PNW_Modeler Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 I have an 8 year old daughter, and if there was ever any doubt who's child she is that was thrown out the window the minute she announced her love of Star Wars. The kid is a bigger Star Wars freak as I am, and I grew up with the good trilogy! So, for christmas I picked up an AMT Millenium Falcon for us to build together. Today after school, we got started on the cockpit. She did all the painting on the cockpit, including dry brushing the center console while I did the figures. This is what we came up with.... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Adam Baker Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 Very cool! I had one of these kits awhile back, but traded it, and kinda wish that I hadnt. Cant wait to see this one done. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jay Chladek Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 (edited) Not bad at all. My advice is to do it mostly OOB and not worry about accurizing it too much. Reason being is I have seen some good builds done from OOB MPC/AMT Falcons and the mods needed to make them more accurate (i.e. cutting down the sidewalls) are a bit labor intensive. About the one thing I would recommend though is deciding early if you want to build it gear up or gear down and keep it that way rather then fiddling with the opening doors on the bottom and the friction fit landing gear. Reason being is the doors don't like to stay closed on an inflight model and droop rather oddly in the open gear bays. Gluing them open or shut is the best thing and if you do close them, you can also hide the seams on the bottom. Build it and have fun, that's what I say. That's what I'm doing right now, although in my case it is a FineMolds Millennium Falcon. Edited January 10, 2009 by Jay Chladek Quote Link to post Share on other sites
SBARC Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 Nice one Paul....I look forward to following this project. Star Wars was on TV earlier this evening.....what a story that was. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MaRiO FDZ Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 Nice, Paul, especially the fact that you and your daughter spend time :) That's the best part of it!!! Take Care Quote Link to post Share on other sites
HWR MKII Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 Have fun with it. TheAMT kit is still a fine kit even with all its faults. Heck it was made over 20 years ago. Its still impressive when its made well. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PNW_Modeler Posted January 10, 2009 Author Share Posted January 10, 2009 Thanks guys. Jay, thanks for the pointers....I think I have built this kit once when I was younger, and now that you mention it I do recall the gear being an issue. I think the only thing I was really considering doing above the the normal call of duty was scratch building an instrument console for the cockpit...that way it doesn't look like these two mutants are sitting in a chair staring off into space. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
sanmigmike Posted January 11, 2009 Share Posted January 11, 2009 Great! My son and I (mostly him) "built" the Revell snap Falcon. Went together better than I thought it would, got him trying dry brushing and washing and some other painting and has him building a few more Star Wars kits. Looking forward to seeing more on this. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
The Rat Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 I have an 8 year old daughter, and if there was ever any doubt who's child she is that was thrown out the window the minute she announced her love of Star Wars. The kid is a bigger Star Wars freak as I am, and I grew up with the good trilogy! Sounds like my 13 year-old son! Throw him any SW trivia question and he'll answer it in seconds. Your daughter has latched onto a lifetime of pure escapist fun, so nurture it! Oh, and give her a big hug from all of us at ARC, okay? ;) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Boxster Posted January 13, 2009 Share Posted January 13, 2009 My 3 year old is fan of Star Wars and Indiana Jones, no, we covered her eyes on the scary parts. Good to hear more new generation of SW fans are popping up everywhere. Have fun with the Falcon building and post pics! B Quote Link to post Share on other sites
VRFlyer Posted January 13, 2009 Share Posted January 13, 2009 Definitely have fun and do it OOB. Careful especially on the painting and weathering to make sure she doesn't get tired of it. It's a reasonably big kit and could take awhile. I have made the mistake of trying too hard to make a kit come out nice that my 8-year old daughter got tired of the kit (choosing a kit of the right age level can be tricky too). If your daughter is really into Star Wars it might not be an issue. The kits my daughter was able to finish were some dinosaurs which are a topic that she is very interested in. She did a bang up job, including using a wash and dry brushing (never underestimate the techniques they can learn at their age). I'll have to post some photos sometime. Fred Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cksh Posted January 13, 2009 Share Posted January 13, 2009 My 4yo son has an interest in building but has no patience like me We put his snap f-14 together in record time. But he really loves the airbrush so painting was all he cared about. I let him give it a quick coat. I hope he keeps an interest in it. I still have an unbuilt amt falcon. I might buy the accuraizng parts for it but they get pricey. It has enough detail to look good without them. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PNW_Modeler Posted January 13, 2009 Author Share Posted January 13, 2009 wow....a 4 year old airbrusher? Impressive! Sounds like you are onto something there! BTW.....welcome to the forum cksh Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Jane Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 Way to go Paul, we need more female modellers. Jane Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MattC Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 Agreed Jane, its a shame that models (of all sorts) are given the "boys toys" name, and continue to be. Look in any toy shop, the modelling stuff is all in the "boys" aisle, nothing in the "pink" aisle. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
toadwbg Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 This is a great kit to build- fairly straitforward and as someone else said- don't worry about accuracy. Also a great choice for painting and weathering as you can hardly go wrong IMHO. The "real" falcon (Movie model) is so weathered that if you screw up, just paint over that one area and try again! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cap'n Wannabe Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 (edited) My 9 yo son built the Revell Easy-Build Falcon a few weeks ago, and I haven't been able to keep him off the models since. My 6 yo daughter likes the Hobby Boss kits, and has cleared my stash of all but one. By the way, Paul...what's Han Solo been up to? Check out the big grin on his face! Edited January 21, 2009 by damo Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Andre Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 My 3 year old is fan of Star Wars and Indiana Jones, no, we covered her eyes on the scary parts. The entire "Crystal Skull" movie? ;-) Cheers, Andre Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GreyGhost Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 Way cool Paul ! That's a great "Daughter/Daddy" project you two have going ... Enjoy this time shared ... Gregg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
scalemodeladdict Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 Very cool. I have 3 of my own - the oldest tried it (17) but lost patience early on, the 2 younger (10yr. girl and 9 boy) enjoy modeling. I believe it's at least 28,247% better than video games and we get to talk....to each other. Have fun and take it slow, time goes to fast as it is. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PNW_Modeler Posted January 29, 2009 Author Share Posted January 29, 2009 her mid winter break is coming up right after Valentine's day so we are going to build it then. BTW....anyone know a good shade of grey to use for the hull? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jay Chladek Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 (edited) her mid winter break is coming up right after Valentine's day so we are going to build it then.BTW....anyone know a good shade of grey to use for the hull? For the FineMolds kit I am building, I preshaded it in black and settled on a 50/50 mixture of Light Gray and Camo Gray (both Model Master colors) airbrushed on to achieve the coloring I wanted. Straight light gray could probably work as well if you plan to spray can it (available in the Tamiya spray line). Light Gray is also the color that Fine Molds recommends out of the bottle for their kit. Reason why I used a mix is straight camo gray looked too brown to me and the light gray I originally tried looked too blue over the black pre-shading. Here's the result of my efforts at painting. No weathering has been done yet, so these are the straight colors I used. The light gray patches are 50/50 Model Master Camo Gray and Flat Gull Gray. The dark ones are Neutral gray and the red patches are Testors small bottle rust with a few drops of red added. A couple yellow patches done with straight Tamiya flat yellow were also added to the bottom. Of course, if you are doing this with your daughter, I don't think you need to get as exact as I am. But these colors should look fine on an AMT Falcon if you want to try them as well. Of course if you plan to brush paint rather then airbrush (so she can paint some of the panels) then one doesn't have to get exact with the shades I used either as the Falcon is subject to interpretation. Edited January 30, 2009 by Jay Chladek Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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