The rear of the model (exhaust??) is a clear part. How is this supposed to be treated? Is it supposed to be painted or something? Or did the manufacturer provide the clear part so the exhaust can be lit up? Anyone knows?? The instructions are kind of vague on all this.
I’ve watched Ep. 4-6 dozens of times, and the color of the Falcon seems to be grey most of the time (sometimes light grey, sometimes medium grey), dirty off-white sometimes. Any idea what the color should actually be? Also, in flight the exhausts give off a bright bluish white light. How do the exhausts look when the Falcon’s not in flight?
Any advice or pointers would be highly appreciated. My Falcon’s been incomplete and waiting for me to work on her for a few years now![:D][:D][:D]
I’ve got three variants of the kit, an unbuilt original lighted version, the Return of the Jedi built up and an unbuilt cutaway version. It’s a decent kit, Falcon Kits makes a landing gear, bays, “guts on the outside” and cockpit set. The “Guts” set is the one really necessary to give the kit the right look, you can fake the gear and cockpit well enough. Jack Smith’s Falcon Kits link: http://www.falconkits.com/
There is a site where you can download a gif for the rear exhaust. The gif comes in two types, color and black and white so you can print it out and add it to your engine. I printed mine out on clear transparancy using a color laser printer and it looks great! I don’t recall the website for the graphic, but I do have a copy of it.
I’ll e-mail it tomorrow. The Guts set can only be bought from Jack’s site. I do not believe he distributes them to a retailer.
Oh yeah, I want to answer your original question. The original Falcon came with a lighting set. The batteries installed from the bottom, under where the engines were. The compartment was remolded when they deleted the lighting system. The lights lit up the cockpit, turrets and engines.
Yup, I remember building the original lighted Falcon in '77 as a wee lad and brainstorming over how to treat the engines. With just the clear bit, you could plainly see the little bulbs just sitting in there. Even for a 12-year-old, that was totally unacceptable. Not having the wherewithal to install flourescent or some other kind of cool lighting, I ended up just heavily Dullcoating the clear part till it gave a reasonably fuzzy glow.
Still have that rascal, too! Drybrushed it with black for some insane reason…early attempts at weathering, I suppose.
Might just have to have another crack at the Old Falcon, what with all the goodies available today!
O.K., that makes sense now. The bulkhead and door leading to the cockpit is a clear part too. So, all these areas were lit previously. And there’s like a box-like molding for the ventral side, where the engine’s at. Guess this was the battery compartment.
Hi J. Hulk, if you ever embark on a Falcon project again, think the idea of replacing the ‘clear rear’ with a printed transparency is a great one.
Maj Rob, thanks so much for all that info. Looking forwad to receiving your e-mail of the GIF file. Hope to get back working on my ‘hunk o’ junk’ real soon.
I would also like a copy of the .gif for the engine exhaust.
Does anyone know of a detailed listing of exterior lights for this machine. Like the landing lights, running lights, marker lights, position lights…that kind of thing?
I know it has white lights off the nose, and white lights on the backside of the upper tubes, but that is all I have seen.
There’s a really good review and “How to” on the Millenium Falcon from Kambalch’s “A Galaxy far away”. It shows you how to lite your model and even give that blue glow on it! Pretty cool!
Also mentions the “Guts” from Falcon Kits and display tips. That’ll get you all the info you need to either go with the lighting version or the motor gif version.
After watching the original Trilogy a few times I came to realize that the link I posted does contain all the lighting…there was just lighting underneath and the headlights.
You asked earlier about the main coloring of the ship- grey.
The key here is research, weathering, research, weathering, and research. This is how I did mine:
-Start off with a base coat of grey- primer grey works great
-Use 2 or 3 different shades of gray, spray in a random “camo” pattern.
Now mask off random panels and paint them different shades of grey again.
-look at your refrences, some panels are a dirty shade of red- do it.
Do a wash of dark gray/black. Go heavy in recessed areas
-Dry brush with some lighter greys
Give it some oil leaks and stains where appropriate
-Give it some chalk pastel work
Ths gave my Falcon a very busy, used, beat-up look. I’d be happy to snap a few pictures and send them your way. E-mail me if your interested.
The Millennium Falcon: Ship of Riddles (site seems to be down right now) – an excellent site with everything you would want to know about the ship. A lot of kit information here too. I think this is where the graphic for the exhaust can be found. I hope the site doesn’t stay down for long.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news but since this was posted fifteen years ago I think Rob G. is the only member in the thread still posting on this forum.
I came to realize that the link I posted does contain all the lighting…there was just lighting underneath and the headlights.