by Simon Haydn

Taking inspiration from a model of the Millennium Falcon that was used on the set of Blade Runner as a futuristic building, I wanted to turn this one into a wall-light.

My purchase from eBay arrived in a poor state, with lots of missing or broken parts and needed a good scrub. Once done, I dremelled any unnecessary internals, like the battery and main figure compartment to make way for the remote control lighting kit. Externally, I had to shorten and reattach the landing gear, rebuild the quad turret, add detailing to the side hatches, open up the exhaust vents and engines, drill 8 location lights, extend the nose between the prongs, replace the details on all of the sunken sections, remodel the cockpit interior, add battle damage and make new exhaust meshes.

The lighting system is quite powerful, so the top had to be made one piece and checked for any thinner pieces of plastic, that were letting light through. Some sections needed patching, but otherwise a thick coat of paint did the trick. Something my previous models have suffered from is a lack of weathering and the Falcon always looked battered - part of its appeal, but I can't paint that well. So, in order to help me this time I used 2 different types of wash from Warhammer and some sand paper. Finding the right base colour was very hard and a week before the deadline it was far too grey, even with all of the extra paint details. Luckily, I had some suitable metal shelf paint, but it was glossy and I made a difficult decision to respray it and take my chances. I think it's turned out alright, but I've since learned of some weathering powders that will make it look even more beat up.

Image:

Image: New side hatch

Image: Cockpit, repainted and weathered

Image: Top view

Image: Hatch

Image: Sensor dish

Image: Left/front

Image: Detail

Image: Lighting and light block in place

Image: Wiring

Image: More wiring

Image: Orange light

Image: White

Image: Purple

Image: Red

Image: Green

Image: Blue

Image: Starting point

Image: Cockpit, as arrived

Image: Side view, before

Image: Top view, before

Image: Interior, stripped

Image: Weathering comparison