Millennium Falcon - 1/144 Fine Molds (2)

With little modification needed for this kit, I decided to put a bit of effort in painting. One thing about the Millennium Falcon is the weathered feel it had, now come to think of it, I've never seen a picture of a brand-new factory roll-out type Falcon! The box art itself can provide a bit of reference to how it should be weathered, but for more details I've turned to something else: 

"Sculpting a Galaxy". I came across this book once and I know I must have it! It contains the details of all the models props used in all 6 Star wars movies. 

Also there was this Youtube 4 part tutorial that I found on building the 1/72 Falcon kit, it's a different scale, but the same can still apply. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRv95ZFWLl8

So back to the kit, I start by making the dents and bullet (laser?) holes. I've seen others add the dent until the end when the painting is done, though I thought doing it before will be easier to control, and the dents should come out once I applying the weathering effect. 

There's another set of scratch marks on the other side on the ship, as well as random dents on other parts of the ship. Once this is done I prime it with Mr Surfacer 1000 and move on to the paint.

Here are all the parts (excluding the top and bottom half). That's it, on one tray.

I've decided to go with the recommended colors from Fine Molds. Mr Color 338 for the base. Turns out the actual color of the Falcon is more pale and a bit yellowish, But I stick with it anyway, again hoping the weathering will lighten the tone a bit. once the base is done I add a bit of shadow effect on the Falcon.

Next are the red and gray patches on the body, Fine Molds has included a very detailed coloring scheme with the kit, as well as a sheet of water decals for the patches if you opt for a simpler build. 

First the gray: 

 

The the red, as with the gray, it takes a bit of masking. (Quite alot in fact!). Most of the places I used masking tape, and for round corners and some difficult surfaces, masking solution. 

 

And last the yellow patches. I never know the Falcon has yellow until I built this kit. With these out of the way, the last thing that needs to be done are the weathering and detailing. Guess I'll open a new section for that. 

Millennium Falcon - 1/144 Fine Molds (1)

Back in December 2012, while I was waiting for the paint to dry on the Miku BMW, I was thinking of something simple to work on, one that doesn't take as long as the Miku BMW. (took me almost 5 months to finish) So from the depths of my model pile, I pulled this kit out.....

The 1/144 Millennium Falcon from Fine molds. I do have to say this is probably the best Falcon kit out there. Yes, Fine Molds has a 1/72 kit of the Falcon as well, more detailed, but it has like 10 times more parts and costs a lot more. And if you have bought the Star Wars candy toys from F-Toys, this Falcon will look great beside them. They're the same scale!  (I think that's why Fine Molds release this 1/144 kit)

Anyway back to the build, again like the BMW, by the time I am writing this blog, the kit is already completed. I finished this one in a record breaking time though...Just ONE month! At least it's a personal record.

So after a quite look, there isn't much to work with, the top and bottom half is molded in 2 seperate pieces, nothing dramatic here..

The only major complain I have with this kit are the turrets, Fine Molds has sealed the turret housing and put kind of make a "panel" on it, not quite what the orginal looks like. With the windows put on it looks even worse...

So 2 things have to be done, remove the panels and built the housing back into the turrets. In order to find the correct size for the housing, I printed a paper template with different sizes to see which one fits best:

Once the right size is chosen, I can build my housing around the template, I used 0.3mm plastic board so I can see through to the template even when I put the board on top.

And with a bit of left over materials, I built the seats as well:

Now putting everything back on...looks much better! Though in the end the turret will cover most of it...

A last bit of extra: a small strip on the front tip piece...It looks a bit strange if it's all flat...

That's all for the build, it's a pretty easy but detailed kit, so nothing more needs to be done. (And I want to finish it quick!) Next round will be the painting and weathering.