scratchy
It just happens.....
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2011
- Messages
- 187
I was looking forward to this group build for some time now and I'm glad it's finally under way. Let's give the ISD a rest. I'm building the Fine Molds 1/144 Millennium Falcon, this will be my first Falcon build and my first finished kit in my adult life.
All in all, it's a very nice detailed kit for it's size, however.... there are some areas that I'm going to work on, like the engine vents, the details that are missing, the gunner stations, cockpit, conduit tubing.... and probally a lot more before it's ready for prime.
First, the radar dish. I found it to be too small, so I vacuum formed a new dish and cut a nice thin styrene ring for the perimeter edge, I modelled this after a three inch Plastruct flat dish..... here's the first pic,
Here's a comparrison shot of the original part and my scratched dish. The dish is the same width as the cockpit tube....
I have four small progress pics showing the evolution of the dish just to the right of the image. I have the thin strips of plastic details on the back. I made this with stretched sprue..... I'f you've seen any of my other projects on various site, stretch sprue is a very well used item that I use
There's also a side profile shot, I'm happy with the shape of it. the bottom two pics on the right show the radar dish frame. I wanted an articulated frame, the one that came with the kit was, once glued together, one solid piece.
In the main pic, you'll see the radar dish and frame in it's place. FYI: the base that the frame gets glued to is in the wrong orientation. I'f you're building this kit, you will want to shave the "key" that's molded to the locator pin.... check any studio scale reference pics that you may have.
I placed the Big O chunk of sprue that needs to be cut out of the gunner station in the pic for a reason. It's this piece that I'll be turning on my rotary tool to make the center shroud for the dish.
In this pic, I have three pics just off to the right showing the construction of the shroud. I modelled it from the vintage Airfix Saturn V shroud. Turning that chunk of sprue until I got something that I like.
The dish is shown how it is now.....
I'm just working on the back details and then I'll work on the frame...
All in all, it's a very nice detailed kit for it's size, however.... there are some areas that I'm going to work on, like the engine vents, the details that are missing, the gunner stations, cockpit, conduit tubing.... and probally a lot more before it's ready for prime.
First, the radar dish. I found it to be too small, so I vacuum formed a new dish and cut a nice thin styrene ring for the perimeter edge, I modelled this after a three inch Plastruct flat dish..... here's the first pic,
Here's a comparrison shot of the original part and my scratched dish. The dish is the same width as the cockpit tube....
I have four small progress pics showing the evolution of the dish just to the right of the image. I have the thin strips of plastic details on the back. I made this with stretched sprue..... I'f you've seen any of my other projects on various site, stretch sprue is a very well used item that I use
There's also a side profile shot, I'm happy with the shape of it. the bottom two pics on the right show the radar dish frame. I wanted an articulated frame, the one that came with the kit was, once glued together, one solid piece.
In the main pic, you'll see the radar dish and frame in it's place. FYI: the base that the frame gets glued to is in the wrong orientation. I'f you're building this kit, you will want to shave the "key" that's molded to the locator pin.... check any studio scale reference pics that you may have.
I placed the Big O chunk of sprue that needs to be cut out of the gunner station in the pic for a reason. It's this piece that I'll be turning on my rotary tool to make the center shroud for the dish.
In this pic, I have three pics just off to the right showing the construction of the shroud. I modelled it from the vintage Airfix Saturn V shroud. Turning that chunk of sprue until I got something that I like.
The dish is shown how it is now.....
I'm just working on the back details and then I'll work on the frame...