32" Studio Millennium Falcon is there a kit?

king of spades

Active Member
Guys,

I have looked around and spent far too many hours trying to find a kit or the list of kits to start this project (no real luck there), but before I spend all my available cash for the next six months buying out of production kits for one part, I thought I'd ask is some bright spark or has someone made a "builders kit" for the Falcon in this scale? Lets face it even with every kit I've still got to fabricate the body, cockpit, exhaust ports the list goes on...

So I guess my other question would be if there is not, is there some enterprising individual who wants to produce one?

Lets face it with all the experience here a 32" Millennium Falcon kit should be a synch!

The next question is X-Wing, Tie Fighter, Y Wing etc...


KoS
 
Re: 32" Studio Millennium Falcon is there a kit?

There has been partial kits offered here. There is a kit list on SSM. As for the other kits x,y etc they have all had several releases already.

- - - Updated - - -

And no I'm not up for it..... But if you really look hard you may find one in the works.
 
Not a complete kit.
Moe and I looked at doing this for years. The we helped MR build theirs, and in doing so realized that offering a complete kit was going to be too expensive to make it with doing. There are just too many parts. So we talked about start kits, accurate hulls, and a basic set of parts, that would get you 70% there.

Then everyone started knocking off the MR model, or offering castings of attempt folks had done previously (Like the folks who remold the Ketzer Falcon)
and it just became less and less feasible.

It's JUST not worth the time and aggravation.

There should be SOME things, that just need to be done from scratch, if you really want to do it.

The falcon is interesting, because, you can complete the basic hull shape in an afternoon if you are so determined.
Its the accurate detailing that will kill ya.
If you want to forgoe accuracy, Just MAKE it up!
Now, Randy Cooper made an AMAZING falcon, and very few of his part were accurate, and his falcon probably looked better than the screen used one.
He was keep to point out, the ONLY thing that someone will immediately recognize, is the over all proportion, the transmission, and the antenna. get those right, and the eye can be fooled.

he was right.
 
It's funny that the transmissions are immediately recognisable since they are the hardest parts to locate. However, many of the other kits used are easily found without spending a ridiculous amount of money for them. With my Hasbro Legacy BMF conversion I'll probably end up using 50% original parts and the rest I'll make up as I go but I did get castings of the tramission halves though. I couldn't live without them.
 
Not a complete kit.
Moe and I looked at doing this for years. The we helped MR build theirs, and in doing so realized that offering a complete kit was going to be too expensive to make it with doing. There are just too many parts. So we talked about start kits, accurate hulls, and a basic set of parts, that would get you 70% there.

Then everyone started knocking off the MR model, or offering castings of attempt folks had done previously (Like the folks who remold the Ketzer Falcon)
and it just became less and less feasible.

It's JUST not worth the time and aggravation.

There should be SOME things, that just need to be done from scratch, if you really want to do it.

The falcon is interesting, because, you can complete the basic hull shape in an afternoon if you are so determined.
Its the accurate detailing that will kill ya.
If you want to forgoe accuracy, Just MAKE it up!
Now, Randy Cooper made an AMAZING falcon, and very few of his part were accurate, and his falcon probably looked better than the screen used one.
He was keep to point out, the ONLY thing that someone will immediately recognize, is the over all proportion, the transmission, and the antenna. get those right, and the eye can be fooled.

he was right.

A lot of truth here....
 
It's funny that the transmissions are immediately recognisable since they are the hardest parts to locate. However, many of the other kits used are easily found without spending a ridiculous amount of money for them. With my Hasbro Legacy BMF conversion I'll probably end up using 50% original parts and the rest I'll make up as I go but I did get castings of the tramission halves though. I couldn't live without them.

What do you mean by the 'transmissions'?? I think I'd recognise them, but not by name...
 
I mean, and so does Frank, that if you use anything else in place of the Entex transmission halves people will notice that part is not correct before they notice anything else.
 
Okay. The two halves are from the very rare and very expensive Entex 1/8 Porsche 935RSR. There are about 7 parts in total that were used on the Falcon, some as a whole part and some that were cut down.
 
I passed my drawings off to my machinist. They are based off the Maruska drawings. Hopefully he nails the dimensions and I will have a buck for a vac-formed curved hull. If, and only if, the proportions are close, then I will offer sets. Hopefully it'll motivate myself and others to push through their builds and stay as true to the ILM way as possible.

http://www.therpf.com/f10/joining-32-falcon-club-144900/

Joe
 
I think Frank and Moe might be surprised about how many people would buy them. I remember a time not that long ago when nobody thought that enough people would spend a couple of grand to buy a falcon (or a kit to make one) - then MR sold quite a few :). and to me it seems like the number of folks seems to grow over the years - a little at a time.

Now the question is - Is it worth it to the kitter? That's is a very different thing. Its a TON of effort, with a return on investment that probably would not be a bang you're in the black... But I think money could be made on that venture over time. Just do you want to store the few hundred pounds of rubber to make a run once a year for the next 10 to recover all the costs... so I see the points for not doing it.

I'd buy a parts kit... if that means anything :D.

Jedi Dade
 
It's strange because I wouldn't buy a resin kit due to the price it would cost. However, I'm happily spending even more time and money on trying to scratch-build it. I think it's the spread out cost and fun of trying to build it from the ground up.

Joe
 
It's strange because I wouldn't buy a resin kit due to the price it would cost. However, I'm happily spending even more time and money on trying to scratch-build it. I think it's the spread out cost and fun of trying to build it from the ground up.

Joe


MY point...exactly!! See, TIME is money, and putting a kit together, by the time you account for materials and time, if you break even,
you did well.

Someone was selling hulls for what? 450? Yeah that didn't last long did it?
Where is that line, that makes it worth doing? We sold BWING at 550 a kit.
Once you get passed the 600 buck part, the sales drop off DRASTICALLY. A falcon kit? How much? its over 1500 parts. 850? 1200 ? 1500?

I know most of you might not agree. But...there are ONLY a handful of us, who actually produce these kits, and we all agree, that at some point, it is just not worth it. Re: the falcon, to do it right, you just need to build it yourself.
Not to mention, now that DISNEY owns the rights, why risk it?

When i was casting Vipers, I was spending all my free time, in the garage. Weekends and evenings.
I blinked and my kid was taller. I realized, I was never going to have time to finish the things I wanted to make for her.

The other thing we realized, is when you make a garage kit or in the case of MR or EFX, a licensed product,
The complaining that "THIS isnt quite right, or WHY did they do it this way.." all the armchair quarterbacking just gets OLD.
You have NO idea who many emails we have to sort through, and "OH I lost a part, can you send me another", or the KIT "never made it to my house, JUST the shipping label"....on and on....
Im still getting email from kits we sold 4 years ago..because someone FINALLY got around to building it, and now needs a part, because they over sanded it, or the dog ate it, and Im asked to "check and see if I have any in the back" BACK of WHAT??

Yikes! Sorry for the rant!
See what happens to us? hahahah
Frank
 
Frank,
I'm in the middle of producing my first kit (non-SW) and while it's not as intense as most SW kits lately, it still is a lot of work! I can't relate entirely compared to your projects but I can agree about the sacrifices made in the process. As a buyer, I'm just being honest, a MF kit would be way out of my price range.

Why were the hulls not offered anymore? A bare-bones kit or beginners kit is definitely a better idea. Most of the donor kits are still readily available, heck even sets of well cast parts of that one super rare kit are available. I'm a discount hunter so I know I've gotten a good chunk of my kits at really good prices.

Joe
 
wheew! I think frank needs a group hug :lol ......or a pill
but I completely understand where you are coming from, most people here don't have a clue how much time it takes to cast and mold a kit.


oh, BTW frank, im missing a piece from my bwing kit, can ya just go in back and get one , than send one to me :D you don't charge anything for it do ya ?
 
I see both sides of this agruement really...

I think there is a larger demand then 5...

But I also see that the sheer number of parts and such would require a degree of dedication that may not be worth it to the caster. Its unreasoanble to ask anyone to give up their lives to cast me a radar dish...

That being said I think this is a solvable problem... Again if we want to share the parts around to several casters and spend the effort to coordinate... not an insignificant thing either... and we haven't even gotten to the cost aspect of it yet.

As Brundelfly argued - is it worth the effort???

If I had all of he parts needed I think I'd be willing to investigate the costs invovled with several established and trusted casters... But I don't even have more than a small fraction of the parts needed. So I guess that point is moot. But its hard to agrue the point that for any one or two people the task is stupid big, and not really feasible.

Jedi Dade
 
Mensaboy is still on his kit of the 32"
He has pulled it back some because of family responsibilities as we all do.
But it will get finished.
Hell I believe his hulls are pretty much done.
They are accurate & clean.
I have some parts sets he has already done as samples.
They are very good.
This kit will come & or parts sets or hull bases.


Edited: ranting dribble......
 
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