Hasbro Legacy Millennium Falcon Conversion

[Junk Pilot]

I'm still looking for a spare BMF POST SIDE (only) docking ring for my conversion. If anyone has one can you please let me know? Thanks.

Also, is anyone else using donor kits for theirs? I may have some spare 1/35 Tamiya Matilda parts available.

 

[FoxhoundTCF]

Amazing work

 

[Junk Pilot]

Still slowly acquiring donor parts where I can. Instead of buying a couple of 1/20 Tamiya F1 kits I bought two sprue A's through the Tamiya distributor which has most of the parts I need, especially for the mandible end caps and all for less than $12. Awesome.

 

[kuzushi]

awesome thread. But man... I just got a BMF off of craigslist because of this ... I think I may be in trouble

 

[kuzushi]

dis-assembly has begun. I should probably plan this a bit more.

 

[Junk Pilot]

awesome thread. But man... I just got a BMF off of craigslist because of this ... I think I may be in trouble

You and I both. What is your plan for your BMF, Kuzushi?

 

[kuzushi]

After going through this thread and kokkari's thread, then handling the physical thing and also taking it apart - there is a lot involved and I'm flip flopping.

I don't want to get in over my head. But I don't want to end up with "flaws" that will eat at me either. I also like the light and sounds and interior and am thinking if there is a way to keep all that.

So here is my list:

really, really for sure:
-replace cockpit and tunnel
-reduce landing gear boxes
-fix maintenance wells
-repaint

probably:
-reduce cannons
-reduce turret windows
-reduce jawboxes

scared to do:
-reduce sidewalls
-fix mandibles
-somehow rewire everything so that it still has lights and sound

You and I both. What is your plan for your BMF, Kuzushi?

 

[mofo77]

your list is spot on.i spent 4 months on mine and stopped work on it to have a break.next part i plan to do is the cockpit and tunnel.
dont be afraid to reduce all sidewalls,it has to be done and once you test fit the top and bottom hulls you'll be pleasantly surprised to see how good it fits back together and looks sweet.
there is a lot of dremel cutting to do and some locating pins need to be cut off completely and other pins just cut back a small amount and they can still be used as locating pins.
hard work but not too complicated and you'll get a great result.

 

[shadowlova]

after reading this thread my brain hurts from wanting to and not wanting to do this at the same time.......:lol

 

[Junk Pilot]

I wouldn't worry about the mandibles either unless you are going for accuracy. I think this is one you can compromise on but the sidewalls are a must. The good thing there is you can either cut the details from the existing oversized sidewalls and re-use them or you can buy the actual donor kits to use genuine parts (this is what I am doing).

Oh and don't forget to change the radar dish as well. That will need fixing too.

Whatever you choose there is lots of good information here for you to work from. Good luck.

 

[kokkari]

kuzushi, I agree with junk pilot. The sidewall height is a must. I did this project once before and did not change the height and regretted it and subsequently sold it. My latest build I lowered the height and it makes a world of difference. I reused a lot of the side wall pieces and cast some, such as the transmission parts, because the originals off the toy are either much too big or non existent ie the cockpit side. I was able to turn my mandibles in a little, but was a struggle due to the jaw boxes. I would say reducing the turret window is a must also. When you reduce the sidewalls it is a little tricky to do the docking hatch on the cockpit side. I did keep some of the original sounds of the toy (the ones i liked), but then wired engine, cockpit, and head lights separately to their own power source which I keep in the escape pod hatch. Mine is almost done. I just need to finish the cockpit interior which I've been struggling for motivation.

 

[SofaKing01]

I just need to finish the cockpit interior which I've been struggling for motivation.
View attachment 224625

GOOD STUFF!!!! If you need inspiration for the cockpit...

http://www.therpf.com/f11/screen-accurate-millennium-falcon-cockpit-cg-model-102451/#post1469703

 

[Archive&Future]

.
View attachment 224625

I swore very loudly when I saw this

 

[mofo77]

yeah,on the mandibles i just shortened the side walls and cut out the maintenance wells.
the good thing is you can superglue the top and bottom halves together of each mandible and then work on kit detailing and the mandibles can slide back in to the sockets built into the hull.just be careful when cutting (shortening) these square sockets so you get a good fit.

 

[kuzushi]

Damn, you guys have convinced me to modify the sidewalls. already started cutting...

kokkari, your falcon looks awesome. What dimensions are you using for the sidewall thickness? 2.54cm?

 

[Junk Pilot]

If you plan on making new sidewalls from styrene they will need to be 1 inch (2.54cm) in height, which is studio scale. Don't be too concrened about cutting the mandibles down to a certain height as this won't matter because the new sidewalls will set them to the correct height anyway.

Naturally, by doing this means you'll eventually have to rework the docking rings. There's two ways you'll have to do this because the two docking rings are not the same. The best thing would be to get a hold of another port side docking ring then just trim down the height to match the new sidewall height. The other way is using the existing starboard side ring and cutting the entire ring off (see my photo below) and making a new rear wall to attach it to. The starboard ring also has part of the hull attached to it so don't throw it away and the ring will need a small amount of tidying up because of the mismatch in height due to the way Hasbro designed the boarding ramp.

 

[kokkari]

The sidewall height on the studio scale is 1 inch. Mine turned out more like 1 1/8 inches so I could reuse some of the existing sidewall pieces.

 

[kokkari]

Hahaha. Junk pilot posted the same response the exact same time. He is right on with what he describing. I did the second method for the docking rings which he spoke of which is a bit more complicated in my opinion.

 

[Junk Pilot]

The sidewall height on the studio scale is 1 inch. Mine turned out more like 1 1/8 inches so I could reuse some of the existing sidewall pieces.

I may have to do the same with some of the detail as well but would like to mainly use donor kits and original parts. The hardest parts to get are the transmission parts from the Entex 1/8 Porsche but fortunately I managed to get cast copies which helps.

 

[Junk Pilot]

Unfortunately because the BMF is still a toy there have been compromises which affects just how accurate you can make this into a SS replica and one of these compromises is the sidewalls. Even though I'm setting the mandible wall height at 1 inch when it comes to the sidewall height around the hull itself it's actually larger, but not by much. This just means there's a little extra wiggle room to get the detail parts between the hull and won't detract from the overall look of the finished ship.