Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon
I'm still a long way from having a
Falcon kit of any film version (long since got rid of my disappointing MPC model). At the rate everyone's builds are going, I may end up with both ANH and ESB versions... :behave I'm most annoyed that none of the most recent reference books show the tripod gear configuration or the ANH cockpit. I don't like to utterly retcon the ANH configuration out of existence. I'd be happier with the notion that Han managed to upgrade in the three years between the films, with access to the Rebellion's resources, to accomplish missions and such. Larger cockpit so if he and Chewie had anyone else in there with them, they wouldn't be breathing down their necks. And the lower-forward quarter repaired at some point with the extra gear-boxes (for hard landings and/or redundancy in case the repulsorlifts failed). I like both the streamlined look of the ANH version... and the balanced look of the ESB version. *sigh*
Thus I've been closely following all the back-and-forth on here about colors, painting methods, lighting methods, weathering methods -- and degree. Actual-miniature-appearance versus lit-and-filtered on-screen appearance is an age-old and far too familiar headache for me, too. I've come to the viewpoint that space would wash out colors in its own way, different from distance haze here on Earth. So I tend toward an approach of "stronger colors than it looks on screen, but not necessarily the same amount of weathering or the particular strong colors the miniature has under normal lighting conditions" This is about the most extreme case of the difference between the "live-versus-Memorex" factor I've seen:
The USS
Centuar from Deep Space Nine, as it appeared on screen...
...and the actual miniature...
Iiiiii... think I'm going to aim for more of a happy medium. But. As I grind away on my backlog, accumulated over about ten moves in as many years, I expect a nonzero number of my Star Trek and Star Wars models will cause a bit of polarization in opinions. *heh* For the
Falcon, I'm probably going to be doing a bit of experimenting on scrap plastic first. Including probably using every variation on AS-20, Reefer White, and the various mixes people have come up with for the base hull and the armor plates to help subtly lend to the patchwork repairs the ship has gotten over time -- not randomly, but with all due diligence from poring over the wonderful reference you guys have posted to deduce the likliest approach.
So thank you all in advance.
--Jonah
