First update in a bit...after getting through the holidays and getting in a few large doses of SW Battlefront for my brand new PS4 (My wife loves meh!!!) I have returned to the task at hand - Falcon 1. I bought some plastruct rods which you will see pictured below to simulate piping but I am finding that they have a tendency to break at a 90 degree angle once stressed to hold shape (the .050 anyway - I haven't tried manipulating the .080 yet).
You can see in the pictures below the areas where the rods gave way and I cobbled together a finished product.
I am using tweezers and I also tried heat but its so touch and go due to the minute size of the plastruct. It easily melts with the least bit of over exposure to heat.
So I found myself taking down our Christmas tree and realized that a bit of wire I had used to fasten a string of lights to the interior of the tree offered the pliability and thickness that I was looking for so I went today to my local "Hobby Lobby" and purchased 3 packs of varying size (pictured below and found in the necklace making isle with all the charms). I have not used it yet but I have taken a length and formed the piping I wanted quite easily. It has a glossy finish so I dusted it up with scratch pads before painting it as a test and wouldn't you know it, it is holding the paint like a champ! I believe this will make simulating pipe MUCH easier than the plastruct and it is 30% cheaper for more product than the plastruct. The only issue there is that there are more plastruct designs and sizes than the wire.
You will also notice the first sample I provide (top 3 photos) is painted using the plastruct and the second example (photo4 in the series above) is unpainted yet the hull of the Falcon is still the same color. That color is "Model Master Custom Spray Enamel Flat Gull Grey 1930" (pictured below). This is my base coat.
I am looking for all criticism, ideas, and input on the above.
Last but not least 2 more models joined my "que" this week:
and
Excited to tear into all of these projects!
JEDI Jade I didn't think of that! Literally anything could make up the "busy work" that comprise most "greebly" as it is not really anything other than odds and ends to start with! Well, that's the latest on my end, looking forward to hitting all of your threads later tonight as for now I have to go be the "Dungeon Master to my kids and their friends for a fantasy adventure at the dining room table!