By Jim James - images & text © 2009
Additional images courtesy and © 2009 Barry Murray

Scale: 1/40 (estimated) - 8"/205mm long when built

Parts: 29 injection-molded styrene plus 2-part stand and a rubber pilot .

Instructions: Standard pictoral assembly booklet

Decals: None

MSRP: $19.95 USD (~$21.10 CAN/ € 13.34 EUR) available from Starship Modeler

Overall Rating: For a pre-painted snap kit, this isn't too bad.

Image: Second sprue

Image: Third

Image: Anakin's, in parts

Image: Pieces off the sprues

Image: Canopy and pilot

Image: Astromech droid - note the seam on the dome

Image: Really basic instructions

A few months after Revell-Germany released them in Europe, Revell USA has released two versions of the Clone Wars version of the Jedi Starfighter - Anakin's yellow ride and Obi-Wan's red one. Both kits are identical structurally (different pilot figures, of course) but the pre-painting is different.

What You Get

Inside the box are three sprues, nicely pre-painted except for the fact that someone who has no idea what weathering is has streaked grey paint over most of the parts - although not, for some strange reason, the engines and the landing gear. On the sprues are 31 nicely molded parts with a fair amount of detail. The canopy has the fin pre-painted and is very clear.

The figures (at least Obi-Wan is) are nice representations of the cartoon counterparts although they might be too small. They're also made from Revell's favorite rubber - which pretty much eliminates any idea of customizing the figure.

There's a nice stand for a change but the mounting point on the model is a rather large dimple and slot. Makes it nice and stable but ruins the looks of the model if you don't want to use the stand. Landing gear is also included, by the way, and so is a complete R2 droid.

What You Can Do With It

Frankly, apart from the messy weathering, this looks like it would make up nicely straight out of the box but who wants to do that?

To get this into a nice looking model, you're going to have to be a little creative:

• Take photos of the parts - you're going to need references after you've sprayed the whole thing with primer.
• You're going to need to figure out how to create decals for the marking (I'm thinking black design laser printed on clear decal sheet and a circle of white decal underneath). Finding art for the logos on the web is not a problem.
• Sand the locator pins. The model is designed to snap together and stay together. Sanding the pins allows you to test fit without having the pry the model apart with a crowbar to disassemble.
• Both models look pretty easy to mask - Obi-Wan's a little more so.
• If you want the canopy to open (I do), you're going to have to paint the cockpit interior ahead of time and tightly mask the canopy since it has to be installed before you assemble the fuselage.
• Seams don't look like they'll be a serious problem. The lower fuselage fits “inside” the upper piece.
• I'd consider displaying the model on the ground. You've got the landing gear and you really want to lose the out-of-scale pilot.
• The R2 model is nice. The separate legs hide most of the seams leaving a little touch up around the dome.
• And, of course, you'll need to fill that large hole underneath if you don't use the stand.

Overall

This is not a bad kit. Certainly it's above Revell's normal snap-fit kit standards and it's a nice size. It's a great kit for a young modeler just starting out but with some opportunities for the more serious modeler.