Jump to content

YT-1300 Millennium Falcon Upgrade Sets(for Bandai 1:144)


Recommended Posts

YT-1300 Millennium Falcon Upgrade Sets(for Bandai)

1:144 GreenStrawberry

 

boxtop.jpg

 

The Millennium Falcon is perhaps the best known and most recognised of any spacecraft real or imaginary, with a number of kits popping up over the years in different scales.  Bandai's recent release of a raft of new kits has been great for anyone wanting to build a collection of Star Wars related models in a couple of consistent scales, rather than box-scale as seems to be the way with Revell, the main European license holder of late.  The Bandai kits are snap-together, but don't let that fool you.  They are the pinnacle of the injection-moulded art, and you'd wonder initially how they could get any better with the addition of Photo-Etch (PE) parts.

 

These sets from GreenStrawberry are engineered to appeal to the more advanced modeller who will end up painting their creation, and you WILL need Super Glue (CA) to attach the parts to your model.  The sets arrive in a flat re-sealable pack, with a black themed backing card, a chunk of thick cardboard to keep the PE safe, a set of instructions (both of which are hidden within), and the sheet of PE brass on display in the front.  They are designed to improve both detail, accuracy to the scale/CGI models, and add a scale-thickness to otherwise over-scale parts.

 

 

Millennium Falcon Upgrade Set (01616 for Bandai)

The main set includes a large sheet of brass PE, plus a small set of instrument panel parts that are printed on sticky-backed paper, to give your interiors a huge lift in detail.  It provides a welcome lift to the interior of the cockpit and the gun ports on the top and bottom, as well as some structural parts.  It begins with a complex replacement of the mount for the prominent oblong dish that now adorns the Falcon's topside, replacing all the thick bracketry with more delicate parts instead.  The base of the dish is also augmented, and the two assemblies are then brought together into one.

 

01616.jpg

 

The kit has a simple plug-in seat with controls for the gun turrets, which is slimmed down and has its lugs removed top accept a new control column/trigger, which is then placed inside the compartment that is folded up from brass parts, with stickers providing the instrument panel detail on the various facets of the walls.  These are further enhanced by relief panels added within, and the finished assembly is fitted to the rear of the glazing with a flange around the outside.  This is of course repeated for the other turret, giving you two in total.  The main asymmetrical cockpit is also upgraded in a similar way, removing the kit instruments from the main panel and roof along with the three lugs that hold the top to the bottom.  The canopy has a skin with insulation quilting etched into it, and all the panels are replaced with new ones that have stickers applied with instruments.  The roof has a faceted liner folded up, with additional panels and stickers added, which is added to the lower cockpit along with the new replacement rear cockpit bulkhead that is so often visible in cockpit shots from the movie.  This is a lamination of three parts onto which the appropriate stickers are fixed after painting, with two location holes included to register the part on the rear of the cockpit assembly.  The rear seats are provided with headboxes that are missing from the kit parts, and the front of the cockpit roof is finished off with a "hoop" that bridges the space between the curved wall of the kit and the faceted inner skin.  As a point of interest, you can see that all the instrument panels are perforated where there are usually lights on the various boards, which will show through the stickers if you position some LEDs behind them, making for easy lighting of the busy areas in the various cockpits.

 

The landing gear for the SW:TFA Falcon has the now-standard five legs of two types, both of which get new scale-faithful doors to replace the chunky kit parts moulded into the legs, and the struts themselves are fitted with the perforated circular frames that can be only approximated in styrene.  The final job is to fold up the insert that shows at the end of the entry ramp, requiring you to remove the blanking plate moulded into the lower hull.  This and another part in the roof will add to the look of the area.

 

bin.jpg

 

 

Millennium Falcon Grilles (01715 for Bandai)

The Falcon's prominent exhausts on the top deck are part of what makes it what it is, and this set provides six new mesh grilles to detail this area.  Each circular grille is made up from a bottom hoop, a sheet of louvers, then a sheet of framework, with the top layer a frame around the outer edge with details etched in relief.  Alignment is key, and there are two styles of top frame, with a distinct forward direction marked on the assembly diagrams.  Four of the siz are identical, with the two leftmost (from behind) having a different pattern on the framing, all of which is explained on the last two instruction steps, as well as showing that "forward" in this context actually points toward the centre of the ship in a fan shape that matches the general shape of the engine deck area.

 

01715.jpg


bin.jpg

 

Conclusion

Another superb pair of sets to upgrade these Star Wars gems, just remember they're only suitable if you're planning on painting your model. 

 

Very highly recommended.

 

Review sample courtesy of

logo.gif

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Interesting review Mike. I have an update set for my Fine Molds Millennium Falcon ( Landing Gear Baffle Detail Set ) that I thought I could adapt for the new Bandai Kit, however the set by Millennia Models International have the baffles that are way too small for the Bandai kit.

 

 I already have Greenstrawberry's engine grills set and they are really useful and more realistic than what is in the kit of the Bandai Falcon

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
On 10/12/2017 at 2:43 PM, Mike said:

The Millennium Falcon is perhaps the best known and most recognised of any spacecraft real or imaginary,

More than the USS Enterprise?

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Enterprise wins hands down. I have seven kits of different incarnations of the Big-E (eight if you count CVN-65) and none of the MF, so by that completely valid logic Enterprise wins.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...