G’day Lundin ,

Really like what you’re doing with this vehicle , and making it a non Falcon is sweet ! . After all the YT - 1300 series was a pretty good seller for the Corellian Engineering Corporation , so it’s only reasonable that this version you’ve decided to ‘ replicate ‘ existed in that very same galaxy , along time ago and far , far away !

Your concept for the diorama / table is also very interesting .

Just wanted to offer an idea regarding your diorama , and how to possibly show that the Empires presence is still evident .
You’ve already mentioned stormtrooper figures ( Shapeways ? ) , but since you’re also placing the ship with commercial (?) buildings around it , kinda reminds me of a bus port / transport hub . What about making/printing some Imperial inspired ( logo - wise ) posters , flags/pennants , signs ..etc... ( to scale ) , placed in and around the structures as well ?

Anyhoo , thanks for sharing this terrific and intriguing project . Looking forward to seeing how she turns out .

Best regards ,

Ged

Hi, G'day and thanks guys.

The base of the table is right now 1050x1050 milimeter, so 3,4x3,4 feet. The ship is 800 mm long (2,6 feet), that leaves me about 10 inches of space, 5 inches front and back of the ship.
That is not much.
But if the ship is placed diagonally and the diorama is also a bit rotated I can get more space and a more intresting layout.
I might add on to the size a bit. 2 inches on each side maybe.

I am currently painting the landing legs. I need them finished so I can place the ship on the table to start planning in full size.
3D and vizualisations will only get you so far.

I don't want to make the table too small, it will feel too cramped. So a bit larger but tight enough for a skilled pilot to land.

Some time ago I made a collage of images for inspiration, but I am not sure I can post that image because I dont have ownership of them.
Ralph McQuarrie has made a few images that inspires me.
One is the wellknown cantina painting, with C3PO, a stormtrooper and monkey aliens among some pillars. I want a view close to that when looking through the windows on the sides of the table, but with the ship visible outside.

Another one is the Docking Bay 94 painting. I like the heavy ceiling in that one.

For the design or architecture of the buildings I sketch and copy whatever StarWars architecture I can find and like, and try to "program" my mind to draw StarWars buildings.
Sounds a bit crazy, but it kind of works. After enough input there will be StarWars inspired dribble on the paper.

I am just looking for the big shapes right now, The detailing and superdetailing will be later.

I cut the hatches like this. Tried to follow the center lines.


And all the legs are painted.


Some closeups.



On the first images I posted of the legs, my test leg, I used just metallic paint for the metal. What I think should be metal at least.
It wasn't metal enough, but I have some of that super thin aluminium foil so I used that instead.
That gave the legs a bit more spark I think. Something that really shines.
The foil became crumbled on a few places, but who cares.
Those hatches are going to cover most of them anyway.

The legs are mainly red and orange. The original color that matches the orange of the underside of the ship. With some parts changed and recycled from other ships.

I will probably go over them all with some metallic paint to add highlights later on in the build, when I can see what the whole ship will look like.

I thought about doing some salt-weathering but that might overdo it. I rather sit and do it by hand with a brush and paint.
I am very happy with the result.

They are looking great, you don’t realise just how much time and effort go into the landing legs them selves.

Mark

Some nice colouring going on, it will be nice to see your final finish, but I know that will a while yet. Keep up the good work.

Mark

After an all-nighter I ended up with this result.


I started with a small area in the back of the underside of the ship for testing.
I masked off plates and airbrushed, removed masking, masked new areas, and so on.
It took so much time so I started to airbrush freehand with only a piece of paper as a mask.
It was quick and flexible enough.
I airbrushed the different orange colors I made previously all over the ship, a hullplate here and there, always trying to do it randomly, then switched color and continued until I had removed most of the shiny primer.

Then I started to lighten the darker hullplates with a lighter orange that I already used, and darken the lighter plates the same way, to give it a more homogeneous look.

The ceiling lamp is making the center of the ship more yellow in the photo. Its pretty much the same colors all over the ship.

The edges are not sharp, they kinda follow the edges of the plates.
I think it actually is better this way than the perfectly masked result.
This way I think parts of the weathering is already done.
With some darker weathering around the plates and in the lines between the plates it will look like the plates are more distinct.

I still need to add the random off-colored plates.

Since I am very happy with this result,I am considering to cover it all with a clearcoat to protect it.

Not much happening to the model right now. My model is standing upside down on a pedestal and I am trying to not knock it down.
I am thinking about it every day though. Hopefully something will happen to it this weekend.

But there is some progress.
I do some work on the panorama design from time to time. Its all very "all over the place" right now. I kinda know where I want to go but I haven't nailed it in my sketches yet.

I bought a new material, "Oyumaru". Found it on Amazon.
Just seen it in youtube clips. But I wanted to try it, if its any good and useful.
It's a termoplastic that can be used for reusable molds.
Anyone tried it?

After looking at the yellow cockpit for a few weeks I think the way it's painted now will be too much yellow. It's still just a first coat of primer, so... it's just primer. Must have primer.
I think it should be much less yellow. Maybe the large cockpit tube with the windows and then some more hullplates.
Whatever feels like a logical way to replace those hullplates and cockpit.

I felt like I wanted to do some work on the panorama tonight, so I did. In 3d.
Here is the result.

Same old plywood box that will be the table with glass on top. I think the measurements are in a previous post.
The ship is a model I found somewhere. I just put my colorful sketch with a green falcon ontop of it to use as a color reference. It's really badly mapped onto the model. I know.

Right now the ship looks very small, or the table looks huge compared to the ship, so maybe I have scaled something wrong. I need to check that.

Some of the buildings are the DeathStar tiles that I have posted before, and then a few weeks ago I modeled some of the buildings that can be seen in the huge model of Disney's StarWars-land. Mainly cylindrical buildings. I put a few of those in as well.
I just crammed it in, didn't care about them sharing same space as the rocks. Looked cool that way.
Here is the result and I like it.



I like that its part buildings and part rocks. Feels more like a pirate/traders outpost than a city.
It's still a square with room for a landingpad in the middle.
I want more buildings though, like a settlement or a village rather than a city. I l ike the buildings even though they look like they belong in a city.

It feels like they found a nice place to land their ship, a natural flat surface at the bottom of a sinkhole or something. And then some people moved in or were transported there and a small settlement and base slowly grew up inside the sinkhole.

I would like some levels on the ground. Right now it's just one big surface.
I will need some sort of difference in height anyway because I have the cargolift extends lower under the ship than the landing legs.

Maybe an old temple, carved from the rocks, like in ancient city of Petra, and now sharing rockwalls with more modern shapes and materials.

Maybe they are miners. Hm.

I really need to check the scale on everything. I don't want to fall in love in a diorama that I will not be able to build and have space for indoors.

Fabulous! Planning and attention to detail are all of the highest level.

Rich.

I have scaled up the ship. It was 15% too small compared to the diorama. I have already built the base for it and I rather not rebuild it.

This should be correct.

I also played a bit with the colors. I want it red/orange to be a contrast to the ship.


I am thinking I should make the top edge of the table a bit wider so I can hide a couple of ramps of LED-lights under it. And the sheet of glass would be smaller that way, and cheaper.

I am also thinking about doing all sides in glass, just keep some wooden framing to hold everything together.
It would be like a giant antfarm, or like one of the illustrations in the illustrated StarWars books "Cross-sections" and "Locations". I really like the one with Jabbas palace.
Maybe that illustration is guiding me subconsciously with the red color of the rocks.

I always wanted a few windows in the wodden sides to see into the buildings from the back and at the same time see the open square outside with the ship in the background.

I like the antfarm idea, because it would give more opportunities to create interiors and a lot of fun interactions with scale figurines.

Lots to think about.