CELEBRATING STAR WARS DAY WITH THE MILLENNIUM FALCON FROM DeAGOSTINI

IT'S MAY 4, SO TODAY IS STAR WARS DAY and here is a look at probably the biggest kit of the Millennium Falcon available.

BUILDING THE 1:72 SCALE BANDAI PERFECT GRADE MILLENNIUM FALCON

IF THERE IS ONE spacecraft that sums up the Star Wars saga, then the Millennium Falcon belongs at the top table. Depending on your personal preference of course, the X-Wing or TIE fighter just might compete for gold! But there's no arguing that the Bandai Perfect Grade kit represents the peak where plastic kits are concerned.

HAN'S SPEEDER FROM THE MOVIE 'SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY'

THE STAR WARS MERCHANDISE MACHINE continues to be a massive generator of spacecraft models and kits. Han’s Speeder is a Revell 1:28 scale miniature of the vehicle seen in the 2018 Star Wars release Solo: A Star Wars Story.

AMAZING MODELS: THE WORLD'S LARGEST MINIATURE AIRPORT

MAYBE THIS IS THE NEXT STAGE OF MODEL-MAKING beyond assembly and display at model shows and events.

INCOMING: REVELL STAR WARS MODELS FROM LATEST 'SOLO' MOVIE

STAR WARS FANS QUEUE RIGHT NOW as it's time to see Solo, the latest movie in the four-decade old sci-fi saga.

STAR WARS 'THE LAST JEDI' FIRST OFFICIAL TRAILER

CHRISTMAS COMES EARLY IN HOLLYWOOD and the new Star Wars teaser-trailer is already here. The countdown begins for the latest movie in the long-running saga, called The Last Jedi.

MASTER SERIES KITS FROM REVELL: PREQUEL TO THE LATEST STAR WARS MOVIE 'ROGUE ONE'

THREE REVELL MASTER SERIES STAR WARS kits are being released in synch with publicity for the upcoming new Star Wars movie Rogue One.

1:72 SCALE STAR WARS MILLENNIUM FALCON FROM REVELL

STELLAR NEWS FOR SCIENCE FICTION FANS comes with the latest Revell Snaptite kit of the famed Millennium Falcon starship. Released to coincide with the latest Star Wars movie, the kit has some significant mods to bring it up to date.

NEW SCI-FI VISIONS FOR A GREAT STAR WARS REISSUE FROM FINE MOLDS

SMN report
We came across a pile of old MPC Star Wars kits in the SMN Garage the other day. The boxes are somewhat battered and bent, but the components inside seem good as new, so the kits are now in the studio, warming up for a build in those winter nights to come. Pick of the bunch is the good old Millennium Falcon, Han Solo’s starship that he piloted against the mighty forces of the evil empire.

White and weathered, or bright and cheerful?
It’s fair to say that the standard white paint job of the Millennium Falcon has been used as the basis for almost all builds, big and small. It’s possible of course, to overdo the weathering on surface details, and you can see a borderline case in the top pic above. It looks great, but maybe R2D2 should give the ship a wash and polish! Of course, there is absolutely no reason to stick to white - it’s certainly a standard spacecraft scheme, but there’s nothing to stop a civilian-model starship being finished in bright colours, much like a present-day jetliner.

Franco Brambilla
And while we’re talking about dreaming up fresh concepts and marking schemes, the work of Italian artist Franco Brambilla springs to mind. His work has appeared in such highly-regarded tech zones as Wired, MacUser and the London Daily Telegraph. Brambilla’s illustrations might give you some thoughts for how to approach sci-fi subjects in general, and his Millennium Falcon parked up in Florence, Italy, is just too cute for words. I’ve visited this spot myself, and of a weekend evening, it’s packed with Florentini young and old - babes in prams, kids on Vespas, lovers hand-in-hand, and black-clad elderly aunts frowning at them. So you can imagine the consternation that a honeymooners’ starship would cause!

Fine Molds 1:72 scale kit
For model fans, there’s quite a choice of Falcons from which to pick. Best of the lot is almost certainly the 1:72 scale Fine Molds offering, and it’s coming back in reissue form, for a while at least. Fine Molds President Kunihiro Suzuki and his staff took hundreds of reference photos of the model used for principal photography in the original movies, and their care and attention shows in the production of this totally ace kit. When completed, the model is some 300 mm (12 in) across, slightly smaller than the MPC-Ertl kit that came from the SMN garage. Among the Fine Molds kit's features are 900-odd parts, open or closed landing ramp, display stand, and deployable landing gear. Eleven figures come with the kit, including Luke, Leia, Han, Chewbacca, Obi-Wan and C3PO. A first is full engine detail, which adds a certain something, though it would be oh-so-good if they were based on reality - that way humans could be off-Earth and exploring the Universe by now!

See the Millennium Falcon at Hobby Link Japan here.

More Star Wars stuff here.

Franco Brambilla’s site is here.

The pictures show, top to bottom:
1-2  Millennium Falcon from Fine Molds.
3-7  Science fiction concepts from Franco Brambilla.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OF YESTERDAY STAR WARS! 32 YEARS OLD AND STILL COUNTING...

Wow! It was May 25 1977 when the first Star Wars movie hit the cinema. The mighty roar and seemingly endless length of an Imperial Star Destroyer, sliding down the screen after the text-crawl intro, helped make the opening sequence one of the best ever.

In the decades since, we have been treated to hundreds of kits and collectibles. One of the best early kits was MPC’s big Millennium Falcon. Today, Revell’s Easykit of this smuggler’s starship makes into a fair model in its own right - with some careful superdetailing and weathering, it can be tuned up to make a showstopper.

The most recent trio of Star Wars movies were rather laboured compared to the first set, at least so far as acting went. But they did come loaded with impressive special effects work and a host of new spacecraft for model builders to lust after. Today a Revell Republic Star Destroyer will set you back some £19.99 GBP ($32.00 USD) and is available from Amazon here and other suppliers.

Incidentally, 1977 was a looong time ago in techno-terms. The Apple II computer (bottom picture) was launched that year, with a mono screen and no mouse - the mechanical rodent hadn’t yet been perfected for a mainstream computer!