Star Wars - TIE Fighter

[hobbybobby]

Propelled by Twin Ion Engines, TIE fighters are fast, agile, yet fragile, fictional starfighters produced by Sienar Fleet Systems for the Galactic Empire, existing in the Star Wars universe.

Industrial Light & Magic's (ILM) Colin Cantwell created the concept model that established the TIE fighter's ball-cockpit and hexagonal panels design for Star Wars (1977). 

Star Wars creator George Lucas liked the basic design consisting of two panels connected by a stick with a ball-shaped cockpit, but Joe Johnston created additional details, such as the cockpit window and the attachment points between the solar panels and the hull.
 
Initially given a blue color scheme, the TIE fighter models for the first film were grey to better film against a bluescreen; TIE fighters in The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983) shifted back to being a muted blue. 

Sound designer Ben Burtt created the distinctive TIE fighter sound effect by combining an elephant call with a car driving on wet pavement, in the book The Sounds of Star Wars, the engine roar is likened to German Junker Ju 87 "Stuka" bombers, who used sirens to frighten civilians on raids, this could have been a possible inspiration for the sound. 

Combat scenes between TIE fighters and the Millennium Falcon and Rebel Alliance X-wing fighters in Star Wars were meant to be reminiscent of World War II dogfight footage; editors used World War II air combat clips as placeholders while Industrial Light & Magic completed the movie's special effects.

Darth Vader's distinct TIE Advanced x1 in Star Wars was designed to make it instantly recognizable and the TIE Interceptors developed for Jedi were designed to look fast, deadly, sleek and frightening.

 

This Revell SnapTite- kit (about 30 parts) has been out for a while, but has recently been re-released and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised at the ease of construction and the good overall quality of this kit, only with the scale you are not so sure with this kit, from 1:35 to 1:48 everything is possible, I think with 1:40 you get there... ;) 

 

If you have a youngster:

This is a great kit for them to build.

 

For the Modeler: 

Some attention to removing sprues and some minor flash are about all the added work needed to make this a kit that a youngster can be proud of. 

The addition of some blackwash for bringing out the detail and adding a little “battle-tested” appearance just helped to bolster the aura of this model. 

There’s a couple spots that don’t snap together just right, so keep a little glue handy straighten that out along the way.  

 

For the Star Wars fans: 

This would be a nice addition to your collection.

 

I want to show this following step because you can't see all the details later…

First i assembled the command module including the forward bulkhead and seated pilot’s assembly as well as the outer walls and the rear bulkhead, it has a slot and tab to help with alignment and the two side walls are identical so they can go on either side with the posts and holes for their positions.
 

 

The pilot module is now in place:

 

And that's how the whole TIE Fighter looks:

 

Now I'm building a base, I found the supplied version in the kit a little too banal, let yourself be surprised... ;)

 

 

[shoopdog]

WOW! Very nicely done.

[Jim N]

Great work!   Looks really nice.

[hobbybobby]

Thank you very much for the kind words! 8-)

 

 

As I said, I wanted a different position of the fighter and a simple, but "better" display base.

These are circuit boards, I butchered from old electrical devices...

 

I created this with a few additional things from the spare parts box and a little Color...

 

[hobbybobby]

And here is my Star Wars - TIE Fighter:

 

 

[Jim B]

Very nice looking TIE fighter.  I like your base, too.

[Pete75]

Awesome! Really imaginative & well executed. Now where did I put the Star Wars Blu-rays...

[peteski]

You were very creative with the base.  Lots of greeblies.   The TIE fighter model is also nothing to sneeze AT-AT!  Sweet!

[1930fordpickup]

I sure like this.  

[David G.]

Very Cool! 

There is much that can be accomplished with effective detail painting. You give us a fine example of that.

David G.

[Heartattaq]

love the base scratchbuild. Reminds me of the surface of the death star 

[hobbybobby]

Thank you very much for the kind words!?

[Dave Ambrose]

That’s very nice. I gave my 5 year old grandson an X-wing snap tite for Christmas. He loves it, and it’s a good model too. Get ‘em introduced before they know better. That’s my child rearing philosophy. ?