"I've made a few special modifications myself"

After much internal debate between building a replica of the studio scale 32" filming miniature or a model of the Falcon itself, I've decided to go the custom route and build a model depicting the ship as I see it in the Star Wars universe.

I did start a studio scale build many, many MANY years ago. If I ever revisit that, it would, of course, replicate the filming prop as close as I can make it.

My first mod. The upper CEC AG-2G quad laser cannon.

The first photo shows the barrels being drilled out. Took a bit of work to get the holes centered, but I like the effect.

For the paint, I started with black primer. The base coat is Tamiya deck tan mixed with white (2 white:1 Deck tan). The barrel ends were done in Alclad manifold exhaust to give a heated metal look, and the hole are flat black. This gives a bit of definition for the eye to focus on. The rest was done with oil paint with a tiny amount of Citadel nuln oil.

The gun looks a bit factory new at this point, so the main weathering will be done further in the process so it blends into the overall scheme.

Great work on the quad! You did a great job of drilling out the barrels... looks excellent!

Main Console Mods

I wanted a bit more dimensional texture to the main console. Adding some basic styrene shapes would add a bit of depth and shape, so I used some evergreen brand parts and glued them on with Tamiya extra thin cement.

This photo shows cutting out a hole for the display, then shaping a hood out of a rectangular piece. I then added a small channel running horizontal. Using a styrene strip I scribed panel lines then glued it on top. A few other pieces for the bottom and I had a look I think captures the general feel of the console. Lastly I attached two square rods to add a ledge for the yolks to go through.



Below is where I drilled holes for fiber optics as well as the yolks and levers that will be added later.
Also, I removed the knob at the back of the center console and replaced it with a smaller brass tube and made the insert out of a square rod with a tiny piece of channel glued to the end.


Here is the assembly with Vallejo Surface Primer black applied


For painting, I used Vallejo Black Grey 71.055 as the base instead of pure black. I feel this give an in-scale look and allows for some shadow detail to be visible. Vallejo Light Grey 71.050 is the other color. After four failed attempts at getting the white panel lines painted on, I ended up using a broken tiny micro drill to hand scrape the paint off exposing the white styrene underneath. The lightest bit of overspray dulled it down a bit. I also sprayed a "near miss" of metallic black to give just a subtly hint of grunge to the upper center console.






Next up is adding the lighting effect to bring it to life. Fun stuff!

That looks great!!!!
Adam

Your console looks amazing. Can't wait to see more

I'm a fan of the cupholders in the dash! :)

I can't deny, your lighting features are really great Colson, along with your wall mods (I really like what you did there). The sticker they gave us bothers me though. Has anyone else noticed the holes for the shift knobs are a hair off?

I really like everything CR has done with the console. I believe I heard somewhere that the full size cockpit filming set used an inverted shift knob boot as the "frame" or shroud for the computer monitor. I feel like digging through my spare boxes of model cars for something similar.

Main Console Control Levers Scratch Build

I was looking for a way to replace the supplied control levers. After a couple of less than stellar attempts I came up with something that looks good to my eye. Keeping in scale and adding a bit of hard edge detail, plus providing a sturdy stem for glueing.

If anyone looses or breaks the original, this may be a viable alternative.

Seen below, I'm using using the little jumpers that are available for circuit bread boards. These are dirt cheap on fleabay and used to be available at the local radio shack before they went the way of Jango Fetts head.
I pulled the plastic coating off a grey, red and yellow jumper. Cut the grey into a few 1mm pieces using my cutting mat as a guide. The red and yellow I cut as thin as i could, about 1/2 mm so.



Next I threaded the small pieces back onto the metal leaving a space between each.
Extra thin CA glue was very sparely applied to hold them in place. I then dipped the end in the glue to create a nice round bubble on the end. A bit for drybrushing with Tamiya X-11 Chrome Silver and Chewie can throw the auxiliary power lever. Three red and a yellow match some set shots, so I went with that.


Here they are installed.


Next up. Lighting.

The scratch built control levers are far out..
Very cool and creative...

I think DeAgostini would make a lot of points with fans if they included two cockpit interiors to choose from.

1) The first, being a replica of what is present on the studio scale model built by ILM for filming. That is what is included in the kit and satisfies those wanting to build a replica of the actual prop.

2) The second would be an "in universe" interior that gives the gist of the Falcon as it appeared with the actors on screen. Of course there would be a bit of artistic license as the scales of the interior and exterior don't match up. However I think they could design a nice ESB interior that would sell the look in that scale.

With that said, I am having a lot of fun exercising my imagination to scratch build an interior