"Don't worry. She'll hold together." - 1/72 FM Falcon build

[Senorjacob]

Time to build a Millennium Falcon!!

I'm very excited to be following in the footsteps of so many great MF builds here on this site. I hope mine will be worthy to stand next to those builds.

My plan is for a pretty straightforward build, though I WILL be lighting it and using the Paragrafix PE set. The lighting kit is the Madman fast tramp light freighter kit with the booster pack. I'll be using an 18v AC power supply. I'll probably stick with the stand that comes with the kit though I'm open to ideas for building something more special.

This will be only my 6th build since returning to the hobby. It will be the first time I've ever worked with lighting and circuits. I will use the skills that I've been learning while building the 1/72 revell Type IX U-boat (which is nearly complete).

Here are some pics:









I also bought a correct size dish from shapeways.



























Thanks for looking!

 

[JohnSimmons]

Nice start!

 

[Fredrik64]

Looking good so far !
I did`t know about the correct sized dish from Shapeways
I ordered one right away for my Falcon it will look so much better with a bigger dish on it
So Thanks for that ;D

 

[Junkie]

Great start. Looking nice and clean...for now.

 

[jake]

You've got all the tools you need in your arsenal! Now go nail that sucker! Great start!

 

[Senorjacob]

Thanks, fellas!

 

[Scootypuffjunior]

Very cool!

I'll be watching this closely as I have this kit in my stash and I was also thinking about lighting it with the Madman kit. I've never lit a model before so hopefully I can learn something from you!

 

[Senorjacob]

A small update...

As I continue to attach the 100s of tiny little greelbies to the hull of the falcon, I took some time to install the resin engine fans. I dremel'd out the center of the kit piece, sanded the fans to clean them up, and then CA glued them in.







Here they are dryfitted in place. I won't attach them until I prime everything and paint the area underneath the engines dark grey/black.



And here's the resin radar dish subassembly, shot with primer.





Thanks for looking.

 

[Grendels]

Nice work so far.

 

[Senorjacob]

Whew! Finally got all the little tiny tiny little pieces in place on the back of the falcon:



I have to say that putting on all these little pieces was pretty therapeutic (sp?).

I'm on step 21 of 31 in the build. Feel like I'm over the hump, though I haven't started wiring the lighting yet, so maybe I'm delusional.

 

[JohnSimmons]

Great stuff, those fans really make it IMO

 

[Julien]

Looks great, always nice to see that kit being build !

 

[Jaitea]

Looking brilliant Senorjacob

Love the fans,.....I like your logic on leaving the engine flaps off that are to be painted red....smart

J

 

[Quaralane]

All of those detail pieces were what made me shelve my build of this kit.
Fortunately, she found a home where she would likely get finished.

Yours is looking very good here

 

[gene1138]

Looking good. It took me about 6 days spending 2 or 3 hours a night to finish up adding all the pieces on the top. After that I really didn't want to see anymore tiny little fiddly pieces. And was thankful the bottom half is much less complex. But wait till ya get to the tiny little pipes. ;D

Are ya planning on skipping using the decals and painting on the color markings?

Good luck and happy modeling.

 

[Senorjacob]

Thanks for the comments, guys.

@gene:
6 days sounds about right. I think I worked more days, doing just an hour at a time. I found it soothing, actually. And yes, my plan is to paint the panels instead of using the decals. I may regret that decision later, but I'd like to try. I'll probably use humbrol mask to help with this.

I have no update on the build. I'm racing to finish up my type ix u-boat in time for OrangeCon in two weeks. Trying to get all the rigging done and do some touchups. The falcon is standing by.

 

[gene1138]

I painted instead of using the decals as well. It's not bad doing the masking. Just time consuming. It was like 3 hours of masking then only 15 minutes of airbrushing.

I've seen people use liquid mask and a sponge to do the chipping effect. I cut of the tip of a pin and a pin vise to scrape and get a weathered look.

The sponge and liquid mask looked more like the decals. Using the pin gave a more scraping type of weathering.

 

[Senorjacob]

I finally had an ounce of time to do some work on the falcon. I put all the pieces (bigger pieces this time) on the lower hull in the back.



Did some work on the quad lasers, the seats and then primed a bunch of odds and ends.

 

[Senorjacob]

Hey fellas.

Here's a quick update to let you know that I've been having a helluva time not screwing up my falcon. The issue is with these small little pipes that go from the hull out and over the exposed engine parts. Up close it looks kinda bad. I'm going to try to fix them up with some white putty and then, of course, some weathering when I get to that stage. I'm embarrased by these pictures, so go easy on me.













I'm glad that part is over. It was not the most enjoyable part of the build so far. But next up is creating the battle damage! I'm really looking forward to that. Gonna get out the dremel and do some damage. Need to turn this prestine falcon into a 'hunk of junk.'

Soon it'll time to light this sucker. Then close it up and paint it. Lately I've been reviewing fichtenfoo.com wherein Michael Fichtenmeyer has a few video tutorials on how he discolors and weathers his fine molds falcon. Vey cool.

Thanks for looking! Feedback welcome.

 

[Grendels]

Looking good so far!