- Model : : MC80 Mon Calamari Cruiser
- Maker : : Anigrand
- First edition year : : 2007
- Scale : : 1/2256
- Matter :: Resin
The Mon Calamari Cruiser Liberty is recognizible by its two wings. They are distributed on both side of the hull… as usual you may say…
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Well if you intend to be unpleasant like that, no thanks !
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Where did I left off before being rusely interrupted by myself ? Oh yes : anyway, it’s weird for a non-atmospheric ship to have wings like a plane. So there. These wings are even the most important difference between the Liberty and her big brother the Home One, the flagship of the rebel fleet, more fusiform. So, try to put the word “fusiform” in a website instead of being annoying with your negative attitudes !
Fixing a model failings : the mastic usefulness
This Mon Calamari cruiser model is a quite good-quality resin kit . Of course you’ll have to use a lot of mastic to adjust the pieces together, as always with garage kits. In fact, the only real failing of this kit are panel-lines engraved onto the hull. They are totally unrealistic at this scale and I decided to fill them back in. Hard decision since I had to cover the all kit with mastic. Again and again.
Structure reinforcement
The ship hull is made of four parts : two upper halves and two lower halves. Connecting these parts couldn’t be made with simple glue, never sturdy enough. I had to imagine more extreme methodes.
I had to screw two attachment flanges on the junction. This technic is quite usual on big models, it’s a “roding” variant.
Mon Calamari cruiser detailing
It is necessary to improve the detail level. Business as usual. The biggest improvement was to include two starfighters hangars. The first is at the front of the ship, the second toward the middle of the structure.
The hangars are made using plastic cards, enliven with tiny 3D printed fighters. On the picture, they don’t look very well painted but you have to remind the scale : 1/2256. At this scale, a X-Wing is only 5mm long ! Watching them at a 10 or 20 cm distance is totally convincing.
Back to preschool : stencil painting
The Mon Calamri cruiser painting has been made like it has been with the filming model. I made a lot of stencils using plastic cards, photoetch grids gathered here and there. The technic is very simple, you put the stencil on the surface of the model and you airbrush it.
It’s a variant of the usual masking technic using masking tape but it’s way faster. Covering such an area would have taken months if I used this technic.
Mon Calamari Liberty cruiser exhibitions
This model is the last part of a complete rebel fleet I exposed only two times :
- Migennes Collector 2016
- Swiss Fantasy Show 2016
You may click here to see the Sullust rebel fleet
by petersteven