Bandai 1/72 PG Millennium Falcon (also the Revell Germany rebox)

Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

I'm about to head to the "gentlemen's club" with my beautiful girlfriend, and part of me seriously wishes I was just staying home alone to work on this kit, haha. It's a real testament to Bandai, how often I've caught myself checking this thread or ruminating on this kit at inappropriate times.
Add my own version:

As I sat in the Treestand bowhunting for whitetails this fall, I daydreamed about building this kit.

Now that bow season is over, I sit at the workbench building this kit and daydream about the 10pt buck that got away....

Its sorta poetry.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

For those curious what lighting without the grilles would look like:

bandai with lights.jpg

This is just the lighting on without the grilles, definitely not a permanent fix. But I do think the grilles could be slightly modified (by cutting off the little nibs) so that they could be swapped in and out, because I do like the look of the falcon with the grilles and with the lights off. I'm pretty certain I can get a strip of clear plastic to put at the butt end of the falcon for when the lights are on, I'm just not sure how I would dull that piece down. Perhaps lightly sanding one side and then leaving the other as is?
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

Add my own version:

As I sat in the Treestand bowhunting for whitetails this fall, I daydreamed about building this kit.

Now that bow season is over, I sit at the workbench building this kit and daydream about the 10pt buck that got away....

Its sorta poetry.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Haha perfect! In a cab on the way home now, had a great night but... obviously still thinking about this model/thread all night
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

Started painting, underside first.

P2030770rs.jpg

Up to this point, I have used zero airbrush. I did all the panels with rattle cans, plus some floating mask for hazy shades.
Chipping were done with masking sol.
I did the streaks with Tamiya's weathering master.

I have discovered that this ship looks good even when upside-down.

P2030766rs.jpg
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

Started painting, underside first.

View attachment 777740

Up to this point, I have used zero airbrush. I did all the panels with rattle cans, plus some floating mask for hazy shades.
Chipping were done with masking sol.
I did the streaks with Tamiya's weathering master.

I have discovered that this ship looks good even when upside-down.

View attachment 777741


Great work Dude.

The only thing i would suggest is to damage the hull plating edges, this makes it look alot less like the out of box kit and more like the real 5 footer.

Its really easy to do on this kit as the edges of the plating is soft and easy to bend and distort.
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

For those curious what lighting without the grilles would look like:

View attachment 777702

This is just the lighting on without the grilles, definitely not a permanent fix. But I do think the grilles could be slightly modified (by cutting off the little nibs) so that they could be swapped in and out, because I do like the look of the falcon with the grilles and with the lights off. I'm pretty certain I can get a strip of clear plastic to put at the butt end of the falcon for when the lights are on, I'm just not sure how I would dull that piece down. Perhaps lightly sanding one side and then leaving the other as is?
As you said, lightly sanding would work and also a clear acrylic matte coat would help fog up a piece of clear plastic.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

Thanks.

The only thing i would suggest is to damage the hull plating edges, this makes it look alot less like the out of box kit and more like the real 5 footer.

Its really easy to do on this kit as the edges of the plating is soft and easy to bend and distort.

I shall do some testing further down the road.

...but if there were 2 ESB landing gear boxes, would that spoil it's look

Preference aside, the ship looks more aerodynamic without the gear boxes, whether or not such Earthly physics apply in that universe.
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

About showing the damage on the edges of the hull - I used a pair of smooth needle nose pliers held against my soldering iron for a few second and then just bent and distorted in the places shown in research photos of the real 5'er. If you don't get the pliers too hot it works a treat.

One thing I did notice is that the research photos are almost all close-ups, so the tendency is to make details on the Bandai Falcon larger than the scale will allow. So, less is more on the damage to the hull edges and the blast points.
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

Hopefully this is not TOO off topic, but while watching the ORIGINAL version of Star Wars last night I made note of several things...There is indeed a lighted ramp on the Falcon(Clearly seen while she is captured on the Death Star. And as most of us know, the landing gear is not lighted.

I also found this cool...First, why oh why did they use that 32" Falcon in the updated Hanger scenes?!?!?! Here are two shots of the ship in the Death Star hanger...Notice in the second shot, the scene where Leia says "You came in that thing?" that the miniatures mounting holes at the front of the loading arms are present!




NO COVERS ON THE MOUNTING HOLES!!!
 
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Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

Hopefully this is not TOO off topic, but while watching the ORIGINAL version of Star Wars last night I made note of several things...There is indeed a lighted ramp on the Falcon(Clearly seen while she is captured on the Death Star. And as most of us know, the landing gear is not lighted.

I also found this cool...First, why oh why did they use that 32" Falcon in the updated Hanger scenes?!?!?! Here are two shots of the ship in the Death Star hanger...Notice in the second shot, the scene where Leia says "You came in that thing?" that the miniatures mounting holes at the front of the loading arms are present!


http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/923/9pVgDz.jpg

NO COVERS ON THE MOUNTING HOLES!!!
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/924/j48DWq.jpg

They used the 5 footer images overlayed over the full size set then a matte painting over that image.....in the first establishing shot (when the Falcon arrives) the end caps look like they are there because they used the matte painting to fill in the details

Screen Shot 2014-11-30 at 21.24.24.pngScreen Shot 2014-11-30 at 21.22.40.png

The later shot (You came in that thing?).is a tighter shot,...so they used the 5 footer/real set without the matte probably because the painting would appear to obvious

Screen Shot 2014-11-30 at 21.23.58.png

The 32" was probably easier to position for that updated shot......If only I knew someone with a 5 footer replica ship to put this shot right......hmmmmm

Docked.jpg

J
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

Hopefully this is not TOO off topic, but while watching the ORIGINAL version of Star Wars last night I made note of several things...There is indeed a lighted ramp on the Falcon(Clearly seen while she is captured on the Death Star. And as most of us know, the landing gear is not lighted.

Well, I think it depends on your definition of lighted ramp.

The set lighting on ANH was kind of lousy in my opinion. It was lit old-skool by cinematographer Gil Taylor - he just slapped really large lamps off to the side of the camera, and blasted light everywhere. The dreadful and harsh lighting is particularly noticeable in scenes like the Leia/Tarkin destruction of Alderaan scene. By contrast, cinematographer Peter Suschitzky employed far more sophisticated lighting techniques in ESB, and clearly spent the time making the scenes look like they were lit by on-set practical lights, even when they weren't always.

So the boarding ramp in the Death Star scene is clearly lit by a single large light source at the top of the ramp. The light does not originate from ceiling-located lamps, and the ANH blueprints do not indicate where practical ceiling lights should be installed.

It therefore was probably lit by a large studio lamp, sitting on a light stand at the top of the ramp.

anh ramp.jpg

By contrast, the ESB ramp shots are lit by pools of light from ceiling-mounted lights, and so feel more realistic.

esbramp.jpg

The behind the scenes shot here demonstrates where the lights were located.

*ramp interior.jpg

So this is a problem if you want to go for a screen-accurate look for your Bandai 1:72 Falcon. Since the ANH shot wasn't lit by practical lighting, you can't light your model the same way. So you have three choices really - no lighting, light blasting in from one end (this is the approach Bandai took with their LED placement, only they put the LED at the opposite end of the ramp to make it less visible when you peer into the model), or you simulate the ESB approach with ceiling spotlights.
 
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Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

First, why oh why did they use that 32" Falcon in the updated Hanger scenes?!?!?!

A likely reason is because the 5-footer was out on museum tours during the mid-90s, meaning that the 3-footer is what they had in the archives to photograph. 99% of the audience wouldn't tell the two apart.
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

AWESOME!!! That's great my friend!!! Do you mind if I use this picture on my pages???That is really cool!!!
Now I HAVE TO make a 1/72 Diorama of this!!!!


No prob.....although I did it really quick.....I need to refine it a bit....(you can see the original mandible through your mandibles

J

UPDATE:

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Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

No prob.....although I did it really quick.....I need to refine it a bit....(you can see the original mandible through your mandibles

J

It still looks awesome! And thanks again for even taking the time to do it!
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

Any progress been made on lighting the cockpit better. I am not looking for zillion fiber crap but the general illumination makes me so bummed I just slide it back in storage. Strange I know since its such a limited area of the kit. But I hate to start on stuff until a solution is made. Of course some people like welding goggles on to fly her but I just want to be able to see inside decent.
 

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