Building The ANH 5'Millennium Falcon
- Thread starter eagle1
- Start date
In case you can't tell, I have been thinking about a big Falcon build myself for the last few years. I also have some light welding/fab tools & experience.
Fiberglass is not a bad idea but I would still want steel inside of it.
Aftermarket fiberglass hoods on sports cars are similar size to a big Falcon. They tend to use steel inserts molded into them in places. Sometimes for stiffness along the shape. The hood hinge & latch attachment points normally have a metal backing too.
Aluminum could be a good option too, depending on some factors. But I would not want aluminum as the actual hard-points. Alumium is very soft in terms of surface wear compared to steel. That is way too much potential for trouble if the threads/etc ever got torn or hogged out. (What are you gonna do, just cut the attachment bits out & weld in some new ones? On the finished model?) I would want steel for the actual spots for bolts/etc to go into.
A hybrid steel/aluminum frame could be a good setup. But you would need to attach those dis-similar metals together somehow, be it mechanical or adhesive. It should save some weight over all-steel in theory, although it probably would not save as much weight as you'd hope for.
Fiberglass is not a bad idea but I would still want steel inside of it.
Aftermarket fiberglass hoods on sports cars are similar size to a big Falcon. They tend to use steel inserts molded into them in places. Sometimes for stiffness along the shape. The hood hinge & latch attachment points normally have a metal backing too.
Aluminum could be a good option too, depending on some factors. But I would not want aluminum as the actual hard-points. Alumium is very soft in terms of surface wear compared to steel. That is way too much potential for trouble if the threads/etc ever got torn or hogged out. (What are you gonna do, just cut the attachment bits out & weld in some new ones? On the finished model?) I would want steel for the actual spots for bolts/etc to go into.
A hybrid steel/aluminum frame could be a good setup. But you would need to attach those dis-similar metals together somehow, be it mechanical or adhesive. It should save some weight over all-steel in theory, although it probably would not save as much weight as you'd hope for.
rbeach84
Sr Member
Apologies, Batguy, I thought someone was contemplating making the shell from aluminum. My suggestion was to use fiberglass for the main core & shell as it would be lighter and present less stress on the internal armature.
RE: the wear issue, I suspect there are some steel pipe fittings that could be used that would allow for the mount point caps to be swapped out in case of damage. Cross threading would be the main concern, I expect.
Cheers! Robert
RE: the wear issue, I suspect there are some steel pipe fittings that could be used that would allow for the mount point caps to be swapped out in case of damage. Cross threading would be the main concern, I expect.
Cheers! Robert
Vacformedhero
Sr Member
Any progress on this big bird ? Any news, I've started gathering rarer kits ....wondered how you've got on.
Here's a few pics of parts in progress.
Hull build construction I am just about to start to attach all these bits to.
The mandible pits are interesting in themselves. No two seem to be alike in diameter to make the donor parts fit correctly. So each one has to be carefully placed out, sometimes two or three times to get things sitting right.
I have in progress build pics of these various parts if anyone is keen to see them.
More soon.
Stu
Hull build construction I am just about to start to attach all these bits to.
The mandible pits are interesting in themselves. No two seem to be alike in diameter to make the donor parts fit correctly. So each one has to be carefully placed out, sometimes two or three times to get things sitting right.
I have in progress build pics of these various parts if anyone is keen to see them.
More soon.
Stu
Attachments
ozzyguanche
Sr Member
Would love to see the progress pics.
Thanks guys...haha yes I do plan on finishing it asap!. Going hard to get the hull with all assemblies attached by Dec. Plating & final detailing & paint in January. Easier said than done, but you have to have a plan right!.
Here's a few more pics of how parts came to be, sometimes one forgets to take pics in the haste of just pure building,,,oops!.
The new Chronicles book is a godsend in pics of the underside hull pits in original configuration as well as other areas.
Stu
Here's a few more pics of how parts came to be, sometimes one forgets to take pics in the haste of just pure building,,,oops!.
The new Chronicles book is a godsend in pics of the underside hull pits in original configuration as well as other areas.
Stu
Attachments
newmagrathea
Sr Member
Wonderful work. Very clean.
Rats
Sr Member
Cheers guys.
Yes, all those notches were cut out using a nibbler, just as ILM did. So easy & a joy to um...nibble!. I even went so far as to match how each nibble was cut, meaning if it was cut at a slight angle or a bit shallow, all matched to the ref.
The nibbler is just a $10 one off ebay, does the job perfectly.
I really need to get the hull going now, everything has been worked out with the measures coming up trumps & this is all thanks to a wonderful team effort over the years, oh heck has it been that long...yikes!.
Stu
Yes, all those notches were cut out using a nibbler, just as ILM did. So easy & a joy to um...nibble!. I even went so far as to match how each nibble was cut, meaning if it was cut at a slight angle or a bit shallow, all matched to the ref.
The nibbler is just a $10 one off ebay, does the job perfectly.
I really need to get the hull going now, everything has been worked out with the measures coming up trumps & this is all thanks to a wonderful team effort over the years, oh heck has it been that long...yikes!.
Stu
Attachments
ozzyguanche
Sr Member
Hi Stu, Which Chronicles?
The updated Chronicles which came out late last year. I say updated, but it's pretty much all new!. Available from Amazon Japan, well it was, not sure now, may have sold out until new stock.
ANH Falcon imagery is stunning, page after page of goodness!.
Stu
Vacformedhero
Sr Member
Agreed , the Japanese Star Wars Chronicles Vehicles episode 4,5,6 , I have it too, larger format images , less text (thankfully as all Japanese , but google translate works well on the phone) it's expensive but since I've committed to building the falcon it's a great investment.
Stu, brilliant to see an update on the builds, I just got modern Koolshade for mine , I'll still hunt for the vintage but for the moment I'll cross that off the list )
Wow !
Lookin' good Stu, you're really making head-way.
Lookin' good Stu, you're really making head-way.
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