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I pre-ordered this straight away after seeing the film, and it's just turned up today. I wasn't sure about the design when it was first revealed, but it's really grown on me, especially after seeing it in the movie (despite the fact that it wasn't really featured that prominently).

Before I get any plastic cut, I'll show a quick run through of the box contents.

 

Sprue A1

One solar panel, half the main body, the hatches and the two laser bolts (and the triumphant return of Mr Flatty, this time in TIE pilot disguise)

 

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Sprue A2

The other solar panel and the other half of the body, together with the clear parts (hard to see here, I know) and the seated pilot

 

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Sprue B

The lower frames for the panels and the wing pivots

 

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Sprue C

Upper frames, cockpit details and the front and back of the fuselage

 

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Sprue SWB-15

The last sprue's for the stand. No textured base this time. Just a plain square like the ones that come with the figures. I don't know why they didn't include the sand base that came with the TFA X-Wing, as that would have worked for Scarif. Hope it's not a sign of cost cutting by Bandai

 

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Fuselage details. Essentially the same as the regular TIE fighters

 

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Albeit with an extended body

 

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Nice details on the panel frames

 

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Open canopy frame if you don't want to use the clear part

 

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And the clear parts themselves

 

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Very nice ribbed detail on the solar panels

 

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The pilot looks nice. Maybe not up to the standard of some of the earlier ones, but well detailed all the same. Shame there's only one as this is a two man ship, but you probably wouldn't see much of the guy in the back anyway

 

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And of course the star of the kit...

 

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Usual Bandai stickers and decals

 

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On top of that there's the regular style instruction manual, and that's the lot. Everything looks excellent and there shouldn't be any issues with assembly. The most important thing for me with this kit is that they got the scale right, as the Striker is a lot larger than a regular TIE. The real one's meant to be just over 17m long and this scales out pretty much exactly to that. To give you some idea of the size, this is the wing frame next to a TIE Interceptor. The Interceptor in this case is the Finemolds version, which is a little underscale, but it gives you a rough idea

 

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One last thing I'll point out, not really pertaining to the kit itself. I ordered this from Tokyo Model Detective, and it's the first time I've used that store. Anyone else that's ordered from there will know they don't have a shipping calculator on the webstore. You have to pay for the kit up front, then wait for a second invoice to be sent showing the shipping cost. It's only then that you know how much the kit will cost in total.

I paid around £16 for the kit and, since these are going for about £25 inc. delivery on ebay, I was hoping the shipping would be no more than £7-8. I was somewhat surprised then, when the invoice came through, and it was £14, meaning I've had to pay around £30 in total.

That's maybe not a big deal for some but, until the TMD site shows the full price inc. shipping, I'll be sticking with ebay and amazon.

 

I'll get the build underway soon.

 

Andy

 

 

 

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Looking forward to a top build :)

 

Bit hit and miss on the Striker design myself, I can see it has a different function so is built heavier and with more guns, but then I saw this official concept art of what the Striker could have been...

 

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I love that ship. Hope it turns up in one of the other movies :P

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Yep, definitely looking forward to this one. Looks to be a relatively straight forward build, but am sure Andy will still manage to make it look special, as he always does. The devils in the detail as they say.

 

If it turns out anything like Andy's Tie Interceptor from a couple of years ago, then it'll be awesome !

 

Re: design I know what you mean Misrule. That concept art does look very cool. Incorporates the single Tie fighter cockpit somehow better than the hanging "double capsule" cockpit of the film version.

 

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Thank you for a great box contents review and awesome photography Andy, I look forward to seeing this one go together. Good to know about TMD postage too! I think i will stick to my known Ebay source, with fantastic "free shipping" ;) for the time being.

 

Some days, in pictures i dont really like this TIE's long fuselage, but then in the film (seen it 3 times in 3D ) it looks great, so in reality i might love it, i think it looks odd from underneath with the wings up. But its like a single body TIE Bomber hull, so it should look great right? I think its not TIE looking because the wings mount on the top not the middle. Im sure i will get one anyway as it looks great from on top and thats how i will display it.

 

The landing craft is awesome, i would buy a Bandai one in a heartbeat.

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I read 'somewhere' that the reason for the Silhouette figures in Bandai kits now is because of some law that they have to follow that forbids Bandai from including standing figures in their kits now, but bizarrely seated figures are still OK. Anybody know any more on this?

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Thanks everyone

 

On 08/02/2017 at 21:06, Misrule said:

Bit hit and miss on the Striker design myself, I can see it has a different function so is built heavier and with more guns, but then I saw this official concept art of what the Striker could have been...

 

I agree. Some of the concepts were much stronger designs than what we finally saw in the film. Seems to be the way with most films. Any time I buy an 'Art of' book for a film, the concept designs always seem more imaginative that the end result.

 

On 10/02/2017 at 22:48, Gekko_1 said:

I read 'somewhere' that the reason for the Silhouette figures in Bandai kits now is because of some law that they have to follow that forbids Bandai from including standing figures in their kits now, but bizarrely seated figures are still OK. Anybody know any more on this?

 

I wouldn't be surprised if it was true. Some of the Disney contracts seem to defy logic.

 

I've got a bit of painting and a bit of assembly done on the Striker. It's actually a very simple kit to build, and you could have it together and ready for paint in a couple of hours if you wanted.

 

The cockpit's not got extraordinary levels of detail, but there's ample for what you'll be able to see. I base coated it all in a mid grey, did a bit of detail painting, then added the triangular red displays that TIE's always have. The decal placement guide is slightly vague as to where they all go, and they don't fit the raised panels lining the cockpit wall very well, so I placed them where they seemed to fit best.

The pilot was sprayed with gloss black, then the flight suit was brush painted with a dark grey, followed by a black wash. A few details on the chest pack were picked out, and the two Imperial logo decals added to the helmet. They're actually just plain white circles, but they look fine in this scale

 

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It's pointless going to mad with the detailing, as you can hardly see any of it once the cockpit is together. You could stick a red LED in there, but you still wouldn't see that much

 

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The 'real' Striker has a back seat driver and a bomb rack in the middle of the fuselage, but Bandai have built this one around a regular TIE cockpit sphere, which plugs into the front of the main fuselage. The fuselage itself is filled by a couple of large plugs, so that's why they didn't bother with a second figure

 

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After the two halves are joined, the fuselage is finished off with the front and rear caps

 

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The fit on the end caps is a bit gappy, at least by Bandai standards, so I'll need to smear a bit of filler in the joints

 

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I've also got some paint on the solar panels. I wanted to do something different than straight black with them, to give them a bit more life. I started out with a gloss black base coat (the blue tape's masking the area where the frames will attach)

 

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After that, I gave them a light coat of Vallejo Steel. My original plan was to then go over the steel with a thin sprayed coat of Tamiya Smoke to tone down the metallic effect, but it doesn't look too bad as it is, so I might leave them like this

 

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Andy

 

 

 

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Nice.

 

I guess the light "steel" overcoat is like drybrushing a metallic coat to highlight edges over a black base. Cool idea.

 

Might have to get some of that Vallejo Steel. Did you have to thin it a lot or typical 50/50 ?

 

As soon as I saw the Tie "pod" was separate, I got to thinking if the concept art version could theoretically be modable ? I guess the flat black panel at the rear would be difficult to replicate.

 

Looking good Andy !

Edited by Portaler
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Looking nice already Andy.  Mine rocked up the other day, but I've not had chance to get a look at it properly, so I'm doing that vicariously through your build ;)

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Oh yeah this is looking great and the pilot in the cockpit looks so cool B)

 

3 hours ago, Portaler said:

As soon as I saw the Tie "pod" was separate, I got to thinking if the concept art version could theoretically be modable ? I guess the flat black panel at the rear would be difficult to replicate.

 

If Bandai ever make the TIE Reaper (Death Trooper variant) then i would buy an extra one of those and base the concept TIE on those wings.

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Thanks everyone

 

On 11/02/2017 at 16:17, Portaler said:

I guess the light "steel" overcoat is like drybrushing a metallic coat to highlight edges over a black base. Cool idea.

 

Might have to get some of that Vallejo Steel. Did you have to thin it a lot or typical 50/50 ?

 

It's not quite the same as dry brushing, which would only pick up the raised areas. Doing that would leave a more contrasty finish. This way just adds a shimmer to the black base.

The Vallejo metal paints don't need thinning. They're airbrush ready straight from the bottle although, with a bit of care, you can brush paint them too.

 

Andy

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Thanks Matt

 

I've got all the construction finished now. To be honest there isn't that much of it, once the main fuselage is together. Just a few detail parts need adding, one of which is the good old Sherman suspension unit

 

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Before I added the clear part for the rear hatch, I painted the top of the fuselage that's underneath it with black, as otherwise you'd just see the grey plastic of the body through the glazing in the hatch

 

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The top panel that clamps the wings in place has a couple of ribbed plates that attach to the rear end (on the right hand end in the photo). These are about the last parts that are added in the instructions, but guess who thought he'd be clever and add them earlier

 

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Well, that didn't work out that well because, once the wings are in place, there are a couple of triangular fillets that close off the wing pivot area.The ribbed plates that I'd previously attached prevented these fillets from sliding in to place and in the end I had to cut all the mounting tabs off the fillets to get them on. Lesson learned; don't second guess Bandai's instructions

 

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That finished off assembly. Conveniently, you can leave the wing section separate for painting, and click it into position at the end

 

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Next up is painting. In the mean time I'll post some shots of the finished build so you can get some idea of how it looks. Now that it's built up, I'm liking the lines of it more and more (there's a small turret under the cockpit, but I forgot to add it when I took the shots)

 

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And a scale comparison (yes, I did put the Interceptor upside down :doh:)

 

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Andy

 

 

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Cool. Looking good ! The design is growing on me a bit also, but that whole hinge assembly on top is not so Star Warsy to me. Anyway, "it is what it is". Maybe Andy's painting magic can fix it !

 

The comparison shot is especially interesting. Especially the length ! Certainly not as manoeuvrable as the Interceptor or Vaders Tie, which fits the bomber allocation I guess.

Edited by Portaler
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Bandai are making awesome kits, they look so cool all together like that at the end. Im definately getting one of these now, as a bomber it makes more sense that its fuselage is so long. Looking forward to your painting Andy! :thumbsup:

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