Long, long ago, in a Galaxy far, far away........  Oh,you've heard this bit already have you? Well, I won't go into a long exercise inrepeating the Star Wars saga (Sigh of relief from readers). The most recentmovie in the Star Wars world is Episode I (catchy title, eh?). While notexactly the huge blockbuster that was hoped, it did offer a bunch of really neatnew machines, among them several from the Trade Federation, who are the latestbaddies.

AMT, in their desire to cash in on what they hoped to be a realbig market for goodies, produced at least six kits from this movie. One of themis this pretty cool looking tank. Apparently it is motivated by some sort ofanti-gravity or air-cushion effect. It is also manned by the Federation's droids,themselves pretty neat looking and the subject of another kit. 

It seems that AMT's windfall didn't come to pass on these kitsas they are, as of this writing, appearing on the shelves at well reducedprices. It is because of those reduced prices that this kit came into my hands.

This kit is moldedin the People's Republic of China (yes, the Godless Commie one), and is made ofthe now familiar light grey plastic. It seems a bit soft and rather pliablecompared to many other kits, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. As you cansee by the image of a couple of the kit parts, the detailing is really verygood. Much better than I have seen on a number of other kits produced by AMT orother companies. 

Looking good in the box is one thing. The other is how well doesthe kit go together. Well, I test fit a couple of the larger assemblies: theturret and main housings. Fit was very good. The locater pins did not, as oftenhappens, cause any mis-alignment. The panel lines, which are engraved, matchedfrom side to side just like they are supposed to. It looks like this kit willnot be a difficult or exasperating build as are so many other sci-fi kits outthere.

You get a nice instruction sheet on which one side is a fivepart construction sequence. No parts are named, but all are numbered. The otherside of the sheet has the usual warnings in nine languages, and a large paintingguide. Most of the color callouts are in FS 595 numbers and appear to be forTestors paints. There are quite a few colors that need to be mixed. In fact,three of the seven colors called for on the chart are various shades of brown.Mixing ratios for these browns are given.

There are no decals to mess with and no clear parts to worryabout. Guess that is the nice thing about 'droid operated equipment. They don'tneed to see where they are going (electronics, you know) and all other tanks areon their side! There are two small lengths of wire supplied for the radioantenna. You can use them or replace them with stretched sprue as you desire.

Overall, this looks like a fun and relatively easy kit to build.Probably most of the time on this kit will be taken painting and weathering it.Stay tuned.

Review copy courtesy of me and my wallet!! If any of youmanufacturers or shop owners want to send products for review and building,please contact me.