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

Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

This may have already been answered, but have the full instructions for this kit been uploaded online? Hobby Search (http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/) is usually pretty thorough with archiving Bandai Star Wars manuals on their Japanese site but the PG MF has been noticeably absent.
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

Hunk a Junk said:
And it's really only the thickness right at the edges that you need to worry about.
Click to expand...

Also, unlike most models of the Falcon cockpit, the interior struts are detailed with hoses and pipes and greeblies, like the full-sized sets. I wouldn’t want to lose those, though admittedly they wouldn’t be hard to scratch up if you damage them.
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

I know its been said before, but the detail is incredible and tiny! The part that gets me the most excited is seeing familiar kit parts recreated so small. Gluing parts is a must.
56edf37d8a5265df56bebda046d30e47.jpg


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Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

I had pre-ordered with my local shop. They received their shipping notice from Bluefin a couple of days ago... Should be here next week!

I am going to have major “kit start anxiety” over this one, I can tell already!
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

nkg said:
Also, unlike most models of the Falcon cockpit, the interior struts are detailed with hoses and pipes and greeblies, like the full-sized sets. I wouldn’t want to lose those, though admittedly they wouldn’t be hard to scratch up if you damage them.
Click to expand...

I'm not convinced that detail on the interior of the struts will ever be seen, unless someone is tiny enough to be inside the cockpit. For me, the trade off of having thicker struts in order to have detail that won't be seen isn't worth it. I'll just sand it off.
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

I just stripped and trashed all the cockpit decals. No amount of softener was ever going to make that work. I'm kind of at an impasse on the kit. I don't want to go any further until someone comes up with a good solution for lighting the cockpit. The built in clear back wall system is disappointing. Otherwise it's the perfect model.
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

I'm sure within a few months Green Strawberries, Paragrafix, or Randy Cooper will come up with a photoetch kit for the cockpit.
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

smaulpaul said:
I just stripped and trashed all the cockpit decals. No amount of softener was ever going to make that work. I'm kind of at an impasse on the kit. I don't want to go any further until someone comes up with a good solution for lighting the cockpit. The built in clear back wall system is disappointing. Otherwise it's the perfect model.
Click to expand...

shadowman said:
I'm sure within a few months Green Strawberries, Paragrafix, or Randy Cooper will come up with a photoetch kit for the cockpit.
Click to expand...

I would watch Tony aka 308 Bits (he already has a back wall for the FM Falcon):

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/308bits?section=Falcon+Banday+1%2F72+Perfect+Grade&s=0

 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

Although the listed scale for both the FM and the Bandai 1/72 Falcons are the same, they are NOT the same size, nor are any of the parts interchangeable, as far as I know. It costs a ton in start-up money to bring something to market on Shapeways, for example. I'm sure more after-market details will be created as soon as sufficient kits are out there and requests go up.
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

smaulpaul said:
I just stripped and trashed all the cockpit decals. No amount of softener was ever going to make that work. I'm kind of at an impasse on the kit. I don't want to go any further until someone comes up with a good solution for lighting the cockpit. The built in clear back wall system is disappointing. Otherwise it's the perfect model.
Click to expand...

Just paint the back wall, and scrape the paint from the areas that should light up.
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

Has anyone used the Bandai-provided decals for the different colored plates on the hull? I used them on my 1/144 Falcon, and they were a b-otch to get to settle down on the detail, even with Micro Sol. I am tempted to paint them instead of the decals. I know the purists will paint, but I'm no purist!
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

Sourdoh said:
Has anyone used the Bandai-provided decals for the different colored plates on the hull? I used them on my 1/144 Falcon, and they were a b-otch to get to settle down on the detail, even with Micro Sol. I am tempted to paint them instead of the decals. I know the purists will paint, but I'm no purist!
Click to expand...
I also used the decals on my 1/144. They were stiff. In this scale panels were too small to mask and airbrush. Had to use hot water and several applications of Solveset. Some of the colors were off too, notably one of the greys was very bluish.

I plan on painting my panels on Bandai's Master Grade 1/72 kit. Paint almost always looks better than decals to me. I'll use the stencil decals however.



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Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

smaulpaul said:
I don't want to go any further until someone comes up with a good solution for lighting the cockpit.
Click to expand...
How about using fiber?

P2030556rs.jpgP2030586rs.jpg

These are of the model that I have posted before, displayed at an exhibition of a group of modelling enthusiasts.
https://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=262348&page=62&p=4329074&highlight=exhibition#post4329074

I asked the guy who made it, and he said he just used the included cockpit LEDs, and rerouted some of its light with fibers, which were just drilled into the kit parts. The back wall as well as the side walls.
I don't think any afterparts, photoetched or otherwise, will be able to match this classic and uncostly solution, especially if one were to light the side walls.

That being said, and although the effect looks great in photos, I personally felt that those micro lights distracted the sense of scale when actually seeing the model in front of me. That is why I opted to just illuminating the light bars.

As with the cockpit decals, I have posted on this before, but you need to file the panels flat (or near flat) before applying them.
Or else, paint the panels with dark grey, and brush with a lighter color to make most of the engravings.
https://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=262348&page=68&p=4343512&viewfull=1#post4343512
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

So I'm recovering from the nerdgasm I had yesterday when this arrived. Now that I've spent some time fondling, I have this thought. I had originally hoped Bandai would eventually release a non-electronic (non-perfect grade) version for something closer to the $200 price point of the FM kit. You know, just like they did with the electronic, moving edition X-wing (wait...Doh!). Anyway, after analyzing the kit, I really don't see how much money it would save. Maybe a few bucks. Seems like they'd have to re-engineer stuff besides just not including the LEDs and power pack. This would cost more money. But, and I'm gonna duck under the bus after I say this, this makes the kit look overpriced compared to the FM (and even Revell) kit. Similar era, more quality/accuracy in the Bandai but still the FM kit has very high quality and (in many ways) very accurate and maybe 30 percent more parts. I know, it's good to be able to get such an accurate SW model and kinda the most accurate MF kit ever, etc. And the argument about higher priced license for accuracy, but this doesn't hold up when the other Bandai more accurate kits are still priced very comparable (if not exactly the same) to the FM kits. I guess if it was the ESB ship that I prefer, I might get a few more, but only one for me. (Got two DeAgo kits, though.)

Mike Todd
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

Dedalus5550 said:
But, and I'm gonna duck under the bus after I say this, this makes the kit look overpriced compared to the FM (and even Revell) kit. Similar era, more quality/accuracy in the Bandai but still the FM kit has very high quality and (in many ways) very accurate and maybe 30 percent more parts.
Click to expand...

Everyone has their opinion, of course.
For me, after going through roughly 90% of the assembly, I feel this kit is worth every penny, if not underpriced. More so than when I first opened the box and inspected the sprues. The cost of producing these kits, excluding the license fees and logistics, is not really the volume of styrene involved, but mostly R&D, together with the refining process of the die and mold. Compared to the FM Falcon, I could only guess, but I feel that over double the cost in R&D was put into this kit. The FM kit may have more parts, but if you take a closer look, the Bandai kit has subdivided places that the FM kit has not, and this was apparently done to make the molds more accurate. The places where the Bandai kit has the greeblies molded in the hull (where the FM provided as separate parts) are where accuracy is maintained (or insured) in doing so.
I do not intend to criticize the Deagostini kit, but among the Falcon kits that have been mentioned, I would rate the Deagostini kit as being the lowest in the price-performance scale, taking into account that they had the MR model to base their R&D on (Well, it may also be because I am not interested in their booklets, that I feel this way).
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

For me, the price of the Fine Molds Falcon doesn't reflect the months of extra time and effort I had to put in to correct the kit's major proportional flaws, like the mandible toe-in, the hull curvature, the oversized jawboxes, etc. That also doesn't include the anxiety of performing major surgery on a $200-plus kit or adding lighting. In the end, am I glad I bought it and have it on my shelf. Yes. Was it a value? Given the major flaws... eh, kinda. Honestly, it's still not the Falcon I dreamed of having as a kid. Even adding the hull curvature, it isn't the 5-footer. Still, I learned lessons building it that I'll apply to the Bandai, so I'm not complaining.
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

My falcon is on its way. Just want to know what brand of paint and colors others are planning to use for the base coat of their falcon.

Just eyeballing a lot of the picture's I've seen of the 5 footer, I personally think the Grey of the hull has a yellowish/tan tint to it. That camera, flash, aging or the actual base color? Dunno, so I figured I'd ask the experts.

I personally favor Vallejo paints, but I am really not sure what shade grey to use. Normally I'd probably just custom mix something, but this model is so big, I'd worry I'd run out of my custom mix before finishing, try mixing it again and well it just being off from my original mix. So I would prefer to use something straight from the bottle or can.

I've seen some people suggest testors Camo Grey as a close match for the hull colors used on most of the Rebel ships and the falcon in ANH. I've used it before and I like the shade, but I hate testors MM paint! I've always found its surface adhesion to be terrible. Does Vallejo make an equivalent color? They have something called Cameo Grey but its way too dark.
 

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