Greetings!

Welcome to Scifi-Meshes.com! Click one of these buttons to join in on the fun.

PracticalBandai Millennium Falcon Vehicle Model 006

PixelMagicPixelMagic471 Posts: 663Member
edited January 2017 in Work in Progress #1
Well, I started painting the 1:350 Falcon tonight. Being such small scale, your paint coats have to be flawless.

First, I wanted to start with a black primer, for reasons I'll mention here soon. I sprayed Mr Surfacer 1500 thinned 1.5 : 1 thinner/primer with Mr. Leveling Thinner. This sprayed absolutely beautifully and laid down a smooth primer coat. If you don't have Mr Surfacer 1500, black Stynylrez is also a fantastic choice.

While I probably could have just left the primer as is, JUST to be sure, I gently polished the Falcon's primer coat with a soft toothbrush and toothpaste. This now left an ultra satin smooth finish for paint.

M2vDkvV.jpg

I chose to paint the Falcon Mr. Color 107 Character White. It's a very very light grey, not exactly white, and also semi-gloss. I chose to do a semi-gloss basecoat, because even at this scale, some flat paints may produce too much graininess, even with a flawless application. If you don't have a semi-gloss grey and are using Tamiya paints, you can mix their flat paints 50/50 with Tamiya X-22 clear to get semi gloss. If you're using Vallejo, you can add gloss medium in the same way. I thinned the paint 1:1 again with Mr. Leveling Thinner. This is where the black primer coat really does it's work. Because white has a poorer opaqueness than black, not all of the white pigment can get into every nook and cranny. This allows some shading in the crevices and is much better than a heavy handed black wash. I personally hate all but the most subtle of washes on a model, it ruins realism.

Lastly, I also polished the cured basecoat with toothpaste again to make sure it was absolutely flawless. Once all weathering is applied, the semi-gloss basecoat will probably get knocked back down to the flat hunk of junk we love.


xulBnSa.jpg
111165.jpg
Post edited by PixelMagic on
Tagged:

Posts

  • evil_genius_180evil_genius_1804256 Posts: 11,034Member
    Dang, that's tiny. It's looking good so far.
  • HelotHelot391 Posts: 164Member
    I have seen a number of modelling projects and articles that recommend a black primer coat. Getting that subtle grain to go away would be critical on such a small object - great approach (almost wrote solution - ha!).

    Looks really nice so far - surprised by the LOD on this.

    :thumb: :thumb:
  • IRMLIRML253 Posts: 1,993Member
    just out of interest, why do you choose such small scales to work with?

    I've seen your other models and know you've got the skill to work at this scale, just wouldn't you find it easier to work on something slightly larger? or is it the challenge?
  • PixelMagicPixelMagic471 Posts: 663Member
    IRML wrote: »
    just out of interest, why do you choose such small scales to work with?

    I've seen your other models and know you've got the skill to work at this scale, just wouldn't you find it easier to work on something slightly larger? or is it the challenge?

    I don't choose to work at this scale. I choose to work with the most movie accurate models, which happen to be Bandai. Revell makes larger models, but their quality is awful. Bandai just happens to be adverse to making large models for some reason. I have their 1/48th X-wing which is a fairly good size. This 1:350 Falcon is fun also because it will be in scale with my 1:350 TOS Enterprise which is 3ft long itself. My next project is the Zvezda Star Destroyer which is over 2ft long. It's big. So that will be a change of pace. :)

    2ihw17s.jpg
  • evil_genius_180evil_genius_1804256 Posts: 11,034Member
    You do realize, of course, that now we're going to need to see this beauty next to the Enterprise when it's done. :D
  • PixelMagicPixelMagic471 Posts: 663Member
    Well, I wasn't 100% happy with the first paint job on closer inspection, so I started over. Usually I spray lacquer paints, but I figured I'd use the redo as a test bed for doing the entire model full acrylics, primer, basecoat, panels, and weathering. We'll see how it goes.

    So to start off, I striped down back to plastic with isopropyl alcohol alcohol, and then primed with black Stynylrez, then painted the basecoat with Vallejo Model Air White Grey. I must say I was very impressed with this combo. Really smooth.

    Next I used Vallejo Model Color Flat Red and Dark Red mixed 50/50 to pic out the red panels with brush painting. I mixed this 1:1 with Vallejo Airbrush Thinner to avoid brush strokes. This mixture is then very self leveling. I did the same also for the yellow panels by mixing Vallejo Flat Yellow and Sky Grey 50/50. Again thinned with Vallejo Airbrush Thinner. Then I touched up my work by brushing on the original White Grey color where I had accidentally gone outside the lines.

    sPq4Bi8.jpg
  • evil_genius_180evil_genius_1804256 Posts: 11,034Member
    Awesomeness. Your skill in painting tiny things never ceases to impress me.
  • publiusrpubliusr550 Posts: 1,746Member
    Such great detailing
  • PixelMagicPixelMagic471 Posts: 663Member
    First pass of weathering complete. I gotta build this up in SUBTLE layers. Something this small is really easy to go too far. This shows also why I always spray a neutral gray as the basecoat on Falcon builds. The weathering always "warms" up the surface by making it tan-ish.

    O9DuwtD.jpg
  • HelotHelot391 Posts: 164Member
    Amazing. You would not realize how small that is from this one picture.
  • BrandenbergBrandenberg1655 CaliforniaPosts: 1,937Member
    Wow, nice job on the painting! And something so small. The falcon is such a great ship. You are doing it all the justice that it deserves.
  • evil_genius_180evil_genius_1804256 Posts: 11,034Member
    Just loving it, dude. Your skill in painting always impresses me. :)
Sign In or Register to comment.