First completion of 2023! Darth Vader's TIE Advanced X1

[ismaelg]

Hello,

  While more than 90% of this was done in 2022, it was officially finished in 2023.   First week of January and I am already at 1/3 of the number of last year's completions.  

 Darth Vader's TIE Advanced X1

There are far better kits out there, but I had the old AMT/ERTL kit from 1997 laying around.  It is supposed to be 1/36 scale.   The molds date back to 1978.  This kit has been released a gazillion times as MPC, AMT, ERTL, Revell, Kenner and others.

In summary, this is probably the worst kit I've ever completed. I honestly think it was not meant to be assembled.  

Heavy moldings

Nothing lines up

Gaps?

 

The Force made me continue.

Started rescribing panel lines. Left side done, right side yet to be touched 

Tons of putty. And I mean gobs of putty!  This model has the most putty of any of my builds.

Fortunately the interior is hard to see.  Vader's figure is no better.

It was eventually forced into submission.  
I mixed my own paint using gray, sky blue and silver. It better be enough because I can't replicate that again!

 

The kit is almost unbuildable.  I also found out (just like George Lucas and his team did in 1976), photographing these is quite a challenge.  The movie guys made the right call using a very light blue in their model because with the black background, it looks more silverish and metallic.  Had to take pictures in different backgrounds trying to get it right. At the end, I used white background that was darkened in Photoshop.
Pretty much box-stock but I added the 4 exhaust ports with scratchbuilt aluminum tubing rings. Gobs of putty were required for this project.  This ship only appears for a few minutes in the original movie.  I took a few artistic licenses but always trying to stay close to the original.  Very light weathering.

After a six month battle, this is the end result:
Darth Vader's TIE Advance X1

Laser blasts and stars courtesy of Photoshop

 

Hope you like it.

Thanks,
Ismael

[Joe Nunes]

This model turned out great!  Your workmanship really paid off in a big way with regards to the original kit offering. Well done!  ?

Joe

[Dave Van]

You made it look good!!!!! The kit engineering shows how Star Wars caught all toy and hobby companies off guard.  Kits were thrown together ASAP to get to market.  Still one of my favorite designs of SW.

[Dragline]

A lot of work you put into this one. It was worth it. It looks perfect. I have built MANY of these AMT/MPC SW kits with varying results. The Bandai license was a Godsend to SW builders as their kits are so superior. Almost too many parts in some cases. But they do build up rather nicely.

May the Force be with you.

Edited January 12, 2023 by Dragline

[David G.]

Beautiful work, well worth the effort.

I have one of these I received as a bagged kit from a cousin of mine. After looking it over and seeing the "quality" of the castings, I put it back in the bag... for now.

Seeing what you've managed to accomplish with yours inspires me to have another look at my kit. 

David G.

[gotnitro?]

Outstanding work 

[stavanzer]

I built the original in 1979 or 1980. The MPC kit was just as bad then.

We just built them with the gaps. LOL.