Build The Millennium Falcon

Got the first issue, looks good so far, this blueprint is in scale to the finished model, i left a sky remote and mug in the picture to give you an idea of how big it is.



Up close of the first hull piece..

yeh looks big alright, the hull has some good detail on it but im going to use some dry brushing to make it look more weathered i think. hopefully i dont make a mess of it. the gun turret that comes with issue 1 is metallic silver too and needs painting, despite the fact it says you can do this without painting! it would look stupid i think just a silver gun turret on the model.

Ive 2 boys 10 and 6 who are going to build it with me, so it will be something to do for the next two years.. my 4 month old girl might have a go at smashing it though in 2 years time haha. Im planning on getting my attic converted this year to hold all my stuff and hopefully get a projector\surround sound system up there so ill be mounting it on the wall with the bracket you get in the last issue. should look great in two years time..

I dont think its too expensive, the replica model sell for 3 to 5 thousand these days.

I subscribed online so get 4 issues delivered every month, dont miss any, it also costs the same as the shops, free delivery and 5 free gifts over the run.

I will enjoy making it with my two kids, when its finished, at the end i can say i built it myself.

for something i will enjoy doing over the space of 2 years with my kids and they can tell their friends they helped me build it.. i think its worth it.

I will be enhancing it myself using some weathering and mods to the default parts i hope.. if i dont mess it up.. maybe some extra fibre optic lighting, nothing overkill just subtle changes.. i will update this thread every few months with some photos..

BA your right shops do stop selling them after a few issues, the first issues in shops are only to get people on board with a subscription. which as i mentioned above, costs no more and has free delivery.

Thought id give a quick update on where i am with this as i finally took the plunge today and started on it as i had some free time. ive 14 issues so far, ive mainly been looking at what other people are doing with it, learning different painting techniques and slowly buying brushes, paint etc that i will need.

Its obvious to me at this stage that if you just build this and put it together, that it wont look as good as the falcon from the films. It needs to be painted, weathered and modified in places, the gun turret is metal, no paint at all so that for one needs to be painted. So ive been doing a lot of research into model painting etc as i literally have never made or painted a model before.

Here are the seats from the cockpit as you receive them in the mag (not my image) as you can see, the front seats are just red plastic, the back are black with 3 pieces of white painted on for the "cushions" on the chairs.



And below, after 3 hours of painting, weathering and frustration are my ones painted. they look better in person, especially the front seats.



Im happy with them, i think they look a million times better then the stock ones.

I did prime the gun turret pieces but when i went to add a coat of spray paint that is close to the hull pieces colour, the spray can i had was broken or something and covered them with thick blobs of paint. so they currently sit in a tin of turps removing that. luckily they are metal so i can take the paint off. ill update again when i get some more stuff done on it.

May as well keep updating this thread, quick one this week.

I painted and weathered the frame for the door in the cockpit, painted the middle control panel a bit, and added a custom floor since i didnt like the way the floor was just plastic.

Ive decided im going to dirty those chairs a bit as they are too clean.

I put a torch behind the back panel to give an idea of it lit up. im going to be modifying this by painting colours on the back of sticker to make the light different colours simulating buttons etc.. ive to wire up fibres to the front control panel before i put it in. and i think im going to put an led behind the door before i put that in, to make it look like the corridor is lit up.

There is two side panels that go into the floor beside the chairs too ive yet to ad.

Will do, its all new to me, youtube is great for this stuff plus its not as difficult as it seems once you have all the right paint etc.

The fibre optics is another area new to me, didnt just want to stick a sticker on the control panel in the cockpit, so ive drilled a load of tiny holes in it to put fibre in so the buttons light up. thats whats supposed to happen anyways, we will so how it goes!

Ill keep updating when i make bits of progress on it.

Thanks Ozmo, i was happy with it considering i never painted anything before that wasnt a wall or ceiling! ive since added some dirt to the chairs using nulin oil i think its called, a black wash because i thought they where TOO clean.

Ill give the iron trick a go, im not convinced myself the light will come through the sticker, but one of the lads on the falcon build forum said his does so ill test it out first.

Ive some "glass paint" on the way that im going to paint the on the back of the sticker at the back of the cockpit to give the light coming through some colour too.

I didnt get anything done this weekend as i was away, but ill update again when i make some progress. here is a quick pic i took of the fibres ive put in the front control panel.

Myrddin wrote: »

Ok? Looks fecking class Keith, seriously well done.

Yeh, if im being picky i think i put too much glass paint on the back of the sticker and its bled a bit so the light is illuminating too much around the buttons etc. ill give it another go with the other back panel and take it handy on the paint!

Also its kinda frustrating because even though ive aligned the sticker perfectly to the back plate, the printed lights on the sticker are slightly below the holes in the backing plate so the light shining through isnt perfect either! dont know what i can do about that though unless i got a bad sticker in that one.

Quick update, didn't get much done over the weekend

I trimmed the fibers to the control panel and put the supplied sticker over it. I first cut a hole in the control panel plastic behind the sticker and stuck a white led in there to light up the screen on the sticker. I will also be covering under the control panel with something so the led doesn't shine out underneath as much.

The fibers are flashing red\blue in these images as i only had a red\blue flashing led to hand but they will be mostly white with probably 2 flashing red\blue when im finished. ive to order some more leds.

The Fiber light comes through the sticker anyways so happy days! I was thinking id have to cut tiny holes in the sticker.

The holes in the control panel are for the levers ive yet to stick into it.





I also added the door sticker, but instead of putting it into the door like the magazine describes. i used pieces of Styrofoam cut to size so the door is flush with the boarder around it as opposed to inset into it, which isnt the way it is in the films anyways, i then cut a piece of card the same size as the door but made 2 square holes in it to match the white lights on the door and one small hole to match the red button on the door. I stuck the door sticker to this card, glued the Styrofoam in the door section around the edges then put in a white led in there too through a hole i drilled in the back of the door section and finally glued the door\card onto the Styrofoam. so now the light from the LED shines through the holes in the card and lights up the lights and red button on the door sticker.



Ill add the levers to the control panel next, and paint and add the side pieces. there is also an archway that goes over the top at the door\back section that has a sticker on it and im thinking of drilling it out in 2 sections to add the long white light to the sides. ill update the thread again when ive done some more on it.

Thanks guys, im happy with how its turned out so far. i couldnt resist temporarily adding the tunnel hull pieces to get a better idea of how it will look..



With the cockpit i just have to put two stickers on the archway above the back chairs, but first im gonna drill through the plastic arch and put a light in behind the sticker so the long white light continues across the back wall and around the side.

After that, the big job, priming and re-painting every hull piece. ill weather it at the end when its all together.