Revell Master Series 1/48 Tie Fighter

TIE -Twin Ion Engine- series starfighters shared a general design form of a roughly spherical or cylindrical cockpit pod attached to a set of solar panels. The cockpit and panels could be supplemented by other modules for ordnance or other functions. Their overall design bore a large resemblance to the Human eye, which led to several members of the Rebel Alliance, including those of Rogue Squadron, to give them nicknames relating to eyes (such as “eyeball” for TIE/LN starfighters, “squints” for TIE/IN interceptors, “dupes” for TIE/sa bombers, and “brights” for the TIE Advanced series of starfighters, respectively).

This design form carried over to the non-starfighter products, with the standard cockpit module used in the center of a land or sea vessel.

The cockpit of a TIE was neither spacious nor luxurious, even when compared to other starfighters. A TIE fighter was designed with the bare minimum a ship needed to function, being essentially nothing more than a cockpit with weapons on the front and an engine in the rear. This simplicity in design made them both quick and inexpensive to build and replace.
Source [Wookipedia]

KIT HIGHLIGHTS

• Highly detailed plastic pieces molded in white and clear
• Pilot and Imperial officer figures
• Full cockpit interior detail
• Display stand
• Decals
• Illustrated instructions
• Scale: 1/48
• Length: 5-1/4″ (133.35mm)
• Width: 5-1/8″ (130.17mm)
• Height: 6-3/16″ (157.16mm)
• Skill level: 5
• Kit 85-5092
• Parts: 43
• MSRP: $54.99 [USD]
• Street Price: $44.99
  

Many years ago a small but great nonetheless Japanese company named Fine Molds licensed from Lucasfilm the right to produce model kits. Fine Molds is known in the modeling community for the great quality of their model kits. They carved those molds with intricate details from reference material provided by Lucasfilm LTD.

As a new licensee, Revell brings back the same high quality models -using the tooling from Fine Molds- to US online sellers and brick and mortar hobby shops. There’s not much to report on these great Star Wars model kits that hasn’t been reported already. But unless you’ve been procrastinating for years to add a Sci-Fi subject to your model kits collection here I go:

This Revell kit 85-6092 is in 1/48th scale. It does come with a nice Imperial Pilot figure as well as an Imperial Officer. On the outside there’s very good crisp molded on details and other surface detail is offered as separate parts. Because the actual filming miniatures used on the movies were built by a method called ‘kitbashing‘, chances are that you will recognize some of the details on this model kit especially if your into tanks and other artillery model building.

The wings are a breeze to paint. The solar panels are molded separated and they are already molded in black. This sill save us a lot of precious bench time by not having to mask the frames from the panels times 4.

This Tie Fighter kit goes together without any fit problems. No filler was needed* for this build. The sides of the interior are detailed via 6 slices of decals. Please install those slices following their order. In my experience lighting sci-fi models, there is room for some lighting should you wish to do so. Tie fighters as well as other spaceships in the saga were built in different scales. From the Hero model to the ones to be shot in the distance and using forced perspective. As a result, I like to display my movie related models in hollow rods either brass or aluminum from K&S Products. This was no exception and I did not use the nice stand provided with this kit. If you wish to see the stand provided, feel free to click here.

* The Imperial Officer figure included in this production sample came with a medium hole on its back. It did not warranted a replacement request because I have the means and know how to fix it with putty. Others probably and understandably might have considered requesting a replacement.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Absolutely positively recommended!
My sincere thanks goes to Revell USA for the review sample.