Vehicle Supplies TIE Fighter - (Vintage or POTF2 body) TIE Fighter - (second one optional) TIE Interceptor - (3 optional wings)	Supplies and Tools 5 Minute epoxy 1 1.5" PVC end cap 3 3.75" lengths of ¾" pvc 3 ¾" pvc end caps 2 48" lengths of 1/8" x 3-¾" Polystyrene 1 can PVC glue 2 4-½" lengths of wire 1 can model master spray 1920 1 bottle matching color brush on 1 can PVC glue 1 can model master spray 1920 1 bottle matching color brush on
Step 1 Start off by seperating the wing struts and battery compartment from the body or the sphere of the tie fighter. I sperated these pieces by scoring the joint repeatedly where they joined the sphere, with a tipless Xacto knife blade. Now you can use a new knife blade to do this but , I wouldn’t recommend it. First you’re more than likely going to chip off the tip anyway and, second it’s very prone to drift left and right while scoring the seperating line. You can remove the wing struts without taking the two halves of the main body apart, but you may have some problems with the battery compartmentwhen you try to separate it. The battery compartment has 2 screw posts that are very close to the joint you are trying to separate, and they tend to get in the way. I took the ship aparth and cut them from inside using a dremel and a cutoff wheel. After you have seperated all of the pieces , save the wing struts you will need them for later.
Step 2 Now take the 1.5" endcap and mark it with lines at 0 , 120 and 240 degrees. These marks are where the wing struts will be placed. If you are using the original wing struts go ahead and sand them all to fit onto the endcap .You will also need to obtain one more strut from an additional tie fighter body . Glue into place using 5-minute epoxy.
Step 2A (Optional) If you would like to retain the light and sound effects from the vintage tie fighter this is how you do it. At the 0 degree mark cut 2-1/16" holes into the 1.5" endcap. 180 degrees opposite this cut another hole for a pushbutton switch to fit. To wire the circuit you can use the springs from the original battery compartment and cut them in half . Now solder about 4" of wire to each of the springs. Place one of these springs through one of the holes in the endcap, and epoxy the spring into place on top of the endcap. Take the second wire and put it through the other whole, tie a small loop into the wire about 1" from the end . This is so the wire doesn’t accidentally get pulled out. Now attach the pushbutton switch into its hole. Solder the knotted wire to one of the pushbutton leads. Where done with the electronics for the moment. Now take the 3 pvc pipes and round them to match the outside diameter of the endcap. Using pvc glue , glue them at each of the marks around the outside. These will be the new wing struts.Make sure that the 2 springs are inside one of them. Don’t glue the endcaps to the wing struts at this time you may have to reposition them once the wings are attached. Take one of the endcaps and glue the long wire with the spring onto the inside of it. To finish this step off solder the leads from the ship main body , one to the pushbutton, the other to the second battery lead.
Step 3 Screw and glue the two halves of the main body together. Once they are dry, glue the endcap with wing struts to the sphere using 5-minute epoxy. You will have to hold it in position until the glue sets, use your eyeballs to make sure the orientation looks right.
Step 4 Now you probably have about 4 gaping holes left in the body you have to fill, here’s how I did it. I took Great stuff foam sealer and sprayed about 1/3 of the volume of the holes with it . Be careful not to use too much of this stuff as it has a tendency to really expand a lot. Once it is hardened Cut and sand it down till it is even with the surface of the sphere. I then applied several layers of 5 minute epoxy on top of the foam to make a hard non porous surface . After the epoxy has dried sand it smooth.
Step 5 If you are fabulously wealthy, and just happen to have 3 tie interceptor wings lying around, you can go ahead and use those and skip this particular step. Now for the rest of us, We’ll just have to go and make a set of wings for our toy.. Using the polystyrene You’ll need to mark the 2 shapes of the wings onto the pieces so that you can cut them out and glue them together. On the styrene decide which is the bottom and the top. From the corner end of one piece of polystyrene mark a 60-degree line across the piece. Measure in from that same corner12.5" and mark a 34 degree line back in the opposite direction. Now measure off 4-7/16" from the last angle and mark off another 0-degree mark, you now have 2 wing pieces marked. Just continue this until you have 6. For the joining piece all you need is a rectangle 3-¾" bu 3-3/16" . The easiest way to cut these out that I found was to score along the marks with the same Xacto, and snap off the pieces just like cutting glass. Now take the rectangular pieces and bevel the edges along the 3-¾" side to a 53 degree angle. Cut holes into the square piece so that it will fit the piece that you intend to attach it to the ship with. Use 2 screw holes for the PVC or cut 4 slits for the original supports. Now glue the 3 wing pieces together, with an offset of 23/16" , you may also want to add a piece of scrap at a 127 degree angle to the inside of the wings, so that they will have additional support.
Step 6 Beyond this point You’ll have to decide what you want to do to decorate the ship. For the wings you can add textured polystyrene to simulate the texturing on the wings. Or you can score lines into the wings using an Xacto. Your own taste and budget will have to decide.
Step 7 Your basic toy is done at this point, now all you have to do is finish it. Remove the connectors from the wings so that the wings and the body can be painted seperately. First prime everything. As that will give the best appearsnce when done. Paint the main body and pylons with model master 1920. This color roughly matches the color of the Darth vader Tie. Paint the wings a flat black, allow this to dry and go back and do the trim and edges with a matching brush on.
Tip provided by:  scott_mills@hotmail.com Scott Mills