TIE Silencer
The top of the original, snapped-together, fuselage - the oversized hinge has to go, and pretty well all of the detail from the hatch back is inaccurate.
Underside of the original kit - the speaker grill and battery hatch have to be filled in and again the geometry of the back half is inaccurate
The wings are actually OK! The only changes needed are replacing the soft plastic wing-tip guns and adding some extra sensors in the centre panels
First step - wing tip guns. I removed the solid barrels and replaced them with aluminium tubing
Cockpit - removed the kit seat and added a replacement seat and controls from a Bandai FO TIE Fighter kit, with some styrene sheet and greeblies to fill the gaps
The kit cockpit glass has big openings on the side and front to allow it to be flexed to allow removal and replacement - they were filled with Aves putty and sanded smooth
Moulds were then made and a replacement made with clear resin. The hatch also had its arm removed, gaps filled and a clear resin replacement made. You can see the originals here because I ruined the first set when I used to harsh a method to remove the Revell paint and melted the plastic - had to buy a replacement kit
The front of the fuselage has some recesses which are blank on the kit, but should have details. I cut that section out and made some in-fills from bits from a Fine Molds TIE X-1, sanded to fit
Cockpit painted and a (very) rough Kylo added, made from the body of an FO TIE pilot and and Anakin Skywalker head I had left over from something
Extra sensors for the wings were also taken from a Bandai FO TIE Fighter. As I needed 4 and only 2 were in the kit I made the extras with resin copies
Underside showing the speaker grill filled with Aves, the switch button cut short and the inaccurate rear section cut off
The engine nozzle section has also been cut to fit the new underside geometry but still clicks into place thanks to the very thick plastic
The cockpit interior and glass has been glued in place. I've also made some walls from styrene sheet to hide gaps into the wing pylons
Details on front of wing pylons glued in place
The back of the top section has also been mostly removed and a back wall to the cockpit made, again using parts from a Bandai FO TIE Fighter (and decals)
Wings finished and painted Tyre black to hopefully contrast a bit with the matt black panels (still masked)
Top of fuselage glued in place. Top hatch also glued in place and the hinge area and indent for the opening hatch feature filled in. The new resin hatch has also been turned 180 degrees from the kit version so the windows point backwards, not forwards
Front section given a coat of the interior grey - still some more filler required though
The engine grill is a clear piece designed for lighting but I have given it a coat of clear red on the back followed by a coat of silver
The engine shroud has had the fins thinned down and some styrene inserted where there were some gaps on one side
Just an indication of how it looks snapped into the shroud piece
I sprayed some 0.02 x 0.02 styrene strip tyre black and cut it into small pieces to make grill sections - they fit into moulded indents. The cente piece of the grill was also sprayed black
Grill sections glued in place, before trimming
Completed engine grill in place
Engine section being glued on. I've also built up the shape of the bottom of the fuselage with styrene, filled the gaps and sanded everything flat
The fuselage underside main reshaping is complete - side view
Full view of the reshaped bottom of the hull - all done with styrene sheet, strips and off-cuts, along with Tamiya filler and some superglue/talcum powder filler where strength was needed
First part of the top section of the hull reshaped - just the complicated central section to do now
Put on a coat of primer to see what needs fixing - still some filling and sanding needed.
Top view with primer and comparing the modified version to one out of the box
Finally got back to this - starting with milling out some openings in rear deck sections
Also milled the back to make the openings thinner
Cut up and painted/weathered sections of the original engine insert
The section glued in place where they will be seen through the milled openings
Main rear deck section glued in place - another deck section with milled openings will go over the large rectangular opening
Walls for the raised section behind the cockpit installed and another engine piece glued in there
Deck section with openings installed in that area - you can actually see some of the detail underneath!
Final section of the rear deck added. Also reshaped the rear of the lower deck part. Still a lot to do though
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14 19 June 2022, 10:47
Uwe KaedingStarted this project back in 2018, with bits and pieces done in the meantime, and just got back onto it while I gather the enthusiasm to continue the masking on my MorningStar kit...
19 June 2022, 11:23
Gareth BurgeFollowing with interest, always wondered how this could be achieved (and wonder still at the lack of a "proper" kit from Bandai, perhaps)
22 June 2022, 12:04
Uwe KaedingThanks for the likes and comments.
Gareth - yes, Bandai seemed to lose interest in the ships after TFA (maybe those didn't sell well enough?). Anyway, the engine is now done and in place, time for finishing up the bottom of the fuselage
23 June 2022, 00:35
Uwe KaedingThanks guys - still lots of complicated work to do - might take a while yet
15 December 2022, 12:22
Album info
The Revell Build and Play kit of Kylo Ren's TIE Silencer from The Last Jedi is OK but the lights and sounds features mean that the fuselage is very inaccurate compared to the CGI version in the movie. Also the pilot is tiny compared to the stated scale of 1/70. My aim is to accurize the fuselage as much as I can and modify the cockpit to fit a 1/72 pilot, and have the whole thing fit into a 1/72 collection.
