Did anyone build their own Millennium Falcon?

[StarWarsFan]

http://www.model-space.com/gb/build-the-millennium-falcon.html?utm_source=marketed_url&utm_medium=offline

 

[StarWarsFan]

Wonder if actionjackman fished his?

 

[yoda]

Just a bump is anyone building this at the moment? or the R2?
I was thinking about it but would be interested to hear a bit more about them both.

 

[subzero]

Yes iv'e built one all fully painted up 8)

It's a behemoth of a model and took over 2 years to finish, biggest project iv'e ever done in my life and I was glad when it was over :lol: but I did really enjoy it, iv'e fully kitted it out with custom fiber optics and 3D printed parts for the interior.

Anything you want to know about it just fire away.

 

[yoda]

:shock: wow that looks amazing well done. You really have done an amazing job. I have a soft spot for the Falcon it was the only ship I ever owned and I still have it.
Years ago I used to build the little plane and boat models but nothing to that scale. Have you done much of this building? That really looks expertly done. I am not sure if I would have the skills to build it to your standard. I think the painting could cause me problems. What do you think? how much model projects had you built before you started that project.
Do you feel it is worth the money? On the web it says around £800 is that correct?
You really should show that baby off on the forum it's amazing

 

[StarWarsFan]

Yes iv'e built one all fully painted up 8)

It's a behemoth of a model and took over 2 years to finish, biggest project iv'e ever done in my life and I was glad when it was over :lol: but I did really enjoy it, iv'e fully kitted it out with custom fiber optics and 3D printed parts for the interior.

Anything you want to know about it just fire away.

Wow that looks ace well done mate

 

[subzero]

Thanks guys, it's the actually the first model iv'e ever made & painted, iv'e never done modelling before but iv'e always been artistic anyway which helped me. The painting can definitely be tricky if you've never done a model on this scale because of the sheer amount of hull pieces, because if you subscribe over 2 years you're getting all different random pieces every month for that long. And you need to make sure to can match up the paint so when it's all finally being put together it perfectly matches, or you can just buy the entire kit for about £800 and paint everything in one go with the same batch of paint.

If you subscribed over 2 years it's £900, is it worth that straight out of the box unpainted?, i'd personally say no because I think it looks like **** unpainted, it neeeeds to be painted and done so it at least looks somewhat authentic otherwise it will just look like a large basic plastic toy with no details. All in with paints, airbrushes, lots of other materials and quite a few small 3D printed parts ( custom aftermarket parts ) iv'e ended up paying around £1500 altogether to get it to look like a genuine Falcon, so if a good looking one is what you're after expect to pay more than the bare model cost. Would I pay £1500 for it if I seen it in a shop?, probably not, but to me it was still worth every penny because I enjoyed every minute working on it and have the studio scale model iv'e always wanted.

if you're going to take this project on and add paint and custom work then be prepared to do A LOT OF WORK!! :lol: this was literally a second job for me for 2 years, I spent about a good 30 hours a week on this every week for 2 years, worth it in the end though if you get good results from it. You also need lots of spare space for keeping parts that are waiting to be worked on and obviously for when it's finished to display.

Yes i'm planning on taking some better high res pictures of the entire model within the next month or two, and i'll be posting them with the rest of my toy collection in the showcase thread so keep an eye out.

 

[yoda]

Thanks guys, it's the actually the first model iv'e ever made & painted, iv'e never done modelling before but iv'e always been artistic anyway which helped me. The painting can definitely be tricky if you've never done a model on this scale because of the sheer amount of hull pieces, because if you subscribe over 2 years you're getting all different random pieces every month for that long. And you need to make sure to can match up the paint so when it's all finally being put together it perfectly matches, or you can just buy the entire kit for about £800 and paint everything in one go with the same batch of paint.

If you subscribed over 2 years it's £900, is it worth that straight out of the box unpainted?, i'd personally say no because I think it looks like **** unpainted, it neeeeds to be painted and done so it at least looks somewhat authentic otherwise it will just look like a large basic plastic toy with no details. All in with paints, airbrushes, lots of other materials and quite a few small 3D printed parts ( custom aftermarket parts ) iv'e ended up paying around £1500 altogether to get it to look like a genuine Falcon, so if a good looking one is what you're after expect to pay more than the bare model cost. Would I pay £1500 for it if I seen it in a shop?, probably not, but to me it was still worth every penny because I enjoyed every minute working on it and have the studio scale model iv'e always wanted.

if you're going to take this project on and add paint and custom work then be prepared to do A LOT OF WORK!! :lol: this was literally a second job for me for 2 years, I spent about a good 30 hours a week on this every week for 2 years, worth it in the end though if you get good results from it. You also need lots of spare space for keeping parts that are waiting to be worked on and obviously for when it's finished to display.

Yes i'm planning on taking some better high res pictures of the entire model within the next month or two, and i'll be posting them with the rest of my toy collection in the showcase thread so keep an eye out.

Ok that gives me a better insight in what's involved in assembling this monster! As I suspected the painting will be a potential trip for me. You are absolutely right a bad paint job will screw it up. The actual building wouldn't bother me I would have the patience and take my time. I would actually enjoy the whole building part even though it is slow going.
It's the thought of the airbrushing that's abit off putting. I would have no idea where to start. I am sure with a bit of practice though it could be mastered. So are you saying buying it outright is cheaper? Does the paint come with the kit? And pointers where to apply the different shades? Also the airbrushing kit how much is that and what other painting equipment is needed? I don't want to flood you with questions but from I've seen that Falcon you have assembled it's given me an urge to possibly try this.

 

[subzero]

Thanks guys, it's the actually the first model iv'e ever made & painted, iv'e never done modelling before but iv'e always been artistic anyway which helped me. The painting can definitely be tricky if you've never done a model on this scale because of the sheer amount of hull pieces, because if you subscribe over 2 years you're getting all different random pieces every month for that long. And you need to make sure to can match up the paint so when it's all finally being put together it perfectly matches, or you can just buy the entire kit for about £800 and paint everything in one go with the same batch of paint.

If you subscribed over 2 years it's £900, is it worth that straight out of the box unpainted?, i'd personally say no because I think it looks like **** unpainted, it neeeeds to be painted and done so it at least looks somewhat authentic otherwise it will just look like a large basic plastic toy with no details. All in with paints, airbrushes, lots of other materials and quite a few small 3D printed parts ( custom aftermarket parts ) iv'e ended up paying around £1500 altogether to get it to look like a genuine Falcon, so if a good looking one is what you're after expect to pay more than the bare model cost. Would I pay £1500 for it if I seen it in a shop?, probably not, but to me it was still worth every penny because I enjoyed every minute working on it and have the studio scale model iv'e always wanted.

if you're going to take this project on and add paint and custom work then be prepared to do A LOT OF WORK!! :lol: this was literally a second job for me for 2 years, I spent about a good 30 hours a week on this every week for 2 years, worth it in the end though if you get good results from it. You also need lots of spare space for keeping parts that are waiting to be worked on and obviously for when it's finished to display.

Yes i'm planning on taking some better high res pictures of the entire model within the next month or two, and i'll be posting them with the rest of my toy collection in the showcase thread so keep an eye out.

Ok that gives me a better insight in what's involved in assembling this monster! As I suspected the painting will be a potential trip for me. You are absolutely right a bad paint job will screw it up. The actual building wouldn't bother me I would have the patience and take my time. I would actually enjoy the whole building part even though it is slow going.
It's the thought of the airbrushing that's abit off putting. I would have no idea where to start. I am sure with a bit of practice though it could be mastered. So are you saying buying it outright is cheaper? Does the paint come with the kit? And pointers where to apply the different shades? Also the airbrushing kit how much is that and what other painting equipment is needed? I don't want to flood you with questions but from I've seen that Falcon you have assembled it's given me an urge to possibly try this.

No worries happy to help, this was also the first time I ever tried airbrushing and it is daunting first trying, but once you've messed about with it a little bit you'll realise how simple it is to use. You can get a basic kit off ebay for about £40ish, just search for a 'mini airbrush compressor', some come complete with the airbrush gun or if not then you can get one for around £10+.. If you are really unsure with how to use it get yourself some random pieces of flat plastic or bits off another cheapo model and have a practice on it to get the feel for it, before you try it out for real.

There's the 'proper way' to paint the model which involves base coating it, pre-shading ( to make all the lines in between the hull plating darker and stand out ) and then the main coat colour. But luckily there's also the easy shortcut way that I figured out myself, the bare plastic itself already comes in an off white colour which looks like the Falcon's natural colour anyway which is perfect, so you don't actually need to paint the actual Falcon colour. First I got several tea bags in a small bowl of warm water ( yes tea bags ) and dabbed a tea bag all over every panel, let that completely dry then rub off almost all of it leaving it with a slight dirty yellowy look in a random patchy pattern, all this is optional but I chose to do it to give an added under layer of real looking grime. Then next lightly built up a couple of layers of a 'wash paint' ( very thinned paint ) called 'Citadel Shade Nuln Oil' off ebay with the airbrush, and lightly spray around the edges of every armour plating panel to give it a shaded 3D look, it gives it all nice depth and looks amazing. Before that dried I scratched away randomly around all the edges ( and some random marks inside ) of every panel with a cotton bud to scratch the nuln oil paint off to make it look worn and it makes it look very realistic, then I carefully painted ( with Citadel Shade Nuln Oil ) in between every single panel line by hand with a very thin brush to darken in between the panels and make them 'pop' out. Then I finished off the whole model surface with 'Vallejo Air matte varnish' to protect it which is water based acrylic ( before adding the varnish you can lighten or darken the pieces if you think you've over or underdone any of it, just touch bits over with thin white air paint to lighten it.

Then you need to add the other detailing layers, coloured hull panels, dirt & grime streaks with oil paints, then very light grey speckles all over it. All these little details build up and add to the realism, one thing to watch is it's verrry easy to overdo all the details and it can end up looking horrid if done too heavy ( iv'e seen some shockers done by other builders ), so be sure to apply layers sparingly bit by bit, you don't realise how much all the layers and detailing add up until you're at the end. The final stage then is to seal it all off again with a second layer of matte varnish!

Also no paints come with the kit you'll need to get them separately, and from what I remember you save about £100 buying the full kit from Deagostini, if you're lucky though you could prob get one off ebay for around £600 ( maybe even less ) as iv'e seen quite a few people getting rid of theirs as they saved up all the issues over 2 years planning to build it all in one go but then lost interest and wanna get rid of all the issues. You'll need to get other bits n bobs too like sprue cutters, thread lock for the frame screws, a few different size brushes etc, and the paints really you'll only need white, black, red and orange so you can mix to get your own tone for the red hull panels, and thick CA glue, be prepared to to a ton of gluing of microscopic parts lol, and tweezers.

There's a couple of youtube painting tutorial vids for oil painting the streaking etc, some Falcon reference photos for all the coloured panels, and my old build thread on the builders forum so i'll find all that for you tomorrow and post it up

 

[stormcab]

Jesus that's a mental amount of work. I wonder how long the original modelmakers took to scratch build the very first film used one? Well done.

 

[subzero]

Jesus that's a mental amount of work. I wonder how long the original modelmakers took to scratch build the very first film used one? Well done.

Thanks stormcab, you simply do not realise what you're getting yourself into when first starting out, only when you're like half way into the build you realise just how much work you've done and time spent, then you still have half the build left to go lol, even without any painting or added custom work the sheer amount of parts is just crazy. The original model I think only took 2 or 3 months to finish from scratch because they literally had teams working on it around the clock, there were actually several different artists working on different areas of the model taking shifts in turns, an amazing feat!

yoda here are the links I promised you...

My build threads ( not in depth 'how to' instructions just more of a guide )...

http://forum.buildmillenniumfalcon.com/forums/topic/subzeros-build/
http://forum.buildmillenniumfalcon.com/forums/topic/subzeros-almost-finished-falcon-thread/

The Falcon 'coloured hull squares' reference - http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/893025FalconA171510.jpg

Steve Dymszo's painting tutorials ( there's 4 parts ) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-Yaj2wlHS4

And a weathering tutorial for oils, you don't 'need' to do oiling but you can if you want a more realistic look ( again 4 parts ) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wreblsPaUhU

 

[yoda]

Jesus that's a mental amount of work. I wonder how long the original modelmakers took to scratch build the very first film used one? Well done.

Thanks stormcab, you simply do not realise what you're getting yourself into when first starting out, only when you're like half way into the build you realise just how much work you've done and time spent, then you still have half the build left to go lol, even without any painting or added custom work the sheer amount of parts is just crazy. The original model I think only took 2 or 3 months to finish from scratch because they literally had teams working on it around the clock, there were actually several different artists working on different areas of the model taking shifts in turns, an amazing feat!

yoda here are the links I promised you...

My build threads ( not in depth 'how to' instructions just more of a guide )...

http://forum.buildmillenniumfalcon.com/forums/topic/subzeros-build/
http://forum.buildmillenniumfalcon.com/forums/topic/subzeros-almost-finished-falcon-thread/

The Falcon 'coloured hull squares' reference - http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/893025FalconA171510.jpg

Steve Dymszo's painting tutorials ( there's 4 parts ) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-Yaj2wlHS4

And a weathering tutorial for oils, you don't 'need' to do oiling but you can if you want a more realistic look ( again 4 parts ) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wreblsPaUhU

This is all great thanks I haven't gotten a chance to properly read the links yet. But it's all a great help everything you have posted. This really is a major undertaking of model building I am now starting to fully realise. I have a feeling I will be on this thread a few times before I am finished

 

[subzero]

Jesus that's a mental amount of work. I wonder how long the original modelmakers took to scratch build the very first film used one? Well done.

Thanks stormcab, you simply do not realise what you're getting yourself into when first starting out, only when you're like half way into the build you realise just how much work you've done and time spent, then you still have half the build left to go lol, even without any painting or added custom work the sheer amount of parts is just crazy. The original model I think only took 2 or 3 months to finish from scratch because they literally had teams working on it around the clock, there were actually several different artists working on different areas of the model taking shifts in turns, an amazing feat!

yoda here are the links I promised you...

My build threads ( not in depth 'how to' instructions just more of a guide )...

http://forum.buildmillenniumfalcon.com/forums/topic/subzeros-build/
http://forum.buildmillenniumfalcon.com/forums/topic/subzeros-almost-finished-falcon-thread/

The Falcon 'coloured hull squares' reference - http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/893025FalconA171510.jpg

Steve Dymszo's painting tutorials ( there's 4 parts ) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-Yaj2wlHS4

And a weathering tutorial for oils, you don't 'need' to do oiling but you can if you want a more realistic look ( again 4 parts ) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wreblsPaUhU

This is all great thanks I haven't gotten a chance to properly read the links yet. But it's all a great help everything you have posted. This really is a major undertaking of model building I am now starting to fully realise. I have a feeling I will be on this thread a few times before I am finished

No problems glad to help, it's a massive undertaking and lots of hard work but like I say it's also very rewarding and fun to see your model progress

 

[TRILOGY COLLECTOR]

that too awesome dude

 

[Artemis]

So I'm building the star wars 'build the millennium falcon' by deagostini and the glass for the cockpit does not fit. Has anyone else had this problem???