Hi Everyone ... I received my first shipment yesterday, and after a trip to HobbyTown to pick up paints and various tools, I'll be starting on Issue #1 today.

My plans for the build:
- I don't plan a complete hull repaint; I will do a little weathering and hope to tone down some of the brighter color patches. (I'm still figuring out how I'll do that and think I'll probably do some test patches on styrene today just to see how it turns out).

- I'll probably do more extensive modifications to the interior; I've order the ParaGraphix cockpit and will also be looking at some ShapeWays parts.

- Inspired by Colson's build diary, I'm planning to add additional fiber optic lighting.

The ParaGraphix cockpit has openings to support being lit from behind like the OOB cockpit bulkhead. But if I'm using fiber for these, the openings are much too large. My thought at the moment is I'll install the fiber into thin styrene strips and then affix these to the back of the photoetch parts. That feels like it gives me a bit of a safety margin, I can mess up a few strips without damaging any expensive parts.

I may change my mind on how to do that when I see what others are doing .. I'm fairly inexperienced at this so I'm not sure I'll be a trailblazer at solving any challenges.

I'll try attaching a photo, nothing much to show at this point but just want to see that I can get the photo resized correctly to show inline.

Welcome aboard!
Looking at the Paragrafix set, I may need to get that myself. I'm really wanting those teeny headsets for my cockpit and gun turrets.

Welcome myawn, its great to see another Falcon builder on board.

There should be tutorials later in the build for weathring the hull which should help to tone down the bright coloured patches.

I look forward to following your build

Nicely done. I had a lot of issues with the seats and your step by step and photos really helped me understand the process.

Great Job myawn, they look really good

Looking good.I love the step by step photo sequence.I am sure that will ve very helpful to a lot of builders

Carl

Finished up the quad cannons. Set up a complex work station with a dremel workstation (drill press) and vise but in retrospect might have done just as well with a handheld pin vise.

Didn't do a great job getting those barrel holes centered but I am still pretty happy with the way everything looked when all was finished.

Now awaiting arrival of the ParaGraphix photo etch cockpit set ... that looks like it's going to be fun!

The ParaGraphix photoetch cockpit set arrived and I've been working on it several days. Not done yet, buy a long shot, but wanted to share my progress so far.

The ring that surrounds the cockpit bulkhead was nearly my undoing. I glued it to my thumb about 5 different times, and then of course when I tried to free my thumb the entire thing came loose (and was mangled into unnatural shapes and the paint finish was ruined. Finally got it in place and I think it will look OK when installed and largely out of sight, but if anyone can share tricks for working with these parts I obviously have much to learn.

Still undecided whether to use LED or fiber optic lights for the center console and main control panel. I would like to use the fiber optics (and have already purchased some) if I can make it work. I think the single large screen on the main control panel would work better as an LED but I don't think there is room to do both ... but I might see whether I can figure that out.

Next step is decals, which I'm paranoid about because several posters have said they're rather fiddly.

Nothing original in my build -- following very closely the steps shown by Iain Costall of Small Scale Futures, whose Facebook album pretty much lays out exactly the approach I've taken thus far.

I have used the Paragrafix decals on my 1/72 Falcon and they were very delicate, however I believe these have been pre sealed with a decal sealer to make them more 'workable' for novices so as long as you follow the instructions to the letter you shouldn't have a problem

More progress on the ParaGraphix cockpit.

On the rear bulkhead and surround, I got as far as doing the decals, and then ruined a few (the first one I tried, over the door, folded over on itself and when I tried to coax it back flat it ended up ripping). So I ended up ordering a replacement sheet of decals, and while waiting for those I shifted focus to working on the front half of the cockpit.

I also messed up in folding a couple of pieces and got them backwards (inside out?) The center console, in particular, was folded, painted, micro-kristal-kleared, and only when I got ready to apply the transparent paint did I realize the error. (I was trying to use the decal as a guide to colors and realized there wasn't any orientation where the decal was going to fit!) And when I unfolded / refolded that I ended up with it in 3 pieces. These are the kind of rookie errors that I guess I should expect doing photoetch for the first time. But everything eventually glued back up and I'm happy with the result.