Another MPC Millennium Falcon Modification

This build is extraordinary! The detail is wonderful- I'm so happy to see you have chosen to follow the spirit rather than the letter. I love the radar dish, the details you placed inside the dish mounting cavity makes this thing look like a five foot model! Thanks for all the great pictures.

Looks great so far, excited to see how it turns out.

Nice. Very nice. Looking forward to it's finish.

Superb!!! Simply excellent!

Superb work on improvements! Good courage and continue in this way!
I subscribe to this thread!

Thank you all very much for your comments guys

We're onto June now, and I started tackling the mandibles, if you remember the comparison pic that I got from Ozzy's thread, not only are the mandibles too long but the circular openings in them are a good bit smaller in comparison on the studio model

I decided to cut away where the openings should be and fill in where the larger ones had been




The mandibles set in to test fit & look




Starting to fill in details


Both mandible undersides


& now working on the side-walls and upper circles:




A look inside (more panther tanks):





I'll post more later, thanks for looking

J

I wish there was an emoticon for a blown mind.

Unbelieveable work you are doing there J... real pleasure to come visit this thread

Al

I'm starting to think that I need to start up a website entirely devoted to millenium falcon builds and research

Awsome update J.

We have to give CrackerJazz the credit for the mandables comparison, and for making the first step with his Hasbro. I am yet to cut mine off. So thanks for jumping in fist to test the waters LOL.

The side walls and pits look spectacular, I love the combonation of parts you have used. Still 5 foot reconisable but with your own artistic liscence on it. Could have easly been the outcome of the 32 inch.

astroboy!, if you start one I have a few gitg you can have to put on the site.

Again great update J,

Ozzy

The least one can say is that you're not afraid to cut into the bacon hehe!

All of your improvements tempt me, and to bounce on what Ozzy has rightly pointed out, your free interpretation just adds veracity to the model. One word: beautiful!

Wow, thanks for the feedback,

astroboy: I'm all for that.....there are Falcon builds everywhere, it's hard to keep track of them, there is a "Space 1999 Eagle Transporter" site, It would be cool if there was a place where all the information, reference & builds could be accessed. Whatever help you need I'll gladly take part

Alaneye: I haven't posted on your thread and I really should have, your making a fantastic kit even more spectacular

Ozzy: Thanks for the encouragement, I tried to use similar parts that is on the 5foot, this sites Kit Id thread helped a lot, and thanks to CrackerJazz for posting the comparison image on your thread

baloo: thanks, this is the first kit in a long time that I've not been able to put down, normally I waver onto other kits and just do bits, I just want to see this one painted & lit

Updates.....




Don't know why I glued the Mandibles in, I hadn't finished the inner walls



I had to break them off to do the inner walls




I had to make sure I had 2 of everything so that they mirrored each other


Starting to add boxes mid July



After a bit of a problem and having to break open this mandible again (it was slightly thicker than the other) I was happy



& adding the larger boxes



Now heres where things slowed waaaaaay down.....the docking ring tubes
I used the pen/desk tidy thing that I used for the Cockpit walkway



when I look at it now the docking tube looks too large, do't know what i was thinking



Added more detail to the boxes


Thats all today
thanks for looking

J

Okay, this is getting ridiculous. Now I wanna throw my FM falcon in the trash. You are seriously rocking this bird!

As for the website, I'd love to do it, but I'm not the person. I have no skillz whatsoever and I don't even have much of a computer. Hell, I've been using an android tablet exclusively for over a year.

I'm gonna talk to a few people I know who are also passionate about this stuff

Jaitea said:

when I look at it now the docking tube looks too large, do't know what i was thinking

Click to expand...

Incredible work you are doing there, J.

If you are going for the look of the original 64" Falcon, I would point out that the geometry of the docking cones on the MPC model are fairly decent…size may be off a smidgen, though. The “full sized” set falcons used forced perspective on their docking cones since they were not really full sized, and for some poorly thought out reason, this idea got transferred to the 32" falcon, which was supposed to be singularly scaled throughout.

Not that it matters since you’ve got the gist of the size about right, but the antenna dish was designed to be the same diameter as the cockpit tube. On the 64" Falcon, the tube was 6" in diameter, as was the antenna dish.

Mark

Not only are the details you’ve added that are wonderful but the changes you’ve made to the overall shape of the ship has made this really resemble the 5 footer.

Hey astroboy, what I saw of your FM Falcon it looked pretty amazing to me,

Yeah Darth Humorous, I'm trying to get the look of the 5ft SW falcon, I did loads of research & I thought I was doing OK......but.....today I took some photos of my WIP.....and I got a feeling that the cockpit & dish are wayy too large....Cockpit & dish just over 46mm.

Merseajohn on the SMA site reasured me that perhaps its just the lens on my camera, if someone knows what the correct diameters should be I don't mind going back & fixing these parts

I'm going to jump the WIP pics just to show you what I mean:








Thanks for looking, next post I'll continue the WIP from July

J

This looks like a massive under taking, but looks like so much fun too. Great job man.

I love your cockpit!

J,

My hat is off to you. I have been where you are years ago. That top view from the chronicles book is great. HOWEVER, you MUST be fully aware of the perspective that gets in the way. I am convinced that the makers of the MPC kit used this image as well, and ignored the perspective, which is why the dish is so big. Unfortunately, it also affects other aspects, though not as bad. If all elements were in the same distance plane from the camera, then it would be accurate for everything. But the antenna dish’s maximum width lies in a plane significantly closer to the camera than the perimeter of the ship, thus it appears larger. The cockpit tube maximum diameter lies in a plane very close to the perimeter of the ship, and thus appears a bit more accurately. Another unfortunate thing about the Chronicles pic is that the regions of maximum diameter for the cockpit and its tube are submerged in darkness, making it difficult to take reasonably accurate measurements from. I suspect this is why the corresponding parts on the kit were smaller. The more distant frontal shots from the film are more revealing about the sizes of the cockpit tube and Antenna dish. After much triangulation, I determined that they were the same diameters. Much later, someone of high enough caliber revealed that they were indeed the same sizes…done that way to provide visual balance for the cockpit. And I’ve had confirmation in spades that those diameters are indeed 6 inches.

It turns out that the maximum width of the jaw box at its forward most end is indeed the same as the cockpit and antenna diameters.

The differences you see between the film head-on shot and yours below it are due to at least a couple of things. The first most notable contributor to the difference is ILM’s camera was more distant to the miniature than your camera was to your model, relatively speaking. The second most notable contributor is that it doesn’t appear that you’ve increased the “dish-ness” of your model to match the filming miniature…at least not yet. Is that something you plan to do? I ask because the worst offender of the model kit is arguably the shallower hull dishing and too tall side walls. I say “arguably” because many would cite the work you have done, like removing the detail from the engine deck, etc. as going “above and beyond”, which it probably is. Correcting the dish, however, throws other things off, and can result in chasing ones tail. Just curious as to your bravery, though you have already demonstrated superlative bravery thus far.

As far as the docking cones go, I can tell you that on the 64" model, the cone half-angle is about 11.3º, and the smaller outboard end is the same diameter as the cockpit tube. The larger end is 7” in diameter on the big model. Since the model kit is not really at one consistent scale, it might be tricky to accomplish a scaled corresponding fit.

Whatever you decide to do, your efforts so far have been nothing short of phenomenal. Carry on!

Mark

Based strictly on the comparison photos you posted, I'd have to agree the cockpit tube, radar dish, and outermost parts of the docking tubes look a little oversized. However, if they look good to you in person leave 'em alone and carry on.

Brilliant work, btw. I've never seen the MPC kit look so good in any stage of completion! thumbsup