Sunday, August 30, 2015

Building the Falcon, Entry the First

A few months ago, I decided to take the plunge and pony up the cash for a 1:1 scale model of a Millennium Falcon filming model.  That does not mean it's a full-size starship.  It means it's the same size as the model, which is roughly 36 inches.

For the sake of posterity, I'll document some stuff here.  I might be doing things out of order, but I don't care.  Because I'm scatter-brained, and the subscription system of the model means I may not get all the pieces for a part of the ship for many months.

First up, I'm working on the cargo hold/living area.  Shapeways makes up good deal of third-party parts for this model, but I'm already spending enough money.  If I had my own 3D printer, I'd probably jump at the chance to get these as schematics so I could print them off myself.  But, since I don't have one yet, I'll make do with the stuff I'm given.  For the most part.

Here's the hold floor:



Now, I tried numerous ways of getting these panels lines and grates darkened.  I tried drenching the think in Nuln Oil, but I kept pulling up the stuff in the recessed when I dabbed up the excess on the tiles.  Water-based paints will do that.

I tried the ink wash that DeAgostini recommends in the magazine, and it was darker, which was nice, but I still kept pulling up the wash in the recesses when I blotted up the excess.  In addition, it made the floor surface look even worse than the Nuln Oil did.

As an aside, if you're getting into scale modeling (or even just want to clean your house), I can't recommend enough having a bottle of Simple Green on hand.  It serves as a good paint stripper (for acrylics and water-based ink, anyway) that won't harm your plastic.  Not enough people know about this stuff.

Anyway, I watched some of DeAgostini's "build diary" tutorials, and I saw the guy doing that use a black oil paint to cover the floor, then wipe it up with a rag.  So, I tried that.  I bought some cheap black oil pant and went to town.



Not too bad.  I'm happy with it, actually.  Once this has time to dry, I might just give it another once-over to get some of the areas with less paint in them, but, for the most part, this looks great to me.  Even the stuff that didn't come up off the floor looks good.  It makes it look dirty, which, for the Falcon, is a good effect.

Once I'm done with the floor, I'll get the rest of the stuff put in.  I've got the seat mostly done.  I'm still filling in the visible seat backs with putty.  The bunk is done.  The light needs to be touched up and attached.  The starboard wall is actually complete and waiting to be put on.

Once I finish with the main hold, I'll focus on the cockpit, which I've already had to fuss over, as the instrument labels were not cut to line up with the holes in the plastic to put parts in.  I've had to do some adjusting and trimming of.  But, that discussion is for another time.

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