This kit is an oldie from Fantastic Plastic when they did a few Star Wars vehicles. The Cruiser was seen at the beginning of Ep.2, Attack of the Clones. Just by the way it slid into frame and then did the 360 for landing it instantly became my favorite ship of the prequels. Sadly FP got a C&D from Lucasfilm and that was the end of his Star Wars offerings.
The 1:288 kit was produced in 2009, and came in 20+ parts including landing legs and a base. I had often thought of molding and casting in metal the spindly looking legs, but with that never happening, I decided to leave it as "in flight."
With it in the box for so long I wasn't
surprised that one of the wingtips had warped over the years. But the
hot water bath quickly fixed that.
The fuselage parts were thick and instead of superglue, I used 2 part epoxy.
Once glued it was time for the seam filling. Some areas met up better than others.
The front was still a bit rough so I glued a half round piece of styrene to the front and filled some more...
After leaving it sit for a while, I took another look and decided the panel lines were rough and too deep, more filling.
While I was filling and sanding the little scratches and divots - according to the move this ship was supposed to be chrome - I had to make sure it was as smooth as possible.
I saw a You Tube video where this guy tried out a new Rustoleum rattle can called Bright Coat Metallic Finish. And WOW it really looked like chrome! So I decided to try it as well. I gave a shot of the paint to the bullet shaped engine covers and I was very impressed -
So after making sure the ship was as smooth as possible, I shot that too. Impressive!
Is it perfect? No. But I really like how it turned out. Thanks for looking.
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| A little light blue paint to mimic the engines running. |
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| Some gloss black to indicate windows. |
