DeAgostini 1:1 Studio Scale Millenium Falcon Support Group and Info

FYI I hope you don't mind me posting this LrdSatyr8

Hi all Falcon builders,
DeAgostini and model space have produced a video by Steve Dymszo.THis is the first of a series of videos that go into depth about building and painting the Millennium Falcon.Here is the link to the video.I watched it already and it is awesome!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-Yaj2wlHS4

Wonderful! Now that is what I have been hoping for...concise information with helpful explanations about why things are what they are and how to best fix them...can't wait for more of these episodes!

darbyvet said:

FYI I hope you don't mind me posting this LrdSatyr8

Hi all Falcon builders,
DeAgostini and model space have produced a video by Steve Dymszo.THis is the first of a series of videos that go into depth about building and painting the Millennium Falcon.Here is the link to the video.I watched it already and it is awesome!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-Yaj2wlHS4

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Just watched it. Worth a look for everyone. Great Video.

Loved the video. I'm glad to see that there is going to be a turret interior. I agree with him 100% about the base color. I don't agonize about the exact base color used as long as it is close. With all the layers of paint, and washes you are going to drastically change the original anyway. I've warmed up the tone of a model in the past by just adding some brown to my washes if needed. I've used Insignia white as a starting base for many of my star wars models. For some reason I like Model Master Camouflage Gray for my falcons. It's a little warmer.

Great video Darby... glad to see DeAgo coming out with these. Can't wait to see future episodes!

Great video from Steve! I especially like his discussion on the merits, or rather lack there of, of obsessing about the base color. His tip of using a lacquer based base coat since it is (,ore or less) impervious to solvent washes is right on. the Floquil paints back in the day were nitro-cellulose base lacquers and would have held up to the rigorous over sprays and washes. The Floquil paints available now have been reformulated and are no longer lacquers. Tamiya rattle can spray paint are acrylic lacquer rather than NC but are just as durable.

One thing I disagree with Steve on is about solvent cements not working with ABS plastic. They work just fine. At least the solvents intended for acrylics (like Weld-On 3 & 4) do. It's possible that solvent cements intended just for styrene sold in hobby shops might not work so well. You can also use MEK solvent to glue ABS together.

Looking forward to more videos!

DaveG said:

Great video from Steve! I especially like his discussion on the merits, or rather lack there of, of obsessing about the base color. His tip of using a lacquer based base coat since it is (,ore or less) impervious to solvent washes is right on. the Floquil paints back in the day were nitro-cellulose base lacquers and would have held up to the rigorous over sprays and washes. The Floquil paints available now have been reformulated and are no longer lacquers. Tamiya rattle can spray paint are acrylic lacquer rather than NC but are just as durable.

One thing I disagree with Steve on is about solvent cements not working with ABS plastic. They work just fine. At least the solvents intended for acrylics (like Weld-On 3 & 4) do. It's possible that solvent cements intended just for styrene sold in hobby shops might not work so well. You can also use MEK solvent to glue ABS together.

Looking forward to more videos!

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with no MEK solvents available here, I'm going to try Plastic Magic cement by Deluxe.
https://www.deluxematerials.co.uk/en/rc-modelling/34-plastic-magic-5060243900210.html

Necronaut said:

with no MEK solvents available here, I'm going to try Plastic Magic cement by Deluxe.
https://www.deluxematerials.co.uk/en/rc-modelling/34-plastic-magic-5060243900210.html

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I'm finding that Tamiya extra thin (green bottle), works with ABS. Fuses the pieces together just like it should.

Plastruct Bondene says it works on ABS. My bottle is empty so I haven't been able to test it out. Anyone have any that can try it?

With the great debate of the color to paint this baby finally put to rest, I'm glad to see that Steve addressed it in the video. Its what I've been trying to say all this time. One thing he didn't mention thou, is that even with the actual model in front of you, you still couldn't get the same color because as the paint ages, it does darken over time.

Great video.

Insignia white was the colour I've thought about, because Deck Tan is not available in spray. I'm not so good with airbrush painting...
I've used deck Tan for my MPC Falcon.

Thanks for sharing Darbyvet!

I've got the Deck Tan in acrylic and it seems to match pretty well to the plastic color that comes with the kit. I did my gun in the deck tan. Hard to tell it's not plastic but metal!

FZ6 said:

Great video.

Insignia white was the colour I've thought about, because Deck Tan is not available in spray. I'm not so good with airbrush painting...
I've used deck Tan for my MPC Falcon.

Thanks for sharing Darbyvet!

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One thing he says in the video is to use 4 cans. All I have to say is HELL NO! It's going to take more like 6-8 cans of those 3oz bottles from my experience.

darbyvet said:

FYI I hope you don't mind me posting this LrdSatyr8

Hi all Falcon builders,
DeAgostini and model space have produced a video by Steve Dymszo.THis is the first of a series of videos that go into depth about building and painting the Millennium Falcon.Here is the link to the video.I watched it already and it is awesome!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-Yaj2wlHS4

Click to expand...

I still don't think the discussion of the color of the molded parts is complete. I realize that pellets come in certain colors and they are mixed, but it seems like the colors of the pellets themselves is constant and if you keep the ratio of colors when you mix them constant, what's the problem? I'm not sure of how ABS is different Polystyrene, but when I pull out really old kits from several manufacturers and pull out really new ones, the color seems to be exactly the same, and I see this from several manufacturers. They came up with a color and stayed with it, yet the color is not the same from one manufacturer to another. Now, if you're going to repaint and don't care, then fine. I'm not talking about his discussion or repainting--I"m talking about his explanation of the molded color.
Mike Todd

Dedalus5550 said:

I still don't think the discussion of the color of the molded parts is complete. I realize that pellets come in certain colors and they are mixed, but it seems like the colors of the pellets themselves is constant and if you keep the ratio of colors when you mix them constant, what's the problem? I'm not sure of how ABS is different Polystyrene, but when I pull out really old kits from several manufacturers and pull out really new ones, the color seems to be exactly the same, and I see this from several manufacturers. They came up with a color and stayed with it, yet the color is not the same from one manufacturer to another. Now, if you're going to repaint and don't care, then fine. I'm not talking about his discussion or repainting--I"m talking about his explanation of the molded color.
Mike Todd

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Hey Mike... I think I can see where you're goign with this... I tell you what... try this... Get a bag of M&M and separate all the colors into groups. Then with just the red and the yellow, put them into a dish and mix them up as best you can. Make sure they are throughly mixed. Now... with your eyes closed, take out 10 M&Ms and count how many of each color you have. You'll never have an exact amount of 5 red and 5 yellow no matter how hard you try. This is what he is talking about with the plastic pellets. Each batch of parts the mixture of colored pellets is mixed at different times. Back when they made models a long time ago, the pellets they used usually all came in one color... Grey and that's all they used. So the plastic was always even colored because they only used one type of pellet. However, this kit they are attempting to do something that has never really been done before... trying to match the original color of the ship using these little pellets in a mixture of different colors. Unless they melt them all down and come up with a solid color before hand and turn that into a pellet again, you're always gonna end up with a color variation no matter how hard you try to get them to match... just like with the M&Ms. And seeing as this is over a 2 year period, the thought that the color of the plastic (not to mention the weathering that's happening) would be the same over that period of time is like trying to say that what you eat for dinner tonight will be the exact thing you will eat for the next 2 years with no change whatsoever (maybe that's a bad analogy) but I think you can understand what I'm trying to say. Personally I think they were kinda reaching by prepainting all the parts. There's no way they'd be able to maintain the painted detail level over that many different parts over that period of time. I think that's why everyone that is building this is waiting till all the hull pieces are done and together to even bother painting it. Because until then you would never be able to do it part by part either. Make sense?

I think there is a bit of a learning curve with this kit.As far as I know this is the first studio scale "mass " produced Star Wars kit.If they end up doing other studio scale Star Wars partworks I would guess things like consistency of part colors may improve.

darbyvet said:

I think there is a bit of a learning curve with this kit.As far as I know this is the first studio scale "mass " produced Star Wars kit.If they end up doing other studio scale Star Wars partworks I would guess things like consistency of part colors may improve.

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I totally agree... even Steve in the video said that they had the hardest time keeping the quality and consistancy of the paint jobs of the MR Replica Falcons over the course of it's run. The first few were pretty good but towards the end they were in a rush to get them done. And you're right Darby.... this is the FIRST time that a part work studio scale replica has ever been done on a massive scale like this. I'm sure they are learning all kinds of things of what works and what doesn't and will be able to apply that knowledge toward future kits. I believe they weren't expecting the demand for a kit like this and it caught them by surprise... but am amazed at just how well it's working out so far. Sure there are a few little snafus and I'm sure they didn't expect that Star Wars fans would be as picky as they are, but they are working to make everyone happy as is evident with the reissue of the nose cone and the hull corridor parts in later issues. This is a very exciting time for model builders everywhere. I think this will be the beginning of something that will change the way the manufacturers think about model builders. We're not all kids anymore. We grew up and know what we want and more studio scale kits is exactly what we've been craving for a very long time!

Indeed.I am not employed by DeAgostini, but I am learning a bit about how these things work.It is a huge financial risk to design and manufacture these kits and I think they have done an amazing job so far.many of the other kits they offer are based on existing kits (especially the ship models),but the Falcon was a from the ground up effort.If it turns out to be a success we may see more kits in the future.
As I look at some of the new Bandai kits (especially that walking AT AT) and the moving Falcon that I just received I don't think there has EVER been a better time to be a Star Wars modeler.

Dedalus5550 said:

I still don't think the discussion of the color of the molded parts is complete. I realize that pellets come in certain colors and they are mixed, but it seems like the colors of the pellets themselves is constant and if you keep the ratio of colors when you mix them constant, what's the problem? I'm not sure of how ABS is different Polystyrene, but when I pull out really old kits from several manufacturers and pull out really new ones, the color seems to be exactly the same, and I see this from several manufacturers. They came up with a color and stayed with it, yet the color is not the same from one manufacturer to another. Now, if you're going to repaint and don't care, then fine. I'm not talking about his discussion or repainting--I"m talking about his explanation of the molded color.
Mike Todd

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I agree , lego manages to match their colour pellets just fine

In all fairness I don't think Lego sub contract their manufacturing out to cheap Chinese vendors.