
We had just started off the new delivery with a repeat of the previous one; working on one of the mandibles of the infamous ship the Millennium Falcon. Now while repeating something, particularly a project of this scale, can be frustrating, when you are doing it alongside your nine-year-old daughter (who’s called Ember) then that repetition is a blessing. It’s a way of fixing mistakes that were made with the first mandible as well as consolidating what we had both learnt from that first run through. For this new installment, I wasn’t really expecting anything different. We’d be given a new blueprint a couple of deliveries ago for this very section. Looking at the sections of the Falcon lying around my study, the mandibles were the last piece that needed building before things could start coming together, or at least that’s what I’m thinking! With only a hundred issues in this project, we’re fast approaching that end goal.
I haven’t needed to do much preparation for an installment for quite some time, and I didn’t expect that I would need to for this. Looking through, I could already tell that this was going to be a much meatier issue than what we had done the last few times. Ember and I were going to have our work cut out. There was extending the mandible frame, attaching plating, adding detail to the last two recesses – I’m sure Ember would be handing this part over to me for gluing. Finally, it would be…. painting and adding said recesses to the mandible. It was going so well until then! We had encountered this slight snag the last time we had had to construct the other two recesses for the lower part of the mandible; needing to spray paint.
It is that wonderful time of year in England where the sun hides away and is instead replaced with what feels like non-stop rain. In fact, the only time I seem to see the sun is when I’m at work and think, ‘If only I were at home I could get those parts sprayed.’ Added to this rather annoying problem is the temperature, which has stubbornly stayed very low for this time of year, which also creates an issue when trying to undercoat anything. These two factors can lead to bubbling on your models as the paint doesn’t dry correctly. What looked like a lengthy magazine was going to have to be a bit of a stunted journey for Ember and me. We would be able to do the first few parts and then it would be a waiting game for the sun and warmer weather.
Now I am planning on Ember and me repainting the whole of the Falcon using Archive X paints and the incredible guide from Josh Wraith, to make the Falcon look as close to the original model as possible. That said, looking at these recesses, even with an airbrush, it looks like it will be a bit of a task to try and redo the undercoat when I’m painting it again. Rather than leave it and worry about it later, I’d rather give it a coat now and make my life just that be easier later on.
With the acceptance that we were going to have to stop mid-instructions and have ourselves a bit of homework (and possibly do some research on a Sundance), it was time for Ember and I to sit down and carry on our work on the mandible. The first part went by with no problem. Ember quickly joined the two 2-hole connectors to extend the frame of the mandible and added the plating. It was over before we knew it.
That just left the recesses and surely that would be a quick job…right? As predicted, Ember let me handle this part. In her defense, she has been suffering a cold the last couple of weeks and wasn’t particularly on top form – and she wanted to take the photos! I started on the detailing, thinking nothing could stop me and I had only got to part two when I encountered issues. The part is particularly frustrating. You must feed it into two holes, line it so part one goes through a particular part and make sure it’s all glued. By the time I had the part in place I wasn’t happy with how the join was. That was until I realised that the holes in the recess were not big enough. With a small round file these needed expanding to house the part, which still needed a delicate touch for it to fit. I wasn’t particularly in a delicate touch sort of mood after the huffing and puffing. When the part had finally gone in, I moved on fairly quickly through the rest of the instructions. Even though she was happy taking photos, Ember does love to file and helped me file some of the bigger pieces that she wasn’t too afraid to break. It moved on relatively quickly until we got to the last part, part fourteen. The instructions say there is a hole in the recess for the part to fit, there isn’t. There is a slight indent in part of the plastic that is housing some other detail. Once I’d figured this out, the piece just about fit, but I was there for a while trying to understand how on earth this piece should fit.
While there was still a small bit for us to still do, I won’t lie I was happy to stop. Ember had had a great time, but I was feeling a little hot under the collar. The little details – which really do add so much to the overall look and feel of all the ships in Star Wars – are some of the most frustrating parts to add. I have a newfound respect for the model builders at ILM, I’m not quite sure how they did it without throwing a ship or two across their workspace! While the magazine wasn’t quite complete, we had done all we could. Now it was time for the British weather to prove itself and give us some sun… we will be back with installment eighty-four…. At some point…
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