Studio Scale Hero version TIE Fighter

Nothing to see but I just had correspondence with my client and he is in agreement to do a few additional things that I consider "special". So now I'm really going to have what I call "fun" with this one!

Well, you've got this geek interested!

This looks like a great kit. Is the CoolShade material included in the kit or do you need to supply it yourself?

It needs to be sourced and I understand that is getting harder and harder. The original product (most desired) has been OOP for many years now.

My client sourced what I received.

The same company (KoolShade) now makes something very similar- but not the same.) So for 'true accuracy' you're on a hunt.

Now that you've piqued my curiousity, what is KoolShade?

It's the "wing material". Well at least everything inside of the framework (outer perimeter, and seen as the 'black' portion). Some ingenious ILM modelmaker back in the day must have been looking out a window and daydreaming because that's what it is- a window treatment. Similar to louvered blinds. It almost looks simple but defies being cast up in resin and it's out of production. Hence the scarcity and desirability of it. Of course, the price when found reflects that as well.

Ah O.K.

I have some pics of the TIE fighter filming miniature I took when a Star Wars exhibit passed through town in 2007. The material is louver-like, and you can see through it when looked at straight on.

Well,
 This thread has sat dormant awaiting the following:

Original (Nice-N-Models pic)

Now


The machine work reduced the armature down to appx. 8ounces with plenty of rigidity/strength left. No offense, at all, but I wasn't comfortable with adding as much weight as the original piece carried. The delay is what happens when a friend assists you but it has to be put aside for his normal production work?

But with the fundamental support now back- we can continue.

I read in a build thread (by GF at RPF, fine model too!) that he shimmed his resin armature and believed the metal one was about 30cm in diameter.

The armature I received varies between 28.47 and 28.50mm which is close enough to just call 28 1/2 mm. That still leaves "slop" (if you wanna call it that) when you fit it into the kit pieces which explained the gaps I saw on prefitting. I'm using .010 plastic to sleeve the areas I had machined away and bring it back to a "solid" tube (looks wise) which will then take up the slack and accept paint better than aluminum could have. To that end I fashioned up some simple jigs which when slipped in place snug up the sleeve to enable gluing. A couple of those sleeves are very snug for where I'll be applying glue while a couple of others are looser just as "holders" but when you tilt them slightly off axis they do snug it all up again anyways. They'rejust easier to move around that way.

With the cockpit halves in place and clamped slightly you can see how snug everything is now. There are no gaps between the wing mounts and the newly sleeved armature with the white styrene visible.




Now the outer wing mounts will be another story. It's as if the two part molds weren't fully seated or the resin raised them apart as curing? They're considerably "thicker" than their counterparts and will require sanding on the inside to get them thinner and "round" where they join.

The outer wing mounts were cleaned of "flash", ground out some on the inner diameter and then fitted to the armature. The locating keyways would have caused the inner and outer wing mounts to overlap. So the resin keys inside the mounts were removed and if you look closely you'll see where the slot of the armature is almost visible within the resin mount. A lil CA and paint will eventually cover that though and final sizing isn't done yet since it appears those four lil "pads/squares" which protrude out aren't quite the same from inner to outer. Normal filing and fitment for any resin kit though and that should bring the spacing between them into better symmetry.

Since the cockpit ball halves join at would also be a scribed line I adjusted their size then added .010 strips slightly inset to depth from the edge so that once joined there is already a "panel line". Did the opposite on the rest of the joining areas so that those can just be sanded to a clean edge which helps avoid scribing over a joint or adding putty to re-contour after assembly.

Working on the cockpit ball I laid the armature in place which does have locating tabs to help set the diameter. The floor plate needs to be glued in at some pint so I first beveled it's edges for a uniform contact and then using the front canopy frame and rear fascia I adjusted the "width" with a large bar clamp until things fit nicely.



Now IMHO ILM/Lucas played a dirty lil trick on all of us by using what appear to be amber LEDs (or rod) for the exposed portion of the chin guns. But when they fire you see a green blast? Hmmmm, that's not fair. Since we'll have working guns I first cut the leads off of the kit supplied LEDs and then hogged out the inside to accept a mini bright green LED. When done, it looks amber but will light up green! Problem solved.

For the rear I first drilled out and sleeved the openings to eliminate any light bleed.


Then to mount the red LEDs from behind I used successive sizes of telescoping tubing till the LED with ground off flange also fit within. Again, because I hate light leaks.

Using the locators on the cockpit floor and upper sphere I positioned the kit components for the cockpit and then filled in the sidewalls and some of the "roof". Next I'll "busy up" those sidewalls and then move to making a seat.





I'll also address the bit of visible gaps when you look through the canopy and see it to the hull halves where the cockpit doesn't quite snuggle up against the opening.

In trying to get closer to what we see on those short glimpses inside the cockpit onscreen I'm making a few more changes.


I "found" or made an extra 1/4inch in depth for the cockpit. This was for visual effect and to better accommodate the pilot grasping the yet unmade control/flight yoke.


And have started work on the pilot.

In screen caps you can see a couple of lights on the "control yoke" and I also like the idea of lights coming from what could be the gun triggers atop the end of the yoke. So brass tubing was added to the "grips" and a lil surface mount LED was prepped to hide within the "column".


I like to mount the light source as close as possible to the actual visible portion because I've had bad luck with longer runs of FO eventually failing over time whenever they make any kind of bends and such?