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

Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

That ring piece is what is connecting the top and bottom halves of the interior, and perhaps that "fan" shape is what is connecting the ring piece to that major light in the back. I'm pretty sure that's a light, the esb photo from under cloud city pretty much shows there is a bright light source coming from behind the interior.

Also, it's possible that in transitioning the cockpit from what would become the Tantive IV to the current falcon, the lighting was ruined. Or the model shop didn't care about keeping the lighting in tact (the lights on the sides and coming from the monitors) because the cockpit no longer made up the entire front of the ship, now it only made up a small portion of the front, with the mandibles taking center stage.
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

JoeCS said:
I'm pretty sure that's a light, the esb photo from under cloud city pretty much shows there is a bright light source coming from behind the interior.
Click to expand...

The thing that makes me think that it's a fan is not only that we can see some kind of circular fan assembly through the back wall opening of the cockpit, but also that the circular openings in the outside of the cockpit tunnel seem to be placed right behind where that white ring would be mounted. Why would ILM drill holes right there in the cockpit tube when that detail never appears in any Johnston or McQuarrie drawings? I bet the idea was to draw air in through the cockpit openings and vent it out through the 6 engine ducts to help dissipate heat build up inside the model. If that white ring is some kind of mounting ring, they could've drilled the holes to increase the air flow and then covered them with the Koolshade to mask them. It's also interesting that the length of the cockpit tube about matches the size of the "fan/light" motor. I can imagine the modelmakers saying, "How long do we make the tube?" "Long enough for this thing (the fan) to fit in it."
cockpit fan.png
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

darthviper107 said:
Honestly sometimes it's easier to just use a pencil or charcol than to try and get it to work with an airbrush, though of course you'd have to seal it afterwards.
Click to expand...
I like that idea. I was thinking along those lines. I will have to practice, but I think if I get the charcol crushed up fine enough I may be able to just kind of blow it the direction I want to achieve the affect.
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

Hunk a Junk said:
I bet the idea was to draw air in through the cockpit openings and vent it out through the 6 engine ducts to help dissipate heat build up inside the model.
Click to expand...

That seems like so much work, but I kind of like the idea of those vents having some real function.

Also, it's funny to see Han and Chewbacca in the studio cockpit

han and chewie.jpg
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

Regarding Tamiya AS-20 and the base color for those who aren't using the Archive-X . Nothing against them, they are fantastic paints, I just prefer acrylic over enamels. If they had acrylics for sale now, I would probably be using them

At any rate, assuming Bandai's plastic color is close to what they feel the studio model should be, AS-20 is definitely on the grey side

in some light, AS-20 shot straight over the plastic appears a good match

The mandible is the bare plastic color, the piece to the left is covered with AS-20



but in other lighting, it is obvious it is too grey



I don't have a pic, but a closer match to the plastic color is a model I did with a black base, and Tamiya flat white sprayed over it leaving just a hint of the black primer in the recesses. I think I might mix in just a small amount of Tamiya Deck Tan

Either way, I think you want something "whiter" than AS-20 Insignia White, especially once you start adding weathering
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

blakeh1 said:
Either way, I think you want something "whiter" than AS-20 Insignia White, especially once you start adding weathering
Click to expand...

I painted my y-wing with whatever Tamiya's basic white spray is, and I've never been happy with it. It always seems to look slightly blue to me (not blue, just a cool white). I then painted my x-wing using Testor's white enamel, and it came out much warmer and I was more happy with that. But with the falcon, I do want some color in the base coat.

This is probably my favorite picture of the falcon, and I'm kinda shooting for that color. I also don't trust myself to mix my own paint with this model, there's too much on the line haha
20170909_154043.jpg
I also read in the instructions that Bandai mentioned ILM painted the edge of the falcon darker to make the overall shape stand out, and I never realized how prevalent that effect was, especially in this picture
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

JoeCS said:
I also read in the instructions that Bandai mentioned ILM painted the edge of the falcon darker to make the overall shape stand out, and I never realized how prevalent that effect was, especially in this picture
Click to expand...

I think they were talking about the sidewalls.
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

Hi, folks --
Like so many others here, I've wanted a kit like this for 40 years. I still have the box from my 1979 MPC Falcon, and it's been hanging over my workbench as inspiration for a few years, even before the PG kit was announced. So it's really a dream come true. I'll post pics soon of my mods, but I have a question for you all. Is the gap on the right underside, between the mandible and the saucer, wider than the gap on the left? I'm trying to figure out if it's just my eyes; or if it's from the shims I put in to block the light; or if it's supposed to be this way, replicating what's on the five-footer. Any observations? Thanks!
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

Neverendingmods said:
Is the gap on the right underside, between the mandible and the saucer, wider than the gap on the left?
Click to expand...

I just checked my kit and you're right: the gap on the starboard side is noticeably larger than the gap on the port side. I haven't attached the top and bottom saucers yet, so I checked to see of the starboard mandible was seated all the way down and it is. So the gap is in the kit design. As far as I can see in my reference photos, however, there is no difference in the gap between the two sides on the 5-footer.
ANH5footer.jpg
Hmm. Damn, I'm glad you pointed this out, but wish you'd done it two weeks ago! I would've tried to see if there was any way to correct it. Too late now. Not terribly noticeable, but still... now I'll see it forever! :lol
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

That's weird, I notice the gap more so on the top rather than the bottom. I figured it was part of the design as there's a greeblie shoved in there.

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

Thanks, Kokkari. I haven't put the top on, yet -- too scared, now that I've noticed the underside gap! Hunk a Junk, I know the feeling! I noticed it only after I had applied Tenax to the mandible and jawbox joints. @#$#. . . And to contribute to the ideas here on the group build: for the burn marks mentioned above by others, I'm planning on making a few different painting masks from card stock to try to replicate those. I'll have to test it before I do it on the Falcon, but it looks like black paint was sprayed heavily through a hole -- perpendicular to the surface first, then angled away for a moment. Has anyone here tried that?
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

Neverendingmods said:
for the burn marks mentioned above by others, I'm planning on making a few different painting masks from card stock to try to replicate those. I'll have to test it before I do it on the Falcon, but it looks like black paint was sprayed heavily through a hole -- perpendicular to the surface first, then angled away for a moment. Has anyone here tried that?
Click to expand...

That was going to be my approach, but I'm just not anywhere close to that stage yet. I'll be curious to see the results. I'm currently working through what to do about the engine lighting and cockpit. I'm ditching the engine grid and going with a solid white strip, but I don't think the kit's supplied LEDs are bright enough. On the cockpit, I wanted to make a swappable cockpit between JoeCS's studio model cockpit and the live action set interior, but not sure how I light both. Adding a hidden power plug is starting to get more complicated than I want. Plus I want to see what Paragrafix comes up with for their cockpit photoetch set in January. Decisions decisions...
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

IMG_20171125_172705.jpg

Here's what I'm planning on using under the six deck grilles. I got a bunch of Tamiya Porsche parts from a guy on eBay years ago. I knew I'd use these for something, someday. I tried 'em here, and they look perfect to me. Even the right number of blades. I put some 1/72 E-100 wheels in the middles of the fans. I know they don't look _exactly_ like the muffin fans on the five-footer, BUT, I'm one of the guys who wants this to look like a functioning vehicle. I'm even gonna try to sneak in some metallic accents here and there, to justify all the rust streaks on the hull.

IMG_20171130_200802.jpg

I used Alclad on the engine grille. I plan on using some insanely bright automotive LEDs, and bypassing Bandai's diffusion parts. They're ingenious, but they make the engine glow way too dim for me.
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

The mandibles as they exist today on the model are not aligned. It also seems like there is some discrepancy between the heights of where the hull meets the mandibles. It's probably hard to tell if these were here on the model in the 70s, and the misalignment happened because of handling the prop, but I imagine Bandai would have based the Falcon's dimensions on the prop as it is today.

madibles.jpg
 
Re: Bandai 1/72 Millennium Falcon

Thank you! Now I don't feel so bad! Maybe when Rey crashes the Falcon on takeoff in TFA, it wasn't the first time -- Han and Chewie may have had similarly hairy escapes in the past. . . !
 

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