Well I've been putting it off for a while waiting for the next batch of parts before I begin, and while doing so I'm working out a game plan (not that it's rigid mind you), but just a set of reminder guides to help me out while working on this beauty! Now mind you, I've been following everyone's builds so far and have gotten some great tips and ideas on what I want to do with mine. Until I start ripping open the packs, I'll be posting my own personal guides for this as reminders of things I need to do. So here we go...

Here are my first packs of parts... issues 1-4. My first impression was WOW. The detail is completely and totally off the chain! My second impression was that the pieces are smaller then I imagined. That's not a bad thing mind you, just that after seeing all the pics of this online all this time, the pieces seem to look bigger, but then you never really see anything else in the photos that give it a good scale. Well here's my pics. I placed a quarter next to the packs to give it a better idea of scale. I haven't taken the parts out of the packaging yet because I think I'm gonna hold off on putting things together until I get a few more pieces. Also thinking of getting some of Tony's 3D pieces on Shapeways to take this thing to the next level! In any event, I know I need to start stocking up on some paints. Most of mine are enamels and have gotten pretty old. I think I want to go with acrylics for this and am wondering which would be the most useful. I've heard Vallejo paints are good, as well as a couple of other brands, but if you got any good advice, let me know. And now here's the pics!

Everything that I received


Parts Pack #1


Parts Pack #2


Parts Pack #3


Parts Pack #4


Yeah I know... gotta get out my better camera. Was so excited I used my cell phone to take those pics!
Just a few things I'm making notes on before I begin building... ideas that I've been considering.

- Pop out the top window frame and rotate it about 15 degrees.
- Make some scans of the stickers to make decals instead. Will be committing to buying Tony's cockpit details as soon as I get the money and love the detail of the stickers, so to compromise, by doing a high-res scan of the stickers, I can print them up on photo paper, then create my own decals by spraying the print with clear gloss spray paint. When the printed parts come in, use the printed decals for the fine details. I believe I may be able to get the white long wall lights by placing a sheet of paper in the holes of the lights that will provide a good base and scatter the lights. Still trying to figure that part out yet.
- Get some self flashing LEDs in red, blue and white and use fiber optics to light the cockpit consoles... not sure if the kit will have any flashing lights or not, but it should.
- I think I'm gonna build the framework as I receive the parts. This will allow me to have the shell frame to build and then I can work on all the parts after the entire frame is together.
- Work on a good match color formula in paint that will match the hull color that the parts are provided in. I'm thinking 1 part yellow, 1 part black, 8 parts white. That should get me close but will come up with a better formula later as I start comparing on the actual parts.
- The interior seating looks off to me so far from what I've seen of some of the UK builds and after skimming thru my SW Movies, I noticed the seat backs don't go past the end of the console behind the seating on the right hand side (right side as you're sitting in the seats).
- There are also some evenly spaced small embedded black control panels with buttons or something in them. Will probably have to run some fiber optics into them.
- There are seat belts. They look like standard two strap gray seat belts but with a big round avition style buckle. There are at least 3 of them. Ben, Luke and 3PO use them in the original movie ANH as they are taking off from Mos Eisley.
- There's a dual ended cylider with lights at each end that are included with the kit but aren't lit. May have to scratch build that so it can be lit in some fashion.

I'll be adding more thoughts and ideas as I go along, but so far so good. Got alot to do and at least a fair amount of time to do it in.

Thanks Dave... Yeah... you don't know how badly I want to tear into these packs and start working on them. But I'm holding off until my next shipment comes in. I am watching everyone else already working on this beauty and getting all my ducks in a row! God it's so tempting to just rip it open. I'm probably not going to paint anything (except what needs to be painted) until all the hull parts are together. Makes no sense in painting everything as it comes in only to find that later I'll have to repaint it to get everything to match up again anyway, because no matter how hard you try, you'll never be able to keep a consistent paint job along so many stages of building. I don't care how good you are. After seeing the hull pieces and the paint jobs that are already on it, I doubt I'll have much work to get the detail that I want unless the hull pre-painting that has been done doesn't match up well at all as more pieces come in. But we'll see as time goes on! I'm just excited to be working on such an excellent kit!

Will defintely have to work on lowering the size of my photos. But can't wait to get started on this baby soon!

I belong to so many different forums, it's hard to keep up with which one allows for attachments and which ones don't. Some actually do the resizing for you, some don't. Some just allow for image links and don't display the image whatsoever. In any event, thanks for the info. Will make sure my photos are much more forum friendly in the future!

Well I got the main turret gun painted... still gotta get out my airbrush and do some more detail work on it, but I painted it a light tan... seems to match pretty well with the base color of the falcon parts. Also have to drill out the barrels, but here's what I got so far.




I've also done a bit of work on the cockpit... even thou I'Il probably be replacing it with Shapeways pieces.






I haven't added the stickers yet because I'm fixing them to be more accurate. More to come on that later.

Great start, its really good to start seeing some US build diaries taking shape

Some nice work there and some good advice, keep the pics coming

I just got Issues 21-24 yesterday and put more of the bottom hull together. It's interesting that the corridor cover is all one piece instead of two like what came in the first package. The nice thing though is that the bottom edge of the hull plating on it has the notched (unlike the first corridor pieces). In this package also came another part to the jig that is suppose to support the bottom hull during assembly to keep the shape of it from warping while working on the upper levels. Looks like about half of the bottom hull is now done. One nice thing is that this shipment also includes one of the bottom hull panels that has visible damage. It's a long streak of damage however it looks more like someone scribbled with a magic marker and then sunk in the details. Will have to fix that before painting the hull at a later stage.



Now something I highly recommend is getting yourself a small container for your screws and what-not. I found this nice little 6 compartment plastic box for beading at Wal-mart in the craft department. Its perfect for holding all the screws... here's what mine looks like:



Once I got the everything together that I could up to this issue, I noticed the weight of the whole thing. So I decided to see just how heavy just the lower hull has gotten so far. Was amazed to see that this thing is already almost 2 lbs so far (1.80 lbs)... this is without the recess, just the framing and the hull panels on the bottom so far. So the way I figure it, if this is about halfway thru the bottom half, without the center turret section, then when the whole bottom is together, I figure it'll weigh about 5 lbs (give or take a few ounces when it's all together).



Now I realize I have missed a few postings lately but don't worry. I've gotcha covered... I've watched other build logs and keep hearing people complain about the rings with the pads and how tired they were of putting them together... sure there are a lot of them. 9 total... each with 18 pads, making 182 pads total. That's a lot of pads, but here's what I did and did them all in about an hour. First I waited until I had all of them... makes it a lot easier when you have all of them together at once rather then doing them one at a time as they come in. First thing, I worked on each ring one at a time... removed all the pads from the sprue and didn't worry about sanding the sprue nubs yet.



I glued each pad on the ring...



and when dry, I sanded the nubs off to give the rings a more even look. Then I sanded the hard edges down to round them off a bit to give that look of a rounded pad.



In the end they came out looking pretty good, and couldn't help but take a few pics of them in place in the corridors to see how they look. (The last ring on the first pic I didn't sand so you can see the difference between just putting them on without sanding them down and what they look like if you do!)




I haven't put the wall cushions on yet... am working on something special to create a couple of ripped up ones to see if I can make them look good. That's it for now. More to come later!

I think the actual base color looks about dead on... just need a little weathering is all!

I've been working on these for awhile now and finally came up with a set of replacement stickers for the cockpit area. One thing that bothered me the most about the stickers that come with the kit is the fact there's no lower light bar and no greyed panels. So here's what I came up with.



As you can see, now you can tell which wall stickers go where and the lower light bar is there. I've tried them out and they line up somewhat with the backwall hole plate but I'm working on something that will fix that as well. I'm also working on the control panel with the raised lever section and the monitor hood thingy. But if anyone else would like to try these out, I'm giving them away for free so you can print them out yourself however you want to use them.

https://www.dropbox.com/...New%20Stickers.pdf?dl=0

Only thing I ask is if you use them, take pics and show me how they come out for you and how they look on your model. I can't wait to see what everyone does with them. One thing I've been thinking of doing it printing them up as decals. That acn be done fairly easily and the only color that you really can't print is WHITE... but here's the technique for those that have never done so before... here's what you need:

- Glossy Photo Paper (8.5 x 11 works best but any size you want)
- Krylon Clear Satin or Gloss Spray Paint
- A Graphic you want to print
- Bowl of warm water
- Distilled White Vineger (optional)

Using your printer set it to the highest print quality you can and print the graphic on the glossy photo paper. Let it dry over night and then spray a coat of clear paint over the top of the graphic and allow to dry completely over night once again. When done, cut out the graphic you want as close to the image as possible and place in a bowl of warm water upside down and allow it to float on the surface. Observe the water as it soaks into the paper and wait til it reaches the center and then count to 30. Pull the decal out of the water carefully and it should slide right off the paper just like any other water slide decal. To prep the surface you want to stick it to, paint it with a little Distilled White Vinegar and the decal will meld into all the crevices of the surface you put it on and will look like it's painted there. Spray a top coat of clear lacquer to seal it to the surface and viola... you have got yourself a custom made decal! Hope this helps anyone!