DeAgostini Millennium Falcon by dtssyst

Are you serious? This model was presented and sold as an exact replica of the studio model as seen in "The Empire Strikes Back". There absolutely should be no missing parts.

But then you have to define what you mean by ‘exact’. There’s already numerous parts that are not ‘exactly’ the same as the actual kitbashed parts used on the studio model - most are good copies, but some are poor representations. Some parts are thicker because of the way they need to be manufactured, some dimensions of the base model are likely to be different. It just goes to follow that the amount of parts on the model are not likely to be exactly the same.
 
Hey Mike, Yeah I was going to do that and It would certainly help, but it's not enough IMO, plus the supplied parts for the sidewalls is pretty thick. So what I'm going to do is just scratch build/bash all the sidewall details, I'll use sheet styrene to back it and then plant on all the kit parts, that is about a far back as I can figure out to make it without doing major surgery to the armature which I don't want to do.

If you look at this piece without any sidewalls, just butted up against the armature its about .25" too shallow. once you get their side walls on forget about it.

See what you all think, make sure I'm looking at the correct P43 1/20 part, but I'm 99% sure that is correct unless there is a smaller kit out there, which seems unlikely since they use this kit EVERYWHERE on the model.

View attachment 697250




Here is where you end up BTW even if you trim those pegs off the back of the sidewalls and mount them flush ( it also shows how these parts aren't laid out properly on the supplied pieces : \ )


View attachment 697252

I guess that solves the issue of the missing parts.
Don't need them anyways as they don't fit.:facepalm

Back to the drawing board.

Wonder if De Agostini is going to scale them down so they do fit.
 
Thinking this a bit more and coming to a conclusion that this is a HUGE error.

This may also be why they did not include the 'missing' parts originally. Almost like they knew and hoped it would not be noticed.

Kris and I are trying to figure out how to fix this. They really messed up the way the kit goes together.

Not really sure how I think and feel right now. Please give me time to digest this "1:1 most detailed Millennium Falcon Replica".

Update:
We think that we have a resolve. Not easy, but think/hope it can be fixed.
 
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hah I wasn't sure what you were talking about at first...(my name is Kris :) so I assume.....there is another!

can't wait to hear what you come up with, I'm kinda stuck at this point on what to do...
 
One way around this problem would be to attach the side frames to the back of their mounting lugs,this makes it necessary to cut notches into the plastic side wall sections to accommodate both the mounting lugs and the screws fixing the hull plates to the metal skeleton,the upper hull would then need to be fixed in place by glueing in screws or pegs.The upshot of all this would be that we would then have 15mm to play with where as currently we only have 11mm,(this is before we attach the side walls).Not perfect I agree but the alternative would be to extend the hull plates by using plastic card.
 
Sdkfz 10/4 kit arrived today.
Parts needed are 21 &22 Sprue A IMG_0694.JPGIMG_0223.JPG
 
Ageing Badly - Yeah I tried this out as well, at first I didn't want to take the hull plating off the top to access screwing them in from the inside (plus the supplied screws aren't long enough now since they are meant to go in the front which is countersunk. Could probably get screws that are the right length though I suppose. I tried using the extra gold screws which do work, but are too long and stick out from the sidewalls once screwed in haha. It's a pain I agree but might be worth doing, I'm going to re investigate it for sure...

Also I havnt looked yet but I feel it will require moving the engine light strip back as well, which probably isn't a big deal considering what you would have already gone through ha, but something to consider for sure.

I'm also considering using brass tubes to insert and epoxy through the screw holes as well to sort out the screw problem but wouldn't be as sturdy as screwing it in. What do you think?

I wouldn't want to extend the hull plating though, just moving the problem to a new area now, would look off where it meets up with the docking rings and engine flaps.
 
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Hi Ktaylor,
frame pieces are pretty flexible so lower fixings not a problemIMG_0695.JPGthe existing screws will do.IMG_0699.JPGAs for the upper fixings solid brass or steel rod would be best.
You are right about the engine strip it will need moving.
 
Just had a thought about the top fixing, it may be possible to glue a nut to the back of the side frame then when you tighten the screw it should all pinch up tight and with the addition some thread lock fluid or super glue it would hopefully all hold together.Also if needed you could easily counter sink the front of the mounting lug to lose any screw head.
 
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That's a good idea, right, you only need something to hold that nut in place while you screw it in. Still would need longer screws though right? Wouldn't be long enough to go through the armature and grab the nut.
 
Hey Mike, Yeah I was going to do that and It would certainly help, but it's not enough IMO, plus the supplied parts for the sidewalls is pretty thick. So what I'm going to do is just scratch build/bash all the sidewall details, I'll use sheet styrene to back it and then plant on all the kit parts, that is about a far back as I can figure out to make it without doing major surgery to the armature which I don't want to do.

If you look at this piece without any sidewalls, just butted up against the armature its about .25" too shallow. once you get their side walls on forget about it.

See what you all think, make sure I'm looking at the correct P43 1/20 part, but I'm 99% sure that is correct unless there is a smaller kit out there, which seems unlikely since they use this kit EVERYWHERE on the model.

View attachment 697250




Here is where you end up BTW even if you trim those pegs off the back of the sidewalls and mount them flush ( it also shows how these parts aren't laid out properly on the supplied pieces : \ )


View attachment 697252

That's a massive difference!!!!! How have they managed to stuff this up?! If the overall diameter of the top and bottom 'discs' are the correct size as the actual filming prop then they've most likely oversized the metal frame in the design process. But if that's the case, then that means the sidewall is incomplete OR has been 'stretched' to fill in the gap where original detail is meant to be. Could be that a smaller scale kit was used but like you said that's very unlikely.
 
Shouldn't be too difficult to source something suitable. I've got a brilliant old fashioned hardware shop near where I live,I'll let you know what I find.
 
Check it out! I was at Home depot and found some screws that fit. Works great! and ends up being almost perfect depth now, I'm going to back the sidewalls with thin sheet styrene and kit bash the original parts on anyways so this will work great! Check it out and see what you all think.

I'll probably just take those screws out of the bottom that hold the plastic hull plating on since they stick up so much, they aren't holding that much on anyways there are a ton of screws in those plates anyways

I handn't considered attaching lugs the back of the armature to make this work, thanks for the great idea Aging Badly ( okay man I need to know your real name I can't keep typing that haha)!

IMG_0145.jpgIMG_0144.jpg

the screws I'm using are M2- .4x8mm, they thread into the deago armature perfect, now I just need a tiny little wrench hahah

I'm really excited I had pretty much give up on getting this reverse mount idea to work...but yeah using an epoxy or something like that should work great to attach the lugs. What were you thinking of using?
 
One way around this problem would be to attach the side frames to the back of their mounting lugs,this makes it necessary to cut notches into the plastic side wall sections to accommodate both the mounting lugs and the screws fixing the hull plates to the metal skeleton,the upper hull would then need to be fixed in place by glueing in screws or pegs.The upshot of all this would be that we would then have 15mm to play with where as currently we only have 11mm,(this is before we attach the side walls).

That is exactly it!
A little putty work to level out the shelf and viola. Parts will hopefully fit or be a lot better than it is now.

Thanks Ageing Badly. You worded it the way we were thinking.

- - - Updated - - -

Check it out! I was at Home depot and found some screws that fit. Works great! and ends up being almost perfect depth now, I'm going to back the sidewalls with thin sheet styrene and kit bash the original parts on anyways so this will work great! Check it out and see what you all think.

I'll probably just take those screws out of the bottom that hold the plastic hull plating on since they stick up so much, they aren't holding that much on anyways there are a ton of screws in those plates anyways

I handn't considered attaching lugs the back of the armature to make this work, thanks for the great idea Aging Badly ( okay man I need to know your real name I can't keep typing that haha)!

View attachment 697495View attachment 697494

the screws I'm using are M2- .4x8mm, they thread into the deago armature perfect, now I just need a tiny little wrench hahah

I'm really excited I had pretty much give up on getting this reverse mount idea to work...but yeah using an epoxy or something like that should work great to attach the lugs. What were you thinking of using?

You guys are in my head. Stop it. lol
 
Thanks Ktaylor, Excellent find I was wondering about the thread size,I'll grab enough to attach both the top as well as the bottom hull sections.:thumbsup I'm really looking forward to seeing your kit bashed side walls, I hope you'll keep us updated as you work on them.Unfortunately my wife would park the falcon somewhere dark and uncomfortable if I tried spend as much as you'll need to so I'll have to use the build parts.
I'm perfectly happy being referred to as Ageing Badly but if you'd prefer my actual name is Frank.
 
Hey dtssyst, you've probably thought of this already but just in case how about cutting curved sections of card to create the shelves top and bottom that the missing parts sit on to further create the look of the actual filming model.
I intend to do this myself.
 
Ageing Badly,
Actually we did not.
A nice alternative and thanks for the idea.
Honestly not sure what we will do. One step at a time I guess.
 
Nice work Ktaylor and Ageing with trying to come up with a solution for this...I too am going the kit-bashed route and have been banging my head trying to come up with a workable solution for this...I can see that moving the frame behind has given the proper depth but there are still some semi-major issues I see with this solution...

First one has been mentioned by Ktaylor, that the screws along the bottom and top edge for securing the hull plating would now be on the outside, and in the way...

Also, what about the mounting areas used to screw in the sidewalls that you are still using to secure the sides, they are also sticking out in the way now and would interfere with placement of the new re-built walls (not liking that)...

One other question I have about this way is if you would now have the height necessary for even making the walls correct? Before, when the side frames were mounted as designed the height of the walls included the thickness of the top and bottom framing, with this new way of mounting them you are adding a step up on both the top and bottom and shortening the sidewall height. I'm not sure if that affects anything but you may still need that height for it to look right?? The only way I would see around that would be to sand off the top and bottom edges of the frames to be flush with the new depth, not sure that would be a good thing to do either...(this may not be an issue if the wall height is not needed)

problems.jpg

All and all this is one tricky problem as these side frames are pretty much what holds the two halves together so any changes are going to compromise the strength...I really hope we can come up with a workable way around this.
 
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