Building The ANH 5'Millennium Falcon

This should be good. I'm always amazed at the guys who do a build like this. Good luck!

Bout ****in time..... No sense living in denial..... You were ALWAYS gonna build this one. 32 inches just don't cut it. (that's what she said).

Good luck with this monumental build, Eagle1. I would say this is the Holy Grail of studio scale builds so there will be many who will be following thi thread intently, no matter how long it takes.

Hopefully one day I can follow in your footsteps.

We're with you all the way mate, really looking forward to this ride.

Oh great, another awesome thread to be placed on the "Watch List".

Eagle1, will you be building this with a wooden frame and heavy,... or will you be making it lighter so that it would be a little easier on your back to move around?

WOW, this is gonna be cool to follow. I'm looking forward to seeing all the photos.

For a model that big I would vote to give it a steel inner framework of some kind. Most of the model's understructure could still be wood & plastic but IMHO it would be good to have a basic steel layout underlying all of it.

Wood or plastic is fine for smaller models, but you're talking about a hell of a lot of mass and size with this thing. Steel is perfectly straight by default when you buy it, which becomes a much bigger issue on a 5ft model than a 1-3ft one. Steel doesn't expand & contract & warp with moisture or time. It's easier to build strong areas far out from the center of the model. It flexes & bends when pushed over its limits instead of cracking apart. It sounds pretty heavy but it's not bad compared to wood for this job if you build it right.

You can do it. Go for it.

I agree with metal armature. If you don't weld, just take it somewhere local and give them a few bucks for some welds. I do it all the time.

Yes, there is a metal armature being designed. I don't see any other way. But dimensions have to be finalized.

I'm glad you're back onboard all the way, Stu! No small task as there are so far around 90 confirmed kits, not counting duplicates. I can't wait to see what you've been working on.

Craig

This is the thread I was looking for
Take all the time you need to make a success of it ! Good luck with this great model. I will follow your progress.

Wow - I'll be watching this, too - this is the main event! Good luck on your build and thanks for starting this thread.

Right! Woohoo! Great stuff Stu.

I've started a half-shell mockup myself, to place parts. You will need a BIG build table for this bird. Not a bench, benches are way too small.

Guess I'm back into it too. I've been restricting myself to juggling single projects but eff it, life's too short.

As with you, I'll be sharing 100% of whatever I come up with. Call us raving commies if you must.

Ahhh. I hate when I stumble on an epic journey like this and it's only just begun. I like it when I find threads like this and they are 99% complete! Now I will find myself checking this everyday!!!

And to quote a certain space pirate "Good luck...you're gonna need it"

Best of luck, I will watch this thread with great interest

I hear ya mate. I will get back to this one day. Spent about $1500 on donors for the Narc and even more on the turbo laser donors so once they are out the way I should be on to the $10,000 or so needed for the 5 footer...

eagle1 said:

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Thanks all for the support & opinions, I'm really gonna need all the help I can get here.

Ah the basic armature question. Seems to be the main topic here.
Well, I'm still finalizing from a plastics firm here just to the exact size they can blow mold the 2 hemi's. I would rather go this way.
If this falls through I have a second option, but both options have a tubular steel armature with 6 mounting points.
The basic form to hold the hemi's would be wood formers.

Either option I will be happy with in the end. One just involves alot more work making the hemi's.

Simon, yeah, the 32" just doesn't do it for me anymore, even sold all my bits for the 32" to put some funds into the 'real Falcon' model

Back soon
Stu

Hi Eagle

You're absolutely right "...Really there's no excuse not to...". With that said. GET TO WORK!

Okay. It's been over 24 hours now. Where's the progress photos??? Thought you would have had it half done by now.

Hi Stu,

Way to go mate, you know it makes scary mad sense. Good luck with it all. Sounds like you guys who are actually building her, will be the best source of dimensional blueprint type info. Your observation re the cockpit dia is interesting straight away. What made you decide on the 1/2" reduction?

Still not sure the best way to compile the dimensions though. I think we need clear elevation images on which to keep updating the sizes as they get confirmed rather than having lots of scraps of info dotted about.

BTW ahem...its Nick, not Neil. I may have started the thread but you guys are driving it. I'm just a sort of archivist at the moment

Can't wait to see your progress

Cheers
Nick

I was wondering WTF is Neil.... And where his thread???...

Hi Stu,


Actually, I could't even imagine building the 5' flacon in my hobby life.
Please keep to share the progress pics in this thread regularly.

Cheers~~~

thanks Eric.

eagle1 said:

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Nick, a thousand apologies mate for re-naming you, I'm just crap at remembering names, I just can't think why this Neil popped into my head?.



I came to the final size of the main cockpit tube as being 5 1/2" as really, it fitted in with all my other dims. Doing a rough placing of kit parts on the un-cut tube & on paper, all seemed good to the eye for me.



NOTE: Please do not take as absolute gospel my dimensions & findings. I'm only going with what I find to be correct & am happy with.


Right, here's the start of the cockpit then. Starting with marking out all the relevant dims of the tube on paper with a 60 degree cut the dims come out as:

172mm long side
95mm short side
132mm middle point
160mm eliptical cut


Had to bring in my tech-drawing days to get the eliptical shape for making the templates to cut the tube. After marking out all the points a rough saw cut was done & finished with sanding on a flat surface, came out perfect
Next step is marking out the plating & the holes that are visible under the Koolshade.
Back to work then.
Stu

How many Wankels is 5 1/2" (remembering back to the thread where the Wankel was virtually agreed upon as being the official unit of measurement for this bird)?

eagle1 said:

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I came to the final size of the main cockpit tube as being 5 1/2"

Hahaha! That is indeed the official Falcon Unit of Measurement!
Craig