What A Piece of Junk...

[KungFuDrew]

"You came here in that thing? You're braver than I thought"

So this is going to be my build for this sig:


Bandai's 1/144 Millennium Falcon.

This is the version that appeared in The Force Awakens, with the rectangular radar dish, cause Lando couldn't fly straight...
Is there anything you can say about the Falcon that hasn't been said before? She'll make .5 past light speed, and she's got it where it counts, kid. Plus, she did the Kessel run in under 14 12 parsecs.

Lots of lovely plastic in separate bags


This is the base, not sure if I'm going to use it yet


Anyways, onwards!
ILM famously used bits of of other model kits to "busy up" the look of their spaceships, and make them look more real. I built the Bandai TIE fighter a while ago, and found a Sherman bogie on it, and I've found a few more cool things on this. This looks like a car radiator to me


And this looks suspiciously like the back end of a Panther


I also found what looks like a Sherman final drive, but I don't have a picture of that.

The only problem I've found is with the cockpit glass.

There's what looks like a crack through it, but it's not. It's 2 separate, identical scratches on the inside and outside. The outside will be easy enough to fix, the inside will be tricky to get to though.

On with the build! It starts with the cockpit.


The detail is superb considering this is a 1/144 scale kit.


I've got the 2 front "prongs" assembled as well


The detail and fit on these parts is fantastic as well.
So that's where I am now, thanks for looking in!

[Twokidsnosleep]

Awesome project
Welcome to the Sci fi sig, prepare for craziness

Isn’t a parsec a measure of distance and not time???

[ForbesHutton]

Awesome project
Welcome to the Sci fi sig, prepare for craziness

Isn’t a parsec a measure of distance and not time???

That's like when a cop pulls you over for speeding and claims you were doing "90mph". In order to have a speed of 90mph, you would have to drive for one hour and cover a distance of 90 miles. What the cop found objectionable was actually your velocity, which is properly measured in feet per second or meters per second. It's a great discussion to have with the cop, and half the time results in the cop telling you to go away without a ticket. If you bring a physicist as a witness to court and explain why they'll withdraw the charge before you call the witness. BTW, you can find out if your country is racist and use that in court, in Ontario (Canada) courts you have a right to "a translator in the language of your choice". As the Ontario courts don't have any approved Gaelic translators (but they have translators for over 100 other languages) the charges are withdrawn. Even had one Crown Attorney (prosecutor) claim that "Garlic isn't a real language", Judge Campbell was not amused....

[Stokesy44]

Bit of trivia for you.

A serious nerd did a study and found that the Falcon is actually bigger on the inside than on the outside. The dimensions don't add up so its an accidental Tardis.

As for kit bashing, there's a whole Porsche transmission on each side of the bow mandibles!

[Tomcat64]

Looking forward to seeing this come together

Always amazed at the level of detail Bandai managed to get into 1/144

[KungFuDrew]

Thanks guys!

Bit of trivia for you.

A serious nerd did a study and found that the Falcon is actually bigger on the inside than on the outside. The dimensions don't add up so its an accidental Tardis.

As for kit bashing, there's a whole Porsche transmission on each side of the bow mandibles!

I'm not surprised. I think a lot of people forget that George Lucas wasn't looking to make a proper sci-fi movie, he was making a tribute to the old Flash Gordon serials he watched when he was a kid. Same thing with parsec, he just thought it sounded cool.

Also found the transmission


Jagdpanther anyone?


So anyone who's made one of these Bandai kits knows that they fall together, I was able to get the entire thing assembled in the space of a day. Here's the bottom with the recessed panels, and the walls around the side



The detail on the walls and recessed panels is once again top notch, should look great under paint and a wash!

Same deal on the top



And here she is dry fitted together. It's at this point you can decide whether to use the landing gear or not. I've decided not to use the base and have her with the landing gear extended. The good thing is you can leave the gear unglued and swap them out for gear up.


The gear and various other odds and sods assembled





All dry fitted together


That plastic is the perfect colour to white-out my camera!

Now it's on to what'll be the challenging part of this kit, the painting. I've got both gunners positions painted, as well as the cockpit. I didn't want to spend too much time obsessing over these considering the scale of the kit and how much you'll actually be able to see



It doesn't help that they're black as well. The pit does have some red and blue switches inside, the camera just has a hard time picking them up.

I painted the engines as well. I couldn't find a picture of them off, so I just went with a dark blue



I'll paint the grate that goes over the top of it, and then mask it off.

So that's where I am now, comments, critique and criticism all welcome!

[DBMiller]

She may have been a piece of junk to a princess but to me she was one of the coolest ships ever!

[digger303]

She may have been a piece of junk to a princess but to me she was one of the coolest ships ever!

[aur0ra145]

This is one fun little kit. Glad to see it's coming along well!