The Millennium Falcon has seen some serious action in the Star Wars films. This Corellian YT-1300 light freighter made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs, helped save Princess Leia, and battled the Empire and the First Order. It’s a well-loved ship that looks a little worse for the wear. But the toy version from Hasbro doesn’t really reflect the heroic and not-so-heroic things this ship has been through—neat and tidy little paint job that it has.
Now, thanks to artist Tristan Elliott, this Hasbro Battle Action Millennium Falcon toy actually looks like the real thing. He posted his $100 paint job on Imgur, explaining that, though the toy had some good base colors, it didn’t exactly look like it had been abandoned on Jakku for years, either.
Elliott felt that Han wouldn’t have really cared about matching paint colors, so he started by painting anything that looked tacked on a different shade of grey. He added some smoke damage by the exhaust ports, darker details to recessed areas, and buffed them with a brillo sponge to give the ship a weathered look. He hit it with an airbrush and covered the ship with a clear coat to finish the job. Elliott said he’s thinking of adding a few LED lights in the future to really make it shine.
Elliott has a degree from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and has been making models since childhood. He told Makezine, “When I was a little kid I remember getting excited every time we got a new DVD in the house because that meant I could watch the behind the scenes videos of how they made any models or SFX.”
The finished product is above, but check out the gallery below for some process shots. You can head over to Imgur to see even more. What do you think of the new paint job? Would Han and Chewie approve? Tweet me/us @JennaBusch/@Nerdist and let us know if you think ILM should give this guy a call.
—
