It was a new delivery day. A new box filled with six magazines for myself and my nine-year-old daughter (Ember) to build and add to this weighty project that we had spent over three years on. I had become so used to big boxes arriving on my doorstep, that I was a little surprised at just how small and compact this delivery box was. Not that this was a complaint. This project takes up a lot of room! The boxes of deliveries that must be stored. The built pieces (mainly the interior pieces) that haven’t been used. The two halves of the outer hull. The magazines themselves. There is a lot to try and manage in terms of space. A smaller delivery this time around was very welcome.
I was ready to grab the next installment and get started but before I could, I had some homework that needed to be done. Ember and I had had to cut the last magazine short because the recesses for the mandible we were working on needed to be undercoated. The British weather at this time of the year is… depressing. There is a mountain of other adjectives I could choose but I think I shall stick with that one. Suffice to say, it is not an easy time to be able to get outside and do any form of undercoating. So, it became a waiting game. Checking online, the weather outlook did not look great. Then one Saturday, a frost had settled but – crucially – the sun was out. The temperature was low, but it was going to be now or wait until spring – and goodness knows when then will actually begin in this country! So, giving my black spray can a very good shake, keeping it very close to a heated radiator to keep the paint inside warm, I readied myself and dashed outside. It was cold but in the sunlight, I could feel just how much heat was in those rays and the undercoating went very well. Still, I didn’t stay long outside, bringing the recesses inside very quickly so the paint could properly dry at a much warmer temperature. When it had completely dried, I dry brushed everything with Archive X’s SP Dark Lark Grey. I have used this for most of the interior of the Millennium Falcon and use this range of paints for almost everything that has a Star Wars label. This is paint that is matched to that used by Industrial Light and Magic in the original movies and just gives that Star Wars feel. With the painting done, it was four screws and the two recesses were attached to the mandible frame and my homework was complete.
I could now move onto the actual magazine for this review, number eighty-two. As I do every time, I was going to look through the issue first to make sure I didn’t need to prepare anything before having Ember sit down with me. Looking through, this was just a repeat of what we had done for the last few issues. We would be assembling the other mandible. Some more frame building, some more plate attaching and adding more details. The latter was already giving me heart palpitations after the first mandible – I won’t go over that experience again. What I did realise though, was that things were going to be very different this time around because of the jig. We had a way to safely hold these pieces without me having to worry about where I was placing my hands; my heart rate could beat back to normal. What I did like was this was three simple, short steps, the perfect sort of thing to do with a youngster in tow!
With Ember, we sat down and started to get to work. Before we could even get to the actual instructions, Ember had become transfixed by one of the articles in the magazine; the holocrons. We’ve been watching The Clone Wars and Rebels together and this instantly grabbed her attention. When I could eventually pry her from the reading aspect (and let’s be honest, isn’t this the sort of dream every parent wants!), it was actually getting to the building itself. We started with assembling the next part of the frame for the upper mandible. This went out without a hitch. Ember was confident with what she was doing, I just had to hold the pieces for her. I don’t even have to tell her which screws we need. This is an old skill that comes up frequently enough that we both know that she is more than capable of doing it. As soon as the frame was complete, we added a plate to it. Same skills, different screws. Nothing that presented Ember any problems and I could just sit back and watch with pride ion my heart that my little girl was fixing up the Falcon (and the fact that I can even use a sentence like that is pretty cool!).
Once this was done, we returned back to the lower part of the mandible. This was adding some details and Ember immediately started taking photos and stated that it was my turn. Having already done one of the mandibles, I was fairly confident that this would all go rather smoothly. Not only that, but I knew that I had something to rest the mandible on once we had finished. Sure enough, this was a walk in the park. Easy to clip out the pieces, a little bit of filing, gluing, and the pieces all went in with no problem. With one exception. The final piece. Just when you think you’re home free there is always one part. Piece twelve will fit but make sure that you put the pin that sits under piece eight in first as you will need to put it in at the wrong angle. Then, you can twist it into place. As long as you do this, it won’t cause you any worries at all.
With that, the magazine was complete. It was short and repeating what we had already done but none of that was a bad thing. Unlike some recent installments, it didn’t overstay its welcome and repeating what we had done meant that both Ember and I had the confidence to march straight forward with this part, which only added to the enjoyment of it. We weren’t having to question ourselves; I wasn’t having to stress about where the mandible was going to rest between building, it all just flowed brilliantly. While some change would be nice, in some ways the lack of change has helped to ensure we know what we’re doing. A great issue that we both really enjoyed.
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