Bandai 1:72 TIE Fighter

Starting in the hot seat... 

Preparing the inner cockpit 

Preparing the inner cockpit 

Weapons Bay 

I decided to hand-paint the screen details rather than attempt to manipulate the tiny decals that came with the kit 

I decided to hand-paint the screen details rather than attempt to manipulate the tiny decals that came with the kit 

I decided to hand-paint the screen details rather than attempt to manipulate the tiny decals that came with the kit 

Outer hull and wing strut assembly 

Outer hull and wing strut assembly 

Precision Mask from KillerbodyRC was used to protect cockpit glass during painting 

Precision Mask from KillerbodyRC was used to protect cockpit glass during painting 

Base coating complete - Incidentally my first time using an airbrush 

Wing assembly completed 

Sludge wash applied to catch recessed details... I've since learned that preshading is the better way to go. Unfortunately the wings caught some of the sludge wash, and I couldn't get back to a consistent finish I  

Final touches 

Aaaand we're done! 

Aaaand we're done! 

Or so I thought... Major rookie error here, having removed the liquid mask prior to clear-coating and then fogged up my clear acrylic cockpit glass with lacquer clear coat. I then took some poor advice to use acetone to remove the lacquer which then burned the clear acrylic 

Tried to recover using Tamiya Polishing Compounds and a 1x2mm Sanding Pen with #600 and #1000 grits 

Okay, calling it a day for real now... 

This was about as good as we could get the cockpit glass with the polishing compound and sanding pen - Certainly better than immediately following the disaster, but a long way from satisfying - A few more sanding pen grits could possibly get us to a clearer finish, but I'd treat this model as a cautionary tale and teachable moment

Not my best work, and many things I'd do differently with the benefit of hindsight...