Kit: No. 3621
Scale: 1/72
Manufacturer: Lindberg, Revell-Monogram, 8601 Waukegan Rd., Morton Grove, IL 60053-2295, 847-966-3500
Price: $18.50
Comments: Injection molded, 47 parts, decals.
The medium is television, the time is the 23rd century, the place is Babylon 5: the galaxy’s last and best chance for peace. Babylon 5 serves as a free port and diplomatic station for dozens of species. In the TV series, it becomes the nexus for all types of conflicts from civil war to galactic battles with ancient alien races.
The primary fighter of the Earth Alliance and defender of Babylon 5 is the Starfury. Since all exteriors (and even some of the interiors and characters) are computer-generated imagery, there are no “master” models of the spaceships.
After four years of waiting, “B5” fans are finally rewarded with a model kit of the Starfury fighter. (A small-scale Babylon 5 station kit is coming from Revell-Monogram this year.) The kit has a 16-page instruction manual that features large assembly diagrams and comprehensive decal-placement diagrams. The well-printed decal sheet provides markings for four attractive Starfuries. A rainbow of colors graces some of the markings.
The rear fuselage needed sanding to blend it into the fuselage halves. The large gaps around the inner wing panel edges were filled with gap-filling super glue.
I abandoned the instruction sequence and assembled the wings as separate units so I could work on the seams of the thrust pods before attaching the wings to the fuselage. To make the model easier to paint, I wanted to leave off the top wings, but they fit poorly to the fuselage. I glued them on first and left off the bottom wings (which fit better) until painting was done.
It’s easier to install the upper wing guns (17, 18) before you install the upper wing inner panels (11, 12).
I had difficulty deciding which Starfury to paint, but settled on the stealthy Black Omega. The overall color is Polly Scale scale black (a very dark gray). When the base coat was dry, I masked off several panels and edged them with a slightly lighter gray. I also airbrushed dark gray streaks on the wings and fuselage to break up the overall starkness of the base color. The cockpit tub and instrument panel were painted light gray. When the cockpit was dry, I gave it a wash of black oil paint, and dry-brushed it with an off-white to bring out the details. The wings were given two coats of Future floor polish to prepare them for decals.
The decals are well printed, but thick. After they were in place and blotted with a damp tissue to remove air bubbles, I applied a little Micro Sol and let it work for about 10 minutes, then re-blotted them with the damp tissue. With some work I was able to get the decals to snuggle down over the raised panel lines and detail.
In step nine the instructions would have you put the instrument panel decal on the inside of the canopy. It should instead be put on the inside of the instrument panel (22). I sealed the decals with another coat of Future, then finished assembly. The lower wing inner panels were not a good fit to the fuselage, so I filled the gaps with epoxy putty. When it was dry I touched up the wing joints with a brush and scale black.
The thrust nozzles and wing vanes were installed after they were dry-brushed with gray to bring out the detail. A pilot figure is provided decals for the pressure suit, and even one for a face on the helmet, but I left the pilot out of my Starfury. An overall coat of Testor clear satin produced the final finish.
My Starfury took only about 12 hours to complete – partly because of the low parts count, generally good fit, and single-color paint scheme. Assembly should prove easy even for beginners. The decals were the most difficult aspect, but since they are thick, they will stand up to rough handling. I had no printed references, so I watched several episodes of the show. The model captures the look of the computer-generated original.
– John Plzak