Hi Everyone,

This will be my new build diary for my Millennium Falcon Build. I will be going back through my photo library and repost many of the pictures from my original diary. Thanks to a photo sharing site (who shall not be named), my original diary has become a confusing mess and way too much work to try and fix. So here we go.

It has been almost two years ago that I started this journey and what a journey it has been. I had always wanted to build a good replica of the Falcon since the first time I saw Star Wars. Many failed attempts (scratch builds) and life in general made it seem that that dream would never really happen. Then I came across an add for this model and started looking into videos and the forum to see what it was all about. I was hooked by all the great builds I saw online and finally took the plunge.

So for this diary, I thought I would break it up into sections and post pictures from each part of the build.

The Cockpit Interior:

So most of the cockpit interior was repainted and weathered to give it a more realistic look. A few changes I made included adding some wood to fill in the door cavity and make it flush with the back wall. I also removed the pegs for the rear seats to allow the seats to be placed in the cockpit an angle. i figured this would give the interior a bit more interest. I also changed the rear chairs and used ones I purchased from Shapeways. The third chair I used in the cargo hold. Shapeways makes some nice add-ons for this model, but they are pricey. I figured I would go all out on this one. I also made my first attempt at adding fiber optics to the model. It was somewhat successful. I would warn anyone to not use CA glue with your fiber optic wire. Had several become very brittle and break off. I would also advise leaving your fiber optic wire as long as possible. It will definitely make things easier later when you attach everything. Here are some pictures of the cockpit as it was being built.

Happy Modelling,

Stephen

Hi Stephen, great your getting your post back. Nice to see your progression.

Mark

Hi Everyone,

More Wall Details, Shapeways Extras and our first visitor to the model.

Now that the floor is done, I started working on the seating area and the game table. I altered the seats a bit and left a couple of the back pieces off. A bit of putty and some sanding cleaned up the holes so it looked like it was always that way. The seats were painted an off white color and then weathered with dark mud oil paint. The bed bay padding was painted and weathered in the same manner.

I also picked up a bunch of cargo bits from Shapeways to add some clutter to the cargo hold. Everything was primed, painted and then weathered with dark rust or engine grease oil paint. After playing around with the layout, I found something was happy with.

The walls got some detail added to them with some beads and wiring. It's not the most accurate way it could have been done, but it does create a busy effect in the hold area which was what I was going for.

I did try to add fiber optics around the seating area, but could only get about 5 strands to fit in the very tight space. The new navigation console went much better as I could feed the strands through before installing it. The very same lights are .25mm and the larger ones are .50mm. I used my desk lamp to get effect for the picture.

Finally, I ordered the R2-D2 figure from Shapeways. He was a bit small, but I managed the details with a fine tipped brush and a cocktail stick. My 6 inch figure was used as a reference model. He fits in nicely with everything, I think.

Thanks for looking in,

Stephen

Hi Everyone,

More Wall Details for the Cargo Hold.

I found several of the walls in the cargo hold to be lacking in much detail. Using stuff like beads and wiring, I was able to create some details that add interest to these areas. Although, much of this is not screen accurate, I think the result still came out fairly well and gave the area the busy look I was going for. Here are some pictures:

Regards,

Stephen

Fantastic work with all the extra detailing Stephen

Very nice detailing, love what you've done with the corridor lights.

Mark

Hi Everyone,

Bottom Hull Plating

I spent quite a bit of time looking for the best way to paint the hull. I wanted something that looked realistic and not airbrushed. I finally settled on a mixture of acrylics for the base coat and oil paint and pastels for the weathering. I found a great set of paints from DOA to use for the base coat. The oil paints are from the 502 Abteilung series of paints. I found the oil paints allowed more time to achieve the weathered look I was going for due to their slow drying time.

I used the following steps to paint the hull panels:

1) Spray panels with Tamiya Light Grey Fine Surface Primer in Aerosol Can

2) Airbrush shadows around hull plates using Tamiya German Grey.

3) Airbrush hull panels using DOA ESB (Empire Strikes Back) Shade

4) Airbrush hull panels highlights using DOA NH (New Hope) Shade

5) Mask off random panels and airbrush using DOA Panel Grime, DOA Concrete and DOA Hull Plating Shade 1, 2 and 3. This step took the most time due to all the masking of panels required.

6) Lightly airbrush entire surface agaIn using DOA ESB Shade.

7) Mask off and airbrush panels that are going to be other various colors. (Red, Light Grey and Dark Grey.) All these panels were first airbrushed with Tamiya German Grey as a base coat. This gave the red panels a deeper color that I liked much better than painting them only with the red DOA paint. I also spray the surface with hairspray before I airbrushed the color in to allow for paint chipping.

8) Weathered the surface using a very diluted mixture 502 Abteilung Faded Navy Blue, Dark Mud and Dark Rust. Then i left this to dry at least for a day.

9) A second coat of weather was then added using a diluted mixture of 502 Abteilung Dark Rust, German Ochre and Starship Filth (A Dark Grey) Let this dry for a day or so.

10) Added streaking and grime using more 502 Abteilung Starship Filth.

11) Used a Tamiya Weather Pastels Kits to add Rust Streaks and more grime.

A long process, but I was very happy with the results. Here are some pictures of the process.


Regards,

Stephen

Great looking build and lots of impressive detailing

Al

Some very nice painting, you have got some good toning to it.

Mark

Really like your weathering on this great stuff regards Phil