'Boss' Fighter

Fictional / Behind-The-Scenes Background

In designing the TIE series of starfighters, Rath Sienar of Sienar Fleet Systems drew heavily from the designs of Kuat Systems Engineering, specifically the V-Wing and Eta-2 interceptor. While the main run of the TIE series feature no hyperdrive and deflector shields, experimental versions using technology from earlier craft such as Sienar's own Scimitar Star Courier were built. The first, dubbed TIE Advanced v1 featured basic shields and like the Scimitar, the S-foils could fold in around the cockpit when not in flight, conserving hangar space. This was followed by the x1 which became Darth Vader's personal starfighter. The x1 featured high-performance solar cells in the more angular wing than the v1. Lord Vader also specified a personalised cockpit to accommodate his armoured suit.

Like the regular TIE Fighters, a Sienar Fleet Systems I-s3a solar ionization reactor and paired P-s5.6 twin ion engines powered the x1. The spaceframe is entirely new with elongated rear deck and reinforced durasteel-alloy hull. The bent-wing solar array wings makes for increased surface area for more power and at the same time reducing the craft's profile. Although power was increased, the net effect was not much due to added mass and the fact that some of the generated power was needed to power the shield generators. Weaponry is the usual two L-s9.3 laser cannons. Provision was also made for a cluster missile launcher. The targeting system is more sophisticated than the regular TIE Fighters. However, the system require frequent adjustment in combat for best performance. A modest class 4 hyperdrive was fitted.

The x1 was used by Vader in the attack on the Phoenix Cell of the Rebel Alliance, resulting in the destruction their flagship. the Phoenix Home. During the Battle of Yavin, Vader piloted the x1 and succeeded in destroying a number of attacking X- and Y-Wings before being knocked out of battle following collision with a panicked wingman when the Millenium Falcon intervened. Vader's x1 spun out of control following the collision, allowing him to escape the destruction of the Death Star. Even so, the blast damaged the x1 and vader was only able to return to Coruscant following a rescue by Ciena Ree and Berisse Sai.

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The TIE Fighters of the Star Wars Universe originated as part of sketches shown by George Lucas to concept artist Ralph McQuarrie in order to give the latter a feel for the project. The first model was built by model maker Colin Cantwell  and was then modified and detailed by Joe Johnston. For filming, only one TIE Fighter cockpit was made and was used for all interior shots of the TIE Fighters, including Vader's. However, George Lucas later decided to have Vader's TIE distinct from the the other TIEs. As principal photography has already been concluded, Vader's ship should not stray too far from the basic design and Joe Johnston has to work one in a hurry. He turned to an unused (at that time) design dubbed 'TIE boarding craft' (which later materialised in The Empire Strikes Back as TIE Bomber). Modifying the design, he came up with with what was described as 'a next year's model TIE Fighter...one of gothic evil, as if the Empire fully intended for this to be terrifying psychological weapon'. The design was brought to life by model maker Steve Gawley.

The Kit

While the Star Wars Universe portrayed the x1 as a more advanced and complex version of the TIE series, Bandai's kit, released in 2014, is a bit more simple than the same company's TIE Fighter kit. The x1 kit comprised of parts spread among five sprues. Unlike the TIE Fighter kit, the black solar panels were moulded integrally with the wing frame (and causing extra masking job later on). Sprue A2 (cockpit interior) is the same with the one in the TIE Fighter. Two Vader figures were included - one seated, (again, no hands) and the other standing. A Death Star display base, but with different details was included. Markings are of the usual stickers and waterslide variety and there is also the usual 'laser bolts'.

Construction

The cockpit interior of Vader's TIE Fighter is the same with the one in the TIE Fighter kit, although to avoid the Dark Lord's displeasure and hence being Force-choked, the interior was painted, using Tamiya XF-19. Also, like TIE Fighter, stickers were used for the interior detailing. The front fuselage was then closed up and unlike the TIE Fighter, the fuselage halves fit perfectly from the start. Also of note, the tiny one-half of a Sherman VVSS is also present on the model. The cockpit front viewscreen was left off for painting while the cockpit frontal area was painted Medium Gunship Grey. The rear fuselage consists of two large halves with a few smaller pieces amd they snapped into place with just the smaller pieces being glued, just in case. The inside surface of the wings were then snapped into their places on the fuselage, instead of the main wing structure., to ease masking a bit. I also make sure I leave out Part A2-22 (or at least no glue it into place) so that the slot for the display stand won't be obscured.

Painting and Decaling

As stated elsewhere, the studio models for A New Hope was apparently painted Light Grey (or something similar). However, a number of sci-fi modellers mention that the TIEs in  A New Hope are actually the same colour as those in Empire and ROTJ and that includes Vader's TIE Advanced. So without further question, the model was painted Haze Grey using Tamiya TS-32 while the solar arrays were painted XF-69 NATO Black. A  few small panels and the viewscreen panel frames were painted Vallejo Air 71.097 Medium Gunship Grey. The cannon muzzles were painted a mix of X-7 Red and XF-3 Flat Yellow (since I don't have any orange paint!). As with the TIE (or for that matter, the entire Bandai Star Wars flying craft kits I have to date), the stand was painted black. As for the display base, it was painted Tamiya AS-28 Medium Grey while the stand was painted X-18 Semi-Gloss Black.

Finishing

The model first received a pin wash. And like the earlier of my Bandai kits, I was still hesitant to use enamel-based weathering / finishing products on the Tie Advanced. So I just I use dark grey acrylic wash. The display base remain plain and did not receive any wash. The build was finished when the model received a coat of semi-gloss clear paint. Unlike my TIE Fighter build, the hole underneath the cockpit remain accessible and the model was easily mounted on its display base. Although the mounting allows some'action' pose, I simply place the Dark Lord's fighter in a straight and level pose...just like it does in the Death Star trench. Oh, as before, the 'laser beams' were not used and discarded.

Conclusion

If my previous build of a Bandai Star Wars kit is a joy, this one is even more so due to its even more simple engineering. I heartily recommend the TIE Advanced to all levels of modelers especially novices as it is so easy to construct and display. And yes, I found that there are aftermarket PE set available for this kit for those who think that the level of detail is not good enough (or savour the work of attaching tiny brass parts onto small kit parts). But for the rest of us,OOB, the kit is very good and makes a fine addition to a Star Wars model kit collection.

Swede Swede Tank

Historical Background

In the mid-1950s, the Swedish Army was operating Centurion tanks as its standard MBT. In order to find a replacement, the Kungliga Armérförvaltningens Tygavdelning (Royal Swedish Army Materiel Administration) put out a contract tender for a next generation tank design. A consortium of Landsverk, Volvo and Bofors responded by suggesting that an earlier domestic tank design, the KRV be revived. The KRV was however deemed too expensive to its alternatives - Alternative A was a 50-ton design, with high protection but mediocre mobility from either the British or the Americans and Alternative T (Tysk-Fransk / German-French), a 30-ton design with good mobility but low protection. In 1956, Sven Berge of the Materiel Administration proposed Alternative S (Swedish) as a home-grown alternative.

Alternative S was inspired by post-World War 2 and Koran War battle reports revealing that the risk of a tank being hit by enemy fire was strongly related to height, with more than half of the losses due to the penetration on the turret. Therefore Berge decided that the new design should be as low as possible. Therefore Berge designed Alternative S without a turret, with the gun fully fixed to the hull. To solve the aiming problem arising because of the elimination of turret, a fully automated transmission and a hydropneumatic suspension were provided which allowed the tank to be precisely turned and tilted under the driver's (who is also the gunner) control. The system however can only be used when the tank is stationary but it was not seen as a disadvantage. The gun was a Bofors L74 105mm gun, derived from the Royal ordnance L7 and was equipped with an autoloader.

The S-Tank was powered by two engines: a 240-hp Rolls-Royce K60 diesel for cruising and maneuvering the tank for aiming. For additional power when travelling at higher speed or negotiating difficult terrain, a turbine engine (originally a Boeing GT502, but being underpowered, was replaced by a Caterpillar 553 turbine after the 70th vehicle). The design was fully amphibious  and could swim after a 25-minute preparation. The frontal armour was relatively thick (up to 100mm) but the acute angle meant that the thickness equivalent was much greater. The crew was originally envisaged to be just two persons (commander and gunner/driver) but after considering the tasks issued to tank crews such as maintenance, bivouacking, track-changing and reloading in the field, the number was increased to three. The third person was assigned as the radioman and also as the rear driver as the tank is designed to be driven backwards at the same speed as in forward movement.

The tank proposals (Alternative A, Alternative T and Alternative S) was presented to the Swedish Riksdag during the tabling of the 1958 Defence Plan. Although Alternative S was the most expensive, the defence committee recommended it after considering its symbolic value (a domestic tank for a neutral country) and the spin-off effects on the Swedish defence industry. The formal decision was made on 4 February 1958 and a follow-on contract for two production prototypes were granted and was completed in 1961. Alternative S was accepted into production, with minor changes as the Stridsvagn ('battle wagon') 103 (The '103' meant that this was the third design utilising gun of more than 100mm in calibre). Despite its design, the Strv 103 (or more popularly known as 'S-Tank'), were expected to launch offensive counter-attacks on expected enemy beachheads and landing zones. The S-Tank have never been used in combat.

As the weight of the production tanks increased compared to pre-production vehicles, upgrades were in order. The original 300-hp rated Boeing turbine was replaced with a 490-hp Caterpillar turbine. The first 80 vehicles were retroactively designated 103A while the up-engined vehicles were designated 103B. Adjustments to the hydropneumatic suspension system increased the elevation range from -10 through +12 degrees, to -11 through +16 degrees. A 1986 upgrade programme to all vehicles created the 103C. The C variant featured improved fire-control system, provision for dozer blades on all vehicles (previously, only one dozer tank per platoon), anewer Detroit Diesel engine and additional fuel packs along the side to function as applique armour. Full production of the S-Tank started in 1967 and ended in 1971 with 290 delivered The Strv 103 ended service in 1997 in favour of Strv 122 (Leopard 2).

The Kit

Despite entering service in the late 1960s, the S-Tank has not been kitted by anyone in 1/35 scale (although several kit manufacturers have them in 1/48 including Tamiya). In 2002, Trumpeter released two kits of the S-Tank, the first is this kit and the other is the 'C' version. The S-Tank kits were among the first of the then-'new Trumpeter' kits from the company. The 230 parts were spread among three sprues and a lower and upper hull - all moulded in olive green plastic (there were no clear parts for the relevant components). Also included are a pair of vinyl tracks, a set of poly caps and the usual decal and instruction sheets. The level of detail is reasonable enough even without PE parts. The real downside is that a number of parts suffer from sink marks and ejection pin marks. The dozer blade can be posed in the open position. The small decal sheet provide markings for one vehicle.

Construction

Before I forgot, a number parts have prominent mold parting lines which need to be cleaned up and the task was done to the best of my abilities. Although the instructions have you assemble the wheels first, I started by attaching the various small details onto the lower hull. The adjustable suspension on the real tank can be represented in scale by removing the placement tabs on the suspension arms but that was something I won't do anyway and they were left as they were. The rear hull plate was then put in place but the wheels were set aside at the moment. The return roller mounts were however cemented to the lower hull sans its wheels at this time. A number of placement tabs (for the external fuel tanks of the 'C' variant' were removed and the lower hull was then set aside to make way for the upper hull. As per my usual practice, the lower hull was painted first, the wheels (which also has been painted) and the (also painted) tracks were placed on the model before tackling the upper hull.

Work on the upper hull started by drilling holes at the prescribed places and here Trumpeter clearly marked which ones are for the B (and also the 'C') variant. The lights needed filling as nearly all of them suffered from sink marks. Place the two B33 parts (dozer blade struts) on the hull if you want to have the dozer blade in the stowed position (the real S-Tank has manually-deployed blade). To ease painting, the extra track-links and the pioneer tools were left off at this time. The gun service hatch, while OK has a bit more gap than usual but something I can live with. To ensure that the latches for the driver's hatch is aligned with the hull, the former was cemented only after the hatch has been cemented to the hull. The commander's cupola was treated as a mini-assembly before being cemented to the hull but I decided to leave the machine gun assembly at this time. The headlights need to be fitted properly into its slots or the guards would be a very tight fit later on (guess how I found that out)

The upper and lower hull assembly, sans a number of detail parts were then cemented together prior to painting.

Painting and Decalling

Trumpeter suggested RLM 02 Grau as the colour for the S-Tank. While it sounded weird as the colour is named 'grey', the various photos seem to show that RLM 02 is almost spot-on due to its green tint. I have two RLM 02 in my stash; one XF-22 RLM Grey from Tamiya and 60 from Mr Color. The latter was rejected out of hand as it was too light while the former almost matches the colours seen in the photographs. The tracks were painted a base of XF-69 NATO Black and given a few layers of AK Interactive Track Wash. The tracks however proved rather resilient to paint despite being washed with mild soap solution. The spare tracks were also painted in the same manner while all the vision blocks and optics were painted with several layers of Clear Blue. The pioneer tools' handles were painted Olive Drab and Steel. The commander's MG was painted Flat Black, wafter which graphite powder from a pencil was used to 'metalise' the piece.

Finishing

I kicked off by putting the tracks into place, with the ends being hidden behind the front mud guard. The MG was then added to the commander's cupola. The various on-vehicle equipment were then placed at their respective places. Although the instructions show three shovels are put into place, there is actually space for just two. There was still time to make adjustments but in the end I decided not to use the exhaust extensions although many photos show many S-Tanks with them. The model then received the usual wash. This was followed by the application of Tamiya Weathering Master around the lower parts of the model to represent dust. WWP 'Brown Mud' was then applied to represent dried mud while a combination of MiG Productions 'Russian Earth' pigment and AK Interactive Fresh Mud wash was used to create, well, new mud. Since I'm bad at stretching sprues and that I have run out of guitar strings, no antennas were placed on the model. 

Conclusion

Trumpeter's S-Tank is the only model of this peculiar MBT, especially in 1/35 (or perhaps, in any scale). Just for that reason, Trumpeter should be congratulated. Detail-wise, it is not up to Trumpeter's own current standards but it was good enough for your average modeller. The build is also basically problem-free with only the front (and rear) of the hull needing some puttying. The hydropneumatic suspension of the real tank also allows interesting display possibilty of the model, should one is adventurous!