by Paul Myhill

As you can see from the pictures this started life as a cut-away Millennium Falcon kit made by AMT/Ertl.

Because this kit was going to be illuminated and also because of the reduction in height the interior sections were discarded right from the start. Once I had decided that, the next thing was to set about removing nearly all the original mouldings from the top rear section around the six discs. This was done by chiselling away the raised lines and details with a craft knife until there was nothing but smooth grey plastic. Any holes that appeared were filled with putty and then sanded flat. This then provided a near blank canvas onto which copious amounts of styrene sheet and a few kitbashed parts could be added to create a slightly more accurate looking panel. The sidewalls were all trimmed by about a quarter inch and subjected to the same treatment as the rear panel, smoothed flat then more accurate details added again with sheet styrene cut to shape and glued in place.

I decided also to add the two extra landing gear bays on the underside. These were fashioned again with sheet styrene. Firstly I made the rough box shapes and then set about cutting a little here and there until they fitted snugly in place. After the two basic boxes were glued into place I then added the panelling detail using, yep you guessed, more sheet styrene. Adding the two extra bays also meant I had to alter the lower fuselage ‘pits’ by cutting out sections on either side. I always intended to make this kit with the landing gear extended so by adding the two new bays I also had to now scratch two new struts. This gave me to opportunity to junk the existing kit parts for the feet and scratch a full set of new, more accurate ones. I made the new struts with styrene tube of various diameters and retained the kit struts for the front and rear. The ‘discs’ which sit at the bottom of each strut were drilled around the edges. Using a craft knife I then squared out each drill hole very carefully.

The model is illuminated using LED’s. There are four blue in the rear for the engine glow, two white in the front mandibles for the nav lights, two white in the upper gun bay and two white for the cockpit which feed a number of fibre optics. Now this was originally going to be it, but I then decided to add some extra detail around the boarding ramp and thought it would be a nice touch to have that illuminated as well. So I added an extra white and green LED. All the LED’s are wired in parallel with the appropriate resistors and run from a single 9V battery. The battery and on/off switch are housed in the rear lower fuselage between the landing gear bays. I fashioned a couple of small hinges and a latch so that I could access the battery and switch but still be able to keep everything self contained.

With regard to the boarding ramp, the original kit parts offer zero detail. Because of this and because I was now going to illuminate this area I decided to salvage some of the interior parts I had earlier discarded. I constructed a short section of tunnel, just enough to stay visible from any angle you look into the ramp. I also had to create a small secondary ramp to hide the main ramp hinge and provide a seamless passage. This is just about visible in the photo of the ramp. There are two extra scratch built hydraulic rams and some minor side panel detail added as well. Of the two LED’s lighting up the ramp, the white one just gives some general illumination along the section of tunnel. The green one feeds into several fibre optics glued into holes drilled in the tunnel wall.

The upper gun bay kit parts were discarded and in their place I built a small box with an LED feeding into each side. In the box is also a small picture of Luke Skywalker in the gunner seat. The lower gun bay is not illuminated and has the same picture minus Luke.

The engine grille was constructed from sheet styrene in two sections like harmonicas. These were lined with silver foil and a length of clear acrylic rod which had a blue LED at each end.

Once all the interior detail was finished and all the LED’s were secured in place the whole inside was painted matt black to prevent any light bleed and the fuselage halves were finally joined together. Everything was clamped tight until the glue was well and truly set.

The last major part to work on before painting the finished kit could begin was the cockpit. I added the extra beams across the window panels and also enlarged the front circle window slightly to a more accurate size. The interior detailing was a real challenge to do. The main console was built with styrene and detailed appropriately. I then drilled several small holes into which fed more fibre optics. This can be seen clearly in the cockpit photo. The side and ceiling panels were made and detailed with yet more styrene and illuminated with lengths of thick frosted fibre optic cable to depict the large fluorescent style lights as per the cockpit from the films. I also scratch built the two rear seats and made the cockpit door more accurate although this is not really visible in any of the photos. I chose to leave the cockpit unglazed as I felt this would obscure most of the detail inside.

Now that all the basic structure was completed it was time to begin painting. After masking off the gun bay windows and cockpit the whole kit was airbrushed with a light camouflage grey enamel. When that was dry I then masked off individual surface panels which were to be a different colour from the main. In these panels I also used small blobs and streaks of latex masking fluid to give a chipped paint effect. I tried to follow the markings from the ILM model as closely as possible. The various panels were then painted in either a darker bluish grey, brick red or a beige colour. The six round panels at the rear were painted in a dark grey colour. Once all the primary painting was done I then set about attacking the model with a dremel tool to create some of the battle damage. Again following the ILM model markings as close as possible using a small burr tool I gouged and scraped away at the plastic until the appropriate damage was done. After clearing all the plastic particles away I set about giving the Falcon that seriously weathered look for which it is famous. This was done using a number of paint washes into the many panel lines and recessed areas in blacks, greys and rusty browns. I also used chalk pastels to create the numerous oily streaks and ‘carbon scoring’ over the armour plating and along the mandibles. For the final touches I again used the dremel tool and added scratches and chips where necessary. After all the painting and weathering was complete the whole thing was airbrushed with a mix of klear (future) and tamiya flat base to seal everything down.

I never kept an accurate record of how long it took to build this kit but it was several weeks at least. I had a lot of fun in making it and could have gone on with the detailing forever but had to draw the line somewhere. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Image: Front view

Image: Starboard

Image: Ramp

Image: Larger top view