Haystack Hair's MPC Millennium Falcon Conversion MK.II

It seems I miscalculated the frame a little bit so I had to make some hack-job modifications to the mandible openings before the wells would fit correctly but hey ho there we go.
Anyway last week I hand cut these new mandibles from styrene using a laser-cut MDF template and an ultra special jig (read: a plank with masking tape and a drill).

I started test fitting my resin sidewalls, but of course seeing as my corrected mandibles are shorter than that of the OOB MPC kit, I'll need to strategically cut and splice the sidewalls to the amended length











I also cut out the jawbox intakes and started detailing. I forgot to take any photos of the process, but I spent a long time filling, sanding and reshaping the shortened jawbox, and it still needs a lot of neatening on the top



Planed away all those moulded actuators too, and attempted to scrub away as much paint residue and flakes as I could



I used my resin inserts for the mandibles and glued them all together....again I forgot to take photos of the underside and the other views but you can see from this one here that they look pretty noice



I'm dreading all the plating the mandibles will need but I guess it's just gotta be done!!
 
Haystack Hair said:
I've been tanking it on this one over the past few weeks....
I got sent another MPC hull in exchange for some parts by a modeller on Facebook, so here's a side-by-side comparison of the engine deck, and yes I did indeed prime the new deck, and as you may well see I sprayed it outside in 0ºc and so it looked like sand......SIGH......still, in some places I think it actually looks quite good, the Falcon is always painted very battered but every version is missing texture, so I'm going to embrace this accident and work with it

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7434/15799216654_275b843a38_c.jpg

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8577/15799216284_2fe861f687_c.jpg

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7376/16235808957_9ab003be83_c.jpg

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7433/16235808407_b9351e0f54_c.jpg

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7338/16235487739_e600827f82_c.jpg

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7405/16234310960_7659db5ba6_c.jpg

Insert wells all complete for the upper hull now (I photographed the forward well by the cockpit but it's so black that you can't see any detail whatsoever)

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8671/16234064838_057b35f263_c.jpg

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8618/16235814777_839cfa20a3_c.jpg

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7309/16421710735_cb1e13ff4a_c.jpg

OH and by the way....how about some electronics ??

http://vimeo.com/118414252#t=0s
Click to expand...

I could send you over a bottle of this stuff from he Netherlands. Worked great on my bad paintjobs. Your modell is having so much time and afford put into it, it can't be waisted on a bad primer job.
 

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Haystack Hair said:
Ooh very generous of you!! Is it effective??
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Cleaned my slave 1's paintjob two time last three weeks before I was satisfied, you've seen the thread on it I saw. With a good soak for an hour and and old toothbrush the hull was clean in 1-2 hours. Of course your build is a lot bigger and has all these little parts allready on, so it'll take longer to get it tiedied up.
 
knievel said:
Cleaned my slave 1's paintjob two time last three weeks before I was satisfied, you've seen the thread on it I saw. With a good soak for an hour and and old toothbrush the hull was clean in 1-2 hours. Of course your build is a lot bigger and has all these little parts allready on, so it'll take longer to get it tiedied up.
Click to expand...

Oooh yeah that is a neat thread, your Slave I is looking mmiighty fine.....shoot me a PM about costs and whatnot!
 
A little more tinkering around on this one











It's looking like a mess at the moment but hey I guess it's just that limbo stage where it looks really bad before it starts lookin good
 
LOVE that hull curve. And everything else. Your ingenuity knows no bounds. I picked up an unopened MPC kit last fall at a comic book show. I am CERTAINLY going to be stealing some your ideas and processes when I build it. Thanks for sharing!

--Alex
 
I started plating the mandibles with 0.25mm styrene....not as boring as I'd feard thank goodness. Had some fun adding details as well, I also have more electronics on order which is exciting.


I'm totally knackered from getting my upgrade kits finished, not to mention college work I'm tanking through





I took these photos outside because the light in my room is so poor
 
Haystack Hair said:
I started plating the mandibles with 0.25mm styrene....not as boring as I'd feard thank goodness. Had some fun adding details as well, I also have more electronics on order which is exciting.


I'm totally knackered from getting my upgrade kits finished, not to mention college work I'm tanking through

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7584/16569466168_1a24839402_c.jpg

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7608/16755862771_96b4022f7b_c.jpg

I took these photos outside because the light in my room is so poor
Click to expand...

Nice modifications!
 
I only did a little bit of work on this today, plating and detailing the mandibles (not as tedious at it sounds)

I used my resin sidewalls, but because the corrected mandibles are shorter than the OOB kit, I had to modify the casts a little.

I beefed up the transmission halves with milliput so that they would transition into the other engine details I added. Just gotta wait for that to cure and I'll be able to add the ribbing and continue on with the other side!









That 5-footer vibe is starting to surface at last :D
 
Just a bit more work on this over the holidays so far.....Started fitting in the LEDs etc

I cut new styrene sides for the docking corridors, then cleaned the edges with milliput, still 6 other sides left to go though!

















The red landing lights will be run on a different circuit of course and controlled from the central Arduino, and the floodlights will be a little bit brighter as I was just testing with 2.4v opposed to the recommended 3.2v
 
Thanks Jake!
I cleaned up the putty edges of the docking corridors by planing with a sharp blade, it's got a nice transition. I also cut away the engine deck for electronic access, I was concerned that it would lose its corrected curvature but I think it's been kept tense in that position for enough time for it to be permanently curved like that. Relief! Still undecided about which attachment method to use on it...screws or magnets?



 
I've got to admit I'm losing motivation on this....I don't think I'm even halfway through this project and it almost seems like a waste of time when I have a perfectly boxed Finemolds kit which I bought for myself last year

At any rate I've been tinkering here and there, the latest Ep.VII trailer has got me all hyped up so I decided to move onto a new area rather than getting bored with areas that I keep working on (here's looking at you thruster vain actuators!)















At any rate, "The perfection of a Millennium Falcon lies in its paintwork, doth it not?"
 
Loving your build, I'm in the same stagnant place with my hasbro, I need to get a move on and focus on specific items, a question I love your rotary gearbox parts did you scratch build them? They look very right, I am considering scratch building myself just gathering reference
 
Vacformedhero said:
Loving your build, I'm in the same stagnant place with my hasbro, I need to get a move on and focus on specific items, a question I love your rotary gearbox parts did you scratch build them? They look very right, I am considering scratch building myself just gathering reference
Click to expand...

If you're talking about the Wankel engine halves then yeah I scratchbuilt those, carved them out of PVC board and then detailed with styrene.....I'm using my own upgrade kit parts for this so they're actually casts but the masters were all scratchbuilt so yes
 
Haystack Hair said:
If you're talking about the Wankel engine halves then yeah I scratchbuilt those, carved them out of PVC board and then detailed with styrene.....I'm using my own upgrade kit parts for this so they're actually casts but the masters were all scratchbuilt so yes
Click to expand...
Having the original untouched mpc in my office , yours does not look anything like it cam from the same place.....the wankel makes the difference along with the panzer hull piece, I will scratch both now that I see how good yours looks......keep up the build , it will be well worth it and this can be your test bed for painting the hasbro :)
 
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