Well... I said I'd do it... so I did!!

I happened across a half pallet of these the first time they sold and clearanced. It was quite a find since I wanted to wait until the prices dropped on these. Apparently price as well as size kept a lot of these out of collector hands. I picked up 3 @ $36 a piece!!!

So on to the business. A long time ago I took this model and dusted it in black an accented some areas that needed some life. I never thought I'd get back around to my full intentions but yesterday I ran the entire trilogy through the old Xbox and got cracking.

First I completely disassembled the falcon into top bottom and interior... Bye Bye electronics... You will be missed. I took all the interior pieces and gave then a deep black wash. Then I got to trimming out pieces. This was such a huge playset but you really only had half of the interior to interact with. I wanted to remedy this to justify the size of this beast. So with only my exacto I started to score away at these obstructions. One being the door to the cockpit as well as the corridor entry. I adds padding with this thick rubbery adhesive rubber sheeting and sliced into panels on location. I blacked out the inner walls of the cockpit while I applied decals. (Stickers loose their glue when they sit in a box in the garage for 5 years) and I found the wet paint to be a good substitute for the missing adhesive. Then I went beyond the sick bay doors and knocked that wall out as well. The compartment that housed the escape pod was a molded non functioning door so I scored it through as well to remove if but then I had another wall... So I continued to score away at it. With access to both sides relieved I now had this empty space with just the inner shell showing. I took a Jedi council floor panel and grafted it onto the existing platforms and painted it over for an approximate match. I still had some empty space and figured I would make this the engine room. With fodder parts and other Star Wars accessories I started to fill in with "machinery" to give this new space purpose. So now I have a completed interior with new detailing and added space! I also removed the single turret gun seat in the middle and replaced it with a ladder (not pictured).

The outside was worked over with several layers of massive wet wash and dry brush. Once all the pieces had been treated I reassembled it and continued to detail the landing gear and artillery in black & oily steel.

The circle is now complete!!!