Clint, 

Wow! What a fantastic score you got there. Lots of nice extras. Hope you really enjoy this build, and I hope you show us the progress. 

On the 3D printed parts, I feel the same as you, no different then using resin parts. Just a different manner in how they were produced. Ha, you can get PE parts pre-painted. Which I have used.

That's quite a haul, have fun.

I'm almost the same age as your "friend" and I remember when if you wanted extra detail you had to make it yourself out of whatever was at hand.  In my current projet I'm still mostly doing it this way with some use of left over parts from kits and P.E.  

With the advent of printed parts, this will continue to grow and those people will have an advantage over the previous forms of parts. It happened before when resin started and then again with P.E.  You'll just have to live with and adjust to it.  As long as the builder lets it be known during a contest that detail parts are included from other sources, it will eventually come down to the builder's skill and the look of the finished project.  

Oh wow, she's gonna be the awesomest hunk' o junk in the galaxy!!!

I have a lot of respect for people like Shep Paine who scratchbuilt so much detail for their models but I agree- 3D printed parts are basically the same as resin to me.

Man, that thing is  H U G E !

Photo etch , Resin , 3D printed, It's all the same to my eye.

Part's is part's . No matter where they came from.

Rambo

Gamera: The first model I built with my dad was a monogram/revell B17 that had the diorama booklet in it made my Shep I remember then wanting to be able to do that and I was hooked on models. I built a few in high school then again once I got a stable job. Had to take a involuntary break for a few years to finish work on my house. Shep Pain and my dad was my biggest influence in the hobby. I hope they are still putting them booklets in with some of their kits to get other kids hooked.

 

I have a copy of Shep's 'How to Build Dioramas' I picked up back in high school. It's old, worn, has paint stains all over it. I don't think I've learned as much from any other hobby manual than this one.

When Star Wars first came out bsck in the 70s, the Millenium Falcon kit was the first Star Wars kit I bought. Yeah, it is a big kit and loved every minute building it. Of course, there weren't any PE or parts made with a 3D machine.

I absolutely love 3D parts and figures. Parts is parts to me and if I can find something that makes me looks good and I can afford it then hey, I'll get it. Does that guy use PE on his cars? If so what's the difference? I can't scratchbuild a plausible alternator pully or carburetor linkage. As for shows, if you really want to win, then you do what's needed. That's the way it is nowadays, otherwise there's always OOB categories.

Have fun with all your AM. It looks like it's going to be a cool build.

Haven't had much time to work on this as always. I ended up ordering some more parts from 308bits off of shapeways and another guy who I forget his name right now. I ended up getting the engine fans since the kit leaves these out all togeather, a group of 6 R2 units two gonk droids and the cockpit hallway section. I've managed to get some of the parts cleaned up they have some sort of oil like stuff on them wouldn't be mold release but something probably left over from the 3d printing. Then primed with Tamiya grey primer and now the detail really pops. As of right now I'm working on sanding out all the little squares that are around the edges of the Falcon since FM molded them solid. Thanks for looking in.

I got bogged down on the landing gear the baffels at the bottom Fine Molds had molded them solid but they should be open. No problem I have the PE set well I didn't like the PE they seemed to thin and it was hard to get them to be just the right shape. So I figured it wouldn't be that hard to just open up all the holes on the kit parts. 7 baffels Each baffel has 3 rows of 18 holes it wans't hard but did take a long time, but I really like the end result I still need to go back and clean a few up. Next will be locating where all the landing lights and red duck lights go on the underside and what am I going to do to fix the bording ramp that is not screen acurate at all.

Oh wow, all this extra work she's going to be a show stopper!!! 

Gamera

Oh wow, all this extra work she's going to be a show stopper!!! 

 

Not sure if I'm going to be taking her to shows when I'm done due to all the lighting I plan. But she sure will be the jewel of my models on display at home.

It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs

So got a few things going on here first I've started hollowing out the kit engine fan holders to take the 3d printed ones and the PE grills. It's another slow step that has to be done. I've also hollowed out for the two lights that are recessed between the mandibles. Last I've been looking over photos of the ramp and how i'm going to fix it. shapeways has a 3d printed one that looks really good but it's a bit much and I've already got alot of money tied up into this project so I want to try fix the problem myself. I can always get it in the end if what I come up with dosen't look good enough to please me. 

What the ramp should look likehttps://goo.gl/images/pZZ7e2

Thanks for looking in. If anyone has any ideas on how to make this any better I'm all ears.

She's fast enough for you old man.

Been looking at the blueprints and rewatching the films to see where all the landing lights need to be placed at. From the offical blueprints that aren't screen accurate fan made blueprints and from what you can see on screen I tweeked my final light postions.

The rear lights under the engines was going to be a hard one since they would get in the way of the engine lights so I just made them symmetrical on each side in the end I think its going to work out and look good. I worked out that the small lights should be 5mm and the big ones 8mm to scale. Being in the USA cheap mm drill bits are hard to come by so I got close with standard sizes that I already had using 3/16 for 5mm and 5/16 for 8mm. To make sure I got the holes nice and round I did them all by hand after they was done I ended up with some sore fingers but nice looking holes.

Thanks for looking in.

Oh somehow I missed this.

Looks good! Those landing lights are gonna look awesome!!!

Gamera

Oh somehow I missed this.

Looks good! Those landing lights are gonna look awesome!!!

 

That's going to be the next thing on the list getting all them leds in and lit up.

What a piece of junk!

Alright have been working on the ramp and I'm very happy in the way it has came out so far. The first cut always a scary thing on such an expensive kit.

Photo I was using to figure out where to cut

After I got them cut away with a razor saw and cleaned up a bit I glued them to the sides of the ramp.

Then using Miliput I filled in the gaps

That was then sanded smooth drilled out holes in the ramp "interlock?" and added the drop down pegs of the interlock in the top part. They still need to rounded a bit. Also added a new roof to the area since it slopes with the ramp also added the 6 holes for the lights. I will light that area with two leds I have cut a hole in the top of the original ramp roof to be able to add them later.

The new ramp pistons was made using .032 music wire and 1/16 plastic tube along with some other styrene strips. The pistons still need some cleaning up but that will be after the glue has fully set up. I know there is 3 sets of pistons in total but I am only going to have 2 sets for one getting the rear most in will be very tricky and two you wouldn't be able to see them with out picking the ship up and looking in there and NO ONE is going to be doing that lol.

This is what the unmodded ramp looked like

Heres the photo I was using to go by for the roof and pistons

Thanks for looking in, I hope you all enjoy this new ramp as much as I did hopefully if anyone else is planing on building this kit here, that how I did mine will help them. All comments and questions are always welcome.

Reading your first post, I had to laugh because you actually shut him up quick. I would have parted with these final words: "Don't go away mad. just go away..." LOLOLOL!!!

I cannot figure the life of me how he thinks 3D is cheating and the death of the hobby. Geez...

This will be lots of fun to watch.

I'm glad you are doing a WIP, Clint. Looking good here in the early stages. As usual, good attention to detail.

That's quite a parts count, plus all the extras!

BlackSheepTwoOneFour

Reading your first post, I had to laugh because you actually shut him up quick. I would have parted with these final words: "Don't go away mad. just go away..." LOLOLOL!!!

I cannot figure the life of me how he thinks 3D is cheating and the death of the hobby. Geez...

 

Being a big Motley Crue fan it never came to mind at the time. Seems like we have the same sense of humor. Not the first time I've shut him up fast either he also recast resin motors not ones he has made himself but 3rd party motors he'll buy one make a mold of it then recast it 4 or 5 times and sells them cheap to recoup the money he spent on the master. If it was for his own use then whatever but selling them seems shady to me.

Greg

This will be lots of fun to watch.

I'm glad you are doing a WIP, Clint. Looking good here in the early stages. As usual, good attention to detail.

That's quite a parts count, plus all the extras!

 

 

Thanks always glad to have a fellow Hoosier on deck. If you are coming to the Roscoe Turner next year I might have her with me if she's done and I find a way to power her for longer than a hour with batteries.

Wow, took guts to cut into a kit that expensive like that indeed!

Love the ramp, looks pretty darn close to the real deal.

Gamera

Wow, took guts to cut into a kit that expensive like that indeed!

Love the ramp, looks pretty darn close to the real deal.

 

Oh I hesitated for a few days before just jumping into it. It finally came down to my wife who bought me the kit looking at it and saying you really aren't planning to leave it that way are you?

Small update I've been thinking ahead about the best way to paint her, for now I'm going to paint her in secections then stick her all togeather (subject to change lol). Been working on getting on the hundreds of greeblies stuck on the hull and she has a lot of them. In my stash I have mostly Dragon kits and have grown to expect a fight and alot of test fitting with them. But not this Fine Molds kit she is a dream everything just kinda falls togeather even with so many parts. It's like building a Tamiya kit. Anyway on the LED side of things I have added some styrene tubes over the landing lights holes to help hold the LEDs. Have also started on building the light box for the engine lights using some 1mm black styrene and some thiner white that was easy to bend. I then lined the top bottom and back with some aluminum foil to help reflect all the light out the back. Also went and hooked up the power to the Madman controller board to make sure it was in working order the green power on LED is lit (hard to see in photo) so next step is to figure out where it's going inside. 

After I get the light box sat in for good I will close up the hole around that post for now I need to be able to get it in and out. Thanks for looking in all input is welcome.

Ohhhhhh looks awesome! Please post some photos of the engines lighted when you get her all set up and running. I'd love to see how it looks! 

Rambo

If you are coming to the Roscoe Turner next year I might have her with me if she's done

I wasn't even aware of the Roscoe Turner chapter. Indy?

Hmmm........