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

[Quaralane]

Don't hit yourself too hard on this.
What you're doing is NOT easy.

Keep up the good work

 

[Senorjacob]

I love this build. So full of problems to be solved and I'm learning a lot about lighting with LEDS.

I worked a bit on the battle damage on the underside of the kit.


I've also been working on the cockpit.




Sanded off the kit "koolshade" so that I could use the PE version from acreations.






Still need to paint Han's hands...


Then got to work on the engine lights.










Here are the resin engines, not glued in yet.


That's it for now! Thanks for looking.

 

[Jaitea]

She's coming on great, I love the cockpit lit,....gives it so much scale

J

 

[Junkie]

Looking great.

 

[Grendels]

Looking good!

 

[Quaralane]

Looking good.
Cockpit seems a bit bright, though

 

[Senorjacob]

I kind of agree, Quaralane. I'll probably put another layer of wax paper on the back of the cockpit to beat down the brightness a bit more.

Here's the finished battle damage on the bottom of the falcon:

 

[jake]

Battle damage looks perfect! Love this Falcon!

 

[Senorjacob]

I haven't had much time to work on this build lately because... my wife and I had a baby boy on Halloween!!! It was the most amazing experience of my life, as you might imagine. We're vey happy. And very tired.

In the few moments here and there that I've been able to work on the falcon, I ordered in the mail and rec'd these...

http://www.therpf.com/f75/death-star-surface-modules-215311/
(I hope it's okay to post a link to a different forum)

I know it's not accurate to have Leia and 3PO in the cockpit while the falcon is racing over the surface of the death star, but I'm okay with that. The tiles look great. The base will be 2'x1' and the falcon will be mounted to it by way of a gooseneck lamp arm like this one...

http://www.flexible-arm.com/upload/big/Gooseneck_Tube_for_Lamp_1_0_1368861342.jpg

I've seen several builds online with this type of setup so I know it's not original but I love the way it looks.

Meanwhile I have to figure out the connection points between the gooseneck and the falcon. There's a thread on either end of the gooseneck so I may just epoxie and reinforce a bolt on the inside of the falcon just behind the lower turret. Thought about going INTO the lower turret but I like the turret itself.

Comments and ideas are welcome!

 

[Senorjacob]

I love all the work others are putting into the hasbro MF. I'm still plugging away slowly on my Fine Molds MF.

I rec'd the death star tiles in the mail and figure out the placement of them on the base board.


I drilled a hole in the bottom turret and epoxied a nut inside to attach to the gooseneck.


Drilled a hole in the base and dry fit it all together.








Also did a little work on the engine grill. Tried to make it look like it's seen a lot of heat.


That's it for now.

 

[Quaralane]

Looking good

 

[JohnSimmons]

Nice base!

 

[Jaitea]

I love that base,....and that bendy support

J

 

[Senorjacob]

Thanks!

 

[peza]

Eh up buddy,wow that looks mint mym8...keep up the sweet work
base looks sound!cheers peza ;D

 

[Senorjacob]

Thanks, Peza!

 

[Senorjacob]

I've got the engine lights rigged up and all of the fiber optics threaded through the lower hull. I still have to wire up the headlights, which has been more challenging.







I also was finally able to assemble the cockpit. I'm not all that happy with the decals that came with the ParaGrafix PE set. The colors are off... they're more red than black and gray. But with the backlight that I have built into cockpit behind the back wall, it'll be hard to tell what color the console is.



Thanks for looking.

 

[Quaralane]

Nice work on the engine lights.
Cockpit looks to be coming along as well

 

[Constantine]

Oh my gosh is that a cool build!

 

[Senorjacob]

Thanks, Quaralane.
Thanks, Constantine.

I had a short circuit with the chip and now 6 of the LEDs are flickering randomly. I have to order another board and and this time I need to be careful of the stray wires.

I really want to learn how to use an Arduino to control the lights and play sounds, and be able to control it all from my iphone. It can be done, but it will significantly increase the build time. And I have to learn how to program in the Arduino programming language. And since I have a 6 week old son, none of that is doable.