Hey pals,

I recently picked up a Millennium Falcon and wanted to do a lot more to it than just a repaint. For starters, I really like my symmetry and the Falcon is awfully asymmetrical. Given that, I think the Falcon is a pretty ugly ship. Before I opened the box I decided to find a model of the YT series that I would enjoy looking at.

Unfortunately, most of the other models are only described in fiction with no visual representation. After plenty of himmin' and haulin' I decided that I'd turn the Falcon into more of a YT-1000 model. Now, I know there was no way I was going to make those tiny fins in the front, so I settled on using BFG bits to make a sensor package to the left or right of the cockpit instead.

For starters, I relied heavily on TUZ's tutorial for removing the cockpit and corridor. Without that, this would have been an extra bad disaster! Here is the Falcon after removing the easy stuff.

After that, I wanted to remove the forward fins as well. I wanted to do more than a cockpit move. So I started hacking, and hacking. Man, it felt like they made the fins out of solid plastic! I know it is going to be tough to get this front to look like a spaceship again.

With the fins removed, I debated whether to still use them on the model or not. I played around with some patterns to see if anything looked good.

My main concern was that I didn't want to make a flying saucer! I played around with some more ideas but ultimately settled on putting the fins in the back. After that I focused on sealing up the holes in the design with green stuff. Then, I cut down the front of the ship and added the cockpit.

I was able to remove the front of the ship so cleanly that I retained the pieces and decided to add them to the bottom as cargo or fuel reserves. Some might disagree, but I think they look alright.

After the green stuff sets, I will take a crack at the front of the ship and see about incorporating the BFG sensors and antennas into the design. With the cockpit placed, I decided I might try to make a rectangle radar dish and place it where the top turret is. Boy, did I botch that up! I ended up unable to cut straight enough lines and the radar dish became a lost cause. Now short one radar dish, I decided that I might place a comms antenna in the center instead. What do you think about this? I might keep the "bridge" and put the antenna array part under the cockpit.

The beast is done. I have learned a lesson this week about going too far. I think i will avoid chopping up Large ships in the future. Huge ships on the other hand... just kidding!

Okay so lets see if my pictures across the week can tell the tale. First, I could not find that perfect radar dish that TUZ suggested. Oh man was that disappointing! I am pretty sure I threw out my vehicle bits, but I did sift through my other Warhammer bits desperate for something applicable. I settled on reversing the tower and clipping the antenna. Then I placed what I want to be "long-ranged survey" equipment facing forward. I also finished up the top and bottom putty work.

On the bright side, I found anti-pursuit lasers!

With the Falcon being so hollow, I had to shoddily brace the front of the trenches with plasticard to allow me to putty the front. Once the brace was secure, I started lathering on the green stuff. Really, gettin' it in there.

After I secured a good layer of putty, without one of those cool rubber tools, I scrounged up what plasticard I had suited for tiny shapes and started clipping and cutting. I knew I was better off designing the front with card instead of sculpting the whole thing. For better or worse, it looked like this:

With that mess over, building up the lips over the trench top and bottom went better than expected. The bottom didn't look as smooth as the top, but ultimately only weirdos look at the bottoms of these toy space ships, right?

I have likely hit the image count, so I will post painted images below!

Future post.

Also, can anyone suggest some small circular bits that would fit within and on top of the Falcon's engine? I want to change the engines to look like boosters with minimal effort, since the front will be such a project already.

If you dice up little bits of the coffee/tea stirring straws it could work for engines.

This was sort of shocking to me; like scrolling through social media and one of your uncouth friends posted an unedited photo of road kill to disturb everyone.

Seriously though, nice job.

Future post.

Also, can anyone suggest some small circular bits that would fit within and on top of the Falcon's engine? I want to change the engines to look like boosters with minimal effort, since the front will be such a project already.

If you dice up little bits of the coffee/tea stirring straws it could work for engines.

Yeah, coffee straws, regular straws or ink pen cylinders... quick stroll through the dollar store always helps.

This is a good example of why SCUM can absolutely have YT's in their fleets.

Awesome job Smashotron!

The overall shape of the ship looks great. Moving the 'mandibles' to the rear provides a real sweeping arc profile and a sleek n' fast momentum to the craft. It looks 'right' as a ship design,which the staple of any good conversion.

Engine wise, pen tops (especially ones with built in end filters), round / small engine looking Lego bits, old GW / jet fighter engine bits... can all potentially do the trick. The main thing is, you'll see something that takes your eye and you'll know when you see it, it will be just the ticket. Inspiration strikes in the strangest of places

One option to maintain the overall 'line' of the ship, could be to do 3 x engine jets, the middle one slightly bigger than the two either side. This would maintain the ship's symmetry and create a sort of 'trident' look / tail, alongside those swept back fins...

In terms of the radar dish, I think your antenna idea could work just fine. If you are looking to do a rectangular dish, I'd considered using the standard GW vehicle radar dish - It's a good match size wise and with a bit of tweaking / plasti-card re-working, will look less like the original piece...

Keep up the great work, looking forward to seeing your build complete. Have you had any thoughts around the paint job / colour palette?

Cheers

This is a good example of why SCUM can absolutely have YT's in their fleets.

Sure, but every existing ship that gets repurposed for S&V is one less NEW ship from the EU. I'd rather have a Jumpmaster 5000 as Scum's turret ship so I can run Dengar with Boba Fett, and/or IG-88. Also, Dengar's ship had an Astromech built in, so that opens up some new options for a large based ship. Both or the R4 salvaged astromechs sound like a good fit fit Dengar's droid.

Keep up the great work, looking forward to seeing your build complete. Have you had any thoughts around the paint job / colour palette?

Cheers

Oh man! Somewhere in the depths of my basement I really think I have like three of those radar dishes. Very good call! My only concern is if they survived the last big move, or were discarded in the purge.

For the color scheme, originally I was thinking of naming it the Firehawk to compliment the swooping design. I have a variety of reds, with some orange, and was going to base the model on a ruddy brown-red, like GW's Dark Flesh. It has always been a staple for me when doing rust effects, so I thought it might be a good red to build up from, instead of an obnoxious bright red.

After seeing the WIP, the lady remarked that it looked like a turtle so a green base is an opinion. Unfortunately I cannot think of a cool spaceship name for a turtle, maybe the Tortuga (its Bocce for space tortoise ), and I also have a smaller variety of greens and yellows to work with.

This is a good example of why SCUM can absolutely have YT's in their fleets.

Sure, but every existing ship that gets repurposed for S&V is one less NEW ship from the EU. I'd rather have a Jumpmaster 5000 as Scum's turret ship so I can run Dengar with Boba Fett, and/or IG-88. Also, Dengar's ship had an Astromech built in, so that opens up some new options for a large based ship. Both or the R4 salvaged astromechs sound like a good fit fit Dengar's droid.

I would gladly use a YT conversion in place on the Jumpmaster or the Slave II, for example. Some ships are just too ugly to make, I think. On the flip side, I would like to see a Large ship with a scum astromech!

Thanks for all the comments, buds! I think I will likely keep the tower where it is, but if I am lucky enough to find a radar dish, I'll incorporate the two. Until next time!

With her rear facing "wings" you should call her Valkyrie.

For the color scheme, originally I was thinking of naming it the Firehawk to compliment the swooping design. I have a variety of reds, with some orange, and was going to base the model on a ruddy brown-red, like GW's Dark Flesh. It has always been a staple for me when doing rust effects, so I thought it might be a good red to build up from, instead of an obnoxious bright red.

After seeing the WIP, the lady remarked that it looked like a turtle so a green base is an opinion. Unfortunately I cannot think of a cool spaceship name for a turtle, maybe the Tortuga (its Bocce for space tortoise ), and I also have a smaller variety of greens and yellows to work with.

Tracinya Yinchorri

Why not both?

Tracinya is Mandalorian for flame.

Yinchorri is a race of turtle-like reptiles. In the bio, they would make interesting mercs and pirates.

This is a good example of why SCUM can absolutely have YT's in their fleets.

I actually prefer having them devoid of pancakes. The rebels can keep their YTs.

Once all the sculpting set, I spent the last couple days painting it but not really photographing the stages. Considering how I was feeling about the utter hack-job, I went for a really battered and rusted paint job. I think it came out fine. The only extra colors are on the sensor array, so I may try to sprinkle in some more colors and lights, without conflicting too hard against the other neutral tones.

Since I don't own the Anti-Pursuit Lasers card, I think it's appropriate that they look unused and rusted in place. On an end note, while bits fishing I managed to find these metal dongles that I think would make perfect obstacles or mines. I may try to add they to my asteroid tokens, maybe magnetized. I could paint one side black and let them be mines visually but otherwise follow the rules for, and keep the shape of, the asteroid token. I will likely only try it if I can figure out an easy way to remove them during gameplay.

Thanks for taking a look at what I have done, guys!

That turned out very nice!

This is one of the main reasons I love SCUM... it opens up the STAR WARS Universe!

The beast is done. I have learned a lesson this week about going too far. I think i will avoid chopping up Large ships in the future. Huge ships on the other hand... just kidding!

I feel you, brother. I have a massacred YT-1300 that went under the knife several months ago, and has been sitting in limbo waiting for some attention.

Thanks for posting this. Your log has given me some ideas for tackling the problems I've been most worried about.

In particular, I think your method of studding the greenstuff filler with pieces of plasticard to rebuild the mechanical fronting that edges the ship is ingenious. I was planning to take push-moulds of the original mechanics and then cast my own pieces for the rebuild, but I might combine that with your technique now.

This is a good example of why SCUM can absolutely have YT's in their fleets.

Sure, but every existing ship that gets repurposed for S&V is one less NEW ship from the EU. I'd rather have a Jumpmaster 5000 as Scum's turret ship so I can run Dengar with Boba Fett, and/or IG-88. Also, Dengar's ship had an Astromech built in, so that opens up some new options for a large based ship. Both or the R4 salvaged astromechs sound like a good fit fit Dengar's droid.

Jumpmaster is such an ugly ship

I had an idea like that when I was looking to mod mine, cool ship!