SW Arquitens Light Cruiser Mandalorian Edition 1:2000 Scale

Now that the Arquitens class (the Class 546 variant anyhow) made a central role appearance as Moff Gideon's flagship in the latest season of The Mandalorian I've been able to completely rework my old model from new reference photos, adding new design changes and lots of extra detail, while optimizing and slicing it for a larger print size.

The provided 1:2000 scale puts it at about 16cm long, which is probably the smallest size at which you'd want to print this model. I'd go larger but then it wouldn't fit with the rest of my 1:2000 ships.

It also features an open hangar bay with a tiny TIE fighter inside. If you want to print in a really large scale I suggest removing it and replacing it with a more high def TIE model or the lambda shuttle.

Gif: https://i.imgur.com/tJ5dF9s.gif

Print Settings

Rafts:

No

Supports: 

No

Resolution:

0.12, 0.08 for turrets

Infill: 

10%

Notes:

Most parts should print with little to no overhangs, except engines_1 and mid_1 which require a little bridging but it should be fine as long as your printer is tuned well enough.

The turrets are available in 2 ways: sliced and unsliced. The unsliced ones print well enough (I used a brim to get them to stick better) in the provided orientation and they're pretty tiny anyhow so the sliced version is more intended for larger scales. Print the turret 4 times and glue as shown in photos, two on top and two on the bottom.

Post-Printing

Painting tips (for beginners)

My painting process was something along the lines of this, if it happens to help anyone:

• dry brush the black plastic with white until it turns light gray
• cover with a thin layer of transparent silver to get a metallic look
• dry brush with a sort of deserty sand skin tone to get the more tan colour
• dry brush some of the tiny panels with a slightly more red tone and some with a whiter one to highlight them and break up the monotone hull
• paint some of the larger recessed areas black and the engines white/blue
• mix black dye with water (or ideally wood floor cleaner to not get pooling) and add it to the model in large amounts as a wash, then immediately wipe away most of it with a cloth so it mostly settles in the recesses
• add the tiny details, i.e. lights, windows, etc. with a toothpick

I use acrylic dye to paint, most extracted from acrylic markers since they have the most pigment dense dye and some from Liquitex. I don't really have any idea on how to do it properly, just sort of making it up as I go along.