the various shapes of the Millennium Falcon

Hey all, noob here. I have a question that you guys might be able to answer about the Falcon.

The MF was onscreen in roughly 5 major forms during the movies:

1. ILM 5' model
2. ILM 32" model
3. partial full-scale exterior shell for ANH
4. complete full exterior shell for ESB
5 ILM 3d model for CGI additions in 1997

What is known about the consistency of the shape?

I know the 5' model was built first with more of a rounded shape. I know the 32" model was built for ESB with more of a "hockey puck" shape.

Are the dimensions of the 2 soundstage mockups known? And what about the 3d computer model in the 1990s? I assume these versions were all based off the ILM models in some way, do we know which ones were based off which?

I think the ESB soundstage exterior shell was the best Falcon Lucasfilm ever did. Biggest, complete, most closeup screen time, etc. If I wanted to replicate any of them, it would be that one. The 5' ILM model may have come first but I think the ESB full size shell did more to cement what the ship looks like in our memories.

------

There are a few other models of the Falcon as well... a 10ish inch one that hung beneath the medical rigate, and a REALLY small one on the back of the SD bridge.

But if you're looking for consistency of shape or even dinesions you're outta luck... particularly if you're going to include the live action set piece.

The 3D model was based off the 32 inch model and has its general shape and detailing.

Jedi Dade

I'm mainly interested in the complete full-scale exterior shell that was built for ESB. I would imagine that it was probably based on either the 5ft or the 32" model but I don't know which one.

looking at the movie I'm thinking it may have been the 5' model, at least for the hull curvature & low sidewall height. But the full size exterior doesn't have the stubby short cockpit canopy of the 5-footer.

Jedi Dade said:

There are a few other models of the Falcon as well... a 10ish inch one that hung beneath the medical rigate, and a REALLY small one on the back of the SD bridge.

But if you're looking for consistency of shape or even dinesions you're outta luck... particularly if you're going to include the live action set piece.

The 3D model was based off the 32 inch model and has its general shape and detailing.

Jedi Dade

Click to expand...

To me, that CGI version looked too flat. Flatter than the 32". About as flat as say....the FM falcon. Heck, maybe that's where they got their dimensions? (I wonder if the mandibles on the CGI are parallel or not)

batguy said:

I'm mainly interested in the complete full-scale exterior shell that was built for ESB. I would imagine that it was probably based on either the 5ft or the 32" model but I don't know which one.

looking at the movie I'm thinking it may have been the 5' model, at least for the hull curvature & low sidewall height. But the full size exterior doesn't have the stubby short cockpit canopy of the 5-footer.

Click to expand...

The Live set piece was not dimensionally correct to any of the models. However I can imagine that somone took a few pictures of the 5 footer that was made for Star Wars A New Hope and used that to draw up the plans for the set construction. For the xwing and y wing they sent one of the actual models... if you're interested look up the story of the red jammer on that one... To my knowledge they never had access to the falcon model though. But if you're dead set on looking for lineage - the 5 footer was the only one they had to go on at the time they initially built the set piece, so that's where I'd point.

But really its not even close to "correct" dimensionally, or in detailing. Its got the typical "its close enough" that movies do all the time. from certain angles the set "looks like the falcon" from others it painfuilly obvious that its not the right size or shape. For Star Wars ANH it was perfectly acceptable for shots running up and down the entry ramp, which is what it was built for

Jedi Dade

The plans for the ESB set piece are available in the big SW set blueprints book. You might want to grab a copy of that, it's a beautiful book.

To the extent that there was a reference standard during production of all three Star Wars films it is the 5' model which filled that role. It was only later that the smaller one became more popular for reference; perhaps because it's simply so much easier to transport? Some people now consider it the 'definitive' Falcon. (Sad, sick, twisted people who need our tolerance and love and understanding, needless to say.) :lol

Incidentally the ESB set piece was built at substantially less than full scale, to save money and space.

BLASPHEMY. They deserve to be hung, drawn and quartered for even thinking that.

Nwerke said:

Some people now consider it the 'definitive' Falcon. (Sad, sick, twisted people who need our tolerance and love and understanding, needless to say.)

Click to expand...

Junk Pilot said:

BLASPHEMY. They deserve to be hung, drawn and quartered for even thinking that.

Click to expand...

Mua ha ha!!! And QFT.

I'm aware that the ANH & ESB Falcon exterior shells were only about 2/3rds scale compared to the interior sets.

I have often wondered about that. If the ANH set builders were only building the right half of the ship in 1976, then why did they also shrink it down so much? It looks to me like they could have just as easily mocked up only the RF quarter of the ship instead of the entire right half of it, and kept the size more correct. There's a gigantic difference between the original 1/24 Falcon model scaled up (maybe 130 feet long) and the soundstage exterior shells that were more like 80 feet long.

Oooo...I think I like you! :lol

Likely to give GL options, would be my guess. Building a quarter rather than a half may have seemed like a worse (i.e. more easily noticed and/or more restrictive) compromise than going sub-scale. Building half of the ship gave GL a lot more shooting options.

i believe that's correct nwerke.production designer john barry and GL needed half of the anh falcon because the way the story boarded shots panned out.they needed this much of the ship to film the shots they had planned.apparently at this slightly shrunken scale it was still massive and barely fit into the soundstage and plans to move it around were also abandoned.
funny thing is fox did the same with the full scale jupiter 2 on it's landing legs back in the 60's.that was really out of scale approx 30% smaller than full size,maybe more.

An X-wing mockup can easily be built full scale. A Star Destroyer is so big there's no sense in trying to build more than a little bit of it. But the size of the Falcon was right on the borderline of what is practical to build. So we have ended up with all this scaling monkey business over the years.



I have never understood why everyone just throws out the size of the Falcon exterior shells and declares the interiors to be the gospel for the "real" size of it. In general, Hollywood production designers build their interior sets oversized just as often as they build exterior sets undersized. And if a smaller interior size would conflict with some of the movie footage, well, a larger size for the exterior would also conflict with certain other shots.

The ILM models never give you a good enough look at the ship to peg down their scale just by watching the films. And if the 5-footer was done in 1/24th scale then it was probably still a bit bigger than the soundstage interior sets ended up being.

Meanwhile the Falcon exterior shells got a whole lot of good screen time. Even the CGI shot they added to the Mos Eisley takeoff in 1997 was done to match the scale of the exterior shells rather than the interior sets and the theoretically bigger ILM models.




For my money, the "real" Falcon would be sized somewhere in between the exterior shells and interior sets. Yeah, I know the 5-foot ILM model probably indicates a 125+ foot Falcon and it predates any of the soundstage sets . . . but "Luke Starkiller" also predates "Luke Skywalker." IMHO the movies themselves are gospel. Everything else is trivia.



---------------------------