Model Kit Reviews:
AMT/Ertl’s Star Wars Episode 1 Naboo Fighter
and
Trade Federation Droid Fighters
(Page One)
(Background)
Several weeks before George Lucas
released his long awaited and greatly anticipated “Star Wars Episode 1: The
Phantom Menace” Movie, I stumbled upon models of the Naboo Fighter, the Trade
Federation Droid Fighter and Anakin’s Pod Racer at a local hobby store. At
first glance, I was not at all impressed with the way they looked. However,
after seeing the Star Wars Movie (five times to date), the Naboo and Droid
Fighters started looking better and better. I finally broke down and purchased
one Naboo fighter and two Droid fighter kits.
AMT/Ertl’s Star Wars Episode 1 Naboo Fighter
1:48 scale (Kit # 30117)
(Initial Analysis)
This kit is a “Snaptite” one,
containing 20 parts. Two are clear, (the spacecraft’s canopy and the display
post). Six are chrome plated, (the two halves of R2D2’s head and the front and
lower sections of the fighter), with the remaining 12 being molded in yellow,
(including an Anakin pilot figure, the display base, and the remainder of the
spacecraft). This fighter, when assembled, measures approximately 9 inches in
length.
All parts are pretty “clean.” I
detected no pin ejection marks on the outer surfaces along with very little
flash. There were some barely detectable sink marks in some areas. However,
they were minor and easily removed with just a bit of light sanding. The chrome
parts also looked pretty good.
(Construction and Painting)
I decided to build this space
ship straight out of the box. I initially toyed with the idea of removing the
chrome plating from the chrome parts and either repainting them or possibly
using some Bare Metal Foil to cover them. However, I decided to leave the
chrome parts as they were. Even though the chrome may give the fighter a
slightly toy-like appearance, when viewing the Star Wars movie a second and
third time I noticed that these surface areas are indeed highly polished and
mirror-like.
As previously mentioned, this is
a snapfast (snaptite) kit. In many cases, with other snapfast kits it is better
to remove the alignment tabs from the parts, gluing them together without this
guidance. With this kit, the alignment tabs and holes actually helped the
alignment of the parts. So, they (most of them at least) remained.
I decided to deviate a bit from
the instruction steps. They had the yellow and chrome parts being attached
together during various construction phases. Since I intended to paint the
yellow portions of the space fighter yellow and wanted to do away with the need
for masking the chrome parts, all yellow parts were attached first. This
included the upper spacecraft piece, the forward engine/wing portions, and the
bottom and rear engine assemblies. All 10 pieces were glued together and left
to set.
I used Testors Liquid Cement to
do all my gluing. It ended up working like a charm. When dry, all seams were cleaned
up. The fit that resulted was so good that in most cases the remaining gaps
were just sanded smooth. In addition, several sink marks were sanded away.
Filler was only added to two or three areas, and cleaned up when cured.
When finished, the sub-assembly
was airbrushed Model Master Yellow. Testor’s Model Master (M.M.) paints were
used for most of the painting.
The main sub-assembly was set
aside to dry and work continued with the Anakin figure. The suggested colors
were painted on by brush. His clothes were painted Tan, his boots and hat
painted Brown, his face and hands painted Radome Tan, (deviating away from the
suggested flesh color), along with his hat’s ear flaps painted Flat Black, and
his goggles painted Tamiya Silver (another deviation, from the suggested Black
color). Anakin was set aside to dry.
The two R2D2 halves were then
worked on. The chrome on the edges were sanded away and the parts glued
together, with an “ok” fit resulting.
R2D2’s head was then airbrushed with M.M. Silver. When dry, the various
required areas were carefully painted by hand.
Construction then progressed back
to the fighter. The chrome plating on the adjoining areas of the chrome parts
were then scraped away and carefully glued to the now dry yellow spacecraft
subassembly. Again, the fit turned out to be pretty good. However, seams were
still detectable.
Since I wanted to limit the
amount of clean up on these chrome parts, (due to the impossibility of
replicating chrome plating), I ended up not filling in the gaps existing around
these areas. However, some touch ups still needed to be done. A fine tip Silver
Marker (by Pilot) was used for this. I then meticulously masked off the yellow
rings found on the front of the engines and carefully airbrushed M. M. Yellow
on.
The cockpit colors were then hand
painted. M. M. Gunship Gray was painted on the sides and front of the interior,
with M. M. Olive Drab painted over the seat. When dry, Anakin and R2D2 were
glued in place. The clear canopy was then dry fitted on. Since it appeared that
the front alignment tab caused a not-so-good-fit to result, I ended up breaking
it off. I then applied a small bit of Elmers white glue onto the lower and rear
edges of the canopy and carefully positioned it onto the top of the fighter. A
piece of scotch tape was used to apply pressure, keeping the part in place
while it dried.
When the glue was dry, the
various decals were cut out and attached to the fighter, (without using a
decal-setting solution). They came out good pretty good! Finally, Tamiya
Acrylic Clear Blue was carefully airbrushed onto the back of the engines.
Riddle me this…what do you get
when you paint Blue over Yellow? GREEN!
To prevent this from happening, what I should have done was base coat this area
white or silver first. Then the air brushed Blue would have
appeared….BLUE. Yellow could then have
been carefully airbrushed over the remaining white or silver areas. Oh well…
Moving to the kits display base,
I followed the instructions and painted it (by airbrush) M.M. Flat Black. When
dry, the words on it were carefully hand painted with Tamiya Silver. Finally,
the clear display post was attached to the base and glued in place from below
and the Naboo Fighter was attached to the post. Whaalaaa! I was done!
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