Manufacturer: AMT/ERTL
Parts: 70+
Scale: About 1/12
Dimensions: 12"L - 4"H - 3.5"W
Built: January - July 2006
This here is one of my recent "forced" builds. I purchased a Fine Molds Millennium Falcon and cannot wait to start it but I promised myself that I would clear out some of the stashed kits before I got to it. Even though I felt like I was rushing myself to finish a few kits, I put as much effort as I could to make it look decent.

- assembly -
Forward section - replaced various out-of-scale linkages with wire and thin tubing.
Steering vanes - scratch-built vanes using thin styrene from a 'For Sale' sign.
Handle bar cables - scrapped kit cable details and used guitar string instead.
Control knobs - kit bashed various greeblies to replace the clunky kit controls.
Hoses - used kit supplied hoses but wrapped them with very thin wire to show better detail.
Speeder blaster - simply replaced the supply cable with guitar string.
Intake panels - attached intake pieces on both sides, filled seams and scribed panel line.
Latches - used styrene and wire to make rear vane latches and belt loops.
Blanket - used thin cloth to make a new blanket and styrene strips for the belts that hold it.

- painting & mounting -
Delta Ceramcoat paints were used over Plasti-kote gray primer and a coat of Krylon Metallic Silver. I mixed two additional slightly different shades of the main brown color to aid in reproducing the appearance of worn paint. After allowing to dry, a hobby knife was used to create paint chips. As for the black areas, I took the same approach with the underlying silver coat. I then airbrushed a very light coat of black mixed with a little gray, purposely allowing the silver to slightly come through just a tiny bit.
A few shades of gray pastels were used to further weather the top part of the bike along with brown pastels for all the black parts. I ended things by adding rust spots to the engine section using Floquil rust. This was followed by a couple of coats of Model Master clear flat to seal all my work

              

- all in all -
Well, there you have it! Even though I didn't include a Scout Trooper like I wanted to I am still pleased. I mean, it's better than an un-built kit still sitting in my closet, right?