Revell Millennium Falcon 1/241

[Cogez88]

Hey everyone,

My five year old and I have been building the little Millennium Falcon, and so far it's been fun! Not too fiddly, easy enough to assemble and a cool level of detail. The little red decals looks great and ended up being pretty easy to apply.

We've come to the end of the build, where we're supposed to paint a bunch of little panels. I'm keen to know how you would approach this. We started just freehand painting, because the details are to small and knobbly for tape. But I'm sure there's a better way...

(Note my one year old has vandalised the instructions...)

 

[Jakko]

Have you painted the rest of the model too? In that case, just paint the recessed areas as neatly as you can, but don’t sweat it if you go beyond them a bit: wait for the paint to dry and then go over the excess with the colour the area should be.

 

[Cogez88]

Thanks Jakko, yep we've already done the base colour. The challenge is that the bits we're meant to paint are raised off the surface, so for a five year old, it's pretty hard to keep in the lines! Last night we used a pointy cotton bud dipped in water to clean the edges. Works for the bigger spaces, but for the tiny ones I'm not so sure.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Jakko’s advice is sound. Just cut in the bits that have been overpainted using the base colour when they are dry. A damp paintbrush might be easier to use when removing overpaint than a cotton bud, by the way….
Another tip if the areas are raised is that you don’t necessarily need to use the tip of the brush. If you use the side it can easily outline the edges and then all you have to do is fill the area in. This is far easier to do than to explain Good lighting always helps as well

If a five year old is doing this, he’s doing really well, by the way. Fine motor skills take some learning at any age. Pass on my congratulations to the youngster, I’m impressed

 

[Cogez88]

Haha he loved hearing that, thanks he tries hard, and he's getting better at being patient!

 

[Cogez88]

All done! He's done a great job, and we got a lot of practice of small detail painting! He's super proud of it.

After we were done, I put a coat of clear over the top, and had a small disaster. The decals kinda dissolved a bit... When I later translated the Japanese on the top of the Tamiya clear spray, it says don't spray on decals. Disaster! Is that just a Tamiya thing?

 

[Tim Marlow]

Pass on my congratulations to your lad. That’s come out really well and it’s one for him to be proud of. Never tried Tamiya spray myself so can’t comment. Never had any trouble with the bottled clears through an airbrush damaging decals though?

 

[The Smythe Meister]

Yes, that's turned out great ,
As for the Clear, I've used it from the rattle can on most of my planes with no problems.... until last night,(literally,last night, coincidence or what?!), when I used it over the decals on my Tamiya Raiden.
They didn't dissolve,but blistered.
Not sure if it was the quality,(or lack of!),of the decals,or....maybe I sprayed too thick a coat?.... either way,it came as a surprise because,as I said,I hadn't had any problems previously.

 

[Andy the Sheep]

Present my compliments to your five years old, Jordan. He's moving his first steps in the modelling world with confidence, and that's very good.
Is the Tamiya clear spray a paint for polycarbonate (the PS series)?

 

[Cogez88]

Hey Andy, no it's a TS one. I'm glad we found this out on his model and not mine :P

 

[langy71]

Huge congrats to your lad Jordan, that's an excellent build and finish for one so young...
'He's taken his first steps into a much larger world',

The 'dissolved decals look perfect as the 'Falcon is known to be the fastest piece of junk in the galaxy', so they just add to the overall look of her, and there's plenty more star wars related models out there to build his enjoyment and skills..
well done buddy, you've hopefully started the next generation of modellers on the hobby of a lifetime..