After all the model kit parts had been glued onto the Millennium Falcon model, I primed it with gray primer and then painted it with the base color, an off white. (It took me a while to find the right base color. In the movie, the Falcon looks gray. The original model, which was on display at the Art of Star Wars exhibit in San Francisco in 1994, was painted in an off white/beige. In order to find the right tone, I did some research on the internet and somebody told me he had heard from "his source at ILM" that the Falcon was painted WHITE. Well, I knew that it was not white, so I decided to call MY source at ILM who had worked on the original model and ask him what paint they used. He gave me the manufacturer's name and paint#. I ordered it and... it was too dark! I ended up buying paint that I thought looked right at a paint store around the corner.) To see how different a model can look, see the color comparison.

Once the model was painted in this off-white color, I started masking off panels and painting them rusty red, light-, medium- and dark gray, black, medium blue as well as different shades of even "offer"white... :-)

I then painted laser blasts, oil stains and smudges, rust and dirt all over the ship. Most of them exactly in the same spots where they are on the original model (as far as I was able to tell from the available photos of the original) .

                                                                                   

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