I just thought I'd ask if there are any good models of the TIE Advanced/x1 out there that are not children's toys (especially not Lego models) and are not model kits that need to be assembled, either, but are reasonably priced and are painted in the exact colors Vader's TIE and the standard Imperial TIEs had in Episode IV with grey instead of the blue the Imperial TIE fighters and their variants (except for Vader's TIE, which never appeared in those other films) have in Episode V and Episode VI. And no, the TIE Advanced Expansion Pack for X-Wing doesn't count since I want to know if there are any that are also durable. I mentioned in a previous topic elsewhere that the TIE Advanced miniature is not a single component, but that its fuselage and wings/solar panels are glued together and thus the ship is prone to glue failure. Please include photographs if possible.

Like this ?

Though you don't want model kits, consider again Bandai kits -- snap together, easy to build, and great detail. Bandai Vader's TIE .

@Hawkstrike your second link is the same as the first.

This is probably what he meant to point you to.

Yeah, it's just that my modeling skills aren't great, especially with glue. Often, parts will end up getting misaligned and they tend to break because they're so awkward to fit, and even then I have to use glue anyway. The parts tend to be smaller than they appear and you end up stretching them OR they end up falling out and aren't permanent. Just to ask, have any of you built this kind of kit before? I just want to know so that way I'll know if y'all have had this problem because I've always had it with whatever "easy snap-together" model kits I've done before.

57 minutes ago, Force Majeure said:

@Hawkstrike your second link is the same as the first.

This is probably what he meant to point you to.

Fixed, thanks.

30 minutes ago, railwayman001 said:

Yeah, it's just that my modeling skills aren't great, especially with glue. Often, parts will end up getting misaligned and they tend to break because they're so awkward to fit, and even then I have to use glue anyway. The parts tend to be smaller than they appear and you end up stretching them OR they end up falling out and aren't permanent. Just to ask, have any of you built this kind of kit before? I just want to know so that way I'll know if y'all have had this problem because I've always had it with whatever "easy snap-together" model kits I've done before.

No glue for Bandai. The kits are remarkably well designed and hold together extremely well. With or without additional paint they look good, and you can go the sticker or water-transfer decal route (which takes some additional patience).

I built a TIE Interceptor today, and it took about four hours -- the extra time was with me taking extra time painting details. Actual construction time might have been 1-2 hours.

Okay, and what about this other kit from Bandai? I'm talking about the "Vehicle Model" palm-sized collector's series miniature kits while on the subject of Bandai. The seventh kit is of both the standard Imperial TIE fighter AND Vader's TIE. Based on reading the instructions those look a little bit easier to do just because they have fewer parts. And there's definitely no paint required, as opposed to both of the Vader figurines (and interior detailing) on the actual TIE Advanced kit that's at the 1/72 scale and available on its own. Are they also snap-together kits? Do they also have the option of either sticker or water-transfer decals? Finally, will they have blue paint or grey paint as the color other than black (on the solar panels)? I'd upload the instructions, but they're too big to upload here.

Not quite sure which ones you are referring to, do you have a link? The closest I found was this kit , which is a 1/144 scale kit and according to the review comments comes only in the grey color (ie paint required to get what's shown in the photo).

I've built 1/48, 1/72, and 1/144 Bandai kits. All were snap-together, and all included both sticker and water-transfer decals. Frankly, the larger kits were easier to build, even though they took longer, because the parts are larger and it is easier to get the decals into place.

The 1/72 TIE kits only have black interior solar panels (the panel frames are blue-grey). If you want more depth than that, you'll have to wash & dry-brush yourself. I haven't built a 1/144 TIE so I can't speak for those.

Yeah, that was what I was referring to, and I'm not too concerned about painting if it only comes in the grey color. Furthermore, that's good that it's snap-together, but I do know that it looks like the Darth Vader figures included with the larger kit do need to be painted (the shoulder armor and the chest unit in particular), along with the ship's cockpit interior. Obviously the 1/144 scale kit concentrates only on the exterior with no interior. If you don't mind, since you've built the 1/72 kit I'd like to see photos of yours in particular to show me if you have to paint the cockpit interior or not. That's what I was referring to, not the solar panels.

My TIE Interceptor (I don't have the TIE Advanced) had an all-black TIE pilot, plus a combination of black and grey components for the interior or the cockpit. There were decals for the pilot's helmet and for the back wall of the cockpit to provide some interior contrast. I chose to paint some grey highlights to the TIE pilot uniform, and some metallic highlights to some of the cockpit components. You really have to get up close to see inside the cockpit to make out any details, though -- from three feet away it all fades into shadow.

If you search YouTube for Bandai TIE, you can find a bunch of reviews and sample builds of the variety of kits.

8 hours ago, Hawkstrike said:

There were decals for the pilot's helmet.

This really surprised me when I built the Tie Fighter. Bandai really loves their frickin' stickers.

@railwayman001 If you want to see the whole component list and the final build, Dalong has great pics up all the components, the manual, and a straight build (with panel lining) for most of the star wars kits

http://dalong.net/review/etc/sw02/sw02_i.htm

I'll echo what Hawkstrike was saying. Since the 90s Bandai's kits have pretty much became the gold standard imo on kits that are easy to build and look good right out of the box, while also still appealing to people who want to put in the extra work.