by Kurt Brown

Shortly after the events of the battle of Yavin, the Empire began testing several stealth designs including everything from specialized materials and jamming technologies and even a cloaking device. This program culminated in two designs, the T-38 TIE "Phantom" and the T-37 TIE "Stealth."

The TIE Phantom project turned into a diaster when the Rebels were able to steal a prototype of the unit, thus rendeing it's cloaking technologies useless.

The TIE Stealth was combination of legacy Republic technology along side new advances in stealthy materials and electronic counter measures (ECM.) It utilizes a top secret poly-trididium alloy which defeats 96% of all sensor technologies. However, in order for the sensor dampining alloy and ECM systems to operate effectivly, the entire ship must be coated in a black sealing cover that, while camoflauging the ship against enemy fighters, also masks it from other imprerial units - resulting in several training accidents. Thus after the failure of the TIE Phanom, and the limitations of the TIE Stealth, the entire stealth fighter project was abandoned and focus was cancelled and focus placed on systems to be used on larger support and capital ships.

The model itself is my first kit bash. It is a combination of the Revell TIE Interceptor, and Anakin's Jedi Figher snap kits. These are small prepainted snap kits that come in a foil bag. I used most of the pilot compartment from the Jedi Starfighter and modified the interior to seat the standard TIE pilot and controls (hard to see in the pictures. I then trimmed down the original panels from the Interceptor and worked to attach them to the Jedi fighter. Some aves was used to cover seams and gaps and in an attempt to make the to models match better. I painted the overall ship in black matte from Tayima with the canopy painted with a Testors' black matte paint pen.

Image: Front view

Image: Rear

Image: Top

Image: Left/front