# Uh-Oh... Another MPC Millennium Falcon.



## AJ-1701 (May 10, 2008)

For those who might remember me, it has been some time since I posted anything on the forum. In fact, it has been about four years... During those years I have built a few kits but they were, apart from a small commission job, mostly RC submarines. I also decided to write a book, for which I am eagerly awaiting another agent to reject...

However, the last few months has seen me haunting the unbuilt storage cupboard for a new project and decided on an old MPC Millennium Falcon kit I picked up from eBay about eight years back along with what was then the only aftermarket kits I could find.






















Over the passing years, there have been other iterations of the Flacon from Fine molds and the later Bandai kit and the larger scale model, which is done via a weekly magazine, were simply beyond my budget. So I went into a period of obligatory procrastination about starting the kit and began spending hours scanning the web for ways to accurize the MPC kit. What I did find out was those other kits also needed accurizing parts to get a model closer the Ep4 ANH, five-foot hero version, I was aiming for.
For those unfamiliar with these older kits from MPC/Ertl, they lack any accurate detail. Such as the inaccurate and wide sidewalls, cockpit detail or lack thereof and the worst interpretation of hull detail on the top hulls engine quarter. In fact, the more I researched the less enthused I got about starting the build. I did see a site for a mob call HH Miniatures who has a decent looking box set of resin and PE parts, but I couldn't tell whether these were still in production. Then I stumbled across a link on pin interest about a bloke who purchased some parts from a mob called Shapeways, who deal in 3D printed parts. And the fire in my enthusiasm was rekindled. So I bit the blaster and ordered the cabin interior, laser cannons, the cannon well interior, and replacement thruster veins.






























Unlike other companies I have purchased from, Shapeways know how to pack things. 








Now, because I have never dealt with 3D printed parts, I will admit when the box arrived I held a certain amount of trepidation, which proved unfounded. The parts and their detail are superb. I then realized the old Blue moon kit would be, for the most part redundant.








Because now I have ordered more of Tony's beautifully designed 3D parts available at 308 in the Shapeways store.


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## Milton Fox Racing (May 27, 2014)

Welcome back! :cheers2:


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## AJ-1701 (May 10, 2008)

Milton Fox Racing said:


> Welcome back! :cheers2:


Thanks :smile2:


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## edge10 (Oct 19, 2013)

I can't help but wonder if it won't cost as much as the Bandai kit, after all those upgrades?

Hope you have fun.


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## AJ-1701 (May 10, 2008)

edge10 said:


> I can't help but wonder if it won't cost as much as the Bandai kit, after all those upgrades?
> 
> Hope you have fun.


:surprise: You might be right...

The advantage of getting the parts in smaller lots over a few weeks means breaking it into affordable chunks.


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## AJ-1701 (May 10, 2008)

Armed with my new Dremel Micro and an average of four hours a night I set to work on the top hull. I should mention I will not be cutting off the mandibles or the cockpit tube etc in order to correct the flatter shape of the main hull. One factor being, I don't believe I have the skill to go into that much of a modification. 

The first of the pieces I ground away was the thruster veins and fuel towers. I then attacked the lack-luster detail of the engineering hull with greeblies from donated 1/72 tank kits a few press studs and the vent inserts from the MMI detail kit. 















Not content I still added more pieces to the manifold section with plastic rod and handrails from a 1/72 Gato.









After that, I ground down the thick plastic on the outer edges to give me a thinner profile much like the five-footer, and it also helped with giving the panels some damaged sections.


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## charonjr (Mar 27, 2000)

This is really neat, AJ1701! I have pulled out the cutaway version and have been trying to think of an approach to building. I have a 20 year resin replacement kit for the side walls. Don't recall its accuracy, just that the side walls are more accurate in height. The MPC Falcon does seem like a better kit to overhaul. At least, it doesn't have the 5 landing gears of the later Empire variant.


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## AJ-1701 (May 10, 2008)

charonjr said:


> This is really neat, AJ1701! I have pulled out the cutaway version and have been trying to think of an approach to building. I have a 20-year resin replacement kit for the side walls. Don't recall its accuracy, just that the side walls are more accurate in height. The MPC Falcon does seem like a better kit to overhaul. At least, it doesn't have the 5 landing gears of the later Empire variant.


Thanks, charonjr. If you have the Blue Moon set, then yes the height is about right but the detail is still somewhat off. Mine also has more than its fair share of air bubbles, which made one of the inner mandible walls near to useless. Hence why I got the 3D wall on order. And yes, I prefer the three-legged ANH variant the best.


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## AJ-1701 (May 10, 2008)

This week's nightly sessions also saw the added piping on the top hull to replace some of those molded pipes with poor definition. I also addressed those oversized raised strips on the top of the mandibles by filing them down and reshaping the leading edge to be more accurate to the five-footer and then adding a thin strip of styrene to the top. I also added styrene and brass rod to the section infront of the laser turret well for added definition.





































Last night I reworked the vents on the two side corridor sections and added the MMI PE grills with pieces of black vinyl behind for future light blocking.


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## ClubTepes (Jul 31, 2002)

Wellllllll……. Ok.

Great job.

Looking forward to see how it comes out.


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## homieroller (Apr 22, 2018)

looks like fun.. GJ


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## AJ-1701 (May 10, 2008)

Thanks ClubTepes and homieroller.

The last couple of nights were again working with reference pics and my dremel. So, with Grinding, engraving, and sanding bits on the Dremel and additional thin plasticard, I tried to replicate the blaster damage on the Falcons hull. The first thing I did where the holes penetrate the hull was grind down the plastic from the inside of the model until it was paper thin and then I started cutting, drilling and grinding holes before gluing the evergreen behind them... The rest was just tapping away with an engraving bit and No11 exacto.


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## AJ-1701 (May 10, 2008)

Busy weekend

I took a break from grinding and kitbashing so I could try my hand at doing the cockpit. And it's been a long time since I did any work this small... But not all the weekend was magnifying glass and wee little brushes. I also knocked up the kool shade Mk2, which took most of Saturday afternoon. My first attempt looked more like a section of N scale train tracks compared to the new version. The trick now is getting it to resemble the five footer.
















I don't know if others found the cockpit tube was out of alignment, but test fitting the parts I have was a nightmare. By the time I finished, I ended up trimming about 4 or 5 millimeters from the front section. Good thing I ground off the molded in kool shade details. I also planned to light this kit but from test fitting the completed cockpit I can't see how I can light them up. I will drill the holes but they won't be lit. Also from memory, I don't think they were in ANH.

The 3D printed parts are set of fiber optics with dozens of small holes. Things which love filling up with paint and pulling out the tiniest drill bit to clear them out again... For the cabin lights I'm not going to use fiber optics instead I will mount a big led to shine through the holes. along with a micro led under the flight console. After gluing in the door and lathering on some putty for light leaks I added some vinyl strip of the light bars and the ABed the primer and black base coat. I went with the black to help dirty the colors for an older aged look.






























The overhead console can't really be lit. This meant I had to paint the lights... So pulled out the old 00 and 000 brushes and magnifying glass and almost bit off my tongue trying to keep my hand steady. I cheated with the airlock hatch and cut out the one from an old outer space fitters set because the printed door was full of striations. an unfortunate artifact from 3D printing. I'm also hoping the top section will carry light through the transparent black section to give the side light bars some glow. I did try to ping the white lines dividing up the consoles, but my hand proved a definite lack of steady skill. So I layed out some washi tape onto a cutting mat, painted it white and then cut it into strips less than a centimeter wide.


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## Captain Han Solo (Apr 5, 2002)

Awesome!!!!!!!!!


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## AJ-1701 (May 10, 2008)

Captain Han Solo said:


> Awesome!!!!!!!!!


 Why thank you kind sir. 
I'm still not happy with the kool shade Mk2, but trying to source styrene strips around .25mm in dimentions is a challenge...


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## AJ-1701 (May 10, 2008)

After some funky google searches, I found some n-scale brass etch fenceing which along with some ultra fine wire will do nicely for a replacement kool shade grill.


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## AJ-1701 (May 10, 2008)

Yet another twist with the 3D printed parts...

I got the nose cone of the cockpit as part of the detail add-ons, and although it is a brilliant looking piece and shines over the part supplied in the kit, the kits clear piece doesn't come close to fitting. So I got adventurous and made my own clear inserts...















Here is the finished result with a coat of pledge brushed on both inside and out with a test fit of the finished cockpit controls and walls.


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## AJ-1701 (May 10, 2008)

I have not done much on the model this week. Knowing I had a photo-etch set of N scale fences for the kool-shade, I set to work fixing the soft detail on the outer cockpit tube by adding extra greeblies and then grinding off the panels and added ones cut from .14 styrene sheet. The only detail left to add on the outer tube is the pe to make the Kool-shade. 
















I also burred out the blaster damage, which will need some rework once the two hull halves are glued together, and also cut and lifted a section on the hull behind the cockpit to match the filming model.























I also knocked up the lighting behind the cockpit wall with 3mm white LEDs and another micro led under the pilot's console and the sprayed the inside of the tube primer black. To get the red micro LEDs to fit required more grinding to thin down the inner walls. At the moment they are a tad bright but I reckon I can dim them by adding another resistor to them.


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## Milton Fox Racing (May 27, 2014)

Looking good! :thumbsup:


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## AJ-1701 (May 10, 2008)

While waiting on some extra bit before starting work on the bottom hull I decided to paint some of the smaller sub-assemblies. Starting with the cockpit. I also decided to take out the scratch built clear glazing in the cockpit. Well, after all, the five footer never had any clear sheeting.:wink2:

The goal, where possible is replicating as much as I can in the scale. So I started with a black primer, then a grey primer surfacer then two coats of the primary color. When this was done I used the smallest engraving bit I have and rolled it between my fingers to cut through the different layers. The rest is done with pastels a pencil and gentle scrapes with an exact blade. The decals are from Jbot decals.























Next will be the sensor dish. My reason for doing these seperatly is so I can work on the main hull without fear of damaging the very fragile 3D printed parts.


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## AJ-1701 (May 10, 2008)

Tonight I finished the sensor dish...












































Tomorrow night and the weekend I will start grinding, slicing and replacing a lot of the piping and adding more detail and greeblies to the bottom hull piece.


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## AJ-1701 (May 10, 2008)

Hey, everyone, I have a pop quiz...

Who noticed the two red lights in the cockpit access tunnel were put too high?


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## AJ-1701 (May 10, 2008)

Now on to what I have managed to get done this week... Firstly, I fixed the wrongly positioned lights.









To start with the PE 'N' scale fencing arrived in the post and with some trimming, it works out as a brilliant replacement/substitute for a Koolshade mesh.








As opposed to my attempts... 









I also started removing the lower hulls poorly molded fuel towers and thruster veins and then thinned down the edges and filed out the small cutouts ready to start on shaping the damaged sections.









And last night I added extra detailing to the soft lack-luster area behind the raised section at the aft end of the lower hull. The trick was finding enough things from donated tank kits, modified handrails from a 1/72 Gato I converted to RC, and the bits box with pieces of styrene rod to keep it all in symmetry. The sad part was nothing in my collection mimicked the middle casing. So, I went with a bit of artistic license.























Now I'm trying not to go insane deciding on lighting other than engine and cockpit. However, since I have already added the lights on the cockpit tube as per the TESB I May well be going with that theme. Which then means I may need to alter my thoughts on sticking to the original ANH model.


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## AJ-1701 (May 10, 2008)

I've not done a lot, per-sae, except spend a great deal of time test fitting and figuring out how and where the 3D printed short walls fit; they don't come with any instructions??? This led to more sanding, grinding and a great deal of swearing when I discovered the inset discs on the mandibles sat too deep for the walls to fit properly. That is wher3e the swearing came into play during the careful removal of the glued pieces, filing/sanding them down without losing detail and still gain me the extra few millimeters I need. Then the center jaw sections were too thick as well, so I ground and filled them down and reworked the detail parts so the sat inside the jaw section. Of course, I only realized this after I added the spots on the lower jaw section.
















Once I was satisfied I could get the short walls to fit I went back to adding extra battle damage detail on the lower hull. The pieces supplied in the Blue moon kit for the side walls of the docking ring are will work on the starboard side but for the damaged port side I will be scratch building those from .4 & .5 styrene sheet. To get the best approximate look for the tear I ground down the incredibly thick plastic from the inside and then used a fine pointed file and exacto to carve out the damage along with adding some thin styrene cut and shaped to fit the jagged areas where the plastic broke while shaping.































I'm still working out how best to fill the gaps around the lower cockpit tube after assembling the top and bottom halves, but that is still a few weeks off. So before then, I'll be doing the lower hull floodlights and lighting box for the engine.

However, all work is at a standstill for the next few days due to our trip to Melbourne where I'm spending the better part of a day at the Avengers Station - MARVEL: Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N - before we do an overnighter at an open range Zoo.


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## charonjr (Mar 27, 2000)

AJ1701, what do you use in such thin piping to bend the pipe without it crimping at the bend?


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## AJ-1701 (May 10, 2008)

charonjr said:


> AJ1701, what do you use in such thin piping to bend the pipe without it crimping at the bend?


Hi chronjr. For the plastic I have used a hair dryer to soft the rod and gently clamp and bend. Brass is a generally ok, but gentle heat with a soldering iron on the area to bend helps with the thicker rod. For the the thin plastic tape it on a hard area with a square edge and use the hair dryer while massaging it to shape. And for the really thin styrene i roll it between my thumb and finger so the friction heats it up.


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## AJ-1701 (May 10, 2008)

A quick update...

All the lighting is done with the final 'watch your head' fiber optics installed along with the two front landing leg pieces from Tony via Shapeways. My first run at lights for the engines went south; a costly exercise. However, the alternative with 5mm LEDs and a run of adhesive strip LEDs ended up giving me a better glow, which when seen through a thin sheet of acetate sprayed with dullcote gives a nice even glow.























Over the weekend I finished the gun well, again from 308bits via Shapeways. For lighting, I added more LED strip lighting to the inside of the PVC tube along with an alfoil for reflection. There are no fiber optics in the walls. Tony does make them with holes to take thin fiber optics, but mine is all done with backlighting through the translucent parts. And no the wells aren't that bright. The auto iris on the camera makes it look very bright, but in reality, the lighting is a lot softer. The two with the black background was taken with all the lights in the garage/workshop turned off. I tried replicating the colors as best I could by referencing still images. I know some of it isn't screen accurate but for the scale, IMHO, it didn't turn out too bad.












































I also added the side walls to the top hull assembly, which after finishing off the lower hulls detail, I should be ready to paint by the weekend.


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## charonjr (Mar 27, 2000)

Thank you! I probably will use styrene rod. My local hobby store has a brass pipe kit, with one size per rod. So each of the 7 rods in the package were different diameters. With the very thin brass pipe that you used, did you use sugar or fine salt to put the bends into it?


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## AJ-1701 (May 10, 2008)

charonjr said:


> Thank you! I probably will use styrene rod. My local hobby store has a brass pipe kit, with one size per rod. So each of the 7 rods in the package were different diameters. With the very thin brass pipe that you used, did you use sugar or fine salt to put the bends into it?


Not sure what you mean by sugar or salt. All I did was use jewelers pliers or strong tweezers.


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## AJ-1701 (May 10, 2008)

Here is the latest update.

The last couple of weeks have been a little hectic, but I was able to put in around eighteen hours of painting and weathering the top hull.

I started with a black primer followed by a grey auto primer filler. After that, the first base coat I used was Tamiya Deck Tan over some pre-shading. This was followed up by a few thin coats of the primary color, which was left over from my last Revel 1/72 Gato I converted to RC. The other mediums I used were pastels, Tamiya smoke and some washes from the games workshop range. The red and greys on the hull are custom made as well to get the best match for scale.







The grills for the engine vents were added after the second prime.


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## charonjr (Mar 27, 2000)

AJ-1701 said:


> Not sure what you mean by sugar or salt. All I did was use jewelers pliers or strong tweezers.


Oh, okay. I had read that in order to keep metal pipe from crimping at the bend, something like sand would be used to fill the pipe, the bend made, and the filler removed. I was thinking perhaps really thin pipe might use something finer then sand, so I came with sugar or salt as possible candidates.


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## AJ-1701 (May 10, 2008)

Got it. ? I may have misled everyone. The majority of brass i used was solid not hollow. Because it is easier to bend and not kink.

Apologies for any confusion. ??


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## charonjr (Mar 27, 2000)

Aha! Ok! I will try solid brass! Thank you!


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