YT-1300 CEC Transport "Millennium Falcon", 1:144 Finemolds Options

[Mike]

Corellian Engineering Corporation YT-1300 Transport
1:144 Finemolds

...or as it's better known, the Millennium Falcon, Han Solo's ride for the first three Star Wars films.

I grew up on a diet of Star Wars, and had all of the AMT kits when I was a sprog, including the Falcon, which was a damn impressive piece of plastic to a young lad such as myself. I missed out on the earlier Finemolds Falcon in 1:72 scale, and probably wouldn't have had anywhere to put it even if I hadn't, so I was very happy when the announcement of the smaller version, particularly as the larger one is getting harder to find. Given that Finemolds had already done the work for the larger version, it was a pretty safe bet that the new kit would be of similar quality.

The box arrived this morning from Hobby Link Japan in one of their sturdy double-walled boxes, inside of which was the shiny kit box with a well known picture of the Falcon emblazoned across the front, with the iconic words Star Wars in the top left. Lifting off the lid of this handy sized box presents you with two main sprues of parts, two separate parts for the top and bottom of the Falcon's hull, a further sprue for a rather chunky stand, a clear sprue, decals and a small sheet of masks for the canopy windows and gun ports.

It didn't take me long to remove all of the plastic bags, and the first thing that struck me was the level of detail moulded into the hull parts. A lot of this integration contributes to the reduction in parts count between the two scales, down to 93 parts for this kit.

Do not despair however, as the moulding couldn't be more crisp if it came in a Walkers bag. The detail is everywhere, from the notched panel lines to the complex "exhausts" on the rear deck. The recessed equipment bays are all there as separate parts, with some super-fine detail in every one - a bit of a feat for such small one-piece mouldings, and a credit to the master makers.

The landing gear bays are however moulded into the bottom of the hull, and appear to be quite shallow, begging the question "where to the landing struts go when they're retracted?". Frankly though, it doesn't bother me one iota, as this is Star Wars, and not everything makes sense. The letter box shaped engine exhaust is again reproduced according to the larger kit, which I understand was engineered in connection with Lucasfilm, so is as "authentic" as it possibly can be. The slots in the parts are blanked off however, so anyone hoping to light the exhaust has quite a job ahead of them to hollow them all out.

Detail on the sides is similarly good, with many of the old Tamiya car and ship parts used to create the original shooting miniatures evident in places. It's quite a thing to see a model part of a model part, if you see what I mean.

The cockpit is provided as a two-piece tub with integrally moulded seats. Sounds horrible, doesn't it, but it isn't. The seats are quite good, and the long "dash" is quite neat with lumps and bumps to busy it up. The instructions would have you paint the whole thing black, but I'm sure the purists will be referencing their movie stills to get the colors just right. There are no crew figures at this tiny scale, but that's not a major problem, although the cockpit canopy/glazing is rather crisp, so the view in will be quite good. The inclusion of a set of masks is also a great idea, but I would have preferred them to be pre-cut, as it takes a lot of room for error out of the process.

The crew accessway at the back of the cockpit is recessed to give it a bit of dimension, and the back is blanked off to prevent a see-through look. The floor stops at the doorway however, which could be useful if you're planning on lighting the cockpit, as there's a small hole that could be used to allow light though.

The other glazing is for the gun emplacements, with one top and bottom of the ship. These are again nicely moulded and very clear, and a little detail is provided round the edges to fool the casual observer. The cannons are each made from 3 parts each, and although you're instructed to glue the two cannon parts to their mount, these could be left loose to allow the builder to position them later.

The freight loading jaws at the front are nicely detailed in every aspect, with some nice add-ons to hide the seam at the front of the two jaws. More inserts hide the seams at either side of the big round things (for want of a better description) either side of the hull, and the round things themselves are separate parts.

The cockpit and access corridor tube attach to the main hull along panel lines with some chunky looking socketed pegs, and the cannon enclosures drop in and secure with tank-turret style retaining lugs, so you can position them at will, and the big dish antenna drops into its mounting using a shaped peg to keep it pointing the right direction. This all leads me to suggest that the whole kit can be built without the use of any filler, which would be nice.

The landing gear can be used, or left off with covers provided, but sadly we don't get an access ramp for the crew to alight wherever they land.

The decals consist mainly of the colored panels that appear randomly on the hull, and some of the brick red ones even have some wear built in. The dark grey ones don't however, so the more pedantic modeller might want to mask and spray these to get the effect they're after.

The stand is an odd affair, consisting of a couple of shaped plates that interlock with a pair of shaped feet and allow the modeller to position the finished model at a slight nose-up attitude to show off their handiwork. A blast with some dark paint, and maybe some stars masked and sprayed on should minimise the impact of the thing, but as it's overhung on every side, it shouldn't detract from the look too much.

Conclusion
Did you really think it was going to be anything other than massively positive? It's the Millennium Falcon! From the original Star Wars films! The fact that it's by Finemolds just seals the deal for me, and I'm 100% happy that I can finally possess a display cabinet friendly model of the space ship that I grew up thinking was really cool.

The detail provided in the box is excellent, and my memory of the films and the AMT kit tells me that they've got it bang on in terms of shape and detail, although I think that if you were to be picky, you could say that some of the smaller details were perhaps a little proud? It doesn't worry me unduly though, as once I've primed, painted, battle-damaged it - a feature not moulded into the kit by the way - and weathered it, it should look just right.

This kit won't stay unbuilt for very long.

EDIT: It didn't stay unbuilt for long - a full Build Article can be seen here, and pictures of the finished kit just below these words:














Review sample courtesy of