Galactic Republic SR-172

[Weaver]

Second of my placeholders: not starting either of them yet because, although I'm out of hospital, I'm not quite on a even keel meds-wise, so I need to sort that out first. Shouldn't take too long though.

Project 2: Galactic Republic SR-172

This is based on a Revell Star Wars Easykit ARC-170 fighter. It comes pre-painted, but I'll be completely re-spraying it (yes, it's been okayed by the mods). It will be a special sub-variant, modified to trade much of it's armament for a bulky and inconvenient sensor suite needed to counter a particular CIS tactic involving shielded drones. (I'll have to do more work on the backstory since I'm not super au-fait with the Clone Wars). Think of it as the sci-fi equivalent of a P-61 Black Widow converted for ELINT duties.

[Tophe]

This is based on a Revell Star Wars Easykit ARC-170 fighter.

I don't know sci-fi famous craft but Google showed me:
https://www.amazon.fr/Revell-63606-Model-Maquette-Star/dp/B01N55KE35
Interesting basis, yes!

[Weaver]

Yes that's the one, but it's this boxing:

[Tophe]

Wow, what a basis! (if you transform it even better)

[Weaver]

The idea is that the big guns will be replaced by a pair of sensor pods which are deployed on the end of very long cables by spinning the whole craft. There will also be a pair of long probes extending from the back. The two flex guns will be repositioned, one replacing the droid slot in the top to give it a 360x180 deg arc of fire (curiously, there's no droid supplied in the kit) and the other fixed on the side of the nose.

Markings may be a problem: because it's pre-painted, there are no decals. I'll have to see what's available.

I think it's a pretty solid assumption that the ARC-170 'drew inspiration' from the P-61 Black Widow.

[Tophe]

 

[Weaver]

Interesting: it looks like the 'proper' kit and the Easykit are two different mouldings in different scales.

The 'proper' one is universally described as 1/83rd scale, although I don't know if anybody's checked that or if they're just copying it off the box. If it's the latter, then it might still be dubious: I've compared the scale of Revell Star Wars kits before and at least some of the box-text scales can't possibly be right.

The Easykit one doesn't have a scale on the box, at least not the boxing that I've got. It does, however, have model dimensions and 'real' dimensions and assuming those are right, it's about 1/67th scale, and that feels right looking at it. However I see it listed in some places as 1/40th, but I have no idea where they get that from.

One problem assessing it's scale is that I don't have any crew figures for it. It's supposed to have them, but because of the pre-painting they come off-the-sprues in a plastic bag, and I've either lost it or never had it. If I've never had it, that might explain why the kit was cheap at a model show (it must have been: I'd never have paid full retail for it).