Joining the 32" Falcon club

I've been on a time crunch with just about everything lately. I leave on a 3-month business trip next week. If you've seen any of my other builds, you'll notice that I make and use laser cut parts. Unfortunately, this weekend will probably be the last time I get to use the cutter. It's been a good three years!

Soooo....I decided to hurry up and get the basic shapes of the Falcon cut before my trip. Mission accomplished! Man this thing is huge!!!!




I used Joshua Maruska's drawings, imported them to the program I use and made vector templates from them. As with most Falcon builds, I'm taking a different approach. Due to the table size, I had to break the body up into three parts. It's ok, though. If it doesn't work out, I'll just have to cut a new hull by hand. I also incorporated a few guide notches for some parts. Oh, and there are 38 ribs in all! To tell you the truth, if I could have only done the ribs, it would have still been worth it! Call me lazy, it's ok!

All in all, I used one 72" x 24" sheet of .060" styrene (cut up into 24" x 20" pieces) for all the parts.

PM me if you would like a copy of the cutting file. I have to warn that although I have spent a lot of time on these parts, there may still be some errors. I think it's a good start though. BTW, I can provide drawings with and without the 3-part body.



Oh, and I misspelled Joshua Maruska's name in the preview above. I'll correct it later.

Joe

PM Sent

Got it.

BTW, The files are free. However, just realized that I saved it incorrectly and won't be able to save it correctly until Monday. In the meantime, anyone who wants it....send PM your email address to me and I will email the file then.

Joe

oh crap that is great...pm sent. yes i need one more thing on the drawing table i guess..


-james

Joe I sent a PM man when you get a chance......
thanks again! Looking forward to watching yours come
alive!

Yet another nice set of blueprints. Are you planning on getting the main piece cut by using one sheet?

Looking good Joe,..just to quote Frank, who put it better than I could...

"Looks GREAT!!!!!
Welcome to the WHAT THE F&%K WAS I THINKING CLUB.

hahah

Frank "

Still makes me chuckle that...

Anyway, more pics when you got 'em please..

Phil

Aurora, I'll be gluing the 3 parts together. The table was just a bit too small to fit the whole main shape.

Phil, I remember that comment by Frank....plus I read through your thread every so often and see it everytime. LOL! I won't actually begin assembling anything for some time....but I might put some pics up of some of the test pieces I made for the hex tubes. It shows the notches I made into the parts.
Oh, and I might bug you later on about the lighting and hull sheets.

Thanks for looking!

Joe

you're off to a flying start, your parts look very clean, unlike mine haha, what were we thinking?

I wouldn't say that Cody. Since I don't have a vector cutting table (i.e. usually a honeycomb layer of metal to lift the material off of the flat table), I can't really cut all the way through. It's almost like the cutter scribes and I still snap it out. Therefore a lot of plastic chips are left...more so in the recesses of this particular model and around the notches. So while it is nice to do it this way, it's not super clean. Not complaining, though.

I don't know what we were thinking!!!!

Joe

Oh and the files will be emailed tonight.

Joe

thanks for the file joe.....gave ya some rep points

Great files Joe; thanks for sharing!

C

Doh! Oh yeah, I sent all the emails already.

Thanks guys and no problem! I'm glad I could help!

Joe

Joe great stuff . I almost didn't want to open it


-james

message sent for files

what are these "maruska drawings?


BTW, this looks amazing. I dream to someday be a part of this club.

Are you collecting up the kits needed for the greeblies? Or are you going to scratch them?

Hey joe Looking good I sent you a pm for the files. Astroboy the are some drawings of the 32" made up that are pretty accurate or I should say at least close to what everyone perceives as accurate. You can find them over at the millennium falcon builders group on yahoo or I think the also have them over at studio scale modelers forum.

Wow, thanks for sharing, joewhite! PM sent. By the way, what happened to your laser cutter?

Astroboy, my apologies for never replying. I was in Ohio at the time of your post and got out of touch with theRPF for a little bit. Like McGraph said, they are based off of Joshua Maruska's drawings from the Yahoo Falcon club. I have been collecting kits for some time now. I think I am missing 3-4 kits from the top of the hull. I haven't fully dedicated myself to the bottom of the hull yet but I'm sure a lot of the same kits are used.

Guys, I sent the drawings to everyone who has requested them recently. If I missed anyone, plmk. All I ask in return is that ya'll share your progress here at TheRPF.

crackerjazz, no prob man, that's what forums like this are for, right? As for the laser cutter....it wasn't mine...it belonged to one of the shops next door from where I worked. I had full access to it but unfortunately, I had to change job locations recently. Worst move, ever!

Joe

Hi, Joe White! I just found this thread. I guess it was the recent bump, but I am glad I did. I sent you a PM to request the drawing you did for the parts template. I am really busy on another model, right now, but I plan to join the WTF group in about a month. I don't have 2K for the donors, so I am planning to scratch-build every square mm. It ought to be a lot of fun. Since your back, I hope to see some more progress, soon! Take care.

Wow, thanks guys! Ben, I sent ya those files. Can't wait to see your jump into this model.

Frank, wow man, that looks awesome! I always wish you guys wouldn't paint them. They look so cool with all the exposed kit parts and material!

I actually pulled the laser cut panels out and started playing with them. I plan on starting by tacking on the greeblies to the 1" side wall strips to start testing the length and size of my cutouts. Should be fun.

Joe

joewhite said:

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Wow, thanks guys! Ben, I sent ya those files. Can't wait to see your jump into this model....
Joe

Thanks, Joe. I am really eager!

Joe...test those sidewalls soon as that's almost where I am! I can honestly say that those drawings are a HUGE help! So THANK YOU!!

You had mentioned in an email about working on the docking tunnel side walls...you still wanna do that?

Going to try and get a bunch of progress accomplished on mine this weekend and hopefully start a thread.

When are you going to post some pics? Not rushing you by any means!

Dave