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Fine Molds : Millenium Falcon |
| First Look : Build Diary : Gallery |
| General Assembly : Customization : Lighting : Painting |
| January 13, 2006 |
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The damage is done! The first thing I did is gather as much reference photos as I could. I used the Star Wars Chronicles book and the Lucasfilm Archives: From Sketch to Screen", both published by Chronicle Books and my own reference photos of the 5 foot Falcon taken at the Museum of Science, Boston. With references in hand, I started layingout the damage on the hull with a Sharpie marker. |
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I used a variety of grinding bits in the Dremel to carve out the damage. I first used this conical grinding bit to rough out the damage, then I switched to either a small or medium sized ball cutter tip or a cylindrical one for the straight gouges. |
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Here's the area right behind the radar. I'll add a little bit of epoxy putty around the gouges. Blended into the hull plates, they should look like some pretty good deformations. |
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I used some Tamiya grey modeling putty to sculpt the molten parts of the blast damage. It's sort of like Squadron Green Putty, so it's solvent-based and a bit tricky to manipulate but I worked it in around some of the carved-out blast damage and smoothed it down with a micro brush wetted in acetone. |
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Here's the docking whatever it is just behind the the cockpit. |
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I carved out the main impact crater with the ball cutter, then switched to the cylindrical cutter to carve the star-shaped blast pattern. There were conduits embedded in the crater on the 5 footer, so I'm going to do the same thing with some fine wire. |
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The damage by the right mandible is pretty interesting. It looks like an oblique impact crater, but with some kind of glancing abrasion. |
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The deed is done! But I think I made the hole too large. I might need to back it up with some greeblies. |
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Putty added, and this one is done. |
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The last bit of damage is next to the rear landing gear box on the underside. |
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It's a simple linear gash, so I just ground it out with the cylindrical grinding bit. From the photos it looks like the plating was melted and deformed around the gash so I'll replicate that with some more putty. |
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Finally some putty to make the melted part of the gash. |
| January 15, 2006 |
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Next, I cut out the notches around the perimeter of the hull and the equipment bays on top and below. It's a pretty easy fix and I think if you do nothing else to this model kit, then do this because it's the most bang for the buck in terms of improving the look of the kit. Just use a fresh hobby blade and push in on the left and then the right side of the notches, then go in diagonally to cut out the excess plastic. Finally, use the point of the blade against one of the corners and pull it against the back side of the notch to clean it out, squaring up the notch. Repeat! I said it was easy to do, not exciting. Easy! |
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Here's the first batch of subassemblies, primed and ready to go. |
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I guess I didn't have to worry about the glue smears too much. Once the primer went on, they all but disappeared! |
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I drilled out holes in the two mandible end pieces to accept the lighting. I might squeeze in some brass tubing to replicate that detail in the miniature. |
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I cut brass tubing for headlight housings.I may have to shave the LEDs epoxy down so it'll fit. |
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Added brass rod and putty to give some structural detail to the blast hit here. |
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It's looking pretty good after some primer to flatten out the slight shine and transluscency of the bare plastic and to really show off the contours of the blast. To be accurate to the 5 footer, I'm going to have to knock off that little corner bracket. |
| January 18, 2006 |
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I started seperating the mandibles to address 2 problems: to correct the angle of the mandibles, they should angle inwards a bit, and to create the hull plating overhand where the circular hull meets the mandibles. The later issue wasn't molded into the model by FineMolds, most likely for production limitations, but it is a distinctive feature of the miniature and I'd like to show that on my build up. |
| First Look : Build Diary : Gallery |
| General Assembly : Customization : Lighting : Painting |