Another hardware store build: Millennium Falcon (WIP)

Heyhey. So, after building the Enterprise from PVC pipe, plumbing parts, MDF and junk (I built the Enterprise from hardware store parts), I thought I'd try another.

I've never posted a WIP thread, so it terrifies me that you'll probably get to see everything that doesn't work along the way, but I guess that's half the fun.

So.

All of these projects tend to start with the realisation that something looks like something else, and the Falcon has been no different. My starting point for this ship was this PVC vent cowling...



...which is very obviously a Falcon cockpit in disguise.



I didn't use blueprints for the Enterprise, because it was a basic enough shape to build from measurements alone, but the Falcon is a bit more complex and detailed. Googled some diagrams. Scaled them appropriately. Printed them out. Stuck a billion pages together. Yay, blueprints. (If these are your drawings and you don't mind me using them, then thank you! If they're yours and you do mind, then, um, sorry. Whoops?)

So the plan is PVC pipes for the pipe-shaped bits and MDF for the flat bits, then kinda make the rest up as I go along.



Main shape cut from MDF. Hull is two MDF sheets with some bits of 20mm timber in between like a sandwich. Had a heck of a time getting the "slot" that the tube goes into to work properly, but after a lot of filing and cutting and swearing, it slots in nicely.

The 50mm PVC vent cowl (cockpit) actually has an external diameter of 60mm, so everything is scaled from that. The bonus to using 60mm to measure from is that all of the round parts on the ship actually marry up to PVC pipe component sizes, so the circular cannon mount thingies in the middle are 100mm pipe caps (120mm ext. diam), and all of the round vent thingies on the rear will be 40mm PVC tube pieces.



And this is where it's at as of about 20 minutes ago. The docking corridors (I'm making these names up as I go along) are getting built up to the right heights. I'm pretty much just "sketching" a shape here, trying to get all of the important parts to be a) fairly solid, and b) the right size.

Not entirely sure how I'll approach filling the ribs. Initial plan is expanding foam, then bondo. Failing that, EVA foam, then bondo (tedious to cut all the EVA foam up though, been there done that on the Enterprise saucer), failing that I might just make more ribs and skin the whole area with styrene. Who knows! This is an adventure.

I've added some extra pipe portions to the cockpit corridor. The piece on top appears to give the correct angle, I'm hoping it'll look "right" once the hull plates are snuggled up around it.

The round holes on the mandibles are bigger than they need to be (actually, the mandibles are also thinner than they need to be) because the whole front area is generously undersized to allow the surface to be built up with some layers of...whatever...to get the shapes and textures right.



The front from a low angle. The corridors are now about the right height (minus surface paneling), so that's nice.

My plan is to detail the entire exterior using whatever I can find that seems to look right, mostly junk, but we'll see what happens.

The only concession I think I'll make is that I usually don't use a lot of styrene sheet (because it's expensive), but I can't think of any other way to make a tonne of hull plates without losing my sanity entirely, so styrene it will be.

Stay tuned, and try not to be too disappointed.

Big fan. I'm glad I get to see this one from the beginning.

-Rog

Thanks, Rog!

Not a huge update today, but an update nonetheless:

First, an experiment.



Got a little disc of MDF, made sure it fits into a 40mm PVC pipe nicely. Cut lengths of cable ties. Glued to disc. I think you can see where this is going.



Filed it nice and round. Protip: Buy good cable ties if you intend to use them for this kind of thing. The cheap ones are made from cruddy plastic that doesn't like to be filed.



Now the outside -- two pieces of PVC offset by...some amount.



Tapered the edge by filling it, in this case with superglue-and-baking-soda, but when I make all six of them, it'll be bondo or something similar.



Vent in place. Looks acceptable to me!



Primer always makes things better. (Or in this case, shows every little chunk missing from the filled area. But hey, whatchagonnado.)

Experiment successful, I think. Now I need to make 6 of 'em.



That's a plastic light bulb. It's a string of Christmas lights with one LED inside a plastic ball. I bought a set because I knew I'd end up cannibalising the spheres for all sorts of things. (Plus it's a string of battery operated LEDs, which will be useful for something, too.)



Sliced and diced and "installed", will eventually be detailed and painted to be the gunner's window.

So yep, that's where we are. This isn't going to be a speedy project.

Thanks for looking!

Ah, this reminds me of my first Millenium Falcon build back in about '79. Back when there was no internet to order parts or greeblies from. All you had to go on was magazine pictures and junk you could find around the house and a hardware store.

My first one started out as two metal garbage can lids bolted together for the saucer, pvc pipe for the cockpit tube and a small "I can't believe it's not butter" tub for the cockpit itself. I remember it was quite a pain cutting all the cockpit windows in that butter tub. The mandibles were three pieces of 1" plywood glued together and the radar dish was a small Tupperware lid.

It didn't look that great but it was close to scale to the action figures and I was so proud of it. Wish I had taken a picture of it. It ended up in my Dad's shed and sat there for almost thirty years before he finally asked me if he could throw it away.

Love what you're doing definitely old school with the odd parts. Keep up the excellent work and update this thread when you can


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the encouragement, folks!

So.

I'm at the point in the build where I start tearing out parts that I've already made because they didn't work so well, or because I came up with a better idea.

I wasn't happy with the "make ribs, fill with something" approach to making the dome shape, because I couldn't shake the feeling that there had to be something I could buy that was just the right shape. So I went hardware store hunting again.



BAM - a garbage bin lid. Obviously it has some issues, though. The centre part is raised. The total diameter of the curved part is not quite wide enough. And it has "60L" on it.



Dremeled the heck out of it. Took the lip off, cut the centre piece out and re-insterted it without the offset. So far, so good.



And bogged around it. You can kind of make out that I've actually hot-glued some scrap video cable around the edges to take up some of the space between the lid and the outer lip of the board, just to reduce the amount of bondo required.



And after some sanding and some primer to define shapes, this is where we are, now.

I can see that I'll probably end up tearing the docking corridor off and making some changes to it, because it's far too tall, but I'll deal with that in future.

Most of this build (and indeed, all my builds) consists of just whacking things together and removing them again if they don't work.

Thanks for looking, guys!

That is really awesome work! I love your creativity.

Thanks, Cadeus!

Quick stuff:



I wish I had access to a laser cutter.....but I don't, so instead, I cut four pieces of tedious acrylic by hand, and messed about with them until they fit right. Also detailed the little round tubs on the mandibles with some USB thumb drive lids, lollipop sticks and cable ties for texture.



Looking reasonably acceptable.



With primer.

I'm happy with the shape of the "dome". It's still rough, but it'll be covered with little styrene hull plates, so the texture won't be evident.

Thanks for your interest!

Heyhey! Quick update, because I've only had a few nights to work in the Falcon, and now it's Easter, so visiting family is more important than being squirreled away in the garage building spaceships...

so.

We we have an engine deck. It's styrene, warped with a heat gun to the curvature of the bin lid, and raised above the surface on a few stacked strips of styrene. Worked fairly well. It has a few uneven areas due to heat gun brutality, which will require some filler later, but generally speaking, it's working quite nicely.

Dug some holes in the bin lid for the maintenance tubs, which will probably be detailed with chunks of old circuit board and piping from lollipop sticks and whatnot, but let's not get ahead of ourselves...

Messed about with the cockpit (plumbing vent) a bit. Filled in the lower "windows", added angled pieces to the upper windows. Still need to add some thin borders to the windows and some kind of glass. Drilled the end of the plumbing vent out, added a disc of styrene for the end windows. Decided to sacrifice one of the upped windows on the end of the cockpit for the sake of practicality, so there are three wedge-shaped windows on top, not four. I'm not losing any sleep over it.

And thats where we're up to for now.

Thanks fof looking!

Awesome built!!
I love your creativity and resourcefullness.
The one and only"Hunk of Junk"

This one's very literally a hunk of junk!

Updaaaaaate.



Filler...filler...and more filler. And sanding, sanding and more sanding.



And now the fun part: Panels.

The plan is to cut panels to cover the larger areas (each "pie wedge" of the round part, etc), then mark the panel gaps on the whole piece with Sharpie, then cut on the Sharpie lines and file away the visible Sharpie, theoretically leaving a bunch of correctly shaped panels with fairly even gaps between them. At least, that's the plan.



So far, so good. The whole paneled area has kind of 'walked' a little bit to one side, but I'm not concerned. It's all about texture.



Squirt of primer -- looking acceptable, I think.

(I forgot to cut the little notches into the edges of the panels, but again, I'm not worried, it won't look out of place for the turret to be missing notches. I'll put notches on the main panels. Whoops.)



Overview and testing a theory -- I'm considering using flattened out binder clips for the engine flaps. It's not accurate, but neither is a garbage bin lid. I think they convey the concept of "engine flaps" quite well.

Thoughts appreciated.

Be gentle.

Wow, those cable ties actually are a decent way to scratch that part!

Looking forward to watching this progress

Another four day weekend means...some more progress on the bin lid. I mean...Falcon.



Paneling the cockpit tube involves putting masking tape on the tube, drawing the panels, peeling the tape off, sticking the tape onto styrene sheet and cutting out the panels. Not as difficult as it initially seemed.



Circuit boards from an old cable modem make great greeblies for inside the maintenance wells.



Paneling around the maintence wells. It's quite satisfying.



The beginnings of a top jaw box, which is quite literally just a box at this point.



But soon layered with greeblies. Styrene bits, cable ties, bamboo skewers, some electrical components. Washers. Not sure what the red things are.



And just like that -- a jaw box.



Jaw box spacer built.



And that's where we're up to. I've paneled in the airlock on the left of the last photo. It's rough, but it'll get tidied up as more panels go on, and the airlock itself is added.

Thoughts and opinions always appreciated.

Thanks for looking!

Aaaaand progress:



One of the sacrifices I've made on this model is that it's only going to be detailed on top. The underside will be a bunch of blocks to give it the appropriate height, enough of the outer edge detail so that all of the required bits and pieces are visible from above and to the side, and the rest will be painted black and never looked at again. I'm planning to mount this thing at a 45-degree angle and hopefully inside some kind of display case, so the underside will not be visible. This decision also eliminates the other problem: once it's covered in greeblies, it'll be very difficult to turn it upside down to work on the bottom.

So, above is the underside of the ship. The important part in this photo is the black wire around the outer edge; it's there to give the tiny hullplate pieces that will go over it the appropriate angle.



One of the reasons I haven't posted a WIP thread before is because I make a lot of things and then throw them away when a better idea comes along. The second post in this thread is my first attempt at making the exhaust grilles. I liked that version, but they were a tiny bit oversized and very difficult to make -- relevant as there should be 6 of them. So, I'm now using a similar technique, but the lids from these chewing gum bottles are perfect for the outer beveled edge, and are much more accurate in size.



Made the first three. I think they look quite good. I've since made two more...one to go.



Paneled the final part of the saucer. Still need to finish off a few tiny surfaces.



From the sublime to the ridiculous: Texture and greebliness on the inside of the mandibles is provided by some clothes pegs.



The neverending paneling continues. Mandible panels.



Clothes pegs make another appearance: I was delighted to see that these two little detail boxes at the top of the mandibles could be made quite satisfactorily from some sawn-off clothes pegs.



Panels and pegs and greebs, oh my. These details are made up from cable ties (green and black bits), clothes pegs (red/green), parts from broken printers, cameras, clocks, some completely unidentifiable bits and pieces, USB lids, "lollipop sticks" from a craft shop, plastic bits from inside Nerf guns, circuit boards and no doubt many other things.



Now with some additional hoses.



Primer makes it look a million bucks.



I'm really happy with the clothes peg detail boxes.

Thoughts appreciated, as always. Criticism encouraged.

I thought I was the hardware store scrounge master! I was wrong. You sir are amazing!

It continues...



Marked out the engine deck using some compass-and-straightedge techniques that would blow the ancient Greeks' minds.



And just like that, we have detail on the engine deck. Still a lot of work to do. I'm very happy with the gum container lids for exhaust fan bevels.



Airlocks. Not 100% happy with them, because they're hideously inaccurate and look kind of awful. (They look better with primer, but I didn't take a photo.) I might re-build them, depending on how much they annoy me. Still need to make some kind of conical bevel on the edges, I'll try to get that part right, at least.



A bazillion little pieces of cable ties to represent....whatever those tiny raised squares are all over the hull plates. Are they patches? They're too organised for patches. Rivets? Too square and not in load-bearing places. Am I overthinking a fictional spaceship? Why yes, yes I am.

I still need to put them on the other three quarters of the saucer.



It's looking a bit like the Millenium Falcon. I'm really happy with how the mandibles are looking. The thin pipe detail going into the maintenance wells is solder.



A shot outdoors to reveal all of the detail and all of my mistakes!



Edge greeblies. Consists mostly of random unidentifiable plastic and metal junk. I spent some time wandering around the local garbage dump's "reuse store" collecting everything that looked tiny and interesting, so I have no clue what any of it is. The long green things are cable ties, the other green things are clothes pegs (surprisingly detailed on the posterior side, easily cut up, very handy). The aluminium things I believe are hardware for door or window rails, but I'm not 100% sure. The blue thing is an electrical cable joiner. Also a toy car wheel, and a few pieces of chopped up Hot Wheels chassis.

Moral of the story: If it's small, plastic and interesting -- keep it!



Same detail, other side of the ship. Same kind of things. Another two aluminium window track pieces, toy car wheel, some Hot Wheels chassis again, some weird metal bits from somewhere, and a googly eye to hide a screw I used to secure the aluminium parts (they're a bit heavy, I figured it wouldn't hurt).



Where we're up to right now. Still heaps to go!



Thanks for looking. Your thoughts and opinions are always appreciated!

Wow, youre crazy!!

Btw, that looks freakin amazing!!!

Another quick update. Things are getting ugly again.



I had had previously decided not to build the underside of the falcon. I'd planned to complete the visible edge detail, and paint the remainder matte black and pretend it didn't exist. But, as often happens in these projects, I've changed my mind. So, now we build a dome.

It seems that the bottom dome is a bit shallower than the top dome, so I couldn't use another garbage can lid, or the whole ship would have been too thick. Instead, I've borrowed a friend's "pizza slices" idea. (I'm in competition with a colleague who's also building a Falcon from junk. Sometimes we compare notes.)

So, we have this.



Added structure for leg blocks.



Initial surface paneling and a whooole lot of bog/bondo/filler.

And thats where we're up to!

Thanks for looking.

EDIT: In the process of adding all of this to the bottom of the ship, I've learned something surprising. The top of the ship is remarkably robust, only one hull plate lifted during the whole procedure of adding a bottom, which involved drilling, hammering nails, filing and being fairly brutal with the ship.

Also, it weighs a TON now.

Progress on the Falcon has been a bit slow lately, and now it's even slower as I'm waiting on an order of styrene sheet to arrive so I can start paneling the underside of the ship.

In the meanwhile, I've taken the opportunity to redesign and rebuild a few parts that weren't very accurate. They're still not accurate, but they're...y'know, less inaccurate.



Newly rebuilt jaw box with much cable tie detail and solder piping. The surface has some awful texture from where I've torn the original greeblies off the MDF sheet...but it all adds character, I think.



Jaw box in place, with some spectacular wrinkling in the primer. I'll fix that with some sanding and a few more coats. It'll work itself out.

Also above, added some raised panel line detail using cable ties (what else?), and warts all over using...you guessed it, cable ties.



Aaaaaand I've also torn down the engine deck and basically started over. Among other things, I found a bunch of tyre valve inserts (left of photo) at the local junk shop. Big ones and small ones. I used the smaller sized ones between the engine flaps, for now. I'd have preferred them centred on the flap, but I'm lazy and couldn't be bothered dremeling out a little channel in each of the steel bulldog clips/flaps. If I have to wait longer than I expect for my styrene sheet to arrive, I might still do that.

I also found some old electrical clips (the very deteriorated looking white and blue things) that seem like a reasonable approximation of a couple of kitbashed parts.

And I built the little panels that go behind the main vents using styrene, cable ties (of course!) and washers. I think they're a pretty decent facsimile of the "actual" parts. They'll look better when there are some pipes and whatnot going over them.

So yep, progress. Still very happy with this thing, so far.

Your thoughts and opinions and criticisms are always appreciated.