Mandalorian Razor Crest

[Andy Moore]

 

I picked up Revell's new Razor Crest a few days ago, and while I was originally planning on starting the build next year, after going through the sprues and seeing how much detail Revell had put into the kit (something that's not always the case with their Star Wars releases), I had to make a start on it straight away. I won't bother with any sprue shots here, but I posted some in the discussion section, and there's also Mike's review of the kit.

 

You get a fairly comprehensive interior included, and the build starts with the cockpit and upper deck area. There's quite a bit of detail here, probably more than is neccesary in truth, although that's not a complaint, just an observation. The main floor panel is a full length plate that also forms the roof of the lower cargo deck. The front of this is divided into two sections by bulkhead panels, the front of these sections being the cockpit, and the rear one is the small vestibule?, foyer?, landing? where you access the upper deck from below. Two side panels close these sections off, then the cockpit is completed by the instrument panel which also forms the forward walls of the cockpit.

 

 

The rear vestibule section is fully enclosed, and will only be visible through two tiny windows in the upper hull, and will more than likely be completely invisible on the finished build. I'm surprised that they didn't mould the dividing bulkhead with open doors, or supply two versions, one open and one closed. You could of course cut the doors open yourself if you want the rear compartment to be visible from the cockpit. Most of the detailing here is very accurate to the cockpit set used on the show including the panel pattern on the door and the box holding three lights imediately above it (Apologies for the dinginess of these screen grabs, they're the best I've got)

 

 

Moving to the front of the cockpit, Revell have done a pretty good job at recreating the various controls and screens on the instrument panel, although a few things are understandably simplified. There are however a couple of odd omissions. The lefthand side console has some piping running along the top, and a short tube at the front edge, and these have both been reproduced, as have the row of three red lights although they're quite faint. The throttle-type lever behind the left display screen is there, but quite a flat moulding, so I may cut that off and replace it. The holo emitter above the screen is also present, but again quite flat compared to the real one.

 

To the right of these should be the main centre console display, and that's one of the omissions I mentioned. Where it should sit there's a rectangular recess that looks as if something should go in it, but nothing is included or mentioned in the instructions. Not a real problem as I can scratch something to go there.

 

 

The two big clunky looking things sticking out from behind where the centre console should be are representations of the control sticks. The real ones are two columns that extend from below the console and end with a square block onto which the joysticks are mounted. These too will be better of replaced with something a little more refined.

Interesting trivia: it appears that, in the photo below, the centre console has been removed, probably to allow better access for the camera when filming the scene.

 

 

The photo below shows the ends of the control columns and joysticks better, and also shows the other strange omission from the instrument panel. While the throttle controls on the left and right side console have been included, Revell haven't moulded the famous lever with the round knob that attracts Grogu's attention throughout the show. Given how well known that feature is, it's strange that Revell don't include it when they include details that most people wouldn't notice. Again, no problem though, as it can easily be added.

 

 

 

Revell aren't the only ones to forget though, as in some scenes the control lever (not just the knob) is missing from the cockpit set.

 

 

The seats are all well done with the two passenger seats being quite basic as they are on the show, while Mando's chair has a lot more detail. The bands on the headrests of the passenger seats represent the straps hung over the back of the seats. They do appear like this in the show, but they can also be seen in use, especially when they're strapping Grogu in place. I'll probably sand these off and replace them with some foil straps. The hole in the back of Din's seat will also need to be filled as I won't be using the included figure.

 

 

 

 

Well, what about some actual modelling I hear you say. Well, yes, I have managed to do something other that look at reference pics, although not a great deal to be fair. I've removed the moulded detail from the tops of the side consoles, and this will be replaced with some wire and brass tubing. I've also made up a simple centre console from styrene sheet with a thinner piece of sheet added to represent the screen. The base for Grogu's lever has been added as well. Oh, and the control columns have been removed ready for some replacements. The two grab handles on the left hand screen are made from thin stretched sprue, and will probably get knocked off before I even get close to painting 😄

 

 

If you look back up the page at the screen shot with the missing lever, you can also see that there's a folded metal shroud over the top of the centre console, and I've made a simplifed representation of that from some styrene strip (barely visible in the photo below, sorry). A bit of brass tube has also been added to the holo emitter, although now I look at the screen shots, the emitter should be further to the left hand side of the console, so I'll probably re-do this.

 

 

Okay, that's about it for now. I should get a little more done over the next couple of days.

 

Andy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Thom216]

Great seeing a build of the RC started up! It is odd about some of their omissions, but that just presents some work for an actual modeller to bite into! Liking the adjustments you've made. Looking good!

[Hewy]

Great! ,picked this up myself yesterday ,strangley 2 lots of identical instructions and decals in the box, one minor disappointment is the  large curved window panel on the top had become detached from the sprue leaving a scar that will need polishing out, quite a large model too, i look forward to watching you build  this up and work your painting magic👍

[Alan R]

That's a great start!

I shall be following this thread as I am getting this kit as a Christmas present. (Should arrive today, so I'll take a sneaky peak in the box before she gets home from work )

I think that I might be adding some of those details you have already done.

 

I am deeply impressed with you work on this forum, and am inspired to up my game as a result.

 

Thanks for the inspiration,

 

Cheers,

Alan.

[Pete in Lincs]

A very comprehensive review and list of mods, Andy. Well done and thanks.

[Nev]

Will be following this thread with interest.  Having all the reference pics in this thread will be very useful in the future too 🙂

[The Chief Smeg]

Following this thread to blatantly steal all of @Andy Moore ideas for modifications, the only thing letting me down is the level of my ability compared to Andy’s. 
 

this is all very good so far Andy. 

[Mike]

this is going to come in so handy when I (eventually) build mine.  All your research will help out a lot of modellers who are either too lazy, too time-poor, or both

 

Keep up the good work

[Andy Moore]

6 hours ago, Nev said:

Will be following this thread with interest.

 

2 hours ago, The Chief Smeg said:

Following this thread to blatantly steal all of @Andy Moore ideas for modifications

 

2 hours ago, Mike said:

All your research will help out a lot of modellers who are either too lazy, too time-poor, or both

 

End users are advised to follow at their own risk - original poster may be making all this up as he goes along, and bears no responsibility for leading others astray 

 

Well, macro photos can be so disturbing, can't they. When I was posting the previous images, I realised how scruffy some of it looked, particularly the shroud over the centre console and those two grab handles on the left screen. Last night I decided to remove and redo those bits. I needed to cut the left hand throttle lever off anyway, and would probably have knocked the grab handles off in the process. I also needed to reposition the holo emitter, and that was easier with those other bits removed too.

 

The new shroud is made from a strip of copper foil and looks a bit more like the one in the filming set photos. There's also an angular handle-like thing on the bottom edge of the centre console and I've added that with bits of chopped up styrene. The shaft for the 'gear stick' lever on the right has been added from stretched sprue, but I still need to find something suitable for the ball on the end. The holo emitter has been moved further to the left above the side screen, and I've used styrene rod rather than brass tube this time. The cable and short pipe thingies have been added to the tops of the side consoles, along with the row of red lights.

 

 

I've also made up the control sticks from scrap styrene and a couple of 1/35 machine gun grips for the joysticks - a bit over scale, and not quite the right shape, but close enough for what you'll see through the glazing. The right-hand one is sitting at a slightly steeper angle which is a bit annoying, but I don't really feel like snapping it off and re-setting it, so I'll just live with that. The throttle lever has been rebuilt on the left-hand side console, and I should really add another to the right side, along with two other levers, but there really isn't space for it all. I suspect the filming set is considerably wider than the actual cockpit space would be on the real ship, and Revell have had to compress the dimensions somewhat to fit everything in.

 

Centre console with angular handle on bottom edge

 

 

At the back of the right-hand side console I've add the droid connection port that Zero (Q9-0) plugs into during the prison heist episode. That was just a bit of random photo etch that happened to be about the right size.

 

 

Zero plugging into the droid port, which rather embarrassingly is clearly a human hand in a glove

 

 

There are still a few things to add, although it's not worth going crazy as you won't see a lot of it, even if it was lit, which it definitely won't be.

 

 

      Andy

 

 

 

 

[Portaler]

Excellent stuff Andy !! Your OCD is strong on this one !! But that's what makes it interesting 🙂 The care to detail and making it better is a delight to watch and read.

 

Really looking forward to see how this turns out, especially with the non standard Star Wars metallic finish outer hull.

 

She really is the most exciting Star Wars vehicle we've had in a long time ! And just in time to run parallel with the Book of Boba too !!!

[Hunter Rose]

Will definitely be following along Andy, looks like a great start already!

 

I really wanted to do an icy diorama of the smaller bandai one with the ravinak breaking through and grabbing his ship, but annoyingly bandais one doen't have the landing gear!

[Andy Moore]

Thanks guys,

 

On 22/12/2021 at 19:20, Hunter Rose said:

I really wanted to do an icy diorama of the smaller bandai one with the ravinak breaking through and grabbing his ship, but annoyingly bandais one doen't have the landing gear!

 

That would make a great dio Hunter. I guess there's a chance someone might make a 3D print of the lading gear for the Bandai RC.

 

I've got most of the cockpit painting finished now. Some parts still need a little cleaning up, and I might add an oil wash around some of the raised details. Most of the filming set interior is shades of black, but I've gone a little lighter here to help keep things  visible throught the cockpit glazing. I've done some very basic painting on the raised details on the cockpit sidewalls, but I've not done too much as most of that detail falls in the aft section and won't really be visible once everthing is closed up.

 

 

 

 

     Andy

[Hunter Rose]

10 hours ago, Andy Moore said:

That would make a great dio Hunter. I guess there's a chance someone might make a 3D print of the lading gear for the Bandai RC.

Yeah that would be cool! Surprised that's not a thing already. 

 

The interior looks great Andy, nice paint! 

[Andrés S.]

I join the group of modelers who follow Andy in this work, not doing it on my part would be a great stupidity because all his works are of the highest quality. Yesterday  my RC arrived but until tomorrow morning I will not be able to open it ...By the way, Merry Christmas and a happy new year 2022 to all.

 

Andrés S.

[Nev]

Cockpit looks realgud.  Great shout on using a dark grey rather than a black for the cockpit so it can be seen.  I would have unthinkingly gone with NATO black, but your way works a lot better.  

[Thom216]

Don't tell me those colors are too light! Looks good from right here.😀

[su27rules]

Excellent stuff Andy !!

Great work so far.

 

Edited December 26, 2021 by su27rules

[Portaler]

Nice start Andy ! Really looking forward to seeing more on this one. Especially with Book of Boba also coming in a couple of days. Star Wars 2022 can't begin soon enough !!!!

 

Merry Christmas to all as well !!

[Andy Moore]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

 

Well, now that the festivities are over, I've had a chance to finish off the cockpit. It was only after I'd glued all the parts together that it occured to me to have a look at the decal sheet to see what Revell had supplied for the instrument panels. I normally ignore IP decals if the parts have moulded details, so I hadn't really looked that closely up until now. As it turns out, the decals for the panels are actually pretty good, and I wish I'd used a few instead of painting the controls. Most of them would be too awkward to fit now, and I'm fairly happy with the painted ones anyway, but I did decide to add a couple to the display screens. The ship is going to be on the ground, so technically the screens should be powered down, but the decals do add a bit of colour that livens up the interior.

 

 

While the decals are very nicely printed, they weren't the best to apply. They tore a little at the edges, and kept curling up despite being on flat, pre-glossed surfaces. They didn't seem to have much adhesive, and it took several applications of Micro Sol to get them down, and I'm still not happy with the small square one on the left screen. They'll do however and, as I said, they add a splash of colour.

 

 

You may also have noticed the not very inconspicuous wires sticking from the back of the cockpit bulkhead. Well, despite saying earlier that I'd got no intention of lighting the interior, it appears that I have done, albeit just this one LED. Given that the cockpit colours are quite dark, I thought that this single light would at least allow me to see some of the work on the finished model. It's a 3mm flat-top warm white LED sitting in a hole drilled through the moulded box above the door (which is meant to be a light anyway). It doesn't look particularly neat from the front, but that area's not really visible through the glazing. Likewise, the wires running through the rear vestibule are a bit messy but, again, they're goinng to be hard to see on the finished build. The battery box will sit inside the cargo hold, and I'll be able to access it through the rear hatch.

 

 

Switched on in a dark room, it does look quite bright, and there's a bit of a glow coming through the upper fuselage directly above the LED. This should vanish once the fuselage is painted, and I'll add some light blocking on the inside to make sure too.

 

 

Under normal lighting, it looks a lot better, and provides just enough light to make the cockpit interior visible. Now I've added this light, I may as well add the remaining exterior lights too. there's only a few anyway - just the two round things at the bottom of the nose, and one running light on the bottom of each engine nacelle. All four of those lights are red, and will be lit with fibre optics running to a single red LED inside the fuselage.

 

 

     Andy

 

[Pete in Lincs]

Nice one, Andy. It looks great lit up, as does the control panel.

[Portaler]

Looking good. Some nice progress Andy. Lights do definitely add something.

 

What did you use for the seatbelts ?

[Andrés S.]

Good work Andy.

 

Although I also prefer to paint the details of the instrument consoles when possible it is good to know that the decals for them are interesting.

I had planned to use a similar range of gray similar to yours for the cockpit, as I already did in the A and B Wing. They certainly look much better than the black you mention and looking at screenshots of the series I think the RC original also has the cockpit in shades of gray.

 

 

Andrés S.

[Hunter Rose]

Whoa! Lights aswell! Looks really good

[Thom216]

Just sitting at the modelling table, loddy-dah-dee-dah, and look at that! Your hands fitted in a light and wiring all without you knowing. Amazing! Clearly that is the devil's work. But good work for all that! 😀

[Norman]

Very nice job lights look fantastic !