trappedtexan wrote:

Jim, the chairs are just a shade high, but is that back wall to scale correctly?  Perhaps the back wall light bars are a tad lower than they should be?

Actually all of us that have been building this beast have come to the conclusion that the cockpit that DeAgo supplies is actually around 1:41.5 scale only it's kinda squeezed into the space... which means it's actually bigger then the ships 1:43 scale... then to top it all off, the interior is around 1:47.3 scale so it's actually smaller then everything else. Which really sucks! So now, if you want to design something for both areas its got to be in different sizes. At this scale, you can really see the difference!

It's been awhile... I've been doing alot of work lately and getting things ready for painting... got the underside all together and ready... here's a few pics of what I've got done so far.



I started working on the bottom details as well... love detail on the back engine.





And when everything is in place... oh mamma!!



Also got the recess pits finished




Really starting to come together!

Something I was looking at are these stupid indented "damage" marks all over the hull.



Been thinking about what to do to make them more realistic.  I've seen all kinds of approaches to the problem and I'm sitting here thinking that the marks themselves are in the proper place, even the correct shape.  I'm thinking that when they did a scan of the hull for these places, the computer couldn't interpret what was actually there and used a default setting to just make an indention instead of the actual way the damage was on the hull... and that got me thinking.  Perhaps if I just took the harsh edges off the sides of them they might look alot better.  So, I got out my dremel and a fine bit and went to town on all the damage marks.  I think they came out looking alot better... what do you think?






Came out looking better than I expected




What do you guys think?

Here's the mostly completed underside... getting it all prepped for painting...

Well seeing as I'm waiting for my paints from DOA to arrive I figured I would make myself a Airbrush Spray Booth so I didn't get paint all over the floor.  So I went to Walmart and picked up the following supplies...

- 7 sheets of 30x20 foam core board
- 1 12x12x1 Hepa filter
- 1 12 inch square battery operated/ac adapter powered box fan
- 1 cheap power strip
- 1 cheap under cabinet fluorescent light



Total was under $50 bucks... not too bad.  I started with a basic design...



Since the sheets were 30x20 inches I figured I would use one whole sheet for the working area.  So I set to cutting out my sheets.




Not having a compass, I discovered that using a paper plate it was the perfect size for the opening in the fan, and by folding it in half horizontally and vertically I could find the center with no problem.  I used it to cut a hole out of one sheet and then hot glued my fan in the center of it.  I made sure that I filled all the gaps to make it air tight.





I cut a wire coat hanger and used a few bolts, nuts and washers to hold the filter to the inner wall.  This will allow me to change out the filter relatively easy.  I used some weather stripping on the back side of the filter to give it a better seal against the opening I cut and started putting all the parts together.







Got everything together with duct tape and some hot glue along all the inside edges to make it air tight... here's the final outcome and first test run.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZvrAg7SoHY

That Falcon looks great can't wait to see it finished. I've been trying to build a Falcon out of silver for ages and I'm getting far too obsessed with detail so it's always good to see other peoples obsession.

Nice job on the spray booth be good to see it in action once the paints arrive.

I was wondering what was up with this! Glad to see an update and that things are going well with the project.

Keep up the good work!

Looks good Jim. Using the dremel to create the damage a bit better was a good idea. Are the pieces metal plating with a covering on them? Can't wait to see this thing done. So much added detail.

Roger when you say your building one out of silver, can you explain? Does this mean your melting down silver and casting pieces for a falcon out of it? That is an expensive custom.

TeekSolo wrote:

That Falcon looks great can't wait to see it finished. I've been trying to build a Falcon out of silver for ages and I'm getting far too obsessed with detail so it's always good to see other peoples obsession.

Nice job on the spray booth be good to see it in action once the paints arrive.

Out of silver you say? Would love to see that! Thanks! I've always wanted a spray booth, but they have always been way too small or too expensive. I think the cheapest one I've seen was like $200 for a work area of about 8"x12"... and then if you want a larger work area you're talking some major money there (like in the thousands). I've had this idea roaming in my head for awhile now, my work area in this thing is 30"x20" and it's got a good draw... but it only cost me under $50... and anyone can make one themselves. It's not hard... a little duct tape and foam board can go a long way!

darthmatt22 wrote:

I was wondering what was up with this! Glad to see an update and that things are going well with the project.

Keep up the good work!

Thanks bro... yeah I had to find a new place to host my images. Figured why not use Facebook for a change!

trappedtexan wrote:

Looks good Jim.  Using the dremel to create the damage a bit better was a good idea.  Are the pieces metal plating with a covering on them?  Can't wait to see this thing done.  So much added detail.

The hull plating is all plastic... they are mounted on a metal frame thou. I never really liked the damage the way they molded it in the plastic. Looked much too generic and consistent. The real prod used black plastic with white plastic plating, so they used a dremel to eat away at the upper plastic to show the black plastic beneath. Really a good idea if you ask me.

I picked up a few different Krylon paints to see which one would look best as a base coat. I got Ivory, Sea Green, White, and Almond... will paint was swatches and so a comparison soon to see which one comes out looking best.

Sea green? That doesn't come close to the others .

trappedtexan wrote:

Sea green?  That doesn't come close to the others .  

Wasn't Sea Green... was Aqua... a bit more bluish!

I've been testing various other base paints to use as a substitution for the hard to find Tamiya Insignia White.  I tried out 4 different Krylon colors and my initial thoughts were correct.  The colors I tried are Almond, Ivory, Flat White and Aqua.  Here's what they look like and are pretty readily available just about everywhere in large supplies (so no need to worry about them running out of stock any time soon).



I took some paint swatches I got from walmart and painted them each color to test against the unpainted hull and then took photos under a Daylight bulb.  Its a bit lighter which is a good thing because after weathering it's gonna be darker anyway.  You can see the results for yourself.




So I'm definitely going with Ivory... I went ahead and painted the top turret and placed it on the unpainted hull and you can definately see how nicely it looks!



And then I did a little weathering.... very nice:

Coming together well!

The ivory works great. By the time you do the wash with dirty paint it will darken a bit. Still don't know why the aqua was in the mix.

trappedtexan wrote:

The ivory works great.  By the time you do the wash with dirty paint it will darken a bit.  Still don't know why the aqua was in the mix.  

I was hoping it would be more grimey greenish... but it turned out more bluish!

This thing is going to be epic when it is finished. How many more modifications are you planning? You did most of the interior and now the battle damage, are there other exterior mods your planning?

trappedtexan wrote:

This thing is going to be epic when it is finished.  How many more modifications are you planning?  You did most of the interior and now the battle damage, are there other exterior mods your planning?

Well I'm waiting for some new parts to arrive from Shapeways soon... The exterior I don't plan much because it's pretty much perfect on the outside. The inside is what requires soooooo much modification to get to look right. I just got my PE corridors in the mail the other day. Now I can start working on getting those ready. They look awesome BTW!

Mental note to self... remember that not all lights are as cool as LED bulbs are now!

So here's the situation... Here I am happy as can be using my new spray booth and everything is going great... I get up from it for a moment and turn my back and all the sudden I hear CRASHHHHHHHHHH! The florescent light strip I was using in the hood I had attached with hot glue thinking it would be good enough to hold it with no problems seeing as its a florescent bulb... well I was wrong... it got hot enough to melt the glue and the whole think came crashing down... luckily the bulb didn't break. So I drilled a couple of holes in the top of the hood and reattached the lamp and now everything is right with the world again! I'm just glad that nothing was damaged (including none of the parts I was working on including some printed pieces!)

Got to watch that with aerosolized paint as it may be a fire hazard. Glad it didn't wreck the parts.

trappedtexan wrote:

Got to watch that with aerosolized paint as it may be a fire hazard.  Glad it didn't wreck the parts.

What are you... some kinda girly man? Got no muscles? You think I'm scared of a little explosion? I'm here to PUMP (clap) YOU UP! LOL

Just catching up with the updates. I like the hull damage work you added and the choice of ivory colour. And nice job on constructing a spray booth too (with added pyrotechnics it seems ). Thanks for the updates and keep up the great work!

Artoo_Detour wrote:

Just catching up with the updates. I like the hull damage work you added and the choice of ivory colour. And nice job on constructing a spray booth too (with added pyrotechnics it seems ). Thanks for the updates and keep up the great work!

Thanks bro... scared the crap outta me too! But luckily no damage! I really love my spray booth... it's working out really well and for less then $50 bucks it definitely pays for itself!