Tiny bit o' progress...
Our Collective 5-Foot Millennium Falcon Build
- Thread starter Studio Kitbash
- Start date
Today's regress:
Had to lighten the weight further by adding more "lightening" holes throughout the armature. Impressionist photograph a function of the amount of sawdust flying around the room.
Had to lighten the weight further by adding more "lightening" holes throughout the armature. Impressionist photograph a function of the amount of sawdust flying around the room.
That's a lotta, lotta holes! Or... a lot of Orbs. Who's following you around Read? Looks like you have a lot of company! LOL! Or you could look at it as stars. Too bad the background isn't black. Naked Falcon flying through the cosmos.
Two tools I couldn't do without, and that I highly recommend -- esp. because they are not commonly found in hobby shops:
1.) The RP Toolz Cutter
Precisely duplicate any cut, at any angle, all day long, with absolute razor-blade 90-degree precision. Especially useful for cutting slowly/carefully through tubing stock without kinking/bending/bowing the tube. Available at the website pictured on the tool:
2.) The "GodHand" Long Plastic Cutter, which uses an OLFA 78mm long blade as its business end. You cannot believe what a "godsend" and time saver this tool is for cutting those long styrene strip stock pieces for the Durasteel plating on the Falcon -- couldn't think of doing without it. It's PRICEY, but completely worth it.
This shows up in some hobby shops from time to time, but is also pretty regularly available on Ebay. I don't think the maker of this meant to be sacrilegious or blasphemous when naming the tool, I think they just have a Japanese cultural interpretation of what it means for one of the "gods" to lend you a "hand"
These tools totally worth it, and will save you countless hours/headaches and frustration of asking "Why does nobody make a tool that... is specifically designed for my making a 5-foot Falcon replica?"
I mean, check it:
I'm adding ESB lower dome lights to my ANH Falcon, because that's the kind of Rebel I am...
So you drill 3/16th pilot holes in your armature, insert 3/16 tube stock from Plastruct (cut perfectly on you RP Toolz Cutter), and you're in business to pre-wire and pre-run your electronics even before you glue your lower dome to the armature...
If you look closely, you'll count all 10 of them: 8 in the bow and 2 in the stern.
1.) The RP Toolz Cutter
Precisely duplicate any cut, at any angle, all day long, with absolute razor-blade 90-degree precision. Especially useful for cutting slowly/carefully through tubing stock without kinking/bending/bowing the tube. Available at the website pictured on the tool:
2.) The "GodHand" Long Plastic Cutter, which uses an OLFA 78mm long blade as its business end. You cannot believe what a "godsend" and time saver this tool is for cutting those long styrene strip stock pieces for the Durasteel plating on the Falcon -- couldn't think of doing without it. It's PRICEY, but completely worth it.
This shows up in some hobby shops from time to time, but is also pretty regularly available on Ebay. I don't think the maker of this meant to be sacrilegious or blasphemous when naming the tool, I think they just have a Japanese cultural interpretation of what it means for one of the "gods" to lend you a "hand"
These tools totally worth it, and will save you countless hours/headaches and frustration of asking "Why does nobody make a tool that... is specifically designed for my making a 5-foot Falcon replica?"
I mean, check it:
I'm adding ESB lower dome lights to my ANH Falcon, because that's the kind of Rebel I am...
So you drill 3/16th pilot holes in your armature, insert 3/16 tube stock from Plastruct (cut perfectly on you RP Toolz Cutter), and you're in business to pre-wire and pre-run your electronics even before you glue your lower dome to the armature...
If you look closely, you'll count all 10 of them: 8 in the bow and 2 in the stern.
Thanks a lot! Now that I read that post you’d think I’d be thinking about possibly running out and buying those immediately… nope. The only thing that’s going through my mind right now is… “You've got me turning up, and turning down, and turning in, and turning 'round.
I'm turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so bah da da dah dah dah da…” There’s a different song in my head for every situation. It really drives me nuts some times! And you only wrote the word “Japanese” once in that post. LOL
Haha! And speaking of GodHand… I broke a pair of God hands today… NOT happy. Grrr!
Me likey your light tubes! I’m oinggay otay avehay ightslay ootay! ; o)
Attachments
SK,
Good to see the armature wall height, disc gap to mandible, mandible outboard & inboard wall thickness, plus airlock hatch openings knowing you checked these against the critical kit parts repeatedly. Not to mention the dedicated disc rework. Will pay enormous dividends in your future work.
Like the idea of ESB lighting add. My plan, as a minimum, is to have illumination in the landing gear wheel wells and airlock ramp when they are in the extended position. That is if I ever get close to completion. “Tick-Tock !“
Good to see the armature wall height, disc gap to mandible, mandible outboard & inboard wall thickness, plus airlock hatch openings knowing you checked these against the critical kit parts repeatedly. Not to mention the dedicated disc rework. Will pay enormous dividends in your future work.
Like the idea of ESB lighting add. My plan, as a minimum, is to have illumination in the landing gear wheel wells and airlock ramp when they are in the extended position. That is if I ever get close to completion. “Tick-Tock !“
Dude,
If you got that small Godhand nipper from a hobby shop or online retailer, I'd seriously consider asking for a refund -- they cost an arm and a leg compared to other nippers, and there's no way that's not a manufacturer's defect.
Just my two cents.
Yeah. I was thinking the same thing, like a hairline in it or something. I wasn’t doing anything crazy with it. I’d have to look back and see where I bought it. Could have been a few places.
And was going to ask you, didn’t you pick the long blades up somewhere local for that long cutter? Thought maybe you said Home Depot maybe even had them. The Olfa 78mm blades? I haven’t bought new blades for mine yet, so not sure what Olfa’s part # is on those blades. Searching Amazon for 78mm Olfa just comes up with their snap-off blades. I need blades for my long cutter. Wish it came with at least one extra blade for as much as that one cost too! Haha!
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Marry it.
At a certain point, you like it, then you love it, and then she asks you, are you gonna put a ring on it?
So you have to marry your opposite. You have to marry your ebony to your ivory. You have to marry your armature to your dome. You have to marry two things that, once joined, can NEVER be separated.
There is no retreat. There is no going back. There is only 125% total commitment, and like Cortez invading the Aztecs, the only way to guarantee success is to NOT allow for failure -- Cortez famously ordered his men to "burn the ships" so that retreat would not be possible. In modern parlance, this is known as the PNR moment -- the Point of No Return...
This metaphor -- "burn the ships" -- is precisely the analogy G.K. Chesterton used in his essay, "A Defense of Rash Vows" and though it may seem like a stretch to deploy the metaphor here, I must admit that it felt like "defeat or conquer" (aka "do or die") when today, I made the commitment to marry the armature to the lower dome. Right or wrong, perfect or not, there's nothing that can reverse the decision except for something stronger than 3090 pounds of tensile strength, which is to say the only way to undo what's just been done is to utterly destroy both armature and dome and start all over... and that ain't gonna happen...
So here is the result:
Grey JB Weld at the key connection points; Gorilla Glue everywhere else...
Which led, six hours later, to the unifying of dome to armature by continuous interlocking via expandable spray foam of upper to center segments... which eventually "expanded" until it looked like this...
... and then like this...until those muffins were "Poppin Fresh!"
...until several hours later... it was trimmed down to look like this when I dry-fit the upper dome in place (no, don't worry, the upper dome is not glued on yet):
... which several hours later... looked like this:
She's a brick house. She's mighty mighty, and letting it all hang out (yes, that's a 1977 pop culture reference for all you ANH purists out there who know the movie was NEVER called "A New Hope" in its original 1977 theatrical-release format). Weighs a lot, but a lot less than before, and feels solid, tight, and rolls on those Razor-scooter wheels like a champ over wood, linoleum, and carpet equally easily. The other benefit of all that expandable spray foam? If you ever have to make an emergency water-landing, she'll float! I mean, what a ship, right? James Bond had a car that could turn into a submarine. How many of you have a Falcon that can also do double-duty as a boat?
(Mandibles are also still dry-fit in place, and not permanently epoxied on)
Anyway, love her or hate her, once you've taken this first irreversible step, you're commitment is no longer in the realm of theoretical possibility, but that of absolute necessity. This signals a fundamental ontological change in everything that comes hereafter.
From now on, you don't love her because she's beautiful; she's beautiful because you love her.
At a certain point, you like it, then you love it, and then she asks you, are you gonna put a ring on it?
So you have to marry your opposite. You have to marry your ebony to your ivory. You have to marry your armature to your dome. You have to marry two things that, once joined, can NEVER be separated.
There is no retreat. There is no going back. There is only 125% total commitment, and like Cortez invading the Aztecs, the only way to guarantee success is to NOT allow for failure -- Cortez famously ordered his men to "burn the ships" so that retreat would not be possible. In modern parlance, this is known as the PNR moment -- the Point of No Return...
This metaphor -- "burn the ships" -- is precisely the analogy G.K. Chesterton used in his essay, "A Defense of Rash Vows" and though it may seem like a stretch to deploy the metaphor here, I must admit that it felt like "defeat or conquer" (aka "do or die") when today, I made the commitment to marry the armature to the lower dome. Right or wrong, perfect or not, there's nothing that can reverse the decision except for something stronger than 3090 pounds of tensile strength, which is to say the only way to undo what's just been done is to utterly destroy both armature and dome and start all over... and that ain't gonna happen...
So here is the result:
Grey JB Weld at the key connection points; Gorilla Glue everywhere else...
Which led, six hours later, to the unifying of dome to armature by continuous interlocking via expandable spray foam of upper to center segments... which eventually "expanded" until it looked like this...
... and then like this...until those muffins were "Poppin Fresh!"
...until several hours later... it was trimmed down to look like this when I dry-fit the upper dome in place (no, don't worry, the upper dome is not glued on yet):
... which several hours later... looked like this:
She's a brick house. She's mighty mighty, and letting it all hang out (yes, that's a 1977 pop culture reference for all you ANH purists out there who know the movie was NEVER called "A New Hope" in its original 1977 theatrical-release format). Weighs a lot, but a lot less than before, and feels solid, tight, and rolls on those Razor-scooter wheels like a champ over wood, linoleum, and carpet equally easily. The other benefit of all that expandable spray foam? If you ever have to make an emergency water-landing, she'll float! I mean, what a ship, right? James Bond had a car that could turn into a submarine. How many of you have a Falcon that can also do double-duty as a boat?
(Mandibles are also still dry-fit in place, and not permanently epoxied on)
Anyway, love her or hate her, once you've taken this first irreversible step, you're commitment is no longer in the realm of theoretical possibility, but that of absolute necessity. This signals a fundamental ontological change in everything that comes hereafter.
From now on, you don't love her because she's beautiful; she's beautiful because you love her.
Or... you could just use matchsticks and save a lot of money on greeblies...
How has this been in existence since 2017 and I'm just now learning about it? An article sent to me by my mother!
And yes, his dimensions look wrong, but I'm actually kind of impressed by his big 1/24 Panther G mantlet greeblie imitation.
How has this been in existence since 2017 and I'm just now learning about it? An article sent to me by my mother!
And yes, his dimensions look wrong, but I'm actually kind of impressed by his big 1/24 Panther G mantlet greeblie imitation.
rbeach84
Sr Member
Hmm! Looks like he based it on the MPC kit, which also has the wrong proportions on the sidewalls... did a good job, too! I thought it was the 1/60th scale MPC model until the context was noticed.
Looking at his other works, all I can say is: WOW!
Quite the craftsman.
Looking at his other works, all I can say is: WOW!
Quite the craftsman.
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Question: Does anyone know what the hardware is underneath this speeder bike? I'd like to replicate/approximate it for making a universal swivel joint underneath my 5-foot Falcon model, but don't know where to start.
Thanks for any/all pointers!
Question: Does anyone know the Plastruct/Evergreen parts list for this gantry crane in the Death Star entry portal for the arrival-by-tractor-beam of the Millennium Falcon scene? I'd like to replicate it, and think that Jason Eaton once built one, but don't know if he shares/shared the parts map or the parts list from Plastruct? Also interested, if anyone knows, what the sidewalls of the docking bay are made from.
Thanks for any/all pointers and/or links to previous build threads.
Also, is it just me, or is the Death Star Docking Bay the original inspiration for the subsequent design of the iPhone?
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My guess it's based / or cutomized filming dolly & jib combo.
So you know how you learn so much and model-building is so much fun and it's not the destination but the journey?
Yeah, me neither...
Is there a problem here? Did the expandable foam EXPAND so much it "popped" the dome off of the armature? It surely did... creating between a 1/4" and 1/2" gap all around the entire thing...
And so I did learn this key lesson the hard way:
If you use expandable foam on your build, you want the one on the right -- the "Window & Door" version, because it expands the LEAST.
As it turns out, using the center or left can will require you to remake your armature/dome structure verily a THIRD time:
So I had to rip the whole thing apart again, and separate that which I had previously married together. Took three days. So it's not so much like a divorce, but more like a renewal of the vows following a face lift within the first 180 days of the marriage...
Third time's the charm...
No really, I swear: THIS TIME it's gonna hold together.
Ya hear me, baby? Hold together!
Yeah, me neither...
Is there a problem here? Did the expandable foam EXPAND so much it "popped" the dome off of the armature? It surely did... creating between a 1/4" and 1/2" gap all around the entire thing...
And so I did learn this key lesson the hard way:
If you use expandable foam on your build, you want the one on the right -- the "Window & Door" version, because it expands the LEAST.
As it turns out, using the center or left can will require you to remake your armature/dome structure verily a THIRD time:
So I had to rip the whole thing apart again, and separate that which I had previously married together. Took three days. So it's not so much like a divorce, but more like a renewal of the vows following a face lift within the first 180 days of the marriage...
Third time's the charm...
No really, I swear: THIS TIME it's gonna hold together.
Ya hear me, baby? Hold together!
joberg
Legendary Member
Yep, I learned my lesson also with expendable foam. Even after 48 hours, the thing was still expending
So now, when using stuff like that, I'll wait an entire week before working with it and making sure it's dry/cured completely!
Keep up the great work and eager to see your next update
So now, when using stuff like that, I'll wait an entire week before working with it and making sure it's dry/cured completely!
Keep up the great work and eager to see your next update
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