Revell Star Wars Imperial Shuttle SnapTite
Kit# 1858
(http://www.revell.com)

Instructions and Reference Pictures are available

Finish 3-28- 09 I wiped down the rain marks and I think it looks a lot better. I matte coated the model and I thought it turned out pretty good. Then I took the mask off of the wind shield and to my surprise the paint had blown up under the tap and on to the black plastic. A lot of it. I did the only thing I now to do. I took an excato and sand paper to the window. I got most of it off but the window was very scared. I then put a coat of future floor wax on it and it looks fine now. When I took the picture there was a ripple in it that settled down later. I am pleased with the overall look but it did not come out like I had planned. I planned on it looking simpler and not so harsh looking. But this was my first time with the Tamiya Weathering Master Sets so I will have to learn not to be so heavy handed. I really improved on my washes and panel lining, mainly that you really have to thin paint more than you think you would. I am not happy with the “engine” but I could not get it to look like what I wanted it to. Overall I am happy with the model.

I had seen this kit way back when it was Shuttle Tydirium and thought “That’s neat looks a bit dull” and have always passed over it. I figure all you could do was paint it white and you were done. Then recently someone pointed me to this site: http://dorobou.blog.so-net.ne.jp/archive/c35378003-1. Man he did an awesome job and made the model look like it would be fun to paint and weather. This kit is not real common but luckily Revell has released the “Imperial Shuttle” and Hobby lobby has 40% off coupon. They are very similar but a little different. This may be my next model in the queue.

Open Box Review
The kit looks like it will be a good size once built. You chose to build it with landing gear in or out. The wings can be positioned on the fly. Instead of the cockpit window popping open on the old model on this one the whole cockpit tilts open. As far as pre paints go it looks ok. It has a few darker panels and to give it a bit of detail. The cock pit looks nice and has a bit of pre painted detail. The odd thing is one of the pilots is a storm trooper, go figure. The was no flash on the kit and it is a lot of clean crisp detail

Spure Shots

Planning
I plan on treating this like a normal kit and I am going to prime and paint it. I will probably leave the interior alone and pre painted. I want to work more on the exterior. I am going to try and mimic the model on the Japanese site (but not motorize it, I am no were near that good). I am going to try Tamiya Weathering Master sets. I have used Pastels in the past and been happy with them but I have seen a lot of good results with these sets and for 10 bucks I can take the gamble. I will do a darkish plane lines on it. I think flat black panel lines may be a bit too much. Again I think this model will all come down to weathering to make it look good.

Things I have learned from this kit.
Keep your fingers out of wet paint.
You can sand finger prints out to look smooth again.
Don't be afraid of large spaces with little or no detail.
When thinning paint for washes and panel lining, you really have to thin paint more than you think you would.
The Weathering powers are better than pastels but you do have as many colors.
I really like Tamiya Paints.

12-20-2008 Just started Building.

12-22-2008 This is what it would look like as a straight out of the box build.  It was a pretty simple build I figure would take most people an hour or may be two if they are slow.   I like how the cockpit opens and you can see the insides of the kit.  I do not think I will paint that, it will rarely be seen and I really look forward to the weathering. There are very few visible seams most are where they will be hidden.  Now the fun part beings.  I will mask off the window and where plastic will need to glue to plastic.  I have never been a fan of scraping off the paint to get it so the plastic will bond to the other piece of plastic.  Then I will prime the kit and start the airbrush.  I need to come up with the colors I am going to use.

12-29-08 I taped off the all the parts I did not want painted. I try to tape off where I will need to glue two pieces together, so the glue will hold better. I find it is easier then scraping off the paint later. I am not going to paint inside the cockpit and I will leave it reprinted. I used Squadrons Green putty thinned with acetone (cutex) to fill in the seams on the side of body and cockpit. I then sanded it down smooth. I also put some clay in the cracks of the cockpit so over spray would not blow in to the cock pit. I primed with my usual Krylon white primer. It seems to have take the paint pretty well, other than the prepainted black parts they it just seem to bead up but smoothed out enough so that it will not mess up the paint job. I am thinking I will use Model Master light gray as my base color. Hopefully I will get to do it soon.
Sanded
Primed

01-05-2009 After a bout of why is my airbrush clogged, I was able to spray a base coat of Model Master Acryl Light Gray (4765).  It was really hard to tell where I had sprayed the paint and where I had not.  White and light gray are pretty close.  Due to this I was not able to tell I was getting to much paint on the surface of the model and I got a few runs.    I will sand the drips down a bit and then everything should be good.  I airbrush the Engines blue pretty soon and add the color details.  Then clear coat it getting ready to do the panel lining.  Then the fun begins with the weathering.

1-8-2009 I had a bit for free time so I decided to paint the engines blue. Not sure if I like it or not. I used Vallejo 938 Transparent Azul on the engines. I thought being a white-ish model the engine might look a bright blue with paint being transparent. Well it didn’t turn out that way. I might let it stay dark blue as I will have the ship in a “landing” position. I do need to clear up the darker spot on the left engine. I will have to think about that one. I corrected the cockpit though. I am not sure what happened but there was a dark ring thing top of the cockpit, I just sanded it down and reapplied the base coat. It looks good now. I will also have to clear up the blow over of the blue on to parts of the model. That should not be to bad.

1-25-09 I decided to just do the “vents” on the wings as a different color. I decided against doing the star wars panels. The Empire didn’t really do that, the Rebels patch worked theirs. So I spent 40 minutes of masking and about 5 minutes spraying. It turned out quite well. I had not problems or hiccups this time. The Shuretape worked well, I used it to do the fine edges and cut to fit. I then used the cheaper blue tape to bulk cover the areas in case of over spray.

2-10-2009 Now I tried doing a filtering technique where you dilute the paint with a 1-10 ratio.  It is supposed to let airbrush (or hand brush) an area very slowly up to the area color you want.  I also used Tamiya paint for the first time.  I like them quite a bit.  I thinned it with 91% alcohol and I learned they dry very fast.  As soon as the paint was on the model it was dry.  That really sped up the layering.  I mix Tamiya Acrylic XF-52 Flat Earth & T XF-63 German Grey about 3-4 drops of each in a mail jar and added several full droppers of alcohol to thin it. I don’t think it was quit thin enough and need a bit more grey than brown but I was still happy with it.  Then I noticed I had paint on one of my fingers and I learned how quick the paint dried. I have since retouched the spots with Model Master Acryl Light Gray 4765.  The spots are not that noticeable now.  Next I will darken the edges and clear coat it getting ready for a wash to bring out the panels and details on the bottom of the ship.

3-20-09 This is was my first time using Tamiya Weathering Master Powers. They work pretty well and are easy to use. They also hold up well to clear coat unlike pastel chalk which will fade. I not quite happy with the look, I have gotten the run marks to dark, but I will try to wipe them down to lessen the effect. I panel liked with Tamiya XF-53 Neutral Grey. I started with a black but it looked to dark. I was much happier with the Grey. I thinned it with Alcohol and added Liqutex Flow-aid and Slow-Dri to it.

Contact me at josborn@happinessismandatory.com