Bandai 1/72 PG Millennium Falcon (also the Revell Germany rebox)
- Thread starter Jaitea
- Start date
Hunk a Junk
Sr Member
DieHard is the name of a Sears brand car battery. The TV commercials for it were ubiquitous in the late 70s and 80s. In fact, I remember seeing the trailer for Die Hard in a theater before the movie opened and the audience groaned at the title. It was like naming your movie "Fruit Loops" or "Big Mac." At that point, it was a product, not a title. I'll have to check my model about whether the decal is supposed to be there.
The two missing greeblies you mention appear to have been added after ANH was shot but before the more extensive TESB modifications were made to the model. If you're modeling the ship as it appears in ANH, you leave them off. It's unknown why they were added, but greeblies were falling off and being reglued on the model throughout production, so it's possible that during some routine repairs some ILMer just added them because he had a couple extra bits lying around.
EDIT: Just checked my reference photos and model. The greeblies definitely should not be there if you are modeling the on-screen ANH version. The DieHard decal also IS on my model, so you might want to check your decal sheet again. You might have missed it. There is a decal for it.
Last edited:
Did you use primer/paint first, or is it bare plastic?
Primed first with Tamiya fine primer, then a coat or two of AS-20. Must not have hit this area well with the primer, because it happened nowhere else on the model. Oh well, just adds to the weathering, I guess.
SB
Hunk a Junk
Sr Member
Are you sure it's from the terpenoid? Just thinking out loud, but I'm wondering if perhaps certain types of Bandai plastic is vulnerable to stress cracking. I had a model once (can't remember which kit) that I could see a swirl pattern in the unpainted plastic and later I remember it cracking exactly along the line of the pattern. That was also in my younger days when I handled my models more than I do now.
Yeah, it will make the plastic more brittle, but I use it on everything... Like you said, just adds to the weathering!
Yeah, it's a known issue with Bandai plastic. There's a number of documented cases here on The RPF (mostly with the AT-ST, as I recall), but I just never thought that it'd happen to me. Oh well.
SB
Hunk a Junk
Sr Member
It's weird, thought, that it happened after using Tamiya primer and multiple coats of paint. I just wonder if there may be cases of the plastic cracking without a wash or Terpenoid involved. I'm just puzzling whether we all may be assuming that the finishing materials are triggering the cracks, but what if it's just inherent to the plastic itself. Correlation isn't necessarily causation.
You don't have to live with that crack. It's super tiny and could be puttied/painted over quite easily from the looks of it.
Mineral spirits seem to make the plastic more brittle. Not necessarily the cause of the cracking... because it would be due to manipulating the plastic after the solution has been applied. I just experienced this in my B-Wing build I'm doing. One of the joints where the wings are attached cracked because it was made more brittle as a result of the wash. Again, it was on an area where I had less coverage with the primer and other paints, and in a spot that was constantly being moved. So a combination of things caused the crack. All I did was use some weld-on 3 to fix the issue.
I'm okay with living with it, after looking at it all weekend. Maybe I'll flow some Tamiya extra thin cement in there and call it good.
SB
SB
Hunk a Junk
Sr Member
It's not my model, but if it were, I'd fix it. Only because its the PG Falcon, it was expensive, and I want it perfect. Any other model and I could live with it. But that's me and, of course, I'm not the one facing the problem. However, I do have a tilted command bulb on my K't'inga to deal with, so I sympathize.
David3
Sr Member
DieHard is the name of a Sears brand car battery. The TV commercials for it were ubiquitous in the late 70s and 80s. In fact, I remember seeing the trailer for Die Hard in a theater before the movie opened and the audience groaned at the title. It was like naming your movie "Fruit Loops" or "Big Mac." At that point, it was a product, not a title. I'll have to check my model about whether the decal is supposed to be there.
The two missing greeblies you mention appear to have been added after ANH was shot but before the more extensive TESB modifications were made to the model. If you're modeling the ship as it appears in ANH, you leave them off. It's unknown why they were added, but greeblies were falling off and being reglued on the model throughout production, so it's possible that during some routine repairs some ILMer just added them because he had a couple extra bits lying around.
EDIT: Just checked my reference photos and model. The greeblies definitely should not be there if you are modeling the on-screen ANH version. The DieHard decal also IS on my model, so you might want to check your decal sheet again. You might have missed it. There is a decal for it.
Oh, you're right! Thanks, HaJ. I was doing a late-nighter so overlooked the inset box with the decal in it. Love this kit so much, the detail and craftsmanship is just amazing, should have known Bandai got it right. I'm not from the 'States so wasn't familiar with the DieHard brand, adds a whole new slant on the movie title now, hillarious
Always fascinating to hear little anecdotes like this.
Now there's a movie to be made - It's the 80s, guy goes to the movies, sees the Die Hard trailer, has a laugh and then reminisces about the time as a model maker years before when he stuck a diehard decal on a now famous movie prop. All those behind the scenes stories could be told and the drama of George wanting to completely change the design etc. - essentially about how they made Star Wars but from the perspective of the guys in the model shop.
SawbonesAdmiral
Active Member
There is none. There's only the two; the standard one is specifically called the [STANDARD VER.] on the box and is treated like any other kit in the Perfect Grade line, stickers and all.
It also has a blue sublight engine part, rather than white, should you care about that.
Speaking of the DieHard decal, I remember vaguely reading somewhere that Bandai had to modify or drop some of the Falcon detail decals for trademark reasons. DieHard is still a trademark used in the US by the corporation that holds the Sears IP, so perhaps they were intransigent in their licensing demands, or Bandai decided just not to bother.
Hunk a Junk
Sr Member
Dedalus5550
Sr Member
Ah jeez. Since I’m not familiar with the Gundam kits and whatever else there is, what is it that makes a perfect grade kit? And I wonder if I’m gonna like the answer or not.
Mike Todd
Well in Bandai’s line up of Gundam kits, the grades range from this:
(Lowest to highest)
NG (No Grade)
SD (Super Deformed) miniature or Chibi
HG Can be 1/144 or 1/100 scale
RE A fancier HG in 1/100
RG Hyper detailed in 1/144
MG 1/100 scale
PG 1/60 scale
I’m pretty sure that covers them all.
How that translates to their Star Wars line I’m not completely sure. It depends on the model I suppose.
(Lowest to highest)
NG (No Grade)
SD (Super Deformed) miniature or Chibi
HG Can be 1/144 or 1/100 scale
RE A fancier HG in 1/100
RG Hyper detailed in 1/144
MG 1/100 scale
PG 1/60 scale
I’m pretty sure that covers them all.
How that translates to their Star Wars line I’m not completely sure. It depends on the model I suppose.
Dedalus5550
Sr Member
So what is it about the MF that makes it PG? As it relates to the list above? I suppose someone’s going to say that it’s just a really nice awesome kit. And that’s kind of what I used to think because it came with lights and photo etch. Before this kit came out I hadn’t even heard the term perfect grade and it just made me think they were telling us they were Going above and beyond like I said with the lights and the photo etch. I didn’t realize the standard kit was still labeled perfect grade.
Similar threads
