking thing I must admit. The Pilot gets a full on frontal view at least. Guns are under the chin. The tail came from a WW2 German whiff. I wanted a slightly alien design look. I think I got there. The underside, obviously. Engines are two 1/48 Mosquito nacelles. And there he is. I sprayed gloss white on it and did lots of weathering and big paint chips. The round object at the front top is the Nav droid. Slotted in behind the cockpit, like on an X wing. One of the in progress pics that I took. And a pre-primer shot. Pre-primer again. The droid was a large yellow light. The round bits at the engine rears were clothes hanger size rings. There are bits of masking tape on the droid here. And the basic airframe so you can see the main parts. Thanks for looking. Your comments are always welcome. Cheers, Pete

Trying something a little different, I've had these for at least a year and were one of the main reason I wanted to start having a go at figure painting using decent brushes and acrylic paint to try and do them justice, but I've had so much fun with all the cool 3D print stuff thats available these have kept getting pushed further and further to the back of the list! They are the smallest thing I've done so far, the legion scale seems to be a little weird and hard to nail down from hunting about, but apparently its around 32mm. There are two in the box, one is running with a guy shooting his blaster, and the other is stood still with the rider looking around with blaster drawn. Started by getting them off the sprue (man haven't had to cut sprue in a while! Nice to be back to it!) and then there was just a little seam line clean up mostly on the tauntauns underbelly and arms. IMG_20240602_162540664 by Nick Frost, on Flickr I got the legs and arms on the tauntauns, but left off the top half of the heads and the rolled blankets for ease of painting. With the riders I got the arms on the shooting guy as he's fairly wide open with his pose so no problem for paint, but the other guy holds his blaster across his chest so I left off that arm and both their heads. IMG_20240602_164009889 by Nick Frost, on Flickr Once parts breakdown was sorted I snipped some bits of paper clip then using my pin vice and super glue got them attached to some corks so I can hold them easily while painting. IMG_20240602_173629511 by Nick Frost, on Flickr Then I gave them all a blast of chaos black primer, and used some white lacquer paint through the air brush to bring out the detail and give a slight zenithal start point. IMG_20240606_200337245 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240606_201820755 by Nick Frost, on Flickr Thats as far as I've got so far, next up I'll get the brushes out and make a start on the fur, I've got another 3D print coming up at some point that involves a large wolf, so one of these is going to have an arctic wolf fur colouring as practice (so a dark ochre for shadow moving through pale yellow to a pure white highlight in only small areas the most in the light) Thanks for looking, more soon

Hi, This is a present for a friend of mine, fan of Star Wars. The AT-ST kit from Bandai was a real pleasure to build. Engineering and fit are perfect. First time experimenting with colour modulation. I kept the weathering to a minimum.

Here we go again. Are you sitting comfortably? back in October at the Lincoln model show, I was taking a slow march around the tables in the company of @general melchett. Under one of the tables I spied a Revell Rotodyne box, the reissue one, up for a tenner. I'd wanted one for some time, so... Of course this won't be built as intended. But then you knew that didn't you? In one of the Star Wars films a sort of flying bus lands and out steps Ewan Mc Gregor. Hmmm A couple of years ago at the car boot I picked up a display type pod racer for a quid. Hmmm The disassembled pod racer. I've wanted to use the engines on something since I bought it. But, I thought they may not be space going engines, hence the pod racer use. All I needed was a suitable fuselage... How to disguise the fuselage source? Well, I had this 1/32nd P-38 nose piece.. So I sawed off the Rotodyne nose. A bit. The nose cone was slightly too narrow, so I sanded down the fuselage halves at the front to fit. But it was then under strain. So it also got sawn behind the door and card inserted . Much better. You can see here the start of trial fitting fairings, The main rotor fairing had to go, of course. These two black bits are ex SR-71. This will not be a bus, but a fast planet bound freighter. Sort of a much much faster DAF 7 1/2 tonner. Here I'm starting to fill in the windows. There's a 1mm card backing plate glued inside them. Filler has since been used. The card inserts seen here save filler and mean that when sanded I should get a fairly smooth finish. The rivets are going too! The fuselage half locating pins were hopeless. I've added card tabs like on a vacform for strength. And, just to prove that I do like the Aircraft. This hangs in the manshed. Rescued from a Calendar almost 40 years ago! The original is signed Hardy and dated 1984. A lovely picture IMHO. Obviously more is to come. I hope you were able to follow my ramblings and will return sometime soon. If only to try and make more sense of what I'm trying to do here. Given the weather, there could be an outdoor bar by then. Who ordered the cheeseburgers from the barbie? Comments and a more exotic cheese in the burgers are always welcome. Cheers, Pete

Imperial Service Ramp (20023-1/72) 1:72 GreenStrawberry Given that in Star Wars, the Empire’s ships are always getting the worst end of the battle whenever they come up against the Rebels or the Resistance, the ones that return must need regular maintenance, and what better way to reach those high-up locations than to bring in a maintenance gantry or ramp. So much more high-tech than ladders. This set is one such ramp that would sit next to any TIE fighter or other 1:72 Imperial ship, or just in the background of a hangar diorama or vignette. It arrives in a small black-styled box with the usual GS theme in green, red and grey, and inside are two Ziploc bags containing twenty-seven resin parts, and a fret of thick-gauge Photo-Etch (PE) brass that is bagged together with the instructions and a sheet of black paper to separate them. Detail and sharpness of the set is everything we expect from GS, although with typical Star Wars logic there are no stairs to get on and off the gantry, but when has practicality ever been a thing in Star Wars? The PE fret contains just two parts, by far the largest part being the walkway and railings, which are folded into a C-profile, and has the small PE panel and ten ancillary boxes applied to the forward railings, but they could be arranged however you like. The two large double-pillar base stanchions are mated to a pair of angular supports via some recesses in their undersides, adding a stabilising bar between the tops and the outer pillars. The walkway assembly is then placed onto the two supports, lining up the holes and locking them in place with a single pillar at each end that is topped with additional tapering “feet” to complete the model. Conclusion Detail is excellent, construction simple, and the added height and detail it will bring to any diorama will pay dividends in terms of visual interest. Include some suitable 1:72 Star Wars figures on or around it, and you’ll have a winner. Chicken dinner optional. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Hi all. I've been stuck with Wing B. I know what I want to achieve with the exterior paint but I'm not quite sure how to do it or the result. So since the Bandai kits yard is not enough to take things lightly and push forward to see what comes out I have decided to leave it until my ideas are clarified and in the meantime undertake a much simpler kit, in all aspects. And it was this little one's turn. Very good kit from the Fine Molds brand, with good details and equally fine and negative panel lines representing this small combat ship that appeared in the film “The Phantom Menace”, or Episode I of Star Wars, being piloted in it by young Anakin Skywalker. Ignoring the staple with the pieces of the exhibition platform, the kit consists of three small staples: two grey and one yellow. The cabin is quite well reproduced, as well as the figures that correspond to an adult pilot and the little Anakin, who is a due to his age and height is represented somewhat smaller, which will make it even more difficult to paint a figure that is to scale. 1/72. I don't know about you, but what has always caught my attention about the ships of the planet Naboo has always been the stylized shape and the pointed shapes that they have. Both this ship and Queen Amidala's cruiser as some other I've seen. So before undertaking the construction, starting with the cabin, I have decided to prepare this aspect of the ship. Both the fuselage and the engines have a very pointed finish, however the corresponding parts are not sufficiently represented. With 600 grit sandpaper and later 1200 grit I have refined the corresponding pieces. The cones on the front of the motors have also received the same job with sandpaper. And the area where the previous cones fit I have also worked. And this is all for now. Andrés S.