Bandai Millennium Falcon [WIP - Cockpit interior's control and instrument panels, and initial dry fitting]

Without any likelihood of LED lighting to illuminate the Bandai Star Wars 1/144 scale Millennium Falcon's cockpit interior, I opted for a high contrast colour scheme. This meant simulating light with bright strips/points of paint (mainly bluish white, red, yellow and blue) against a brownish black grey panel board. I'm hoping once the cockpit's outer hull is fully assembled, the interior will still be reasonably visible from the outside looking in despite the lack of internal lighting. 

Initial dry fitting of Rey and BB8 in the Millennium Falcon's cockpit interior

Clockwise from top - overhead instrument panel, control panel, seats and back instrument panel

Size comparison against a five sens coin and a paperclip

Photographic references for the cockpit were based on a combination of the actual movie props and the 1/6th scale model cockpit by Hot Toys. The former shows me how the cockpit actually looks like in 1:1 scale while the latter shows me how modellers represented the panel lights at a smaller scale. 

Millennium Falcon cockpit as seen on the movie set

Hot Toys 1/6th scale Millennium Falcon Cockpit

Absence of LEDs also means I won't be able to light up the sublight drives on the back of the Falcon. Nonetheless, the Falcon can still be accurately depicted in a flight diorama without its sublight drive 'powered up'. In The Force Awakens, there is a scene where Rey switches off the Falcon's engines, plunging it into free fall. Sweet! Now, the model won't look weird sans lighting on its back section.

Rey was piloting the Millennium Falcon during its first scene in The Force Awakens

BB8 hangs on as Rey takes the garbage for a spin

Estimated location of BB8 during the first Millennium Falcon scene in The Force Awakens

In the said scene, Rey was positioned in the pilot's seat while BB8 was anchoring itself to the ship (see above). So in line with that, the only figures I will be placing in the cockpit are Rey and the smallish rotund astromech droid (see below). BB8 isn't exactly placed in the correct location in the model kit's cockpit. That being said, I guess a little creative license could be allowed now and again.  

A closeup shot with BB8 in focus instead of Rey

A sneak peak of the ongoing assembly of the cockpit - here with the control panels in place

By the next post I should have finished decaling/painting (sans weathering) and assembling the Millennium Falcon's cockpit interior as well as the exterior hull surrounding the cockpit. It's kind of insane that I'm wasting so much time painting a section of the ship that's going to be barely visible in the eventual gloom of an enclosed interior. But sadly details are my Achilles heel in miniature painting. If I see them I can't not paint them. Even if they barely see the light of day. Que sera sera.