Ok Paul... try this... I think the main problem is that the corridors are believed to be circular... when I believe they are more oval shaped.  If you take that into account, adjust the curvature of the corridor for your diagram in the one titled "Its a no good" and see what happens.  Muahhahahahahahaha! :)

Oh, I see now how it is.....sorta

p.s. Cool job of imangering Paul

Here we are, the last installment for now.

Let me know what you think.  Hope you enjoyed!

Now we get to the fun stuff eh!

Yup, you knew it, to be continued. .

Here is the 3rd part of the Basic posts.

Up next some EXtreme posts.

Here is part 2:

To be continued..  (you should have known it was coming)

Welcome to the thread Greg.  We have a huge update (51 pictures) that I am going to be posting today.  The first 30 or so are the usual Falcon Basic which is the rundown on Issues and parts.

THEN, I have a Falcon EXtreme installment where I am starting on the hold and internal details.  A big part of that is determining a scale for the model depending on how the hold fits.  The current consensus is that the hold actually fits best as 1/48 scale.  With my drafting background it is easyest to just draw it up to scale.  Once I have enough of the frame parts to actually put the hull top and bottom together I will print out (on cardstock) the layout, assemble it and test how it actually fits.

I will be posting these as several posts to keep web page length reasonable.  Here we go!

To be continued...

I've just read this thread for the first time (I'm a reaturning member, not been on Finescale for about 7 years) and I have to say I am in complete dripping awe of the work you are doing on this beastie. I for one will keep looking in and I hopeyou don't mind will use this thread for referencewhen I eventually get round to building my ancient AMT 'cutaway' Millenium Falcon (I know it's non too accurate).

All the best

Greg

Great to hear you're just taking a little break here, looking forward to more work on her! 

Have not posted here in a while.  Just don't really have much to report at this point.  I just received Issues 57 thru 60 so that makes two shipments that I need to do the basic posts on.  I have seen posts from our British friends that cover up to Issue 76.  Still no mounting parts for the interior hold through that.

Meanwhile my friend Jim (LrdSatyr8) has been keeping busy with redoing the hold with some impressive creations that he is selling thru Shapeways.  While they look great, I have held off on doing any interior work until I can actually see and test how everything fits.  Once I can determine that I can redo the hold AND cockpit to a common scale with corrections.

Until then I have been focusing on a 1/200 scale Arizona build in the ship section of the forum.  So far most everything I have touched on that kit has needed some tedious rework.  A lot of the same techniques and tools are being used there so you might check it out.

As to the next post on the Falcon, the latest 2 shipments should get posted in the next week or so.

Heavens Eagle

I had to order the Magazine tabs online as no one carried them.  WalMart said they had them but just totally FUBAR'd the order.  Cancelled and ordered from (I believe it was) Kingman office supply which turned out being here in the Memphis area.   Three weeks from (screw it up) WalMart and it never shipped, 2 days from Amazon.   Duh, go figure.  (and it was cheaper)

I looked in Walmart for awhile to find those strips and then DeAgo finally got the binders in stock and I ordered 4 of them.  Frankly I'm glad I did.  I was up to issue 64 and have 65-68 coming this week.  I was able to fill 3 binders and started a 4th.  Only thing I have to do now it create some labels for them 1-20, 21-40, 41-60, 61-80, and 81-100 and place them on my shelf when done.  Would have been really nice if they had done like a mural with the binder backs so that when the binders were filled and on the shelf it looked really cool! :)  I spent most of last night putting the mags in the binders.  FINALLY now I don't have to keep them all in boxes and go hunting for the issue I need!

Great to see her keep rolling along! \

I suppose I could afford one but as a casual SW fan I can't see spending that much money. I'm having enough fun just following along here, thanks again for letting us tag along for the ride.

NucMedTech

Well, my first time jumping in on this thread and now I am sorry I did. Now I want to subscribe but can't afford to plus the "war dept." Would catch me in a blitz! Lol. Seriously, though that is, for lack of a better term, some excellent work. I don't know what I like better, the mods you are doing or the tools you are using to make them. Keep up the great work and the updates!

-Stephen

I understand Stephen, I had to think about it a while before I actually dove in.  If you look at the overall price of the model it is way too intimidating.  As it is a subscription, it actually lessens the hit by a long way.

Here is how I justified it:

1. I really wanted to do a large Falcon and this had huge possibilities to enhance.
2. While the overall cost is a lot the monthly cost is actually $61 (got the $1 shipping)  I spend more than that on lunch, sometimes in a couple of weeks.  Cut back and I don't even notice the charge.
3. Gives me a monthly boost to do something with it.  In some cases I have held back on purpose, in others I am planning so many major changes that without the parts I can't even plan the mods.
4. This is kind of the biggie.  There have been a number of Falcon pro builds over the years and in my opinion most were only average.  The best example is the Master Replicas Falcons that originally were for sale at about $800.  The prices through the production period slowly raised to I believe about $2500 at the end.  Those replicas which are the same size as this kit now go for $5-10k on ebay.  Doesn't mean these will go for anything like that, but when they go out of production those that want one will be chomping at the bit.

All you will have to do then is build a coffee table to house it.  That is what I plan to do eventually though a large multi level display case could end up in the works as well.  I have other really large kits I want to build.

Cost wise though I don't even notice the monthly charge and I am really enjoying the build on this.  Beats the heck out of going to a casino or 3 or 4 movies a month.

Well, my first time jumping in on this thread and now I am sorry I did. Now I want to subscribe but can't afford to plus the "war dept." Would catch me in a blitz! Lol. Seriously, though that is, for lack of a better term, some excellent work. I don't know what I like better, the mods you are doing or the tools you are using to make them. Keep up the great work and the updates!

-Stephen

Here is some more meaty stuff.

I had to order the Magazine tabs online as no one carried them.  WalMart said they had them but just totally FUBAR'd the order.  Cancelled and ordered from (I believe it was) Kingman office supply which turned out being here in the Memphis area.   Three weeks from (screw it up) WalMart and it never shipped, 2 days from Amazon.   Duh, go figure.  (and it was cheaper)

Here is the Amazon address for these Rubbermaid strips as linking doesn't work on this forum, just copy/paste it to your browser.  

http://www.amazon.com/Rubbermaid-3-Hole-Plastic-Magazine-Holder/dp/B00007M9IU

I missed getting this out for Star Wars day  (May the 4th be with you)  

This is another Basic installment, but it has some extra goodies that I am sure some of you will find interesting.

To Be Continued...

Those are not the holes I am referring to Jim.  These were small holes 5/16 of an inch or so in dia and drilled around the sides of the model.  Small handles could be inserted so that several people could carry and handle it without damaging the other greeblies.  

BTW, did you ever find that drawing of the hold wall you were looking for?

Hey bro.... you're slowly catchin up to me! :)  Oh... both the 5 footer and 32" had mounting holes... 4-5 of them if I'm not mistaken, but the holes were also covered so you couldn't see them and only uncovered when that hole was used for mounting.  If I'm not mistaken, the holes were located on the bottom turret, both sides (where the docking hatches are), the rear engine panel and between the mandibles (but I could be wrong on that last one).

Hey Tanker Builder, thanks for posting!

As to the old Pocher kits, they had a lot of parts and work to them, but they also tended to have some big problems.  Currently I have 3 in my stash and one that I built many years ago.

As to this kit, I believe that the exterior is probably pretty close to what the 32inch Falcon had for detail.  As close as could be expected.  For the most part for what I have worked with it seems to fit together fairly well for what it is.

Here are some things to remember though!

• This kit is designed mainly for people that are NOT neccessarily model builders.  It is intended for the average Joe to be able to assemble it and have a "giant" studio prop model of the Falcon.
• The original props, the 5 footer, 32 inch, and full sized set pieces, were really not all that well detailed, nor were they all that clean.
• The 5 footer was the model intended for the detail shots.  It was quite large and had a lot of greeblies added.  It also was a bit rough around the edges.  It had a number of holes in the edge areas for handle to be inserted to it could be handled.  The holes do not have plugs.
• The 32 inch prop (which the DeAg kit is modeled after) was intended for the fast fly-by acrobatic shots that were in the ESB.  Later it was used as the basis for the CGI models, and so became the "more accurate" model.

As to the faults with this kit, they are mostly with the interior.  Most likely it was almost an afterthought and in my opinion are marginal.   For the non modeller though I am sure that the interior is considered quite nice.   I guess that I would be considered a rivet counter in some circles, though I am not as bad as some folks.

The way I am looking at this kit (for me) is that as a large model it deserves and needs as much quality detail as I can "reasonably" give it.  As I actually like the shape of the 32inch Falcon better than that of the 5 footer, comes as a plus.  As the external detail is supposedly a reasonably close match to the 32 inch prop, says that a lot of work was done to get it correct for what it represents which is the 32 inch prop.

However.

As it is a model that does not go zip across the screen but is static that people can give the close hairy-eyeball, I want it to have more of the "extra" detail that the 5 foot model has.  If there is a reasonable representation of that detail I will leave it.  If there are really noticeable differences, I will add or modify it to fill the bill.  If all I wanted was a model of the movie prop, it would be an out of box build.  What I want is something that folks can take a quick look, go "WOW", and then look even closer and still go "WOW".

This build is a mix of (hopefully) the best parts of all the iterations of the Millennium Falcon with some special things that I intend to add which should take it over the top.

Whew!

Ok, now for some more pics.

As always comments and questions are most welcome.  Enjoy!

You want replies ?

 Well here's one .This project is something else! Firstly , based on your dialogue there's a lot that is done wrong from De Agostini or whoever they get the parts from !

 for the price , the parts that have been seen on screen should be dead on correct ! i would say that their models don't really hold a candle to Pocher in the old days .Now , if you could get that quality then there is a feather in the cap .You are doing excellent work though .Don't let my little complaint Bug you !

     Builder of Tankers ( all sizes .) would you believe 7 foot !

No idea if it's correct or not but it sure looks cool to me. 

Heavens Eagle

Besides I want to try and get the cockpit and hold the same scale to each other which at the moment they are not.  I can only do that when I "know" how the hold and corridors mount.  For now that is still a guessing game.  I will do my mods when I can guarantee that I don't have to rework it 3 times to make it fit.

Well if this helps any, according to talks in many different forums, we've come to the conclusion that the cockpit details that were included by DeAgo are actaully 1:41.5 scale and kinda squeezed into the space (like stuffing a turkey) so everything in the cockpit is off.  The internal carbo bay lounge is around 1:47.3 scale... if is you want to increase the size of the interior, you're gonna have fun doing so my friend.  The cockpit should be relatively easy, but that whole interior would be a beast because everything would have to be redone and rescaled to proper dimensions to fit into the 1:43 scale of the whole ship.  I do know one thing... in building this monster, it's rapidly becoming an OCD nightmare! LOL

Jim I am about 20 steps past what you are talking about.  Only things holding me back are lack of a printer that works with the new 'puter and lack of mounting parts for all the hold and corridor parts.  Big gaps on some of that stuff and impossible to do a good rework with only half of the info.

Besides I want to try and get the cockpit and hold the same scale to each other which at the moment they are not.  I can only do that when I "know" how the hold and corridors mount.  For now that is still a guessing game.  I will do my mods when I can guarantee that I don't have to rework it 3 times to make it fit.

As to the buttons and lights, I posted these a while back while figuring out how I would get the lighting to work the way I wanted.

Like I said, already about 20 steps beyond.  There is a lot more working in my head, but until I can put dimensions to it (and print it out) I am just working through the 3D fit ups in my head.

Hey my friend... those pics you're using for comparison are of the 5 footer.  There are ALOT of differences between the 5 footer and the 32" incher.  I'll see if I can find some good 32" incher shots for ya.  Now one thing that I did notice that you might want to address in your cockpit square buttons is the fact that even though the buttons were square, the light behind them was round.  So you ended up with this button that had a round light illumination from behind it.  Here's what I'm talking about:

The buttons too were made of different colored acrylic, so you have blue and white acrylic, the light behind was all the same color (they didn't use LEDs back then).  Anyway, I thought you might enjoy the little tidbits of wisdom and nitpickedness! :)  

Your friend... Jim!

You can clearly see that the part inside the top of the cargo hold isn't a match for the inset photo of the Falcon! You're right - why not go all out if you're going to make a copy of this? For as much as this kit costs - why not get your moneys worth? It looks like he just added some detail pieces, but not with any degree of accuracy. It's wonderful to see that you're passionate about this - ensuring accuracy to the level that you've done so far. I only wish that others who offer such things who have the same passion to at least attempt to make a similar part even if it was from scratch!

~ Cobra Chris

For all of you that are following along I thank you for taking the time to comment!  This is a quick post that covers a big possible goof on DeAg's part.  Until we get the matching "upper" part we won't know for sure.

I know some have gone ahead and glued this, I wasn't going to as there is some lighting that will be going up front and I needed to have access.  In the process of looking it over I noticed some things and decided it was important enough to get a quick post out.

The pictures pretty much tell it all.

Hope this helps!  I have been delaying on my build somewhat as I need to see how a bunch of things go together.  I have also been watching some of the UTube videos from out British friends to get a little sneak peek of what is coming when.  As they are now up to Issue #60 it does give a little bit of an idea.  Still no mountings for the hold or corridors to the hull yet though.  A lot of my modifications to those areas are going to have to wait until I can get my hands on the mountings.

I also am going to have to wait until I can either buy an new monitor or printer as my old (but still excellent) printer is not supported by Windows 8.  UGH!

Either a new monitor to use with the new computer and the old computer can be set back up or a new printer.  I do intend to set the old machine back up and do a major overhaul on it so as to have a stand by.

As always, please feel free to ask questions!  (After all I might be forgetting something)  

I dunno if I'm an 'atta-boy' or not but I'm just happy you're posting this so I can follow along!

Yeah... what he said! :)

Well Paul, it just keeps getting “better-er an’ better-er”.  

  Now for a small side note to you and Cobra Chris from my point of view. I see so many times build threads where the “atta-boy choirs” seems to over shadow the actual work being performed, also having several smart-alic remarks and replies that “get in the way” (my opinion) of the reason we are reading that build report.  I do freely admit my on culpability in that sort of thing; after all I “think” I’m just too funny for words, some times.

On this build, however, my attitude is like watching a master craftsman creating a high art piece. A guy just doesn’t want to interrupt with banal utterances, jus’ to break the quiet.

Enough of my gratuitous adulation—Now, get back to Work!