John Klein, King City, Ontario, Canada
One galaxy farther: John built a what-if “conjectural YT-1000 Kestrel light freighter” based on AMT/Ertl’s Millennium Falcon. He says, “The most significant changes were to convert the dorsal quad laser turret to a dual-barrel and replace the vertical navigation dish with a flush-mounted sensor array. The sensor array was actually, in a former life, a heat-sink ring on an LED light bulb — it looked just right for what I needed. The cargo pod is made from ping-pong balls to fit between the front mandibles, partly to disguise the kit’s lack of accurate detail and to make the model more distinctive. The model is finished in Tamiya grays and blues and weathered with pre- and post-shading. I experimented with the hairspray technique to weather the markings.”