mpc/ertl falcon side wall upgrade help.

Hi all ,first time posting on the rpf.
I have just started building the deag falcon(just started here in Australia). I am a novice to model painting and weathering and will be doing this route on it. The good thing is I have a mpc earlyish Jedi falcon here to practice on and give it to my young nephew a new Star Wars fan.
Problem is I just can't get over the side walls the height and lack of anything looking good. I know there are sidewall upgrades but I would like to do this on a minimum budget as all other money going on tools airbrushes and deag falcon.
Is there any sidewalls I can download and 3d print and with minimum hassle fitting them?
Any tips and help muchly appreciated to make to help me in my build and make me the coolest uncle in the world.

As far as I know, there are not any 3d plans available. The cheapest way to replace them is probably the blue moon upgrade kit. It's around $70 US. Other than that, you'll have to look into scratching your own.

-kris

When I was in college and raising my son mostly by myself, I had very little money but a surprising amount of time. I remember building two kits specifically. One was a Monogram 48th scale F-18--when I desperately wanted the Hasegawa kit. The other was the larger MPC X-wing--and I really hated the lack of detail and shape of the fuselage. In both cases, and for very little money, I completely reworked them. The Hornet was sanded smooth, rescribed, control surfaces removed, replaced, and repositioned, etc. And it looked like like a Hasegawa kit. The X-wing got similar treatment. I used the limited photo resources and matched details when I could and got creative when I couldn't. It was a lot of fun and that X-wing is one of the few kits a proudly keep from those early days. It still looks really cool. It wasn't until about 4 years ago that I pulled it off the shelf and entered it in a model contest (OrangeCon in SoCal) and got 2nd place in Sci-Fi. The point is, you might try something like this with your MF kit. Cut side walls out of sheet plastic--which is cheap at hobby stores but can really be found for free if you look around. Find details from random whatever. Sorta match when you can. Don't sweat it when you can't. You can even cut out details from the kit sidewalls. I don't think the aftermarket sidewall kits (there have been at least two) are all that accurate, either. Whatever you come out with will (to me) look sooooooooo much better than the the kit with stock sidewalls which are nearly twice as tall as they should be.
Mike Todd

It's a bit pricey, but you can purchase them from shapeways. http://www.shapeways.com/shops/308bits?section=Falcon+MPC&s=0#more-products

Also Haystack Hair has a sidewall upgrade kit he's working on. I have the last one he did and it's very nice.

The cheapest, but a bit labor-intensive, way would be to simply trim the existing sidewalls.

I'll be offering my Mk.II upgrade kit around October/September depending on finances and interest....it'll be much the same as my Mk.I, but with some improved tooling and possibly an omission of the OT radar dish.

I'm going to keep everybody as posted as I can in regards to production, but working full time in a school is as busy as it is wild...it's hard to find time or motivation to finish remoulding all the parts.