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A-Wing StarFighter (01210) 1:72


Mike

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A-Wing StarFighter (01210)

1:72 Carrera Revell/Bandai

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

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

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On 10/8/2021 at 10:55 AM, Mike said:

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.


Did you make the pew-pew noises? Please tell me you made the pew-pew noises !!!

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6 hours ago, Basosz said:


Did you make the pew-pew noises? Please tell me you made the pew-pew noises !!!

I cannot confirm or deny those rumours :blush:

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  • 2 months later...
On 10/8/2021 at 10:55 AM, Mike said:

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!

They are. Just like the forward fuselage of the A-wing consists of two F-14 wing gloves.

 

Once seen... 😎

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

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2 minutes ago, Hook said:

Just like the forward fuselage of the A-wing consists of two F-14 wing gloves.

You can even see the slots for the cheese-shaped LERX that pop out :lol:

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2 hours ago, Torbjörn Hanö said:

BTW ... Isn't it strange that fighters are called A-wing, X-wing, Y-wing etc, when they don't have our alphabet in that galaxy? 

Well, they did in 1977... 😎

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

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