To those keeping tabs, welcome back to the fifth update.

After completing the cockpit canopy and interior I started on the next subassembly… The Falcons sensor dish. The shot below shows the finished piece compared to the studio model. Pretty good hey. 😉

After the sensor dish, I returned back to add extra detail to the main lower hull section. As with the top mandibles, I corrected the missing detail on the guide rail sections. (pic-1) I’m not sure if that is what they are, but that’s what I’m calling them. I also, as I did with the top hull, thinned the outer edges and then added extra greebles to the rear engine area behind the loading bay area and continued to add damage to the hull plating edges.

 

With all that done I then began working on the lights for the engine, spotlights and watch your headlights while waiting for the 3D printed forward landing bays to arrive in the post from the states.

The engine lighting proved the most problematic. Compounded by my limited skill as an electrical and lighting engineer. What does that mean you ask? It means my friends I blew one set of lights for the engines glow and destroyed several other pre-wire LEDs for the searchlights. The later came from more ham-fisted skills than bad wiring.  However, after studious effort and tongue gnawing persistence, I managed to get a full set of working lights. Woo-whoo!!! This included a string of surface mounted LEDs to light the gun well addition I purchased.

Now those with a keen eye may notice the section of PVC tube glued inside the model. The idea for this is so when I glue the top and bottom hull together the section of pipe will help add the domed look of the main hull. Now, my piece is only 5.2mm in height, which is a little shy of the length required to gain the most accurate look, but if I used the 6.5mm section as per those who are more skilled and pedantic, it would have meant carving up the hull and adding a whole lot of inner rib sections to stabilize everything. As well as rebuilding the outer wall of the access corridors and cutting away the mandible sections… So my piece is short enough to give me a better shape without any weird distortions.