Issue 5 & Painting

OK, Issue 5 is here, and that means we're almost done with the cockpit. Note they've switched from the cardboard backed board to a plastic baggie. Works for me.

Now, before I go nuts with Issue 5, I wanted to stop and take a paint break, as this will be pretty much finishing off the cockpit and we'll be enclosing it soon. So I went ahead & pulled the two pieces from Issue 5, and set about them with a dry brush:

As you can see, I'm using silver (Testor's) and rust (Sargent) to give the pieces a well-worn feel. Dry brushing, if you don't know, is a simple technique that really makes details pop. Basically, you dip your brush in a tiny amount of your paint, dab it on newspaper or whatever until the paint is nearly gone, then lightly brush over the surface of your model piece, especially hitting raised areas and edges. This and color washing (which I'll describe later) are, in my opinion, the two main tools in the painter's utility belt.

Here, I've taken the floor, worked over the control panel a bit, and dabbed silver all over the floor to give it the scuffed & worn look.

Now, a little grunge on the padding going around the door (black Testor's at work here):

Back seats:

Front seats (not entirely happy with them, but I let some paint drizzle into the cracks to "stain" them):

The piece from yesterday as well.

Also, I did just a light bit of brushing on the back sticker, because otherwise it looks too "clean". Don't go nuts with this, just use a light touch.

The finished result:

(Yes, I went ahead & installed the side controls).

OK, on with the show. Next up is the LED panel for the back wall lights. Dig this:

Basically, you want to line it up behind the cockpit (it attaches to the "door") so the 3 holes line up as shown:

It's not the snuggest fit in the world, but it's adequate. A screw goes into the middle hole.

BTW, if you haven't found a place to store your spare screws already, I suggest you do so. I'm just using a ziplock baggie myself.

Now let's do a test fit of the cockpit in the "elbow bend that holds it:

Pretty nice, eh? Don't glue it yet, though. We're going to be doing more work, not the least of which is repainting the body parts. Why? Well, have a look here:

Notice how the weathering stops abruptly at the border between the top & bottom halves? Yeah. Doesn't exactly scream verisimilitude. So I picked up some Tamiya Insignia White (AS-20) as per the painter guy's web videos, and will be giving all my parts a nice coat or two thereof. I'm going to save the weathering until the shell is assembled though, I think.

Also, I've decided not to do a strict Millennium Falcon. Part of the fun is customizing, so I'm going to do a rather special paint job. More on that later.

In the meantime, I just got an excellent set of reference pics from, of all people, these folks:

Yes, that Haynes. They've branched out into fictional vehicles. They also have one for the Enterprise. Yeah, got that too. Didn't see a TARDIS one--bummer. Anyway, tons of great reference shots, and helpful diagrams. Check out the cockpit controls:

This is gonna be a fun one just to leaf through, I can tell.

Anyway, that's Issue 5 done & dusted. Or dusty. But on purpose. So it's good.