Hi,
Ok, this is it, first time posting a model build log. Other then my charming (and very patient) spouse, you guys will be the first to take a look upon my work. I’m not 6 years old so please fell free to criticise, but not too brutally ; confidence is slow to built… If I see this through, this will be a DIO of the Millenium Falcon as seen for the first time in New Hope (Star Wars for the purists) in docking bay 94 on Tatoine. However, the ship will be lit like in Empire (flood lights "on").
This is my first build ever and I have to say, the different techniques and all the available tips and info found on this site is fantastic.
Enough blah blah blah ….
Here we go:
What a piece of Junk
I have to be honest, when I opened the box, I was amazed at the detail on the kit… yeah, I know better now. Nevertheless, I think this kit is perfect for someone who wants to try mods.
Battle damage : First experience with a dremmel ! This is addictive
. Showing here the principal scars on top and lower dish. Following the 1/72 finemolds tutorial by Sleepylafayel, I also added scratches here and there.
No effort was made by AMT/ERTL for the cockpit ; it is inexistant. No dashboard, no back or side pannels, ah, actually, there is a clear back panel with a submarine door of some sort… ugly. So I customize my own cockpit. Butchered the original keeping only the floor (which I lowered), pilot and navigator chairs and middle console. I built a first console out of styrene but hated it so made a second one. The picture showing to whole cockpit is with the first console. The second cockpit is also made out of styrene and guitar strings were used to create the controls. Then I made a new back panel with door out of styrene (door is way to big but hey, it’s my first time). Using photoshop I created a « cockpitlike » series of dots to mimic the back wall of the falcon. Printed the whole thing on photo quality paper and sticked it on the back and side walls. Pierce holes all over the place, wired up some fiber optics and voilà ! I now find the final result is poor but I’m progressing a lot through this project so everything I do could be redone better. I want to see the end of it so I have to let some things go.
I pierced holes in the lower dish for flood lights and flight lights. Then tubing were glued on top of these holes so I can place the LEDs and give them a « flood » feel if you will. The flight lights will be fiber optics.
Painted the whole interior in black to avoid light bleed. I pierce holes for fiber optics in the landing gear as well just to get a bit of light from them. I need a few LEDs inside to power my fiber optics.
My thechnique goes as follow : I cut some aluminum tubing according to the diameter of the led to be used. LEDs must fit inside the tubing. The lenght of the tubing goes anywhere between ½ inch to 2 inches depending on the situation. The longer you have, the more control on the orientation of the fiber optics towards the light you have. Then I put a piece of heat shrink tube at the end of the aluminum tube. I leave about ½ inch of heat shrink off the aluminum tubing so that when I heat it, the heat shrink fits tight on the aluminum tube leaving ½ inch free on wich I can fit the LED. Wow, I don’t know if that makes any sense to you guys, hopefully it does…. Ok pictures.
Oh, btw, the engine grill was custom made out of styrene. 6 blue LEDs power it up. The inside of the box is covered in aluminum paper for reflection and a mesh of moskito screen and an industrial neon light diffusors were placed on the inside side of the grill to help diffuse the light and to give it a cool look !
Next, I’m planning to have the acces ramp down so we can take a peep inside. So you can expect some more scratch building in my next post.
Cheers all !
