Tapering the turret sidewalls: Part I

If you’ve done some research on the studio miniature, you’ll know that the sidewalls of the upper and lower gun turrets on the Fine Molds Falcon are too vertical. The studio model has more of an angled taper from the top edge down to the hull. Rob has completed this modification and after crossing some other ones off my list I got around to attempting it myself. Using filler putty, I recreated the taper going a little thicker than I needed so I could sand it down just right once it cured. Here’s what it looked like…

Then I broke out the 220 sandpaper and slowly started refining the contour. I would do a little work, blow off the dust with compressed air, check my progress, and continue. After a while it was looking very nice. Next I cleaned up where it filled panel lines, and made sure that surrounding details were not accidentally filled with putty. A pass with 400 grit yielded a smooth taper all around.I need to replace the thin rectangular details on the sidewall now with sheet styrene, and also the piping connectors that I removed before filling. There were several greeblies missing and/or inaccurate that I will fix before priming. Also, looking closely at the 32” studio ship, it appears that they puttied this taper as well. It looks rough, and has small pits around the circumference. I may add some pitting to mine too. Rinse and repeat for the lower hull.