Another (another) SS TIE Bomber
- Thread starter thibkaji
- Start date
thibkaji
Active Member
OK, been a week and some change, but I'm coming down the home stretch! Let's see where we're at!
Continuing on from last time, I finished up the Leopold parts that get mounted to the tops/bottoms of the aluminum tubing.
Next, the first of a few corrections. In an earlier post I showed that I put that one Prince of Wales piece that mounts to the front of the bomber directly attached to the front panel, as I didn't have a lot of good reference showing its position otherwise. Boy was I blind! The Chronicles Vehicles book actually shows its position pretty clearly.
So, I decided to make the adjustment to place this component properly.
And now since I'd pulled this piece out of the original front panel assembly, I decided I needed to fix that panel. I revisited the reference once again and decided that what I thought was two pieces of sheet stock is actually a single sheet and the back "panel" is the aluminum armature block itself. So, went back to the drawing board and reconstructed the panel. I also noted that there should be a pin that is visible through the center of the panel, so I rebuilt it with that in mind.
Note the hole drilled through the middle of this part now.
Side view, showing those protruding parts should be flush to the top of the backing sheet stock.
Mounting the pin. I used small 1/16" dia brass pins I got from work.
I mounted the pin to a thin piece of sheetstock (.020" thick) and then mounted that through the hole on the back of the panel. This was trimmed to fit within the threaded hole on the front of the armature block so that the panel would sit flush.
You may have noticed above that I did, also, glue the bomber front to the fuselage. A better overall view:
With that attached, time to connect the 8 "clips" from the Sd.Ah.52. For the perimeter, these all need to be trimmed fairly close to make the parts site relatively level to the larger front section.
And get them attached:
And 6 more makes 7:
And this is where we hit up against correction number 2. As you can see on the reference, this one clip part should be attached to the long Leopold part that runs the length of the fuselage.
And... I'm off. Looks like my scribing on the top here was off by about 1.5 mm or so.
I considered leaving it and having just this one part be off...but, I can't. I just can't. *Sigh* Popped off all the parts and used some Tamiya putty to fill in the grooves.
...it's better. I'll adjust it more after primer, but good enough for now.
And the clip now fits in the proper location.
While I'm messing with the front of the bomb fuselage, might as well go all in! Mounted the other Sd.Ah.52 parts that go on the front. A word of advice!! Place a piece of tape across the opening. Don't ask how I found this out...
And the clip piece. Used a toothpick to position it the proper distance up from the center.
And that's the pair.
Oh, and here's the bottom center panel all cleaned up. It needs some additional stock in the center to make it accurate, but I'll do that later.
Last Morser Karl part added to the bottom:
I also mounted the cockpit dome to the fuselage, and added the last small part that was missing there:
The wing end caps have what have been identified as pin connectors, likely for providing power to the lights, so I added some small 3mm dia brass tubing to the round sections on those endcaps.
Well, lots of little things but they add up to being almost finished. I think I just need to permanently attach the cockpit front to the dome, add another pin to the front panel, figure out how I'm going to attach the wing endcaps/front panel/top panel so they are removable but firmly attached (probably magnets in some way), and finish up the bottom panel. Then I think I'll be ready for primer!
A few pics showing where we are. It's been a long road to get here, and I can see the end of the road coming up fast. Til next time, keep on scratchin'!
Continuing on from last time, I finished up the Leopold parts that get mounted to the tops/bottoms of the aluminum tubing.
Next, the first of a few corrections. In an earlier post I showed that I put that one Prince of Wales piece that mounts to the front of the bomber directly attached to the front panel, as I didn't have a lot of good reference showing its position otherwise. Boy was I blind! The Chronicles Vehicles book actually shows its position pretty clearly.
So, I decided to make the adjustment to place this component properly.
And now since I'd pulled this piece out of the original front panel assembly, I decided I needed to fix that panel. I revisited the reference once again and decided that what I thought was two pieces of sheet stock is actually a single sheet and the back "panel" is the aluminum armature block itself. So, went back to the drawing board and reconstructed the panel. I also noted that there should be a pin that is visible through the center of the panel, so I rebuilt it with that in mind.
Note the hole drilled through the middle of this part now.
Side view, showing those protruding parts should be flush to the top of the backing sheet stock.
Mounting the pin. I used small 1/16" dia brass pins I got from work.
I mounted the pin to a thin piece of sheetstock (.020" thick) and then mounted that through the hole on the back of the panel. This was trimmed to fit within the threaded hole on the front of the armature block so that the panel would sit flush.
You may have noticed above that I did, also, glue the bomber front to the fuselage. A better overall view:
With that attached, time to connect the 8 "clips" from the Sd.Ah.52. For the perimeter, these all need to be trimmed fairly close to make the parts site relatively level to the larger front section.
And get them attached:
And 6 more makes 7:
And this is where we hit up against correction number 2. As you can see on the reference, this one clip part should be attached to the long Leopold part that runs the length of the fuselage.
And... I'm off. Looks like my scribing on the top here was off by about 1.5 mm or so.
I considered leaving it and having just this one part be off...but, I can't. I just can't. *Sigh* Popped off all the parts and used some Tamiya putty to fill in the grooves.
...it's better. I'll adjust it more after primer, but good enough for now.
And the clip now fits in the proper location.
While I'm messing with the front of the bomb fuselage, might as well go all in! Mounted the other Sd.Ah.52 parts that go on the front. A word of advice!! Place a piece of tape across the opening. Don't ask how I found this out...
And the clip piece. Used a toothpick to position it the proper distance up from the center.
And that's the pair.
Oh, and here's the bottom center panel all cleaned up. It needs some additional stock in the center to make it accurate, but I'll do that later.
Last Morser Karl part added to the bottom:
I also mounted the cockpit dome to the fuselage, and added the last small part that was missing there:
The wing end caps have what have been identified as pin connectors, likely for providing power to the lights, so I added some small 3mm dia brass tubing to the round sections on those endcaps.
Well, lots of little things but they add up to being almost finished. I think I just need to permanently attach the cockpit front to the dome, add another pin to the front panel, figure out how I'm going to attach the wing endcaps/front panel/top panel so they are removable but firmly attached (probably magnets in some way), and finish up the bottom panel. Then I think I'll be ready for primer!
A few pics showing where we are. It's been a long road to get here, and I can see the end of the road coming up fast. Til next time, keep on scratchin'!
stevielewis
Sr Member
Nice work!
thibkaji
Active Member
Another update. Added the missing panel parts that swgeek pointed out — confirmed in references that they’re on all four sides of the fuselage, so mine are, too.
Next, added the needed stock material to the bottom center panel to make it look correct. As can be seen, there’s what looks to be two sheets of material — one thicker and one thinner.
And mine:
I mentioned in my last post I wanted to attach the wing caps to the wings with magnets, so I made that happen with some teeny-tiny magnets I had laying around.
I also added the second pin to the front panel, both are now visible:
At this point I feel like I am done with assembly. I’m sure I’m still missing something, but I feel really good about where this has ended up. So good, that I just went ahead and prepped it for priming!
Not really much to do, but I made sure to wrap the ends of the aluminum tubing as in the reference pics you can see just a hint of shiny metal poking through where the tube enters the wing pylon connectors, so I wanted that look, too.
And since it was ready for primer, I went ahead and primed it! I used what appears to be everyone’s current favorite primer, U-Pol Smart Shade Gray automotive primer. Make sure to shake the can a LOT to get a good mix, and it lays down pretty nicely. I’ll have to still hit the body with some 600-800 grit sandpaper to smooth some places out a bit more, but it turned out pretty well.
Some after-primer pics. Couldn’t help but reassemble to get a look. It’s really pulled together now and looks like one cohesive ship. I’m loving this!
Next up will be to start laying down some ILM Stormy Sea Archive-X base coat, and prepping the display base. It feels a bit surreal to be at this stage of the build after these last few months of work, but I’ve learned a lot and am excited to see how this turns out. It’s also getting hard to not just jump into my next planned build, a SS B-Wing, but I want this wrapped up completely before I move on. Should have another update for this soon.
TIL next time, keep on scratchin’!
Next, added the needed stock material to the bottom center panel to make it look correct. As can be seen, there’s what looks to be two sheets of material — one thicker and one thinner.
And mine:
I mentioned in my last post I wanted to attach the wing caps to the wings with magnets, so I made that happen with some teeny-tiny magnets I had laying around.
I also added the second pin to the front panel, both are now visible:
At this point I feel like I am done with assembly. I’m sure I’m still missing something, but I feel really good about where this has ended up. So good, that I just went ahead and prepped it for priming!
Not really much to do, but I made sure to wrap the ends of the aluminum tubing as in the reference pics you can see just a hint of shiny metal poking through where the tube enters the wing pylon connectors, so I wanted that look, too.
And since it was ready for primer, I went ahead and primed it! I used what appears to be everyone’s current favorite primer, U-Pol Smart Shade Gray automotive primer. Make sure to shake the can a LOT to get a good mix, and it lays down pretty nicely. I’ll have to still hit the body with some 600-800 grit sandpaper to smooth some places out a bit more, but it turned out pretty well.
Some after-primer pics. Couldn’t help but reassemble to get a look. It’s really pulled together now and looks like one cohesive ship. I’m loving this!
Next up will be to start laying down some ILM Stormy Sea Archive-X base coat, and prepping the display base. It feels a bit surreal to be at this stage of the build after these last few months of work, but I’ve learned a lot and am excited to see how this turns out. It’s also getting hard to not just jump into my next planned build, a SS B-Wing, but I want this wrapped up completely before I move on. Should have another update for this soon.
TIL next time, keep on scratchin’!
Last edited:
stevielewis
Sr Member
Wow! Looking great in primer. 
You’re catching a lot of little details. Great work!
thibkaji
Active Member
Welp, things went a bit sideways this past weekend. I was working on applying the pencil markings (and I’ve got photos for them!) to the inner wings when I noticed something was off about my starboard wing. Turns out that when I assembled the wing extensions to the wing, WAY back in the beginning, that I must have flipped the extensions for the starboard wing. All those small Leopold parts that stick up into the extensions are all in the wrong positions.
Correct placement:
Incorrect placement:
You can see they’re definitely off. Not sure how I missed that for months, but it’s become very apparent now that I’m adding detail markings.
So, gotta fix that now. Started last night marking out the new positions and cutting out notches, will continue today/tomorrow and hopefully be good to get to weathering by the weekend.
I’ll save the pencil marking post until after I’ve corrected this wing, to put it all up in one shot. If it’s not one thing it’s another on this build… LOL!
Correct placement:
Incorrect placement:
You can see they’re definitely off. Not sure how I missed that for months, but it’s become very apparent now that I’m adding detail markings.
So, gotta fix that now. Started last night marking out the new positions and cutting out notches, will continue today/tomorrow and hopefully be good to get to weathering by the weekend.
I’ll save the pencil marking post until after I’ve corrected this wing, to put it all up in one shot. If it’s not one thing it’s another on this build… LOL!
thibkaji
Active Member
Alright, been a few days. Got the wing sorted out, looks much better now! Paint should be dry from sitting overnight, so I’ll add the hash marks today.
For the main body, I went ahead and started adding a small bit of weathering. If you look at the references, you’ll notice that there’s a sort of light-grayish (with a hint of red) hue over the rear sections of the fuselages, in addition to around the wing connector pylons. The belief is that ILM likely applied an enamel wash or something over some parts of the ship and then wiped it off again. It’s subtle (mostly), but def changes the look in the back.
Filming model, showing the color variation on the back:
So, I took a stab at applying this myself using a very thinned down mix of Light Reefer Gray and a touch of caboose red (totally stole this mix from Boxcar Bret ’s build), masked off some sections, and airbrushed away. Results aren’t too bad, looks closer to what I think it should in hand.
Can definitely see the difference.
Next up, wrap up the port-side wing, attach both more permanently to the body, and start working on additional weathering. I’m also finish work up on the base this will be affixed to.
Speaking of bases, does anyone have a good supplier that makes plaques for Star Wars ships out of Aluminum? I found a shop on Etsy that makes some, but they’re 4”x6” in size, and I’m looking for something lower to 2” x 3” to better fit my base.
Will update soon, likely wrapping this bird up this weekend.
For the main body, I went ahead and started adding a small bit of weathering. If you look at the references, you’ll notice that there’s a sort of light-grayish (with a hint of red) hue over the rear sections of the fuselages, in addition to around the wing connector pylons. The belief is that ILM likely applied an enamel wash or something over some parts of the ship and then wiped it off again. It’s subtle (mostly), but def changes the look in the back.
Filming model, showing the color variation on the back:
So, I took a stab at applying this myself using a very thinned down mix of Light Reefer Gray and a touch of caboose red (totally stole this mix from Boxcar Bret ’s build), masked off some sections, and airbrushed away. Results aren’t too bad, looks closer to what I think it should in hand.
Can definitely see the difference.
Next up, wrap up the port-side wing, attach both more permanently to the body, and start working on additional weathering. I’m also finish work up on the base this will be affixed to.
Speaking of bases, does anyone have a good supplier that makes plaques for Star Wars ships out of Aluminum? I found a shop on Etsy that makes some, but they’re 4”x6” in size, and I’m looking for something lower to 2” x 3” to better fit my base.
Will update soon, likely wrapping this bird up this weekend.
stevielewis
Sr Member
Very nice subtle painting. I think it came out looking just right.
