rbeach84
Sr Member
All, thought I'd share my little adventure with the Hasbro Falcon 'toy', which illustrated how dramatic an impact a bit of paint can have on a model.
My better half decided she would have a Star Wars theme in her 4th grade classroom this year. I volunteered to provide a celing hung Millennium Falcon using a Hasbro Rebels toy. So I applied the stickers to the bare plastic & blacked out the gun turret windows with a Sharpie marker. After a 'hmmm!' look, I decided it was worth a bit more dressing. and so gave it a black & gray 'sludge wash' using cheap acrylic craft paints ('Apple Barrel' brand from Walmart), thinned with water & a few drops of dishwashing liquid. I played with this, adding some touches of color, then did a bit of dry brushing with white (same acrylic paint.) It was looking pretty good by now, so I did some further detail painting on the cavity side walls with black and some gray paint on some of the exhaust flaps. I even experimented with black Rit dye as a pin wash! Once done, I coated the whole mess with Krylon brand 'gloss clear' coat. This resulted in not so much a glossy as satin or semi-matte finish.
[The materials & tools]
At this point, it was looking good enough, I decided to use Retiredadguy's decals to add just a bit more visual complexity (I used the ones made for the extra Legacy Falcon.) I didn't bother adding decals to the sidewall stickers but otherwise did a fairly complete job. I found Retired's decals were not compatible with the Microscale decaling system products, which tended to make them fall apart. I attempted to boost the decals with Microscale's liquid decal film but that caused the decals to curl up to such a degree that I had to use a 'white' glue to attempt to attach ones so affected. In the end, I managed to get most laid down and then secured with another coat of Krylon clear. (Sprayed on with the model hanging on its suspension rod made from a coated coat-hanger wire.)
Last thing, I applied pastels to various spots for smoke and rust/weathering effects, followed by a final coat of Krylon.
Although this started as a quick & dirty for SWMBO, it turned into a lot of fun. Not a 'high fidelity' model by any stretch, but still looks good from a distance which fits the bill perfectly. Now I'm wanting to add a couple of MPC X-Wings as an escort! ;^D
Regards, Robert
My better half decided she would have a Star Wars theme in her 4th grade classroom this year. I volunteered to provide a celing hung Millennium Falcon using a Hasbro Rebels toy. So I applied the stickers to the bare plastic & blacked out the gun turret windows with a Sharpie marker. After a 'hmmm!' look, I decided it was worth a bit more dressing. and so gave it a black & gray 'sludge wash' using cheap acrylic craft paints ('Apple Barrel' brand from Walmart), thinned with water & a few drops of dishwashing liquid. I played with this, adding some touches of color, then did a bit of dry brushing with white (same acrylic paint.) It was looking pretty good by now, so I did some further detail painting on the cavity side walls with black and some gray paint on some of the exhaust flaps. I even experimented with black Rit dye as a pin wash! Once done, I coated the whole mess with Krylon brand 'gloss clear' coat. This resulted in not so much a glossy as satin or semi-matte finish.
[The materials & tools]
At this point, it was looking good enough, I decided to use Retiredadguy's decals to add just a bit more visual complexity (I used the ones made for the extra Legacy Falcon.) I didn't bother adding decals to the sidewall stickers but otherwise did a fairly complete job. I found Retired's decals were not compatible with the Microscale decaling system products, which tended to make them fall apart. I attempted to boost the decals with Microscale's liquid decal film but that caused the decals to curl up to such a degree that I had to use a 'white' glue to attempt to attach ones so affected. In the end, I managed to get most laid down and then secured with another coat of Krylon clear. (Sprayed on with the model hanging on its suspension rod made from a coated coat-hanger wire.)
Last thing, I applied pastels to various spots for smoke and rust/weathering effects, followed by a final coat of Krylon.
Although this started as a quick & dirty for SWMBO, it turned into a lot of fun. Not a 'high fidelity' model by any stretch, but still looks good from a distance which fits the bill perfectly. Now I'm wanting to add a couple of MPC X-Wings as an escort! ;^D
Regards, Robert