Chris Ford’s Darth Vader TIE Fighter

I thought I’d pass on some first pics of my completed Darth Vader TIE Fighter model, the one made by MPC. Tt’s taken about 3 years on & off to complete. I think it’s pretty good but there’s always room for improvement.

I rebuilt the cockpit interior based on the one in the book “Spaceships of Fact & Fantasy” – I went one step further in adding the red & green pulsing lights on Vaders firing console (via 2 fibre optic strands), added the red lit generic markings behind Vaders chair and also added pulsing (again via fiber optics) lights to the 2 side cockpit panels. The red glow is from 2 – 1.8mm led’s – one on each lower side of the cockpit.

Rear view – I extended the central section by exactly 1/8″. This way, instead of the rear detail part just being stuck on the end section, it gives the impressio that it has been somewhat countersunk or set in.

Wing – I added a little extra detail t the chunky middle section piece.

How I get the power to the cockpit interior. Brass tube has a small jack set into one end. This in turn snaps into the input piece mounted into the lower part of the model. The hole where this goes is visible in the photo. Power is 6 volts DC.

Another close-up of the front. It’s a bit overexposed (3 mins @ f11 with iso 200 film – light is from 2 – 1.8mm led’s…much brighter than I expected). The yellow markings seen are actually red. Overexposure has turned them yellow.

Chris Ford