Satyr's DeAgostini Millenium Falcon Build Log

Been working on a map of details for the interior... I think I have it mapped out pretty well for the hallway cushions and light sconces. Here's my map... I'm also gonna work on the details of the walls, etc.



The biggest problem I see is the one mentioned in the graphic above. They moved the entrance to the cockpit hallway about 2 feet down the hallway and in effect stretched out the whole cushion panel. It should also be noted that there should also be a cushion ring right next to it, I may have to fabricate one but not sure yet, but a happy compromise would be to cut the middle cushion in half to allow for those details to be placed in the proper place. If anyone else has a better idea, please let me know.

I've just been having way too much fun lately making various random greeblies for general use throughout the interior and various other uses. Can never have too many odds and ends greeblies. But here's what I've got so far... Whatcha all think?

I did come up with some new stickers for this puppy. The ones that come with the kit aren't very accurate and basically suck in the graphics department... here's comparision of the ones I've made to replace the ones in the kit. I am still working on a few other things for them, but all in all what I got came out pretty good.


If you'd like a copy of these, you can download them for free here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/es5y0pghay...ckers.pdf?dl=0

If you use them, please post pics and let everyone know where you got em, that's all I ask!

Lately I have been doing a lot of epoxy putty work lately and one thing I've discovered is that when you do putty work, you always end up with a little extra putty that if you don't do anything with it, it hardens and you end up throwing it away. Well being the frugal guy that I am, I found a good way of putting it to use. Now, needless to say I don't have many spare parts for making greeblies, so I figured why not just go ahead and use the extra putty to make some greeblies of my own. Here's what I made so far...



I'm sure I'll be able to find a place to put them somewhere in this build. I've been working on the interior walls and arches... I knew I had to cut out the long holes in the arches but I also wanted to put the ribbing in between the arch holes. After many failed attempts with styrene, I decided to use putty instead. Came out looking pretty good, but I also wanted to hollow out the inside of the arch to allow me to put some wires and greeblies. So using my Dremal, I cut a long trench on the outside all the way down to the bottom and sanded it out using needle files. I think they didn't come out too bad... what do you all think?

 

As you can see above I also cut out the holes in the side wall and intend to put some greeblies there as well. But since that came out so well, I figured I might tackle the wall behind the nav computer with putty and see how it comes out... I cut a couple of square holes out of it where I intend to greeble and here's the result.

 

Well that's where I'm at right now. As soon as I get some primer and paint on these I'm sure they will look really good. Lemme know what you all think!

I just got Issues 21-24 yesterday and put more of the bottom hull together. It's interesting that the corridor cover is all one piece instead of two like what came in the first package. The nice thing though is that the bottom edge of the hull plating on it has the notched (unlike the first corridor pieces). In this package also came another part to the jig that is suppose to support the bottom hull during assembly to keep the shape of it from warping while working on the upper levels. Looks like about half of the bottom hull is now done. One nice thing is that this shipment also includes one of the bottom hull panels that has visible damage. It's a long streak of damage however it looks more like someone scribbled with a magic marker and then sunk in the details. Will have to fix that before painting the hull at a later stage. Oh and for those that are posting here about other stuff, just remember this is my build log for this kit. There are other threads for posting pics and stuff of your own progress... thanks! 



Now something I highly recommend is getting yourself a small container for your screws and what-not. I found this nice little 6 compartment plastic box for beading at Wal-mart in the craft department. Its perfect for holding all the screws... here's what mine looks like:



Once I got the everything together that I could up to this issue, I noticed the weight of the whole thing. So I decided to see just how heavy just the lower hull has gotten so far. Was amazed to see that this thing is already almost 2 lbs so far (1.80 lbs)... this is without the recess, just the framing and the hull panels on the bottom so far. So the way I figure it, if this is about halfway thru the bottom half, without the center turret section, then when the whole bottom is together, I figure it'll weigh about 5 lbs (give or take a few ounces when it's all together).



Now I realize I have missed a few postings lately but don't worry. I've gotcha covered... I've watched other build logs and keep hearing people complain about the rings with the pads and how tired they were of putting them together... sure there are a lot of them. 9 total... each with 18 pads, making 182 pads total. That's a lot of pads, but here's what I did and did them all in about an hour. First I waited until I had all of them... makes it a lot easier when you have all of them together at once rather then doing them one at a time as they come in. First thing, I worked on each ring one at a time... removed all the pads from the sprue and didn't worry about sanding the sprue nubs yet.



I glued each pad on the ring...



and when dry, I sanded the nubs off to give the rings a more even look. Then I sanded the hard edges down to round them off a bit to give that look of a rounded pad.

 

In the end they came out looking pretty good, and couldn't help but take a few pics of them in place in the corridors to see how they look.

  

I haven't put the wall cushions on yet... am working on something special to create a couple of ripped up ones to see if I can make them look good. That's it for now. More to come later!