Necronaut's DeAgostini 32" Falcon Build

Necronaut

Active Member
I won't bore you with the details. Just some finished pics:

This is the cockpit, completed with the photo-etched aftermarket set offered by ParaGrafix. The PE ha perforations and holes that will be back-lit by the kit-included PCB LED board and some extra SMD LED's for the cockpit console. The perforations were filled with some PVA glue, then back-tinted with clear red, blue, and orange Tamiya Paints in the corresponding areas. I did dd a few photo-etched, scratch building styrene strip, and Panzer model kit parts to fill in the cockpit console and the barren sidewalls.

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While waiting for some more SMD's and LED's from Asia, I pressed on with the cargo old. I finished the bunk/storage above the holo-chess bench with some scratch-building, some modifying of the kit parts, and some extra's from the parts/spares bin. Guitar players, take note!
 
WOW! Nice job. That cockpit looks awesome. The seats look nice and worn, very realistic. The bunk is looking great as well.
 

Guitar wire makes a great substitute for corrugated pipe, as seen here. I also added some stranded copper wire to simulate the cabling seen on this wall of the cargo hold. Each strand was painted white with Humbrol enamels, then I picked out a few strands in clear Tamiya acrylic colors to add some depth.
Beside the bench, I delved into the spares bin to add bits of detail for this wall. I couldn't find any decent reference for this area until I had already finished it.


It looks okay, I guess. Not like the ESB set though... I used grainy unfocused ANH set pics for this part. I added some lead wire for the cable patch bay.
I may have to redo this, if it continues to grate on me. I now have a great shot of Han in goggles, looking up from his work on this panel. :\


And in this corner, I chopped away parts of the wall to add depth detail around the nav computer, as the ref pics indicate. BY this time, the spares bin was starting to run out of cool parts...


I can replenish it a bit for pretty cheap, using these 'kits' form my LHS> They are Gundam HG accessory kits, and they only cost $3 CDN each. And to think I was considering spending $30 on a battleship kit, just for the cool boxy greeblies for this build.


I did some pretty major surgery on this wall too. It received some of the Gundam greeblies, as well as bits from my styrene stock supply. After its basecoat of paint, I'll add some lead wire and maybe a few more details.

I have the ParaGrafix cargo hold Photo-etch set in the mail.. Hopefully I can make it turn out as good as the cockpit turned out.
 
Looking good. Love all the customizations. That hold wall is looking awesome! Can't wait to get these pieces as I am still at issues 1-4. Come on October! lol
 
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Quick update...
I have installed the photo-etch corridor ring replacements. They will be pretty fiddly, so we'll see how they hold up throughout the build. I have been waiting for these before I do the rest of the pipe work around the corridors and walls.
The PE upgrades for the round bench have been installed too. I have also added seat belts for these seats using some leftover cargo strap PE from a Stryker M1127 armoured vehicle I did from the Big Spring Contest in 2012.
The Navicomputer on the right had all of its kit panels replaced with photo-etch upgrades. They will eventually be lit from the inside. In the meantime, I used a combo of aluminum tube, spare PE from old armour upgrade sets, and modified kit parts to detail the Navicomputer.
The floor got a coat of Tamiya Metallic Gray, then a coat of Flory Dark Grime wash, then a rub-down with gunmetal pigments and some dark dirt pigments. I applied some black enamel wash between the grilles in the areas where there is still plastic underneath the floor grid.

Cheers!

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Okay guys, watch me destroy a perfectly good Cargo Hold floor!
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This is the ParaGrafix Cargo Hold photo etch floor. My initial plan was to cut out the square panels in the floor and have the PE supported by the thicker ribs of plastic left over, creating a grid for the PE sheet to lay on but simulating the see-through grill-like look of a grated floor. To accurately cut them out, I first taped down the PE floor, then sprayed a coat of paint to create a mask I could use as a cutting template.


Okay, the cut lines are pretty clear. Time to cut!


This is my new Dremel Moto-Saw. It's a short-throat scroll saw that has an adjustable speed and is quieter than the vacuum I hook up to it for cutting. It's a permanent part of my hobby room now, and should come in useful for the next step: cutting out 30-odd panels out of the floor plate.


My ambitions go the best of me, and it didn't turn out anywhere near as good as I had hoped. I went with Plan B: cut the whole thing out!
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It took a couple days, but I managed to hand-cut pretty much every beam brace for the floor out of some square brass stock I had in a metal grab-bag of bits and parts from my LHS. I tried to cut the repeated cross-braces on the scroll saw, but it mangles and bends the larger side of the stock.
The pieces were initially tacked in with CA glue, but I went in with some solder and flux to reinforce the joints.


I have affixed some other brass parts for the cargo hold, as seen here. I am looking for a realistic depth (or lack thereof) for the grated cargo floor. The brass stock and access panel plates lining the floor hatches will help reinforce and stiffen the floor. It is actually very strong. I could drop this on the floor or set my cup of coffee on it with no fear of it collapsing or bending.

Mission accomplished!


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Necronaut you just top trumped a lot of the falcon builds .......I love watching good craftsmanship , and the floor is beautiful, it's a pity you had to destroy your floor as it could have been used elsewhere but you have saved others the time and pain of trying, it also demonstrates if you find the correct grid pattern what's possible with the braced brass supports ... Well done ....looking into this falcon will be a feast for the eyes
 
Oh man, I'm blushing! :$ Thank you all!

Quick update again:



I'm pretty much finished painting the corridor wall seen here, and have started detailing the supports that stand in front of the giant horizontal pipes from the set. Just bits of plastic, and a little guitar wire. I hope to have these finished, painted, and permanently installed by tomorrow.



Now that the corridor PE rings are installed, I could finally finish off the pipework around this corridor ring. As well, I installed a little lighting into the computer station seen here. I am calling both the walls seen here DONE! ;D



Cheers!
 
I really like how the floor turned out. It really gives it the extra dimension and detail. The cross beams are a nice touch. Looks like a real grated floor. I'm going to do this to my falcon. :)
 
I have been thinking some more about that stunning floor and the fact that once it's fitted there will be no room underneath for a detailed hull.
I was thinking that if you figure out the direction that people will view the area from above so you can calculate the perspective , then either really physically build a model pit for underneath and photograph it from that perspective or see if you can get it built as a 3D environment .
then have a high quality print out mounted underneath the floor.
Leave a space between the printout and the floor and mount hidden led lights under the floor , if these LED are spread out and are low power you may be even able to simulate realistic localised lighting near details of significant (barrels etc) , or even use grain of wheat bulbs so the strength of the light stays weak . Actually some details that are near the floor like barrel tops and boxes etc can be built as a slice and glued to the photograph again adding depth.

the other possibility is if there is any space , build a forced perspective model of the under floor pit again from the viewed direction .
ive reviewed some of my reference books and so far cannot find hold / pit details
I'll keep looking
 
I hear you on the lack of depth available for the pits. At this point, I may leave the grilles on but light the rings around the pit as seen in ESB. As for the rest of the floor, I might build a plate underneath and glue a ton of greeblies, panels, and pipes to it to simulate something​ under the floor...
 
I hear you on the lack of depth available for the pits. At this point, I may leave the grilles on but light the rings around the pit as seen in ESB. As for the rest of the floor, I might build a plate underneath and glue a ton of greeblies, panels, and pipes to it to simulate something​ under the floor...

What you created with that floor is amazing but then you also created alot of extra work for yourself in the process. In the set those are actually plastic pallets so you wouldn't see thru them to begin with, however, I'm sure you could come up with alot of little extra doodads and parts to put in underneath. As for the two main pits, I suggest using a mirror and glass technique used in infinity mirrors (and throughout the entire star wars movie francise). Place a thin piece of transparent glass just under the light bars. Coat one side with shaded reflective car window tinting film. Then build a thin little pit with a few pipes and greeblies, and under it place another reflective transparent film. Place a couple of lights in there to light it up and viola... you have what appears to be a deep hole when it's actually just maybe a quarter to half inch deep. Just an idea! :)
 
It's been a while since an update, and I have been busy on this build.

The corridor rings on the set have the beige pads in most spots. The odd one is missing, exposing wiring and pipework. I wanted to replicate this effect in my corridors.



I chose to rip out these panels. Although there are a couple middle pad panels missing, they are right on the corridor seam and I didn't want to weaken the bond between the halves. The panels were drilled out, then snipped out.



I used files and sanding sticks to clean up, flatten, and square off all the panel edges.



To give the panels depth, I want to recess the pipework in a box. These bits of plastic card glued to the outsides of the corridors will close up the panels I opened. The thickness of the corridor wall is pretty much exactly what looks like the correct panel depth, according to ref pics.



Greeblies! Lots of plastic rod, and bits from the spares bin.



I sprayed the panels with the regular wall color, assembled the corridor, and painted some bits of the pipe with various acrylic washes. This was sealed in with some Future. At this point, I had another close look at the references and noticed the 90 degree thin brass or copper pipes on the set. I had to have them in mine too! This was all finished with some AK washes and grimes.



Man, I hope you'll be able to see it all when it's finished and installed in the body...
 
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I painted up the wall supports on the aft cargo hold wall. They are clear-coated, awaiting a grime wash and general dirtying up.

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The forward wall in the kit is one giant blank. It's actually supposed to look more like this. The supports were cut out of some 1.5 mm card, glued to styrene sign card, then cut out to create that sandwich-look of each support. Of course, they had to be gerbil and detailed up.

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A coat of Tamiya Dark Gray, the base color for all the wall parts of my cargo hold. Next is assembly of the big pipe on the back wall, then I'll close up the sides.
Cheers!

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