The “Serious” History

Combat experience with the Rebel Alliance showed that the standard TIE Fighter was under gunned to deal with shield equipped Rebel Fighters and suffered heavy losses.  The engineers at Sienar Systems decided to redesign the profile of the Solar Panels, add a more powerful engine and four more laser cannon at the apex of each triangular panel thus tripling the firepower of a standard TIE Fighter.

 

These faster more powerful interceptors were replacing the standard TIE Fighter in Imperial Fleet Units when the Battle of Endor happened which lead to the death of the Emperor, Darth Vader, Fleet Admiral Piett, the destruction of the Fleet Flagship Executor and the 2nd Death Star (not the finest day of the Imperial Star Fleet.)  Production of these fighters continued after the fall of the Empire as the remnants of the Imperial Navy fought against the New Republic.

 

The Movie and Game History

The TIE Interceptor made its only appearance in the “finale” of the Star Wars saga, The Return of the Jedi as part of the wave of TIE fighters defending the Death Star Jr. against the Rebel Fleet.  This space battle almost made up for the appearance of the excruciating appearance of the Ewoks.  Almost.

 

Despite that, the TIE Interceptor was more common in the Lucasfilm X-wing/TIE Fighter series of PC games.  Anyone who has played them knows that TIE Interceptors are not as easy to kill as TIE Fighters due to their high speed and low profile, and can really hurt you with their six lasers if you aren’t paying attention. 

See my preview of the kit.

Having built the TIE Fighter kit, I am very familiar with the assembly.  Once the parts were washed, dried and cleaned of flash/sprue stubs, the cockpit components were assembled first with all the primary cockpit interior parts glued together while the cockpit side panels were decaled as per instructions.

 

As I waited for the decals to dry, I masked off the clear pieces using Tamiya tape and a sharp number 11 blade.  Fine Molds supplies adhesive paper masks, but I’ve found they don’t work as well as Tamiya tape.

 

The cockpit side panels were sprayed with flat black while the interior, exterior parts and the cockpit window were sprayed with Tamiya XF-20 Medium Grey instead of the suggested Neutral grey because I was painting an F-15 Eagle at the same time (I was too lazy to change to a similar grey.)

 

I worked on the pilot figure, cleaned up the mold marks and sprayed it gloss black when I sprayed the wing panels.

 

When all the paint on the interior parts was dry to the touch, I built up the cockpit and glued it into the rear half of the TIE Fighter fuselage.

 

The front half of the fuselage was sprayed with XF-63 German grey.  When it was dry, I covered the front area with a piece of wide Tamiya tape and cut carefully around the circular area as a mask.  The fuselage was then glued with a combination of liquid glue and CA glue.  The areas that would require filling and sanding were done with CA glue while the areas that did not were done with liquid glue.  I did this to reduce the time for the glue to fully cure and thus remove the possibility of phantom seams.  Since the seams were already filled all that was needed was sanding.

 

The seams were sanded carefully using 400 grit Wet/Dry sandpaper and then polished with 3200 grit sanding cloth.

Painting

The instructions call for an Air Superiority Blue.  I don’t have Air Superiority Blue (whatever light blue that is) in my large collection of paint, but I do have Gunze Duck Egg Blue which was good enough for me and which I used for the main color on the fuselage, the top hatch, the bottom plug and the framing of the “wings.”

 

The Solar panels and the pilot were sprayed Acryl Gloss Black while the “canopy” and various surface bits were painted Medium grey as per instructions.

 

When the base paint was dry, I took some Citadel Mithral Silver, brush painted the engine nozzle and then brush painted on Tamiya Clear Red to give the engine nozzle some life.  The instructions recommend that you use German Grey.

 

Markings

Once the paint was dry, I added the decals.  There were only a few exterior stencils to do (most of the markings are for the interior and pilot) and they went on well except for two triangle pieces that preferred to stick to my fingers and I ruined.  I replaced them with a careful dab of yellow paint.  Once they were in position, I used a small dab of Micro Set (they are not typical Japanese decals) to get them to snuggle down.

Weathering

TIE fighters don’t have a long and active career so I decided to go with the just off the showroom floor look and refrained from doing any weathering.

The “wings” were assembled next as I followed the instructions and glued each solar panel into its respective section.  Make sure you identify each part as some of the panel sections are almost identical with very subtle differences that will make assembly a pain in the rear.

 

Next I added the lasers to the wings and then glued each wing onto the fuselage using Tamiya liquid glue.  I’d almost recommend that you use superglue here instead as I had to clamp the two wings with my hand to keep them in position long enough for the glue to harden (approx 20 minutes.)

 

The chin laser muzzles were glued on next and then carefully brush painted with silver.

 

The final touches were the additions of the bottom, entry hatch and the forward canopy using Tamiya Thin, Tamiya Thin and white glue. 

CONCLUSIONS

 

The Fine Molds series of TIE Fighters are very easy kits and probably is the simplest/fastest kit I’ve ever assembled.  The TIE Fighter I built took me some a day to complete while the Interceptor took me about two weeks to assemble due to the fact that I was very busy with other things.

 

These kits are great for any level of modeler and/or Star Wars Fan.  Highly recommended.

 

Kit courtesy of my wallet.

Dan Lee

March 2009

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