May 2023
Sienar Systems TIE Fighter
Sienar Fleet Systems TIE Fighter
Imperial Navy, Death Star
Near Alderan orbit
Bandai (Revell) 1/72
Revell 1/72 with modifications
© www.gengriz.co.uk
Obi-
Solo: “There aren’t any bases around here, where did it come from?”
Skywalker: “He’s heading for that small moon”
Obi-
I am a massive Star Wars fan and have a number of 1/72 and 1/48 Star Wars kits in my collection (built and unbuilt).
Back in mid April, Mrs Gengriz and I attended “Star Wars Celebration Europe” at the
Excel Centre in London. A superb weekend was had by all, with some incredible costumes
and props (real and fan-
The Star Wars universe now has some remarkably detailed back stories and the TIE Fighter, as one of the iconic images from all of the films, is no exception. Apparently TIE stands for Twin Ion Engine (and I thought it was because they looked like a bow tie!) and they are modular in design, with a common cockpit section able to add to different types of wing array as well as different cargo/personnel pods.
TIE Fighters were the standard Imperial fighter from the end of the Clone Wars until the most recent film (actually I think I’ve lost track of the sequence!).
My kit is the original basic design, with hexagonal wing arrays and an "eyeball" cockpit.
May the Force (May the 4th?) be with you!
Building the Bandai Tie Fighter Kit:
This is my second build of a 1/72 Bandai Star Wars kit (having built an X-
Assembly is relatively easy, with most parts clicking together with friction fit
(use of adhesive is optional, but allows the otherwise very small joint gaps to be
closed reliably). My only real caution would be to point out that some parts that
look identical are not, so check the instructions and do a test fit before applying
any glue. I made some errors with the struts on the solar panel wings that required
some rework and cutting. Detail throughout is superb, albeit sometimes a little subtle
-
Other than that, the only shortfall in this otherwise very enjoyable kit is a lack
of informative painting instructions. There are small photos that show the decal
placement and also show the overall colour as a light blue, which felt wrong at first
(in my mind they are black). However, it appears to be correct and apparently the
TIE fighters in the original film were blue-
After scrutinising the films and other people's models, I decided to use Humbrol 247, which is intended to be RLM 76 Weissblau (and sadly seems to be one of the colours that Humbrol have recently discontinued). I used Humbrol 164 (Dark Sea Grey) for detail. I also overpainted the black solar panels mainly to remove some blue overpainting around the frames and also to restore an even surface texture since my application of solvent to the frames had left some shiny patches.
Bandai supply optional decals and stickers, very few of which I used as they are
very small, with overlapping decal film. I opted instead to paint much of the detail
by hand, including the front window which nevertheless has an effective decal for
its window frames, but since the frames are nicely prominent and ridged, they facilitate
allowing relatively easy freehand painting. A set of fluorescent green laser/blaster
beams can be used instead of the gun ports, and although I left these off my X-
This is a superb little model and if you can overcome the eye-
All pictures by gengriz.co.uk All rights to Star Wars designs and themes acknowledged.
Imperial Troopers from an event at Disneyland Paris in 2019.