Scratchbuilt Millennium Falcon 1/72nd

[Axlotl]

Something I learned in my 3-D class at design school: Always make preliminary mock-ups out of card stock to insure your measurements are correct.

Outside of that, this is coming along GREAT!
I wish I had the dough to buy the roughly 1,342,344 kits required to bash this thing together.

 

[Jaitea]

'Tis a beautiful thing

J

 

[Andrew C.]

Good to see more progress pics, it's looking great!

 

[Archive&Future]

So this evening I planned out my method of attack....I decided the process which would give the most accurate feel would be to cut a second curved lip which was a consistent 14mm width; I cut that from 0.5mm styrene before fixing it in place. This was to form the main lip of the thruster panels, on top of which I fitted thirteen 0.25mm styrene plates...I was admittedly sloppy with the calculations (despite using a 'foolproof' template) and so a few of the plates needed 0.5mm or so trimming, resulting in panels which are of slightly differing ratios. Not that I'm being pedantic or anything :lol

I've also been casting a slowly increasing supply of thruster vanes and actuators, which you may recall I earlier moulded using parts from the Finemolds Falcon and the Bandai Y-Wing

I'm going to try and finish these panels tomorrow, though I guess that depends on how sick of casting I get ....

 

[Archive&Future]

I spent most of today unpacking and fitting the IKEA order for my new digs, so I only managed a couple of hours on the Falcon. But hey! Workshop is looking snazzy eh? Certainly beats my subterranean bedroom.

Anyhow, I decided to make these Sealab parts individually as I haven't got the patience to mould and cast sets seeing as how easy they are to make. The one thing I'm really struggling to come to terms with is the issue of scalability....despite operating on the finest level I've yet worked at, everything still seems to chunky, too thick....It's an understandable byproduct of imitating a model which is over 5" long into a model just over a quarter the size, but it's still bugging me.

A years' difference eh?

This particular mistake surprisingly doesn't annoy me, but confuses me instead. As you can see here on the portside the 8-rad 'aileron base' is excellently aligned with the wheel component, the starboard side is totally skew-whiff.

I've measured up everything and I still can't figure out where I went wrong...it's a pity that I've become more lackadaisical (even sloppy) with my work in comparison to earlier work on this build. I'll be kicking myself for it later no doubt

 

[Axlotl]

It's the angle it's positioned in. Rotate it a few degrees counter-clockwise and I think it will sort itself out.

 

[struschie]

Looks to me like the wheel greeble is differently aligned - not the 8rad belly....

the shed isn't insulated right now?

 

[Archive&Future]

Looks to me like the wheel greeble is differently aligned - not the 8rad belly....

the shed isn't insulated right now?

Insulated on three walls, only the front wall is half insulated because I didn't order enough OSB to do all four walls :facepalm
Anyway thanks Strusch, Axlotl, it was certainly the wheel alignment.
There are still other bizarre spacing issues with it, but I removed the offending assembly and will replace it with fresh cast parts tomorrow which will theoretically dissipate any "geometric anomalies"

Once that was done, I focused once again on the consuming task of armour panels, as usual using the reliable method of paper templates transferred onto styrene

To a casual viewer, there may seem very little improvement or progress on the engine deck, but as you can imagine I'm moving forwards and refining the deck day by day

 

[struschie]

There's no other project that manages to start the itch, continuing my 1/72 Cargoship, like this. Great casts, unbelievable dedication, mate!
The danger is, it feels like, the viewer builds it himselfe

 

[Constantine]

Nice job so far really liking it. I like your hobby room too, the wood makes it look cozy!

 

[Mr Greebly]

Wow, i love seeing your progress on this! its very inspiring!
amazing and beautiful work as always!!

 

[Archive&Future]

The only work really worth showing at the moment is the engine fin which I scratch built and moulded today.


The rest of my focus has been on completing the engine deck, the differences from update to update are barely noticeable on camera, but I'll post photos regardless as it's good to keep the thread moving forwards and enthusing other modellers

 

[astroboy]

I'm just going to say this once:

When are you going to formally open up a store and start selling kits? Or offer them on starship modeller?

The world is ready for your 1/72 falcon kit (available in ESB or ANH)

Be the next Randy Cooper!

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[Archive&Future]

A self-explanatory post, so I'll leave out any waffle

 

[Jaitea]

Looks brilliant HH,.....meaty

J

 

[Archive&Future]

Looks brilliant HH,.....meaty

J

Yeah my building style isn't one of finesse particularly....quite chunky detailing really :unsure

 

[Jaitea]

No.....I don't mean it that way,....it looks perfect

J

 

[Archive&Future]

No.....I don't mean it that way,....it looks perfect

J

Hehe I didn't take it that way, I'm just lamenting my inability to achieve truly fine 'in-scale' detailing

 

[Archive&Future]

Plating on the aft gear block is largely complete, doesn't look so bad with the light hitting it at the right angle, hopefully paint will harmonise all this work when it's ready

 

[Jedi Dade]

that first coat of primer is ALWAYS magic

Jedi Dade