In Progress » YT-1380f Corellian Light Freighter

With these new commissions, I’m definitely on a Star Wars kick. Since stuff is drying and I have the motivation, I started on a new scratchbuild project. This ship is my own design for a 1/72 scale Corellian Light Freighter based on the Millennium Falcon’s design. I will build a 1/72 Fine Molds MF one of these days, but for now I don’t have the display space. This design will give me all the elements I love, but in a smaller size for my cabinet. Plus it’s fun. It’ll have plenty of details, greeblies, and lights.

I started out with a few random ideas for a 1/2 Falcon styled ship. Something that was a cross between the Outrider and the Falcon. After some thumbnail sketches I came up with my basic shape. The shape was later fleshed out more when I happened to have a 12″ ruler in my kitchen and decided to measure my gas stovetop plates to see if they’d be a good size circle for this. The shape of the grate on top where I placed the ruler and the width of the ruler made the perfect outline! Later I laid out my design from a top-view in Flash. It and what’s in my head are all I need to complete this.

I printed out the plans in 1/72 scale at 100% several times and have been cutting them out and using them as guids for cutting. I started by cutting the main hull’s top and bottom shape. Thin styrene strips were laminated over some PVC to make circles in which to connect the ribbing to. The ribs will later be filled with Airsoft balls as light filler then Bondo over that to make the shape. Then I’ll cut out the slots for the cabin and escape pod/walkway. Here’s what I got done yesterday.