Cloud City Aircar

[dropcap]R[/dropcap]eleased some times ago, this RetroSF aerial carS of the cloud city is a little jewel, very mell molded. Presented in a solid box, the kit counts 19 fine parts (and not 21 as the notice says). No instruction drawings, just a 3 view photo of a finished engine – But to be honnest it’s more than enough, the build being so easy… 
The build will begin with… a new watching seance of the Episode V of the galactic saga ! No better documentation source than the film, with frequent pauses during the scene where the aircars are intercepting the Millenium Falcon… The envvy was present to watch all the six films, but the kit was awaiting…

After having washed the parts and removed the flash from the resin, I started the build. To note that the canopies are extremely fragile – After having broken two times those elements, I decided to replace some parts by Evergreen… Some putty was needed and the “internal” guns had to be removed – better say: masked with putty. After sanding, I applied a White primer; correction on putty; re-white primer.

I’ve watched the movie scene again, but there is no indication of colours for what concerns the bays. So I’ve decided to use a “standard” alu… Will give a good contrast with the orange of the aircar! Then, Tamiya masking tape to protect the bays.
I sprayed the orange. I used the Game Colors one, I like very much the luminosity of that paint.
When dry, some panels are masked. Then I sprayed marron; orange + brown, and Citadel Colors orange on other panels, to obtain some variety of paint.

I made some corrections in the paint and added black color. I’ve also painted the pilots… One of them has a moustache, as indicated in the instruction sheet because in the film “the left pilot owns a moustache”!!!
the aircar were sprayed with gloss varnish from Pébéo and I made an oil wash with “Wash Brown” from Abteilung501.
For the weathering I preferred to use a mix of “rust” and “Gun Metal” better to just alu: as the cloud city is on a gas planet, oxydation is probably more faster…

Then, I sprayed matt varnish (also from Pébéo).
The final paint stage consisted in the painting of the guns in gun metal; their smokes being realized with Tamiya black pastel.
The final assembly can be made…
Temporarily placed on a “neutral” base, the aircar is very nice and gives in my collection a “flashy” touch that is catching the eyes. It was a simple, fast, and funny build.
May the force be with you, Luke…

Daniel Clamot

Sample kit is provided by RetrokiT