Zapped! Falconprise

[battlestar99]

A lurker here on the forums, I have always wanted to build the spaceship (Falconprise) from the movie Zapped! Knew exactly what is was when i saw it many years ago. The build was always on the back burner, collected the kits throughout the years but never could get clear shots to I'D the parts on the nacelles till a fellow modeler show me the scene from the Blu-Ray off i went and decided to do it.

Since the movie came out in 82 just two kits are needed the MPC Millennium Falcon (or AMT/Ertl rebox) and the AMT 1/537 Smoothie Enteprise. A quick basic go through of the kitbash parts are the Falcon landing gear and pads are glued on the Nacellels, clear red and blue domes on the main body and some number markings on the nacelles.

 

[JediMichael]

Never heard of this... kinda a weird idea.

 

[tgreco]

I remember this scene well

great idea for a build!

 

[Richard Baker]

A silly movie- whoever the only thing I really remember from it was that kitbash!

Great project to have fun with!

 

[Axlotl]

The only thing I remember is the trailer, where he was zapping girls' skirts.

 

[FordPrefect]

Look forward to seeing this one .. great idea !

 

[battlestar99]

In between commission builds I notched out the area where the pylons fit on the Falconprise. Going to forgo a brass tube armature (I would normally do it on any Studio scale build) and just use a styrene brace for the nacelle pylons.

 

[Galactican]

Very interesting!

 

[battlestar99]

To make the frame to support the pylons I laminated some scrap styrene into a "V" which will give greater support for the nacelles. I will fill the cavity with 5 minute epoxy and cover it with the falcon plate.

 

[battlestar99]

On this previously built MPC faclon (which I acquired in a lot of models many moons ago) I had to clean up the edges from parts being glued and cut off all the locator pins as both the top and bottom hulls will be flush. While I work on that I decided to add the lights that are on it, six total on the front (which I will call them the headlights) marked them and drilling out the holes to accommodate 3mm white leds.

 

[battlestar99]

Having a conversation with the owner of fedoratron.com he came up with a new name for the spaceship the "Zapperprise". I may have to steal that name for the ship as I think it fits better than the falconprise.

Got one nacelle on and got it seam mostly sanded, didn't spend a lot of time sanding it as I assume the prop/model builder didn't either. Next I started the fun process adding the greebles that go on the nacelle which they used the MPC Falcon's landing gear struts, pads and turret guns.

 

[Pedro]

Hahah! Goofy idea, I like it. Looks like AMT/ERTL Slave-I guns glued on the nacelles in your first post.

Strangely enough, looks to me like this was the REAL inspiration for the NX-01.

 

[battlestar99]

Got the other nacelle on and I will mirror greeble it with the Falcon landing gear and turret parts.

 

[battlestar99]

Adding the rest of the Falcon landing gear/pads to the nacells and they even glued pads on the pylons.

 

[battlestar99]

Got the headlights drilled out to accommodate 3mm white leds, for the bottom of the ship and inside pylons I will have to compromise a little as there is not a good shot of those areas (even on the Blu-Ray) but I will keepthe detail in spirit with. the rest of the ship

 

[battlestar99]

3mm white leds mounted for the ship's headlights and one blue led for the bottom dome and I will get one slow flash red led for the top red dome before I close it up.

 

[battlestar99]

With what I could see and make out this is as close I can get to the inner nacelle detail.

 

[battlestar99]

Got all the lights wired up including the flashing red led on top. Since I can not figure what type of dome was used on the top and bottom I vacuformed some generic domes to fit on top and bottom and I will tint them with Tamiya clear red and blue.

 

[battlestar99]

After everything wires and secured I added the Falcon landing bay doors on the on the bottom, since there is no reference on the bottom I assume this is probably what the model/prop maker did. I did have ti shave off some raised edges on the sides of the kit and started clamp duty to get the Zapperprise to mate flush.

 

[battlestar99]

To tint the red upper dome I use a Future/Tamiya clear red mix and dipped the dome, if you don't have a tinted paint food coloring and Future will works just as well and I will repeat the process on the bottom blue dome.