Scratchy's Fine Molds 1/144 Millennium Falcon

[scratchy]

I was looking forward to this group build for some time now and I'm glad it's finally under way.  Let's give the ISD a rest.  I'm building the Fine Molds 1/144 Millennium Falcon, this will be my first Falcon build and my first finished kit in my adult life.

All in all, it's a very nice detailed kit for it's size, however.... there are some areas that I'm going to work on, like the engine vents, the details that are missing, the gunner stations, cockpit, conduit tubing.... and probally a lot more before it's ready for prime.

First, the radar dish.  I found it to be too small, so I vacuum formed a new dish and cut a nice thin styrene ring for the perimeter edge, I modelled this after a three inch Plastruct flat dish..... here's the first pic,



Here's a comparrison shot of the original part and my scratched dish.  The dish is the same width as the cockpit tube....



I have four small progress pics showing the evolution of the dish just to the right of the image.  I have the thin strips of plastic details on the back.  I made this with stretched sprue..... I'f you've seen any of my other projects on various site, stretch sprue is a very well used item that I use

There's also a side profile shot, I'm happy with the shape of it.  the bottom two pics on the right show the radar dish frame.  I wanted an articulated frame, the one that came with the kit was, once glued together, one solid piece.

In the main pic, you'll see the radar dish and frame in it's place.  FYI: the base that the frame gets glued to is in the wrong orientation.  I'f you're building this kit, you will want to shave the "key" that's molded to the locator pin.... check any studio scale reference pics that you may have.

I placed the Big O chunk of sprue that needs to be cut out of the gunner station in the pic for a reason.  It's this piece that I'll be turning on my rotary tool to make the center shroud for the dish.



In this pic, I have three pics just off to the right showing the construction of the shroud.  I modelled it from the vintage Airfix Saturn V shroud.  Turning that chunk of sprue until I got something that I like.

The dish is shown how it is now.....



I'm just working on the back details and then I'll work on the frame...

[Solander]

This new dish looks great! Nice job!

[merseajohn]

Scratchy your work is incredible! Iv seen your SD over at Starship modeler and I'm glad your now a member of the herd!

[Scott Girvan]

Looking great. That dish is deeelish.

[Grendels]

Nice!!

[scratchy]

This new dish looks great! Nice job!

Thanks Solander!

Scratchy your work is incredible! Iv seen your SD over at Starship modeler and I'm glad your now a member of the herd!

Thank you Merseajohn

Looking great. That dish is deeelish.

Thanks Scott, this was a great idea for having a Millennium Falcon Group Build!

Nice!!

Thank you Grendels

[ModelMakerMike]

Yes, great work.
Professional grade!

This'll be another good one to watch!

[Quaralane]

Excellent work on that, Scratchy.
Nice to have you aboard for this.

[Chiefpettyofficer]

How did you managed to fold the dish? It looks like, you cut it from a styrene sheet

[scratchy]

How did you managed to fold the dish? It looks like, you cut it from a styrene sheet

I used a .035" small piece of styrene.  With the use of a heat gun, shop vacuum, a plastic closet wall fixture for a dowel... I vacuum formed the dish (I actually formed six pieces and picked the best one).

I then used my circle cutter and cut the dish out as well as the ring, as shown in the first pic, to raise the brim just a wee bit.

[schweinhund227]

 

krazy dude...  you could not leave that one alone hey    crazy Canuck !

LOL

nice one on the dish  you are one nutty prof...  LOL

it will be epic !

[scratchy]

Yeah, I couldn't let it go..... actually, there's some other parts that will get my attention

[scratchy]

Here's the final on the dish, I have all the details in place and it's glued to the base and fully articulate. 

My next piece will be the engine vents.  I've already made the main tube out of brass, styrene ring and a lil'bit of putty.  I'm going to model the outside details like the one on the 32" SS model, and the inside details from the five footer. I'll pour rubber over this and cast six of the little varmints.

I'll make the screen from stretched sprue.  If anyone has seen my 1/144 Asteroid TIE Fighter, I'll be using that same technique.

[schweinhund227]

    Now you have my attention !    in that scale ?   Ollé !

[scratchy]

Compared to what I'm used to, this scale is huge!