TIE Interceptor (181st Fighter Wing)

The Interceptor is something that I had been wanting to do for a while. My cousin found one of these for $30 at a local vintage toy store and immediately grabbed it for me. I decided that I wanted it heavily customized and painted with the red wing striping that is the trademark of Baron Soontir Fel's 181st Fighter Wing.

Parts: Vintage TIE Interceptor, thin plastic tubing, Stormtrooper blaster rifle, podium control board from EV-9D9.

Supplies: Screwdriver, Dremel, X-acto knife, super glue, butane lighter, emery board or file, brushes, Testors paints and Testors Dull-Cote.

Reference: I used numerous pictures from Dark Horse's X-Wing: Rogue Squadron comics.

First, the entire ship was washed in warm, soapy water to remove all the dust and crap that was stuck to it. I had to be very careful around the cockpit because the Interceptor still had working lights and sound. Using the screwdriver, I took apart the ball cockpit and removed the pilot's seat and elevator. I painted both of them black. I took the control board from the podium-thing that came with EV-9D9 and cut off the stand. I glued the control board to the cockpit seat to give the Interceptor a much better set of controls. I painted the controls various differnt colors. I added some thin plastic tubing to simulate conduits running through the cockpit.

Inside the cockpit, I glued a standard Imperial-issue blaster rifle to the right-hand wall. This is in case the pilot is shot down or needs to operate on the ground. I dry-brushed the blaster rifle with steel-colored paint. I took the windscreen out and painted the supports the same shade of grey as the rest of the cockpit. This came out looking really good, but it took a very long time and a steady hand. When all of that was dry, I re-assembled the cockpit. Do not put the windscreen back in yet. I drybrushed many of the edges with steel-colored paint to show where paint had been chipped off. I also used the steel paint on the louvered vents on the underside of the cockpit and on some of the assorted gadgetry molded onto the outside of the cockpit. When you are satisfied with the entire ball cockpit, spray it liberally with Testor's Dull-Cote. Once the Dull-Cote is completely dry, replace the windscreen and tighten down all of the assembly screws. I used a ball-point pen to carefully draw small X-Wing Fighters and Y-Wing Bombers. These are the "kill markers". The wings were dry-brushed with steel- colored paint. For the red identifying stripes, the wings were masked off and spray-painted red. I used a butane lighter to add scorch marks at various points to show old battle scars. The entire ship was given a wash of very thinned out black paint. This gives it the look of weathered machinery (oil leaks, grease streaks, etc). And finally, everything was liberally coated with Testor's Dull-Cote.