A mismatch scene

[Newbie_wan]

Hi everyone!

First post, and I am slightly Star Wars knowledgeable.

I picked up four NOS unopened items to make a mini diorama above my tv. They all turned out to be less or as expensive as a mint opened items.

The Death Star wall night light fixture. Had to tame the beast, by adding a resistor to the led driver (200 ohm), and placed a white plastic grocery bag inside to diffuse and even out the lighting.

My Legacy Millennium Falcon, will be custom modded (being an electronics guru) and custom painted (externally). It will be flying away from my wall hanging Death Star night light fixture.

Since the engine lights are blue and not as bright as the Newer Galaxy's Edge Millennium Falcon, I will add a bit more white LEDs to make it look more like the film version, with blue halo around bright white. Painting will be easy peasy. As lighting is just right for original details. Using water based enamels (easily removed with Alcohol if reverting back to original) , with use of sponges and ear buds (Q-tips). Mostly to give a wash of space dust build up to release the features. Will add some battle marks and engine exhaust vent build up as well. No overly done details for studio mastering, as it will be placed 7 feet away from tv. Below is how the mock setup is coming out. Will add a back ground of some sort. For now I covered some pictures that may be unsuitable for public viewing. Ha!

viewing.

Because of scale and distance, I chose to use a Hallmark Darth Vader Tie Fighter to place far across the corner of our vaulted ceiling. Its large enough to notice... Look, it's Darth getting away!

My 4th item is a Power of The Force 2 X-Wing, with 12 sound effects. Because of its size, it will be placed some where to the left side of the Millennium Falcon, and a bit closer than on the film, but nothing will be true to the film to begin with.

I know most would have chosen the newest releases of the Millennium Falcon and X-Wing, but from video reviews, I find both older varients to be a nice option for sound and custom mods. Being that the newer items are more for collecting because of their painted authenticity for display or with collecting the unopened.

I will do similar painting with X-Wing engines, and space dust build up to add to the look. I think black battle marks may be too bold, so I will white wash them into a deep gray and over coat the outer edges with grey to fade.

I have been browsing various threads on the Hasbro action figures, as to what others have done. I did do one fun mod with the old Staples button that was fairly popular. I replaced the sound box with a recorder chip unit, and recorded R2D2 while being disabled by a Jawa. The Staples button is now a panic overload button. Ha!

 

[Utinniii]

Welcome!!

Nice start! I can't wait to see it finished.

 

[Newbie_wan]

Welcome!!

Nice start! I can't wait to see it finished.

Getting things sorted... once I have completed the arrangement to how things will be finalized, I will start painting some additional features and touch ups to the existing paint on the two large scale vehicles.

Its sort of a surpise gift that grew bigger than planned once I searched for an X-Wing. Was going to get a newer version, until some videos were found on the Power of The Force electronic version.

I have a feeling the 19" X-wing will be a wee too big with scale compared to the Falcon. May need to search for a smaller X-wing, because of the closeness to the Falcon. All but Vader's Tie Fighter is within 0.5 meter distance, from wall to Falcon.

Outside of the electronics of the X-Wing, it still has some features unique to make it a nice pick, even though its a sticker version of the 19" X-Wings.

The image shown is nice enough for a final setup. As the sitting position when watching tv is perfectly in place to see the scene without obstruction.

If anyone has the Death Star pictured, you know how oddly bright it is and lighting being too uneven. During night tv viewing, the un-modded Death Star was too distracting, and the dark plastic looked washed out with glow. Some may have done a wee mod themselves. Its perfect for it being constantly on.

I noticed some odd looseness with the X-Wing. Being NOS, I thought it was immune to the issues many talk about. I will modify it tighten up its looseness and see if the lever can be modded for durability while I am at it. Seems like the original is made a bit flimsy, I think a bit of plastic epoxy the hidden areas to be thicker will do the trick.

I am on other things, but some time within a few weeks, I hope to get another picture posted.

 

[Utinniii]

There are some models you can build for X-wings. They are perhaps, in the middle between a Hasbro toy and the RPG playing pieces. They might be fun to build and add electronics to as well.
There are lots of options for scales once you start looking.

I have a dream of building a wall sized Death Star. and intend to mix scales for perspective as well, all the way down to micro machines.

 

[Newbie_wan]

Yes, about other models and micro machines. I could not pass on the electronic X-Wing, since it was sort of a fire sale item, it was a $49.00 item for me. Though I read many were discounted below that around the end of December. Some are over 2x that now.

One thought that sprang up, if I had time... is to make a diagnonal display of the rebel base. Being that it would over hang a wee bit over the pictured tv. You would get about a 45° view from up top. So it would not need much additional custom items to create, outside of the floor and its markings. Though you would have to create a back drop on the wall. The big issue is the weight of the Falcon. I would need to glue the feet in place to keep it from sliding off the angled display.

It had already fell 2 meters, when setting up its hang position, the sharp edge around the engine area, cut the fishing line like a knife. Had to double up to keep it from happening again. One thing, the plastic can take a beating. Not a bend, stress crack or break. Though it did bounce off the top of the tv onto a box. But still hit the carpeted floor. It popped the tops off, pieces flew everywhere, and even launched a few missles from the impact. I was on my ladder at the time, adjusting a line holding a mandible .

 

[VideoViper]

Really like the idea to disfuse the light in the Death Star I might try that with mine.

 

[Newbie_wan]

Thanks! Well its not a difficult thing to do. The white plastic bag, helps a lot. As for the 200 ohm resistor, some may find it a wee advanced. Just put it in series of the LED connection, and isolate with electrical tape.

Mine is bright enough to notice the light ports being bright in daylight, as shown in the picture. At night, the whole thing is lit up well, without being over powering, like it is without the mods.

 

[Newbie_wan]

I had a some time to mostly disassemble the X-Wing. Seems the spring is not as tight as needed to squeeze the wings into a tight full closed position. After looking into an adjustment, I fear the added spring pressure when modded will weaken the plastic over time. Its not so critical for me, as I will keep the wings in X position.

I removed the handle and will create a plate to mount in its place, amd create a dummy missile to fill the launcher hole. This way it looks more like a model than a toy. Something odd about my X-Wing, even though it is a 12 sound version, it has provision to use AT-AT missiles. I think the clear red missile could be early release versions. Not sure, as there seems to be some variants that could come into play on late production. It is not a concern just noticing for reference. It makes it easier to modifiy a common AT-AT missle for covering the hole nicely.

Once those items are done up, it will look closer to a Trench Run version. In fact I have some blue, that looks similar to blue band used on the engines for Trench Run.

I plan on disassembling the engines to paint the clear lenses, so you see the patern of the internal assembly when lighted.

I guess I will be making this toy to be more of a display to fit in with over all looks of the diorama.

Hope to start next week.

 

[Newbie_wan]

I managed to get a wee moment to reassemble the body of the X-Wing. Won't be doing that again.

I was able to do the engine decals around the intakes. I did not like how they look, so I cut to size, as to fit between the char marks. Also I aligned the ends by adjusting the edges at the bottom to align with top decal. Looks much better, but not too happy with its over all look. Mainly there are marks that don't have any corresponding areas. It's like stress only effects around the front edge.

I guess its another issue about the X-Wing and so many variances. Here I had it bad about the missile, when in the movie two are used, and mounted at the wing. At least seen from Luke's perspective. So that's one reason why I am ditching the missle launcher setup. All but the trigger, as it keeps the integrity of the toy, if one prefers to keep it stock.

As for the movie, I can't get my mind around how Luke was able to hyper speed when engines were damaged. But that has nothing to do with the toy, just one wee bug-a-boo.

I did a test paint of the engine area in a blue water based enamel, did not have the deeper blue, as seen on the Trench Run X-Wing. I sort of like my blue better, but I am just taking wee ques on various scheme' to add to the toy.

Until I am done, I will seal coat the enamel in flat or matte sealer.

Also as a quicky, I shadowed in the grills to the left and right wing bases. I used white board marker to do the job. Easy to remove with liquid cleaner, but resilient to touch, as long as you are not constantly rubbing. I lifted off excess with damp cotten ball. I tried not to make it look even, as it looks more natural, to me at least.

 

[Newbie_wan]

A wee update. Removed the rubberized exhaust exit funnels. I don't know if any have done so in the past, as I never came across any info on it, before hand.

It is best to use an old dull razor knife or the back side of a new one. The trick is to go around the seam where the plastic engine body meets with the rubberized end piece. You will find about half of the seam is not glued, and allows the tip of the blade to slip under and between the parts. Forcefully go along the perimeter. You may have to reverse direction of while flipping the blade, to use the non cutting end.

You will hear a snap sound when seal is broken. It may shock you, as if you broke it. Once removed, clean up of both sections are required for smooth fit. If by chance you gouge some rubber from the exhuast funnel, you can fill and form with E6000 glue and paint. Because the area snugs up to a step, most of the gouge will remain hidden, and any paint that is visible is at the end away from direct view, making it less noticable if not an exact match to the colour of the plastic.

This process to remove the exhaust funnels is required if detailing the lenses and readjusting how they align with the engine body. Some may notice that the detail between both parts don't align perfectly. If you have OCD this will give some relief. Though I cannot imagine anyone with OCD wanting to deal with toys and models that are not perfect. Might as well create your own for the amount of time and effort.

 

[Newbie_wan]

 

[Newbie_wan]

I have done a wee more detailing with the X-Wing.
Added the plastic spacer mod to correct the wing sag.
Added extra decals, of which you may notice in the pictures. Some of which were never intended for the area in use.
Touched up the wing blasters.
All in all trying to keep it as a toy, and yet look nice for display.

Soon to have a photographer's back drop to give the diorama a 3D window effect.

 

[Newbie_wan]

I created an ejectable door to the rocket launcher. It was not made of an acrylic or average model plastic, so I had to use an adhesive to hold the door to a modified projectile. The door is of black scrap from a remote battery door. Had to use a base coat to nutral out the black a bit. I thought the bottom was all the same colour, but you will see my grey was a bit off. I will sort the colour out and paint over the grey, without need to strip and redo the base coat.

Note, because the rocket launcer hole has an indentation, I will work on adding a rounded curved end to fill the open area just under the door. It will be like the nose of a ski but upside down.

 

[Newbie_wan]

I finished up detailing the X-Wing engines. This toy is more or less an enhanced version, that is half display half usable as a toy. The degree of hold up is equal to decal wear, mostly.

Note, the colours are a bit washed, but by reviewing previous shots of the engines, you will notice I have made them a wee more grey and added highlights. I used black water based enamel diluted to get a nice black wash. The key is to layer coat, while attacking heavy pooling.

I also touched up the panel behind R2D2. Being a dark grey, I just added highlights to bring out details.

You can if you will make nice visuals to make a well used look, without an air brush or fine brush or sponge touch ups.

 

[Newbie_wan]

I have been off doing other things, and fell behind a bit.

Did some more touch up work to even out details. Got involved with noticing some odd distracting features, and worked on correcting them.

I first noticed the wing clip ends and the mechanism to allow the wings to part, show unpainted plastic when looking between them. Obviously the shadowing was never done to them. Painted the spreading mechinism panel, and touched up the clip ends to allow them to fade into the shadowing.

Another issue is the overdone shadowing at the back end. Will make a thick white wash to blot on the areas that are black saturated, to alow some detail to be seen.

Lastly is the bloody stickers... seems the red wing stickers are cut oddly. At least more noticable than all the other sticky labels. I have tried colour matching with printed paper and a bit of saturation to cover cut lines, and recut a larger label to correct the weird look.

Once I get the proper match, I will colour lock and protect the paper, so wiping down with a damp cloth will not effect them, and problably make them as durable as the originals. Another thing, is that the original labels are a tad shiny, when viewed at angles. The printed paper looks better over all on the wings, as long as the print is saturated enough. Some adjustment is needed on standard paper. Not all standard papers are of same porosity and density. HP pure white is a nice smooth paper, or hobby poster paper works well. Though poster paper is a bit more smooth and may give a shine.

All in all, its coming out as well as to be expected, not having to do much work to give it a nice display look.

 

[Newbie_wan]

I worked on details that needed to be done. Experimenting with paper, as I want a more closer look to original print decals. I am going to print over clear coated paper. To make a fake photo paper. This way I don't need to saturate for proper colour definition with porous paper.

The red five marking decals are my custom print on standard untouched paper. They are for mock up as tested for placement and apperance. Not to be permanent. Note the arm on the big red strip. It's not trimmed to be as thin as original. The final will be done correctly. The big difference is width to fit end to end to match up with panel indentations of the plastic.

Note the deeper grey on the engines. Contemplating more coverage, as I have done one top engine a wee more than the others. Eventually I may do the rest like it, as I need to touch up a wipe out of my grey panel pain over. I thought it was dry enough and did not realize the rag angle would cover the edge as much as it did.

 

[Newbie_wan]

I looked around for Canon pixma printing options. Found Epson single sided matte coated presentation paper will be almost as thin as standard sheet paper. So I ordered a ream to see how it goes. If it works out it, it will be the best option for recreating custom decals at home, without a lot of additional cost.

If obtaining matte presentation paper, make sure the paper is less than 30 lb weight, or no larger than 5 mil. Kodak, Epson, Koala and others make various papers to fit within spec. Some may be double sided, but mostly single sided coated paper should be thin enough for decals.

 

[Newbie_wan]

I think I am done with the engines and wing paint for now. After a look at film images, I lightened up the wing paint and stuck with grey, instead of milky bluish grey. I prefer this grey overall, as seen in pictures below. The engines are a wee darker than the panel behind R2-D2. I contemplating removing the black out areas at the back of the wings, as there is no reason to black it out. A wee nail polish remover on a cotten bud will lift if off nicely. Probably the only permanent mod that needs done, outside of the red five wing decals.

 

[Newbie_wan]

i started on removing the black shadowing at the back wing sections, near the engines. Looks much better, as odd things like that sort of makes the toy look cheap. Too much shadowing. Its ok for the area in between the wings when opened up, but areas where nothing is to produce darkened areas when flyimg about, sort of makes an odd apperance. Sort of like the bottom engines having the landing gear. Like landing gear should be a hinderance for engine operation. Ha!

Still waiting on printer paper for the finalized label prints.

As for the Millennium Falcon, not sure how to go about it. Knowing its to be an off white makes the large scale a bit of trouble if trying to keep it reversable without compromising the original condition. After a week ones eyes gets use to the grey. Its just a wee too dark to be nice enough not to bother with repaint.

So, once I plan out further, it will probably come down to minor wee details to help lighting conditions being that most of the lighting is natural or diffused light at night. The electronics stuff is easy, just hack away bits and drill if adding fiber optics. Don't know of some use bare fiber optics, its about the diameter of 15lb fishing line. In stead of using end to end like most do for interconnects, you terminate one end or use both, as in a loop, to a light source. When properly layed out, slightly notch or strip the isolator sheath in areas you need light. Works great for just about any cramped condition. Just does not bend well for acute angles.

Another option if external light or some near by light source can be in line of site... use LISA. It may go by another name now these days. Its an Acrylic, this the nameing is just an acronym. Its light conductivity is much greater than fiber optic, as it uses more surface area to redirect light. Its about 20x brighter than the best fluorescent plastic. I took a sheet of it out side and my bare hands looked like what would happen holding your hand over a flash light at night. This was during a bright sunny day, which it would take a much brighter souce than a flood light to achive day light conditions. Its function is a wee different than fiber optic. Any scratch along its surface will radiate light. Don't have any sheets on me, but I do have some high quality bare fiber optic packed away. We'll see about interior lighting mods when I get down to work on the falcon.

As for Darth's TIE fighter, its wee. So wee that it reminds me of a spider in the corner when noticing off at a distance. Actually its not directly part of the scene, just a wee bonus if anyone is to look around and take notice. Ha!

If your womdering why I haven't gotten so far with multi tasking between the two ships. Work space and surprise effect. Letting the cat out of the bag before its time, has been a bit of trouble. Just about every hidey hole has been found since obtained. Never in my life, have I seen unused areas scouted upon, as if some easter egg hunt was given without my notice. Every time I move one ship to a safe haven, there goes another search right were I relocated it. Once the cat is out of the bag, working on a task won't be such a secret event. I figured the X-Wing is small enough to get done without trouble. Its the bloody lack of storage thats causing trouble. Ha!

All the things I must go through to surprise an original Star Wars geek. Ha!

 

[Newbie_wan]

Mostly done with removal of shadow paint on wings, near the engines. Need to clean up a bit, especially with casting flash and some difficult saturated areas. I had to dilute my acetone about 1/4 water. The stuff I have will soften plastic if soaking heavily saturated areas.

Working on some detail, shown at the rear, not sure how dark my grey will be when completed. Used a slightly darker grey than the wing area near the red five decal.

 

[Newbie_wan]

Almost done with the fronts and backs of the wings details. Mostly the right side back at the engine, where it is shadowed in in black. About half done.

Notice how I allowed asymmetry while still being somewhat symmetric when at viewed at a distance. You can go into fine details, but if you were to blow up those fine details to actual size, you will find they are not as accurate looking as one thought. Instead of long shadowy areas, chose to use short somewhat random strokes, with a white board marker, within a linear area. Extrapolation dots so to speak. Mostly because its is a toy not a display model. After all natural look is a mixture of scale, and perception. All that depends on relative size and point of view. So being that most when viewing the images may not see the final look until my last few images, when placed in position. Think of what is to be visual within a mosaic. To you my engines touch up appears all one colour. Which they are... but when looked at up close it is a mixture of Tortoise shell and marble in grey scale, with the back ground solid colour peeking through the contrast of details. There are areas that appear 3D in layering, somewhat as if done by air brush. Believe it or not the technique is basically water colour. I allowed the surface tension to create shapes and application of pigment, layering as it has dried, with gravity assisting in areas. With that lighting and angle affects the blending in of detail. Thus my explaination as to details with how you will view your display. As for the back side of the wing, i had no choice but to use black, since the mold was reversed, having a protrusion , instead of a valley between top and lower panels of the wing. It's what would have been done production cost was not so limited.

 

[Newbie_wan]

I printed my first roumd of decals using Epson single sided matte presentation paper. It's slightly thinner than original decal thickness, which I don't mind.

Notice its a wee dark and saturated. The photo does take away the issues pointed out on reproduction. Will fiddle around with my settings, as the image was set for plain paper. It goes to show you plain paper will always bleach out details no matter how heavy you print.

I have a feeling the grey back ground around the decals will be closer to the paper, but not as light, due to the paper being over 90% white. Thus a need to zero in on decal appearance not the background. Also the image was taken soon after print. You must wait a day for a printed image to settle. Once I have a nice final image, i will clear coat to lock in the colours for longevity.

 

[Newbie_wan]

I have somewhat come up with a proper sticker replacement. Being old originals, the glue breakdown and film layer for the print yellowed. After a bit of working with image settings and reformatting the size to print, I came up with a fairly good base to work with.

Once I verify which clear coat works best, I will edit out some cut lines for the new label sizes. They are not much oversized, just the arms under the stripes are longer to match up to be equal with the ends of the stripe labels.

Most of the labels are cut somewhat smaller than the area they are used in. Either careful placement to center within their respective locations, or cut out properly sized labels to fit proper, to cover the border gaps.

Here is my base image for for final work before cutting and mounting. Note, the whote stripes are more grey scale than shades of vanila cream colour. Though lighting was not so good, and the image looks a wee light on the red, than with sheet in hand. I purposely made red 5 five labels and out more than the original stickers. Mostly because I prefer the red being closer to movie or model colours. I could go on with other details and aspects, just the red details stands out more to me.

 

[Newbie_wan]

After a bit of trial and error... I decided old and yellowed original decals look the best. Lightening up and removing the yellowy tint to my new reprints, just did not look as good with the grey plastic. Mellowed with age? Don't know, never seen this toy new from back then, so I havd no comparisons.

I did like the more redish look of the newly printed Red Five wing labels, so I pushed a wee more red than the original copy of the decal sheet.

One thing I did do was print out a lighter version of the cockpit background behind Luke's head. It matches more to the interior colour, and shows more detail. Yes, I will go against what many want for a close to original, but then again, just about every Red Five X-Wing is done differently in some areas, noticable or not.

I did find some oddities with printing a sticker sheet with my Canon Pixma printer. I had to adjust all margins to their minimum values and center both Vertically and Horizontally the image to page, while automatically fit to page. As the removal any excess border (Cropping outter edge of label to outer edge of label, from all sides of the sheet) from a scanned sticker sheet is not good enough on its own. Other printers may require different settings. I assume some of my required adjustments are from how the scanned output has been formatted or compressed by software. I may have to check, as my options are to scan and send as attachment. Which may override page information. None the less its not an issue, now that I sorted out printing a proper image.

Once I zeroed down all the needed adjustments, cutting out the new labels were spot on for size and shape. Any offset done can allow the printed image to squish or expand along the application's adjusted print area.

I used MS Paint and print preview to make the needed settings before printing. It's simple and does the job without bothering with some 3rd party programme.

 

[Newbie_wan]

Just as I had thought I was done... I reversed plan on blacking out the wing clips and started removing the black out shadow between the wings. Not all mind you, just on the outer area from the engines. I completed one and highlighted engine details while I was at it, for the most part. Notice the labels... still in the development mode. One of which came out odd, will have to reprint and adjust for my shortend height from the cut on top. They are temporarily held in place with double sided sticky tape for photos and scrapping.

 

[Tulgah]

Wow! What a unique idea!

Thanks for taking us through the process so meticulously! This is a great thread!

 

[Newbie_wan]

Wow! What a unique idea!

Thanks for taking us through the process so meticulously! This is a great thread!

Thank you! Not many have replied, though I tend just to share an idea or two since I don't frequent these types of forums. Not geeky enough to keep interest, yet have my own views, mostly logicial not correctness. Thus my conundrum about the Falcon. I can't being myself to touch it up at this point. Mostly because the lighting makes white stand out a bit harsh. Way back on a documentaryin the 80s, a modeler explained grey was used because white could not properly be filmed. Only large sets had white used. Until you hang your large falcon in a constantly changing lighting condition, you will notice grey does not seem so grey, as a hinderance to details.

The only reason why I had gone a bit wild with the X-Wing fighter, is because it lacked the painting done with the Falcon, and it also seemed too mono toned for its basic layout. Adding extra panel decals helped, but the engines needed something. One thing aggreed upon on others old comments, the main issue with the Power of The Force F/X toy, is that the high contrast of black was overly done. Removing a lot of the black shadowing, made the toy look as good as the newer varients based upon it. For $45.00 and a wee bit of fiddling around, it works as good for my needs as any other newer varients available.

Also I tried to show 3 different inner wing engine stress shadowing effects. They are from three techniques with cotton buds and remover. Straight remover will lift almost cleanly after a few seconds of sitting. The lifted black will reapply once the bud is less saturated with thinner and has softened the plastic to make it sticky. If using a small percentage of water to calm down the remover, you can smear the black, which gives the radial flairing. If getting to carried away the white board pen can be used to fill in and smear with finger if too sharp with details.

I am not a detailer / painter... just don't have the patience. My mind wants it done faster than I can apply. Using water based paints, has its advantages for me, even though its slower, to get results. If you mess up, blot it and its gone. Ha! Start over cleanly without a fuss. Though blotting watered down pigments is like water colouring. Works best on paper. The trick is getting a thicker application to dry, and blot over. The engines were around 7 applications of blotting. Going from engine to engine and using gravity with the constant changing of the body's angles while applying my blots made such a process to work fairly easy. If it were just one engine, it would have been time consuming on my patience.

The only drawback is the wings, since they are formed with a different type of plastic. Which does not allow the water based paint to stick well. Unlike the rest of the toy. I have rubbed and held the engines that were painted, without any detriment to the application. Though its never intended to be permanent, the use of the toy for display, will not make for such concern.

Thanks for your interest in my work that I have done.

Will have more to show, as I did a simple trick to fill in the odd hollowed out areas between the wings. I had some rubber tape, which is about 3x as thick as black electrical tape, and being bare rubber not so shiney. Its stiff enough to maintain some form, when stuck to my spacers to keep the wings open, wider than with the lock mechanism. It allows the inner engines to show nicely as well.

In a wee way, you would not think of it as the original toy, with all the wee things done.

 

[Newbie_wan]

Here is a few quick photos of the rubber tape filled in areas between the wings. Needs a wee tweaking, as it was a quick thought.

Though when viewed at 1 meter, it is difficult to tell any issues on how the areas are masked from view. Note the inner engines are now a wee more noticable.

 

[Utinniii]

Your problem with white being too white is actually hundreds of years old. Costumes for theatre are often tea dyed so they look "white" on stage.

I'm not very technical so I can't really comment on most of what you are saying, but I am impressed with the results!

 

[Newbie_wan]

Your problem with white being too white is actually hundreds of years old. Costumes for theatre are often tea dyed so they look "white" on stage.

I'm not very technical so I can't really comment on most of what you are saying, but I am impressed with the results!

Thanks! It was not intended to be a masterfully detailed display item. If any thing subtle details stand out more when properly accented. I used the original colour of the plastic to highlight, and removed the heavyness of black, along with layering a grey wash until nicely covered without full coverage. Thinned enamels could do the job, but the water based gives some details hard to reproduce without knowing tricks of the trade. There is a lot left to do, if one is to do a full detail. In some ways the best detail work will be lost when the object is 1.5 or more meters away. My original thoughts were just to make the engines less mono toned, as shown in my first grey wash attempt. It looked nice enough to leave alone, until I added more grey wash and noticed I can match it closer to the panel behind R2. Then I started with the removal of black, where it was just too much.

All I can say is if your going to change up something, find an area your willing to change, that wont be hard to revert from. Once you are satisfied by the results, move on to what you see will be a bigger improvement.

Actually the documentary, I mentioned, was about Star Wars production technology, to make visuals with the models. Most threads with the Falcon show many varients with white or off white, not grey. Yes I am familar with tea to make white livable under lighting conditions. Just at first I had thought the Falcon would look nicer in a lighter shade of grey, or off white. After a few days I realized how a white surface effects the over all looks, and compared the old documentary information as to using grey.

None the less, I spent a deal of time sorting how I was to reproduce the decal labels. Having no clue to the whiteness of the originals, back when released. I compromised and chose to do the Red Five wing decals a wee better than original. The photos are mock ups. Once done up I will add the final photos for the X-Wing, as one would notice in our seated postions, while watching TV.

 

[Utinniii]

There are some nice hiz res shots of the Falcon on the net and in books. There are a bunch of stickers that most never notice on screen.

 

[Newbie_wan]

Yes, I have seen some, and for the most part did a few extras, that are not pointed out but are in some of the pictures. Just a few, not going any further with any more additions. For the most part, I wanted to tweak the original design layout, but not redo it completely. I am fully satified with the mix of toy and added looks of a display. It needs nothing more, unless I would be willing to remove all the black streaks and make a more realistic battle scar version. If going by the 12 movie sounds, there are some starting off before battle has begun, so there are some limits to maintaining accuracy within the story of the sound clips.

Seems like each newer revision through the year has something different. I chose the F/X as it had all what I needed to match with the Falcon as for electronics. Even though the Falcon is not quite as detailed with enhancements on external looks as the X-Wing, they both fit well together. Just scale will be way off for how close they will be placed near each other. No matter how I set them up the constraints will make the X-Wing a bit oversized. A micro machine would work, but a nice sized X-Wing is what I decided on.

Wife has a few rare items from Japan, who knows if she is willing to put her "Revenge of The Jedi" movie pre-release poster on the wall behind the diorama.

 

[Tulgah]

I too have tried to coat a full toy with one paint in the past, only to experience wretched results from varying types of plastic. It takes a lot of trial and error!

 

[Utinniii]

I've been too busy to watch it, but the Crafsman (steady crafting) recently posted a video about how to keep paint from lifting off plastic. IDK if it can help you with the kind of paints you are using but he is fun to watch. Sorry, I don't have a link ready.

 

[Tulgah]

Good suggestion, I’m sure!

 

[Newbie_wan]

Well there is various techniques. I deal with automotive mostly. The plastics are like on the toy. A nylon based was used on my door panel, abs and pvc types wwre also used in the interior. A company called SEM makes spray can applications. Having its own plastic prep and few other cleaners, primers and sealers to start with. One option is to dye vinyl rubber and nylon based plastic. Two types, one of which is to boil with a measured amount of single dye or combination for colour matching.

I was never expecting paint to stick permanently, as I may want to revert back to original. Though with my wee tweaks in removing the overly done black shadowing, reverting back seems pointless in that aspect, once the details have been released.

Being water based paint, natural plastic acts similar to glass. Water will pool, streak and move about with gravity and surface tension. You can get some interesting details created with thinned down paint. In a few engine shots, you can make out a few splash like details when zoomed up. If done with black or darker grey, it would look like air brushed blast mark, or in my case heat stress with aged look. Giving a 3D effect, as if a panel had been breached or eroded, leaving a crater effect, as the pigment is pulled to the outer edges as it dries.

Because I used a medium grey on the panel behind R2, it took 2 or 3 applications of grey wash. The water based pigments worked out fine for adding details without going over the top. Some times when too much paint is applied details are lost and need highlighted, or need to scrape or blot away the excessive paint that was applied. I did not have to do any work outside of troweling with a knife edge to break up pooling as the wash dried. I tend to think of it as doodling around. Ha!

If anything, light coats may not look like much is done properly, as for coverage. But doing the coats done at criss cross patterns, will even out and look sprayed than brushed on. Instead of one or two normal applications, doing very light washes of pigment over and over allows you to get results easier, though it seems time consuming. One you notice results showing through, the amount of reapplying a pigment wash becomes less so, as to notice when to stop, before becoming saturated.

 

[Newbie_wan]

Here is some pictures of what is setup for now. I moved Darth Vader's fighter into view. He was like a wee spider out lurking in the corner as he escapes. Ha! Oh yes, my wife's Alien's festive xenomorph had photo bombed. I guess he could not resist. Salacious Crumb put him up to it. Ha! Their buddies.

 

[Utinniii]

If you get a tiny motor, you can have Vader's ship corkscrewing!

 

[Newbie_wan]

Ha! Well i do have a wee army of old Motorola Razor V3a flip phones, which has a wee motor for virbration. Problem is battery power, since it is 3.3v. Though 1.2v may allow for slow rotation under its own mass. The air flow around where it hangs, does allow for wee bobbing around at times. Which is close enough for effect.

Maybe when i have time i will think something to motorizing Vader's fighter. It will need to rotate within a suspended ring. The nice thing is it can be thin clear sheet of plastic, so it does not limit view. Under the right lighting, being transparent, it will look as if the fighter is free spining magically. The only issue, is gutting the fighter to house the motor and add a few wee hearing aid batteries. It's fairly small as it is.

 

[Utinniii]

Something also to consider is the sound of the spinner. Hallmark has motors for ornaments, but the sound is really annoying. I guess speed is also a factor.

You could make a small moon to hide the motor, although the proximity to Vader's ship might be distracting.
I suppose cutting a small hole in the wall for the motor is out of the question.