This is Ertl's old Slave One kit. It required quite a bit of modification to make it a model I could live with, and so it sat in my "to build" pile for years before I finally decided to tackle it. It turned out to be a lot of fun, because I did a number of things that I had never tried before. Also, the base was a modeling challenge in it's own right. All in all, this was a lot of work, and a whole lot of fun. It is the best paintjob I have ever done on a model, thanks largely to the new tricks I've learned. Now I just need to find someplace to display it.

I also installed thick theet styrene braces between the two half-disc shoulder inserts. These tended to want to flop inside the upper shell when the top and bottom were put together.The cockpit needed a lot of work, much of the detail does not follow the filming miniature very closely. The rotating cockpit is just silly. In the end I could've done a lot more to fix this area up, but I decided that there were some things I would live with. If I ever decide to fix the cockpit up even further, I can just pop the canopy off and have at it.

The paddles that stick out the sides of the ship were particularly irksome. The rotating cuffs make it necessary to paint everything before assembly, but also some things must be assembled before they can be painted. Also, a lot of the detail here is wrong. It looks ok, if you want to leave it that way, but it wasn't that hard to fix either. I added some small details at the shoulder made from aluminum tubing and an old electric razor. And at the tips of the paddles, where the mounting lugs are on the filming model, I replaced the crappy moulded-on end cap with choped up bits of craft beads. I also added details to the bottom, but decided not to try and replicate the Harrier engine bits seen in the original.

On top of the ship, above the canopy, (or in front of it if it's sitting on the ground) there are a pair of small, oblong ports. I don't have any idea what these are, they look like some kind of weapons port. They are kit they are represented by small, obround raised panel lines. I carved this area away and inserted short sections of plastic tube, with an inside diameter of 1/8". I sanded them flush and filled the gaps with Bondo. They still don't look like the filming model, but they are much cooler than what was there.

The Slave One is all about it's paint job, and this is where I spent a lot of my time. About a week before I began painting, Fine Scale Modeler printed an article about doing chipped paint weathering using table salt. The article couldn't have come at a better time. First I painted the whole model in Krylon wet-sandable spray primer, and sanded it. Then I airbrushed the top surfaces in a base coat of Model Master primer grey. I laid torn bits of wet paper towel all over this and painted on another coat of primer grey, mixed with a few drops of light ghost grey. Once all that dried, I masked the top of the model off, leaving the "crabshell" skirt. I used a medium brush to daub water onto various areas of the skirt, paying special attention to the engraved panel lines and base of the skirt. Then I sprinkled table salt all over the model, which stuck to the wet areas. I airbrushed the skirt with a mixture of insignia red, rust, and dark military green. Then I added more salt and did it again, with a slightly darker shade. The results were much better than anything I had tried before. I did the same thing with the green shoulder cuffs, using three different shades of green.

Once the basic painting was done, I covered the whole thing with three coats of Future, then weathered it with an oil wash. This is the first time I've used oils, and I will never go back. Oils are so easy to use, and you have a long time to work with them. I did learn two important things though: First, thin oil with turpenoid. I used lacquer thinner at first, (because I had it on hand), and it ate right through the three coats of Future and into the basecoat without even trying. It was only a small area, and easily fixed, but it was a valuable lesson. Second: oil washes really darken the model a lot. The whole thing looked quite a bit darker than I had anticipated. So after I was done I lightly airbrushed a coat of camoflage grey over the top surfaces.

Next came the drybrushing. Again, camoflage grey was used, with a little silver here and a little sky blue there. A final coat of Future, sprayed on at 40psi so that it would cloud up a bit, and the paint job was done.

The base was made entirely out of sheet styrene, with a brass rod for a mount. I built a battery box inside the base, for a 9v battery, and put a switch on the back. The perimiter of the base was painted in camoflage grey, with a few drops of blue. Then I weathered it with the airbrush, using leather and rust. I followed that with an oil wash, and pastel chalks to represent years of rain, sun, and bird droppings. The top of the base was painted in Model Masters buffable aluminum plate. I've used this stuff before, but never on such a large, uniform surface. It seems the trick is to put on several thin coats, buffing between each one. I painted on a large, white X, using salt to make this appear chipped. Then washed the top using gunmetal and exhaust.

The mount incorporates a mono audio jack, so that I can seperate the model from the base. This is also something new for me.

Image: Foward right quarter

Image: From above

Image: Aft view

Image: Dorsal view

Image: Wing detail

Image: Engines lit

Image: You want salt with that?

Image: Salted weathering

Image: The base